[Mb-hair] Save Native Programs

[Barbara Siomos]

From: The Peltier Legal Team

The Bush Administration's budget for fiscal year 2006 proposes cutting funds for reservations. Advocates for American Indian & Native Alaskan families, are beginning to ask some tough questions.

1. Why is it that the U.S. can afford unlimited amounts for destruction & reconstruction on the other side of the world, but cannot afford resources for people who have been historically mistreated within its own borders?

2. Why would the Congress cut infrastructure money for disadvantaged communities at home while billions in reconstruction money can disappear in Iraq?

3. Why is it fair to run up the deficit giving tax cuts to the very rich & then decide to reduce that deficit by hurting the poor?

Those in Congress who are aware of the living conditions of poor tribes agree that the proposed cuts for Indian programs in the 2006 budget make little sense. Fiscal conservative Senator John McCain(AZ) says the dramatic cuts proposed will do nothing for the country at large but will cause much harm to the most vulnerable & deprived people in Indian Country. In his words:

The federal government has continually reneged on its trust & moral obligations to meet the educational, health care & housing needs of Indians & these needs far outweigh the imperceptible contribution that the proposed cuts will make to reducing the deficit.

Background

The following factual picture is drawn from information provided by the National American Rights Fund & the Navajo Nation. We call your attention to reservation distress.

A Navajo soldier who built infrastructure in Iraq may face these circumstances at home:

+ Only 2,000 miles of roads in 25,000 square miles of countryside, many dirt & gravel.
+ Housing in short supply; in some cases, 10 people live in a one-bedroom home.
+ Some people live in buses.
+ Utilities lacking in 85 percent of homes, many lacking plumbing.
+ No  telephones in 40 percent of homes.
+ Wood fire stoves, which too often brings on asthma & respiratory problems, but ventilators are not an option because there is no electricity.
+ Grocery store as much as 40 miles away.
+ Drinking water hauled in 50-gallon drums.
+ Extremely high unemployment.
+ Inadequate schools.
+ A health system that provides half as many care dollars as are spent on other poor citizens.
+ A trust system where those with Individual Indian Money accounts get little of the money owed them from the land & leases that the federal government manages for them.

At Now

Your representative & senators will be voting on a budget resolution THIS WEEK. Visit:  http://capwiz.com/fconl/issues/alert/?alertid=7228431&type=CO.

Urge them:

PLEASE DON'T VOTE TO CUT PROGRAMS THAT ARE BRINGING NATIVE AMERICANS OUT OF POVERTY.

Also write to President Bush. Let him know that his mistreatment of the First Nations is unacceptable under ANY circumstances.

President George W. Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, DC 20500

Phone Numbers:
Comments: 202-456-1111
Switchboard: 202-456-1414
Fax: 202-456-2461

E-Mail: president at whitehouse.gov