Global Voices Online

Global Voices Online BEING AMERICAN INDIAN IS A MENTAL DISORDER I saw a book recently that helped me formulate a title that accurately describes the modern reservation Indian experience; the title of the book, "Liberalism is a Mental Disorder". Taking my writers privilege I expanded on the idea and changed it to, "Being American Indian is a Mental Disorder". There is an insane Indian world view that is vastly different than the Euro American perspective. We Indians are quick to point out that according to the White Man's world view, he sees the world and time in a linear fashion, while Indian's way of thinking is a circular perspective. I don't know if this is good or bad, but it leads me to believe that we Indians pretty much have the view, that what goes around comes around. Maybe this is why some things never seem to change in Indian country. I was broke this year, I was broke last year, and I suppose I'll be broke next year. The old Tribal Council ripped us off, the current Tribal Council is ripping us off, and I suppose the next one will rip us off too. A friend of mine shared the definition of insanity with me, "When we do the same old things, the same old way, and expect different results, this is insanity. The truth is, if we do the same things the same way, we can expect to get the same results." This pretty much sums up the the rationale of leadership in Indian County. Every two years we hear the call for change from Indian polititians. Voters, frustrated with the old regime throw out the old council in hopes that new faces will improve the quality of life on the rez. Hello! When are we going to wake up to the fact that the system we have been handed keeps us in a perpetual cycle of curruption and failure? For two hundred years we have been standing in line playing, "Mother May I", with the federal government and its representatives. Our Tribal governments are laughable. With shrinking federal funding our reservations are caught in a pythons grip, dying a slow death. The only hope Indians have, is that maybe the Democrats will get into power next election. This also is insanity, what have the democrats done for Indians that has improved the quality of life on the rez? Nothing! Real change will not come under the current system. Indians love to use the word "Sovereignty". But I think it is too long a word for us to grasp what it really means. Until we are ready to change the way we see things we will continue to be caught in the same old rut. The more I think about it, truly, "Being American Indian is a Mental Disorder">