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Video: 30 Days – Life on an Indian Reservation
1. Almost from the beginning reservation life was plagued by poverty, alcoholism and unemployment.
The truth is most reservations don’t even have casinos.
2. About 200,000 Navajo are spread out over their 17 million acre reservation in Arizona, New Mexico,
and Utah. The biggest city on the “Res” (reservation) has only 10,000 people (Beavercreek has
45,000). The Navajo reservation is the largest Indian reservation in the United States.
3. The Navajos, like other Native Americans, are trying to live in two different worlds, the traditional
world and the modern western world.
4. Morgan will live in a traditional Navajo home, a hogan, which has no heat, electricity, or running
water.
5. When Morgan checks the classified ads for jobs on the reservation he finds only 25 listings for the
200,000 people on the reservation, whereas in Lubbock, Texas, there are hundreds of listings.
6. According a woman at the unemployment office, unemployment on the Navajo reservation is over
60% (currently at 42%) and the Navajo economy relies on heavily on federal funds which have been
decreasing for years.
7. In the 1980s the federal government allowed sovereign Indian nations to build casinos but many
Navajo objected because it conflicted with their cultural beliefs. However in 2008 the Navajo
opened their first casino (today there are four with plans to eventually build six).
8. Many Navajo work construction jobs off the reservation and then send money back home.
9. When they butcher the sheep they do it with the animal facing the east because good things come
from the east.
10. On the Navajo reservation there are 80,000 people who live without running water. The Navajo do
not have the rights to the water running through the reservation and much of that water goes to
desert cities in Arizona and Nevada.
11. Alcoholism may be made worse by factors such as isolation, high unemployment, and stress.
The high rate of alcoholism in turns contributes to the high crime rate on the reservation.
12. On the Navajo reservation it is illegal to drink or even possess alcohol, but over half the crimes on
the reservation are alcohol related.
13. In 1979 80% of students on the reservation spoke Navajo, ten years later that was down to 5%.
14. To purify his body Spurlock participates in a sweat lodge ceremony and afterwards says that he
believes Native Americans are more in tune to a connection with the earth, our own existence,
and life.
15. Spurlock believes Native Americans are part of our culture and heritage and that casinos will
not fix everything.