07/26/07 What's it like on the reservation?

This is a question I get all of the time from people at home in Los Angeles, at meetings in Washington or Atlanta, in the Bahamas and Costa Rica. I have never thought about it. All these people somehow think reservations are 'exotic'. When they ask what kind of people are American Indians, I usually respond,

"They're the same as Japanese-Americans or Costa Ricans or Latinos (or whatever group the asker comes from). Most of them are pretty nice and some are a pain in the butt."

I haven't really thought about the reservation in the same way as the people who are asking. I'm not an anthropologist. I go to the reservations to do training, perform evaluations for projects, talk with people to understand what their vision is and write grants to get the money to make those visions happen (sometimes, anyway). I have lunch with friends and don't really do comparative analysis.

However, I am moving toward retirement and this is my last visit after working seventeen years on reservations in the Great Plains. After 17 years of driving on icy freeways, staying in a different hotel every two days and eating salads made from bags of shredded lettuce and mayonnaise with sugar in it, I have decided to hang it up and -- well, and, I'm not sure but I am dead certain it is time to do something else, principally something else that involves staying closer to Santa Monica.

As I have been thinking about my pending retirement and no longer getting home and having to wash red dirt out of my clothes, I have been actually giving some thought to differences between the reservations and the rest of America. One major differences is the number of babies. According to the Indian Health Service, the birth rate in the Aberdeen service area (where Spirit Lake, Turtle Mountain and other North Dakota reservations are located) was the highest among all Indian Health Service areas and twice the average for the U.S. as a whole.

Not only do you see more babies but you see them in more places. All babies are beautiful, but there is something about the babies on the reservation that is particularly striking. They are loved and they know it. Now, that might seem a rather funny statement since almost everyone loves their baby. There is a noticeable difference, though. There are few places on the reservations that babies aren't welcome. People will bring their children to meetings, classes, nice restaurants and just about anywhere else. About the only place you don't see babies is in the bar, in a casino or in a work environment that could be hazardous, like a factory floor.

Then it struck me. On the reservation, the only places you don't see a baby is where it could be bad for the baby. Off the reservation, there are tons of places you don't see babies because it is more convenient and comfortable for certain adults. At universities, people don't bring their babies to classes. In corporations, people don't bring their babies to meetings. If they do, they apologize profusely and give explanations about last-minute terminal illnesses of their babysitters. Although people mouth platitudes about "What a cute baby", there are looks exchanged as if to say,

"Poor Sue, can't get it together. We can see what her chances are to make it to Regional Manager."

On the reservation, people smile and say, "What a beautiful baby." And they mean it . And that is all. Yes, there are problems on the reservation for adults, for youth. But I think if I was a year old, I 'd rather live on the Spirit Lake Nation than just about anywhere else.