Poverty. Alcoholism. High suicide rate. It is hard to imagine these words being associated with the United States, one of the world's most prosperous countries.

However, this is what many Native Americans are struggling with daily.

What got these native masters of the land into such plight? And who should be responsible for their misfortune?

'Trail of Tears'

In 1830, the Indian Removal Act was signed into law by U.S. President Andrew Jackson. It authorized the U.S. president to grant lands west of the river Mississippi in exchange for Native Americans ancestral lands.

It sounded like a negotiation, but it was not. After futile struggles, Native Americans were forced to embark on a journey of no return for the survival of their tribes. Countless people starved to death, became ill, and were killed along the way.

The journey of some tribes was so tragic that today the bloody march is known as the "Trail of Tears."

'Kill the Indian in him, and save the man'

Although Native American tribes were not physically wiped out, culturally, the American government decided to implement assimilation programs by establishing specific boarding schools for these communities.

Native American children were taken to these schools by the U.S. government's Bureau of Indian Affairs, away from the reservation and away from their families for years. They were forcibly stripped of their identity and culture. Their Indigenous languages were forbidden, and their names were replaced by European names. All ways of life were compelled to be in line with the mainstream American culture.

The essential purpose of the U.S. government to do so can be seen in that famous phrase, "Kill the Indian in him, and save the man."

This quote is from an American general, Richard Henry Pratt, who developed the first off-reservation Indian boarding school, the Carlisle Indian School.

His full remark was even more appalling:

"A great general has said that the only good Indian is a dead one, and that high sanction of his destruction has been an enormous factor in promoting Indian massacres. In a sense, I agree with the sentiment, but only in this: that all the Indian there is in the race should be dead. Kill the Indian in him, and save the man."

The American government tried to "civilize" these indigenous people by assimilating their children, which has permanently traumatized countless Native Americans.

One of them revealed that the boarding school she attended "wasn't really about education," according to NPR. Children there did not learn basic mathematical concepts or even English grammar. Another recalled the brutal beating of a student by an adviser. He still has nightmares about the severe punishment and discipline there.

Places forgotten by booming development

Native Americans have been left behind in terms of living standards compared to other U.S. ethnicities.

The National Congress of American Indians' official website features a number of shocking statistics. In 2017, the percentage of Native Americans living in poverty was estimated at 26.8 percent, compared with 14.6 percent for the United States as a whole. Native Americans life expectancy is 5.5 years lower than all other U.S. ethnicities and a higher mortality rate due to chronic diseases, including diabetes, chronic liver disease, cirrhosis, and mellitus. The youth suicide rate for Native Americans is the highest across all ethnic and racial groups in the United States. And 17 percent of Native Americans attend post-secondary education, compared to 60 percent among the total U.S. population.

The Indian Relocation Act of 1956 led many Native Americans to leave the reservations and go to urban areas. But the act has been blamed for lessening federal attention to most tribes and ending federal funding for schools, hospitals, and basic services on reservations. At the same time, Native Americans who have left the reservation and have been trying to integrate into cities often face discrimination based on their identity.

Modern history has deprived them of a peaceful life and brought them great trauma. To cure, the collapse of trust in government might be the first thorny problem to tackle. 

But when will their voices be heard?