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This article is not about the same reservation included in the book, but it can give you an idea about poverty on Indian reservations.

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When customers who live and work on the nearby Crow Indian reservation don't make their car payments, there's not much Square One Finance of Billings, Montana can do. Going to state court to repossess the car or garnish wages is not an option. Instead, Square One enters the murky realm of international affairs. The reservation is a separate nation-judgments in American courts can't be enforced. And the chances of finding the customer and the car on the sprawling rural reservation, or winning in the unpredictable Crow courts, are slim. "We take on such a huge extra risk with someone from the reservation," says Square One's Nancy Vermeulen. "If I knew contracts would be enforced, then I could do a lot more business there."

At a time when there's a spotlight on America's richest 1%, a look at the country's 310 Indian reservations--where many of America's poorest 1% live--can be more enlightening. To explain the poverty of the reservations, people usually point to alcoholism, corruption or school-dropout rates, not to mention the long distances to jobs and the dusty undeveloped land that doesn't seem good for growing much. But those are just symptoms. Prosperity is built on property rights, and reservations often have neither. They're a demonstration of what happens when property rights are weak or non-existent.

The vast majority of land on reservations is held communally. That means residents can't get clear title to the land where their home sits, one reason for the abundance of mobile homes on reservations. This makes it hard for Native Americans to establish credit and borrow money to improve their homes because they can't use the land as collateral--and investing in something you don't own makes little sense, anyway.

This leads to what economists call the tragedy of the commons: If everyone owns the land, no one does. So the result is substandard housing and the barren, rundown look that comes from a lack of investment, overuse and environmental degradation. It's a look that's common worldwide, wherever secure property rights are lacking-much of Africa and South America, inner city housing projects and rent-controlled apartment buildings in the U.S., Indian reservations.

More than a third of the Crow reservation's 2.3 million acres is individually owned, and the contrast with the communal land-often just on the other side of a fence-is stark, as Google satellite maps show. Terry Anderson, executive director of the Property & Environment Research Center in Bozeman, Montana, co-authored a study showing that private land is 30-90% more productive agriculturally than the adjacent trust land. And this isn't because the land is better: A study of 13 reservations in the West put 49% of the land in the top four quality classes, while only 38% of the land in the surrounding counties was rated that highly. For the Crow reservation, 48% of the land made the top four classes; only 33% of the adjacent land did. "The raw quality of the land is not that much different, it's the amount of investment in that land that's different," he says.

Canada faces the same issues with its 630 bands-as tribes there are called-but thanks to the effort of a dogged reformer, there's a push to allow reservation land to be privatized. Manny Jules, a former chief of the Kamloops Indian band in British Columbia, is lining up support for the First Nations Property Ownership Act, which would allow bands to opt out of the government ownership of their land and put it under tribal and private ownership. Reserves would become new entities that would have some of the powers of municipalities, provinces and the federal government to provide schools, hospitals and other services, and to enact zoning laws. He expects that the bill will be introduced in Parliament early in 2012 and is confident of approval by the end of the year. What's forcing the issue is an acute housing crisis on the reserves. Without private property rights, little housing is being built even as the Indian population grows, and the Assembly of First Nations estimates that the reserves need 85,000 new houses immediately; the government is building only 2,200 a year.

"Markets haven't been allowed to operate in reserve lands," says Jules. "We've been legislated out of the economy. When you don't have individual property rights, you can't build, you can't be bonded, you can't pass on wealth. A lot of small businesses never get started because people can't leverage property [to raise funds]. This act would free our entrepreneurial spirit, but it's going to take a freeing of our imagination. We have to become part of the national and global economies."

But even if Jules succeeds, there is no reformer like him in the U.S. to lead the charge here. Any effort at land reform must go through the Bureau of Indian Affairs. But the bureau, originally part of the War Department and one of the federal government's oldest agencies, isn't about to pave the way for its own demise by signing off on an effort to privatize reservation land. The bureau faced this situation before: Under the 1887 Dawes Act, land could be allotted to individual Indians, but by 1934 so much land had been privatized that Congress reversed course and communal tribal property was back in favor. "Allotment threatened the bureau so it had an incentive to end the process," says Dominic Parker, an economics professor at Montana State University. In any event, tribal councils wouldn't be keen to give up the patronage and power that controlling vast amounts of land gives them. And the $2.5 billion a year that Washington spends on programs for Native Americans is a powerful deterrent to change. "For the bureau and other narrow interests, staying with the convoluted system of land ownership is safer than improving property rights," he says. The bureau declined to comment.

