The Poverty of the Lakota People of South Dakota :: Poverty Essays

For the Lakota throng of South Dakota, modern day capitalism is a frustrating net income of impersonal commerce, resource and profit. Since colonialism, the global arena has replaced the values and needs of the Lakota with presupposed frugal definitions of need, and has obligate deterioration of the traditional political system existing in Lakota society (115). In the absence of traditional political organization and remittance economy, the Lakota are imp overished and have little choice still to hang to the sparingal prospects offered to them by the federal government. In doing so, Lakota people struggle with economic opportunities that damage lodge identity and marginalize their status in society. economic science greatly influences their own ability to shape their modern Lakota agriculture. As economic opportunities align to the mandates of the world economy and are determined by the culture and experience of the United States government, both Pine Ridge and Rosebud mai ntain distressful levels of poverty and unemployment. In direct response to demands of the world economy, Lakota industry exhibits a growing dependence on cash rather of land, and breaks down community identity (65). Wal-Mart and Safeway chains encumber the production of Lakota owned small business, and convertible multinational business chains create limited market success. When a small business actually succeeds in surviving, competition immediately pops up and neither competing business can situate a living on reservations (37). Attitudes towards productive Lakota entrepreneurs are often sour and unforgiving, as everyone else struggles to survive. However, Lakota people must get in the economic venues opened to them by the federal government as a federally dependent nation. Factory and lucre work make up the bulk of Lakota employment, as well as handicrafts catering to tourist tastes. Naturally, making arrows, arrows every day is really boring (21) for many Lakota, but ri sks of developing asthma, blisters, broken bones and severe burns in wage work is high. Over the years, the business propositions open to South Dakota Indians have include a fishhook grind, moccasin factory, arrow factory and electronic circuit factory in Pine Ridge, and the destructive nature of factory work be the physical health and well being of every individual successful to gain employment (18). As the majority of Lakota men and women are forced to seek work outside of the reservation, many parents abandon their families in cramped, over crowded housing units. As dependence on cash instead of land increases, and average job spans for Lakota men consist of 3.