Tribes hit hardest by Welfare cuts and other First Nations issues

[Kevin Robert Dean <qualiall@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

An interesting article I found while surfing the web.  More First Nations
issues can be found at:
http://www.firecongress.com/Indian.htm
including:

Some tribes fear being punished for gains by having more federal assistance
tied to conditions undermining their sovereignty; Let Indians Control Indian
Lands; The WTO nullifies the Constitution; American Indians Want Ban on
³Squaw²; John Echohawk Talks on Sovereignty; National Day of Mourning;
Skokomish Tribe sues for $5.8 billion; Bush continues to offent Native
Americans by asserting states' rights over Constitutionally guaranteed
Tribal Rights and more....

Tribes Harder Hit by Welfare Cuts

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
 
Indians?particularly Utes?will have a more difficult time dealing with the
loss of welfare benefits than other segments of the population, a University
of Utah researcher says.  ³The Utes, as well as other ethnic groups, not
only suffer from living in rural areas where jobs are scarce but face
discrimination when they apply for work,² said Laurie DiPadova, head of the
university¹s Center for Public Policy and Administration.  Unemployment
rates tend to be higher on reservations than in neighboring, depressed rural
economies and Indians typically earn less, she said. The median income for a
Ute is $14,500 a year, according to state statistics.  Hundreds of Utah
residents will no longer be eligible for cash payments through the Temporary
Assistance for Needy Families program. The state imposed a three-year
lifetime limit on public assistance in connection with federal welfare
reform measures. The first group of welfare recipients, including two Ute
families, hit the deadline New Year¹s Eve.  The state Department of
Workforce Services, which administers welfare in Utah, has worked with
people for months, trying to prepare them for the transition. Many qualify
for hardship extensions.  Some families will immediately feel the impact of
losing benefits, but DiPadova said she is more concerned about the long-term
effects of welfare reform. The system lacks a way to track the progress of
people who move off public assistance, she said.  ³We have no clear way of
documenting gaps in service provision or of determining how to meet the
changing needs of the poor, much less measuring the effectiveness of welfare
reform,² she said.
 
The Social Research Institute at the university¹s Graduate School of Social
Work has been following groups of former and soon-to-be former welfare
recipients. Though helpful and necessary, the studies are inconclusive and
whole populations, notably Ute Indians, are not covered by the data,
DiPadova said.  DiPadova says the Utes are particularly vulnerable.  A tribe
is eligible for a welfare extension if its unemployment rate is  higher than
50 percent. Such is the case with Navajos. But the Utes are geographically
spread out, living in what DiPadova calls a ³checkerboard² reservation. The
law isn¹t applied the same to dispersed reservations as to intact
reservations, making their allowances different, she said.  The average
unemployment rate on Ute reservations is 77 percent, she said. The rate in
Duchesne County, where many Utes live, is 7.1 percent, still well above the
state average, DiPadova said.  Drain Brush, Workforce Services spokesman,
said there is disagreement over which unemployment rate should be applied
because the Ute reservations lie on Indian trust lands in Uintah and
Duchesne counties that encompass more than the reservations. Workforce
Services administrators, tribal leaders and others are meeting to decide on
the rate.  Workforce Services is working with the Navajo Nation to take over
some welfare programs, including Temporary Assistance for Needy Families,
Brush said. The agency, however, is not doing the same with the Ute Tribe.


Kevin Dean | Buffalo, NY
ICQ # 8616001
AIM screen name: KDean75206
Western New York Socialist Party:
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"A nation cannot be free and at the same time continue to oppress other
nations"
-Frederick Engels