Spend a short amount of time on any Native American Reservation and it will become crystal clear almost instantly that lack of education is hurting the future of tribal members.
With poverty levels at extreme highs, many Native American youth are unable to even dream about going to college. Without education, employment opportunities in an already jobless area become almost impossible.
Many Native American Reservations across the Dakotas have Tribal Colleges in place to further the education of their youth. While these Tribal Colleges offer an increase in education, they do not offer the real-world experiences that define the college experience. While the education standards are worthy, the real-world experiences of a four-year University offers experiences of working in a different culture. That experience would ultimately lead to real-world experience coming back to the Reservation to offer solutions to complicated problems.
Unemployment rates on the Indian Reservations in South Dakota like the Pine Ridge and Rosebud Reservations stand at nearly 80 percent. The two counties those Reservations reside, Shannon and Todd Counties are two of the poorest counties in the United States. If you don’t have a job with one of the school Districts or the Tribal Government you usually don’t have a job.
With so many uneducated adults, many tribal programs suffer with inadequate leaderships. The future and success of these tribes and these people rests in the hands of the youth obtaining an adequate education.
With no blueprint in place for successful college experiences, many Native American youth drop out before they complete their degrees. For those that do complete their education, employment opportunities are usually found outside the Reservation, further compounding the lack of educated people in these areas.
Young people on Reservations across the country do have college opportunities, but many fail to complete their schooling, and ultimately return to the Reservation to scratch out a living.