Plus, there are practical issues. Any Indian who didn't win clear title to land by 1934 was left with a fractional share of the reservation's land held in trust. With every generation, each share was divided among more family members and today hundreds of people may have a partial claim to one share of trust land. Often there are no records of where many of these people are. In the Crow reservation, 1 million of the 2.3 million acres are held in trust for such individuals. The Dawes Act created another problem: The non-Indian owners of privatized land in a reservation have always faced legal questions over whether they come under the jurisdiction of the tribal authority. The checkerboard pattern of private and trust land in some reservations make it tough for tribes to provide services and do land-use planning.

Anderson puts the choice for tribes in sharp terms. "If you don't want private ownership, and want to stay under trusteeship, then I say, 'fine.' But you're going to stay underdeveloped; you're not going to get rich."

The problems of the reservations go well beyond residents not having the right incentives to upgrade their surroundings. With some exceptions, even casinos haven't much benefited the several dozen reservations that have built them. Companies and investors are often reluctant to do business on reservations-everything from signing up fast food franchisees to lending to casino projects-because getting contracts enforced under tribal law can be iffy. Indian nations can be small and issues don't come up that often, so commercial codes aren't well-developed and precedents are lacking. And Indian defendants have a home court advantage. "We're a long way from having a reliable business climate," says Bill Yellowtail, a former Crow official and a former Montana state senator. "Businesses coming to the reservation ask, 'What am I getting into?' The tribal courts are not reliable dispute forums."

Many reservations are rich in natural resources, but there's no big rush to develop them, given the tangled issue of property rights and the risk of making a big investment without a secure legal footing. "We have 9 billion tons of high-quality coal sitting under the reservation, going largely untapped," says Yellowtail. "Natural gas, too. Potential development galore, but that potential is never realized." Indeed a $7 billion coal-to-liquids plan fell apart in April, though it was revived in a scaled-down version in July. Anderson adds that with any investment, "the tribe could change the deal after the fact because it's sovereign."

Some tribes are taking steps to improve their legal structures, such as adopting new commercial codes to make their laws more uniform. Over a 30-year period, reservations that had adopted the judicial systems of the states where they're located saw their per capita income grow 30% faster than reservations that didn't, according to a study by Anderson and Parker. A separate study by Parker shows that Native Americans are 50% more likely to have a loan application approved when lenders have access to state courts. "Putting reservations under the legal jurisdiction of the states, and facilitating better legal codes and better functioning court systems, would assist tribes in developing their land," says Anderson.

A bigger obstacle to these reforms may not be logistics or special interests, but the culture of the reservations and the generations after generations of dependency. Indeed, a notice on a bulletin board in Garryowen, Montana, inside the Crow reservation and near the site of Custer's Last Stand, announces when the next round of "per capita payment checks"-derived from Crow Nation trust income--will be mailed.

"Privatizing land is fine but it falls far short of the answer," says Yellowtail. "Our people don't understand business. After 10 or 15 generations of not being involved in business, they've lost their feel for it. Capitalism is considered threatening to our identity, our traditions. Successful entrepreneurs are considered sell-outs, they're ostracized. We have to promote the dignity of self-sufficiency among Indians. Instead we have a culture of malaise: 'The tribe will take care of us.' We accept the myth of communalism. And we don't value education. We resist it."

But Yellowtail believes that the situation is improving. He says there are more entrepreneurs than 20 years ago as networks of Native American business people have sprung up in Montana and elsewhere. "We have to start with micro loans, encouraging small businesses. Then we have to make it okay to leave the reservation because the most successful are going to want to branch out. Entrepreneurs are going to have to stick their neck out, be a role model. We Indians are going to have to do it."

