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Transcript: James Hena

Reservations were created from the poorest land

[Hena:]
When the Indian reservations were created, especially under United States government authority, they found the most poor land within the state territories and so forth, and that’s where they placed the Indians, and they don’t have the natural resources to exploit— except for a few tribes—they don’t have coal, they don't have gas, they don’t have oil. So they’re just out there living on a land base that doesn’t have any kind of resources to exploit. And so they continually go back to Washington to request additional appropriations for this or that and so forth, but primarily it’s for education, for health reasons, for housing, and things of that nature.