FOR THOSE CONSIDERING IMPROVING THE LIVES OF HAWAIIANS UNDER THE "SPECIAL TRUST RELATIONSHIP" THAT FEDERAL RECOGNITION WOULD BRING -
The comments below are culled from the Senate Indian Affairs Committee March 11, 2003 letter to the Budget Committee describing/justifying their budget request for fiscal year 2004.
Native people in the U.S. continue to rank at or near the bottom of nearly every social, health, and economic indicator, as compared to all other citizens. Natives continue to suffer the highest rates of unemployment and poverty, live in substandard housing, have poor health, receive an inadequate education, and contend with disintegrating social systems, all of which erode both the quality and dignity of life in Native communities. improving effectiveness in the Indian agencies is important but also recognizes that these agencies have witnessed a pattern of under-funding for decades and that, in part at least, increased resources are needed to alleviate the dire conditions in Native America and address the basic human needs Native people.
The educational attainment for Native youth is deficient compared with other groups in the U.S. For example, Native youth receive fewer high school and college degrees. An aggravating factor in educational achievement is the continued inability of the Federal government to ensure adequate, safe and clean educational facilities conducive to learning.
Despite a multi-year effort to reduce the queue of Indian school facilities in need of replacement, as of 2002, there remains a massive backlog in school facilities needs. the vast majority of Native economies are moribund and lack the basic physical infrastructure necessary to provide the basic amenities to their citizens or to provide the building blocks of business and economic development.
There is also unmet demand for electricity in Native communities: a recent Department of Energy report estimated that 14.2% of all Native homes on reservations have no access to electricity compared to just 1.4% of all U.S. households. With unemployment averaging 43% and poverty rampant, Native communities are particularly sensitive to high energy prices.
Given the near-complete absence of a private sector in most Native communities, 31.2 % of Natives live in poverty. In the U.S. today, the unemployment rate is 5.8%, whereas the rate for Natives is near 50% --- twice that of the national unemployment rate in the Great Depression. The earning capacity of Natives also lags behind that of other Americans: for every $100 earned by the average American family, an Indian family earns $62. The per capita income for Indians averages $8,284.
Most striking are the health statistics involving Native people: diabetes, tuberculosis, alcoholism, Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) and increasingly, AIDS, plague Native communities at rates far and above the incidence for other Americans.
Census data shows that 18% of all Native households are "severely crowded" as compared with 2% for nonnatives, with 90,000 Indian families homeless or under-housed. One of every five Indian houses lacks complete plumbing facilities. Because trust land is not available to secure mortgage financing, Natives rely to a greater degree on Federal housing financing.
Far too often, increases in Federal funds for the benefit of Natives have resulted in an expanded and unresponsive Federal bureaucracy rather than direct benefits to Native people.
As for Alaska Native water programs, the Committee is concerned that there has not been a request for an increase even though the EPA estimates that more than 20,000 homes in Native villages lack basic sanitation facilities.
The Committee is advised that the IHS 5 Year Priority Construction List contains $1.3 billion in badly needed projects awaiting construction in Indian communities.
Today, there are 1.3 law enforcement officers per 1,000 citizens in Indian country, compared to 2.9 law enforcement officers per 1,000 citizens in non-Indian communities.
Studies have documented that housing conditions in Native America are the worst in the nation, with 32.5% of Native Americans living in overcrowded or physically inadequate housing conditions, and 26% considered very-low income.
The current level of demonstrated need for housing stock in Native communities is $1.0 billion, up from $972 million from just a few years ago. This translates into an immediate need of at least 225,000 units, which does not include the estimated 52,000 units currently in need of renovation and 19,000 needing replacement.
The rural nature of most Native communities translates into higher than average housing costs. Many reservations lack basic infrastructure, with tribal governments being obliged to make large investments in water lines, sewage and sanitation facilities, and paved roads. responsibility and authority to provide safe and adequate water supply systems and sanitary sewage waste disposal systems in Indian homes.
Furthermore, the remote and isolated nature of these communities means more costly supplies, labor and shipping expenses. Access to financing — private sector capital and mortgage lending — is another barrier. Because trust land cannot be used as collateral, Native Americans have difficulty obtaining home mortgages. Even Native Americans with financial wherewithal have to rely upon Federal housing programs because of the lack of alternative financing in Indian country or because a limited private housing market makes housing prohibitively expensive.
In 1995, it was estimated that 53% of Indian homes on reservations did not have telephones, compared to only 5% of all other homes in the United States. Even in rural locations, only 9% of homes lacked telephones. In a 1999 survey conducted by the EDA, 13 of 48 tribes reported that they lacked "911" service and only 8 had a technology infrastructure or telecommunications plan.
Unemployment rates in Native communities continue to hover in the 43-45% range compared to the national rate of 6%.
Approximately 25,000 miles are under the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and tribes, the majority of which were rated to be in "poor condition." Although Indian Reservation Roads comprise 2.63% of the roads in the Federal Aid Highway program, Indian roads receive less than 1% of Federal road aid. As a result, these roads remain in poor and unsafe condition, leading to a fatality rate that is more than 4 times the national average. Inadequate transportation infrastructure has a negative impact on emergency and medical services, law enforcement response time and capabilities, and economic development efforts.