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property & environment research center

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Why Are Indian Reservations So Poor? A Look At The Bottom 1%

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When customers who live and work on the nearby Crow Indian reservation don't make their car payments, there's not much Square One Finance of Billings, Montana can do. Going to state court to repossess the car or garnish wages is not an option. Instead, Square One enters the murky realm of international affairs.

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This source includes background information for the novel--author's biography, cultural background, etc. Please use the navigation bar on the left to get you to different topics.

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The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

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Sherman Alexie was born on October 7, 1966 is mother a Spokane Indian and his father a Coeur d'Alene Indian. He grew up on The Spokane Indian Reservation in Washington State and just as Arnold Spirit did, split his time between the reservation and Reardan. Alexie is the author of several novels, and will be publishing his newest book Blasphemy: New and Selected Stories in October, 2012. Alexie originally intended to become a doctor, but was apparently too squeamish. He transferred from Gonzaga University when he realized this and eventually graduated from Washington State University with a bachelor's degree in American Studies.

His first collection of short stories: The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven earned him a PEN award. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian earned him the 2007 National Book Award for Young People's Literature. In total he has authored 22 books as well as written and co-produced a film called Smoke Signals (A rewritten version of Alexie's short story: This is What it Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona) which one the Audience Award and Filmaker's Trophy at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival.

When Sherman Alexie was young he struggled with alcohol abuse but gave up alcohol cold turkey when he awoke one morning with the police knocking on his door. They told him that someone must have stolen his car and left it running on the side of the highway, when in reality Alexie had left the car there himself. Sherman Alexie continues to write and lives in Seattle Washington with his family. He still plays basketball, and recently according to his Twitter, which I won't be linking, he was injured in a friendly basketball game and had to have minor surgery from which he recovered and is now making jokes about as per his usual style.

Further Resources:

About.com Article on Sherman Alexie
Sherman Alexie's Official Website

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Sherman Alexie was born on October 7, 1966 is mother a Spokane Indian and his father a Coeur d'Alene Indian. He grew up on The Spokane Indian Reservation in Washington State and just as Arnold Spirit did, split his time between the reservation and Reardan.

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This source gives reasons why one should read the book, and it includes a video of the author accepting an award for writing the novel.

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I just finished reading-actually listening to Sherman Alexie read- You Don't Have to Say You Love Me: A Memoir. Not a YA book like T he Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, the memoir is an in-your face reminder of many of the events and themes that pervade Diary, themes and events that challengers of Diary call out and object to.

The National Book Award winning The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian was THE most challenged book in the nation in 2014 and the mention of the novel on a school reading list today still elicits challenges from those who have heard about it but maybe not read it or read it well, as Alexie notes:

Here at NCTE, the Intellectual Freedom Center defends several Diary challenges a year-fortunately fewer than one a month in 2014-and still it's a book we're proud to defend.

But the more that we defend books like Diary, the moreI think that maybe we educators would better argue with the reasons why our students should read the book rather than rebuttals to the challenge.

Kathryn Campbell, the Intellectual Freedom Chair for the Minnesota Council of Teachers of English, recently wrote on their behalf to ask the the New London-Spicer School District to keep Diary in its curriculum. After giving all the regular reasons to teach the book-the awards won, recommendations, value for students of a certain age, and curricula developed around the book-Kathryn speaks from her heart as a parent and teacher, calling forth the core of what educators do:

"...As a mother, I can say that my own daughter was introduced to Alexie's novel by her 8th grade teacher, then later read Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony as a sophomore, and Sherman Alexie's Flight in a junior/senior elective. Having the foundation of The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian in middle school was central to her developing understanding of Native American culture, reservation life, and poverty. On a personal level, I appreciated the opportunities we had for conversations in our family about how Junior is candid and offensive in ways that provoke thinking and empathy; about how he uses humor to cope with grief; and about how the book made my child think through issues she would never experience. To this day, now as an adult, she talks about this novel as a cornerstone of her education, and her middle school copy still resides on her bookshelf...

