
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, July 24, 1990                   TAG: 9007240362
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

AMERICAN INDIAN OFTEN OVERLOOKED

JAMES Kilpatrick's July 4 column brought out many ideas worth remembering about America's first inhabitants. The American Indian has too often been overlooked, even ignored.

Sen. Kent Conrad, R-N.D., says "The decline of Indian budgets is a moral outrage." His view seems to be shared by other members of the Senate Select Committee on Indian Affairs. The committee estimates federal spending in Fiscal Year 1991 to be $3,007 for non-Indians and $2,281 for Indians. The decline in federal spending has exacerbated high unemployment, poor health and inadequate education, according to I-36, Indian Report, Spring 1990.

In "The Everyday Life of the North American Indian," Jon White of the University of Tennessee reported that 75 percent of inhabitants on reservations occupy shacks, shelters, huts, or abandoned cars and buses. Many Indians receive no schooling at all.

We need to consider our own independent nature and support legislation that improves the situation for native Americans. HAROLD P. WILLIAMS JR. MARTINSVILLE

by CNB