Americas Third World Society

Today, about one-quarter of all Native Americans live on reservations, covering 52.4 million acres in 33 different states, some of which are located in geographically remote areas. Native Americans living on reservations are suffering from poverty, unemployment, health disparities, crime, educational failures, and poor living conditions that are reminiscent of Third World countries. The concept of state harm introduced in this book constitutes a framework that suggests a reasonable explanation for the poor social conditions in these “Third World societies” that make up the reservation system in the United States. The book also shows how the psychological and emotional traumas of colonization, relocation, assimilation, and boarding schools have manifested harm within generations of Native Americans.