Native American Relief

    Native Americans are the foundation the United States was built on. From the times Squanto taught the Pilgrims how to farm and the Powhatan’s saved John Smith and the Jamestown colony from starvation, to the fur trade that bolstered the Northern Colonies and the tobacco trade that built the South. Like planting a seed in fertile soil, without the Native American’s pre-existence the United States would not have grown into the country it is today. However as the country has grown it has also pushed many Native American populations to side, leaving them alienated, depressed, and underdeveloped. Unable to provide for themselves by traditional means and often running into many barriers restricting them from entering the modern economy, for Native Americans, especially those on reservations standard of living is often similar to a third world country. For example…

•        Native Americans on Reservations Lack Running Water at a 3.7-19 times Higher Rate.1

•        Native American Reservations Lack Electricity at a 10 times Higher Rate.2

•        Native American Farms produce yields at 1/6th of the Rate.3

•        Native Americans experience Poverty at Higher Rates.4

•        Native Americans commit Suicide at Twice the Rate.5

•        Native Americans Overdose on opioids at nearly Twice the Rate.6

•        Native Americans grow up in Single Parent Families at a 2-3 times Higher Rate.7

     As mayor and representative of traditional Chinook land I will work to obtain federal recognition for the Chinook Indian Nation. I will work with the state government to authorize the construction and operation of a casino for the Chinook Indian Nation. Below are two maps of the planned area for a Chinook casino. The first map highlights the general area in red. This land is sparsely populated and flat and could become a fairly sizable city, possibly 300,000 people. The weather is also warmer then the coast by about 10 degrees, creating a tourist friendly environment. The plan will be to build a casino right on Jones Beach. This will bring in customers, and then other businesses can begin opening around it. I also plan on building a bridge connecting Oregon to Puget Island. There is already a bridge on the north side of the island connecting to Washington, while on the south side there is just a ferry. This will increase traffic flow to the area. In the second map the bridge is highlighted in blue, and the specific area I believe could be good for a casino in red.

References

1a Bloomberg. Where Americans Lack Running Water, Mapped – Bloomberg. Retrieved from https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-08-06/where-americans-lack-running-water-mapped

1b Zoya Teirstein. Is hope on the horizon for Western tribes' water woes? Grist. | Grist  Retrieved from https://grist.org/politics/why-hope-might-be-on-the-horizon-for-western-tribes-water-woes/

2 DOI. Tribal Energy Development. Retrieved from https://www.doi.gov/ocl/tribal-energy-development

3 Census of Agriculture. American Indian/Alaska Native Producers. Retrieved from 2017Census_AmericanIndianAlaskaNative_Producers.pdf (usda.gov)

4 United States Census Bureau. American Community Survey. 2021. "S0201: Selected Population Profile in the United States". American Community Survey 2021. Retrieved February 8, 2023. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income

5 KFF. Suicide Deaths and Rate by Race/Ethnicity.   Retrieved from https://www.kff.org/other/state-indicator/suicide-rate-by-race-and-ethnicity/?dataView=1&currentTimeframe=0&sortModel=%7B%22colId%22:%22Location%22,%22sort%22:%22asc%22%7D

6 KFF. Opioid Overdose Deaths by Race/Ethnicity. Retrieved from https://www.kff.org/other/state-indicator/opioid-overdose-deaths-by-raceethnicity/?dataView=1&currentTimeframe=0&sort Model=%7B%22colId%22:%22Location%22,%22sort%22:%22asc%22%7D

7 Retrieved from https://datacenter.aecf.org/data/tables/107-children-in-single-parent-families-by-race-and-ethnicity#detailed/1/any/false/1095,2048,1729,37,871,870,573,869,36,868/8223,4040,4039,2638,2597,4758,1353/432,431