"Reading Alexie's book, with the guidance of thoughtful and qualified English teachers, provides students with one more tool that helps in the tremendous journey of growing up. It introduces them to behaviors, speech patterns, ways of seeing the world, ethics, and principles - some of which align with their values and culture, some of which are vastly different - and invites them to reflect on self-knowledge and unpack difference.

"That's the kind of real world, critical thinking we want offered to all our students. Please defend the inclusion of Alexie's novel in the 8th grade curriculum and empower your teachers to continue to use this incredible text in the classroom."

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Why Students Should Read This Book - NCTE

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I just finished reading-actually listening to Sherman Alexie read- You Don't Have to Say You Love Me: A Memoir. Not a YA book like T he Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, the memoir is an in-your face reminder of many of the events and themes that pervade Diary, themes and events that challengers of Diary call out and object to.

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This article discusses the banning of this novel and also includes reasons why it should be read.

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The award-winning author Sherman Alexie has slammed education authorities for wanting to "control debate and limit the imagination" after his acclaimed novel " The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian" was pulled from the curriculum in Idaho schools.

The multiple award-winning young-adult novel, which tells of how Junior leaves his school on the Spokane Indian Reservation to attend an all-white high school, has come under fire in the past for reasons ranging from offensive language to sexually explicit scenes. Now, following parental objections, the school board in the Meridian district in Idaho has voted to remove it from the high-school supplemental reading list, where it has been used since 2010, reported local paper the Idaho Statesman.

One local said it subjects children to filthy words "we do not speak in our home", reported the paper, which said the book features "reference to masturbation, contains profanity and has been viewed by many as anti-Christian".

The move was protested by students - one brought a petition with 350 signatures asking the board to keep the book, said the Idaho Statesman, saying that "our education is being censored" - but the majority of locals at the board meeting to discuss the title were against keeping it on the curriculum.

The decision to ban "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian" has been condemned by free speech organizations in the US, with a letter from the National Coalition Against Censorship yesterday calling on the board to reverse its decision.

"The book is widely taught in high schools across the country because of its appeal to reluctant readers. The novel addresses vital issues such as the struggles of young adulthood, the search for personal identity, bullying and poverty. It is ultimately an uplifting story of triumph by a boy with few advantages," runs the letter, also signed by Alexie's publisher, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers.

Removing the novel "because some object to, or disapprove of, its content violates basic constitutional principles", they say, and under the First Amendment, "school officials have much wider discretion to include material that has pedagogical value than to exclude it".

"Students have the right to read affecting, engaging and valuable works and teachers have the right include them in their curriculum," said NCAC executive director Joan Bertin. "Public education should not be subject to the personal views and preferences of individuals, nor should access to a high-quality education be obstructed by government officials."

Alexie said that "book banners want to control debate and limit the imagination. I encourage debate and celebrate imagination".

The Idaho ban is the latest in a series of attacks on the novel: the National Coalition Against Censorship said that "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian" is its most frequently defended title, with six challenges or bans to the book in the last six months alone.

"It's hard to imagine that anyone who has read Alexie's book in its entirety would try to have it banned. Some of the main character's frank comments - about masturbation, questioning God - make adults uncomfortable. But we can't hide things from young people, 16-year-olds in this case, because they might be uncomfortable to think or talk about," said the organisation's spokesperson Acacia O'Connor.

"Lately there's been a lot of talk in American school districts about choice and it centers almost exclusively on parents, without taking into account that young people themselves are individuals with rights to a quality education and to access to information."

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Idaho Banned A Young Adult Book By An Award-Winning Writer

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The award-winning author Sherman Alexie has slammed education authorities for wanting to "control debate and limit the imagination" after his acclaimed novel " The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian" was pulled from the curriculum in Idaho schools.

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This article gives some facts about what life is like on an Indian reservation.

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About 22% of our country's 5.2 million Native Americans live on tribal lands (2010 U.S. Census). Living conditions on the reservations have been cited as "comparable to Third World," (May 5 2004, Gallup Independent). It is impossible to succinctly describe the many factors that have contributed to the challenges that Native America faces today, but the following facts about the most pressing issues of economics, health, and housing give a hint of what life is like for many first Americans.

