Philip Wegmann
The Daily Signal
6/13/2014
President Obama will visit Cannonball, N.D., today, home of the Standing Rock Sioux Nation, to celebrate increased cooperation between tribal and federal governments. One issue, not on the official agenda but likely on the minds of several Native Americans leaders, is federal regulation of resources and the Keystone Pipeline.
While North Dakota is experiencing one of the greatest oil booms in American history, several area reservations suffer from systemic poverty. In the Standing Rock Nation alone, unemployment rates hover around 80 percent. But in nearby Fort Berthold Reservation, jobless numbers have fallen below 2 percent, tribal officials report. One of the factors contributing to the wildly different unemployment rates is oil…
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Related: Obama: More US can do to help Native Americans
“Some bright young people like the ones we met today might look around them and sometimes wonder if the United States really is thinking about them, caring about them and has a place for them, too,” he said. “I said, you know, Michelle and I know what it feels like sometimes to go through tough times. We grew up at times feeling like we were on the outside looking in.”