Typically, Tribal and Federal governments are the largest employers on the reservations. Many households are overcrowded and earn only social security, disability or veteran's income. The scarcity of jobs and lack of economic opportunity mean that, depending on the reservation, four to eight out of ten adults on reservations are unemployed. Among American Indians who are employed, many are earning below poverty wages (2005 BIA American Indian Population & Labor Force Report).

The overall percentage of American Indians living below the federal poverty line is 28.2% (2008, American Indians Census Facts). The disparity for American Indians living below poverty on the reservations is even greater, reaching 38% to 63% in our service area (2006, National Center for Education Statistics, and other sources).

Often, heads of household are forced to leave the reservation to seek work, and grandparents take on the role of raising their grandchildren. In order to survive, extended families pool their meager resources as a way to meet basic needs. The relative poverty still experienced by these blended families is best understood as the gap between the overall need and the need that goes unmet.

There is a housing crisis in Indian country. Despite the Indian Housing Authority's (IHAs) recent efforts, the need for adequate housing on reservations remains acute. One legislator deplored the fact that "there are 90,000 homeless or underhoused Indian families, and that 30% of Indian housing is overcrowded and less than 50% of it is connected to a public sewer." (March 8, 2004, Indian Country Today).

In addition, many American Indians are living in substandard housing. About 40% of on-reservation housing is considered inadequate (2003, U.S. Commission on Civil Rights). The waiting list for tribal housing is long; the wait is often three years or more, and overcrowding is inevitable. Most families will not turn away family members or anyone who needs a place to stay. It is not uncommon for 3 or more generations to live in a two-bedroom home with inadequate plumbing, kitchen facilities, cooling, and heating.

Further increasing the concerns with reservation housing is the noticeable absence of utilities. While most Americans take running water, telephones, and electricity for granted, many reservation families live without these amenities. On a seriously stretched budget, utilities are viewed as luxuries compared to food and transportation. Overcrowding, substandard dwellings, and lack of utilities all increase the potential for health risk, especially in rural and remote areas where there is a lack of accessible healthcare.

"The average life expectancy for Native Americans has improved yet still trails that of other Americans by almost 5 years" (2010, HHS Indian Health Disparities Fact Sheet). About 55% of American Indians rely on the Indian Health Service for medical care (2006, Indian Health Facts). Yet, the Indian Health Care Improvement Act only meets about 60% of their health needs (2003, U.S. Commission on Civil Rights).

Due to underfunding, Indian Health Service facilities are crisis-driven and leave a wide gap in adequate and preventative health care for many Native Americans on the reservations. Pharmacies and doctor's offices outside of hospitals are completely non-existent in some communities.

The pressures to shift from a traditional way of life toward a Western lifestyle has dramatically impacted the health and welfare of the Native peoples and created a terrible epidemic of chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, tuberculosis, and cancer. The statistics are alarming.

Heart disease is the leading cause of death for American Indians (2003, Center for Disease Control).

Due to the link between heart disease, diabetes, poverty, and quality of nutrition and health care, 36% of Natives with heart disease will die before age 65 compared to 15% of Caucasians (2001, HHS Office of Minority Health).

American Indians are 177% more likely to die from diabetes (2011, Indian Health Disparities).

500% are more likely to die from tuberculosis (2011, Indian Health Disparities).

82% are more likely to die from suicide (2011, Indian Health Disparities).

Cancer rates and disparities related to cancer treatment are higher than for other Americans (2005, Native People for Cancer Control).

Infant death rates are 60% higher than for Caucasians (2001, HHS Office of Minority Health).

The facts presented are important realities about the living conditions faced by many Native Americans in this country - facts that every non-Native American needs to know.

How can I help?

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Native American Living Conditions on Reservations - Native American Aid

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Living Conditions on American Indian reservations: It is impossible to succinctly describe the many factors that have contributed to the challenges that Native America faces today, but the following facts...

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10 Things you Should Know about the Spokane Tribe

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10 Things you Should Know about the Spokane Tribe

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This article provides information about the Spokane Indian tribe, which is the tribe featured in the novel.