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In Thomas King’s Green Grass Running Water one of the stories we get is of Lionel Red Dog who through an unfortunate series of events ends up as a convicted felon through little fault of his own. Because of his conviction Lionel loses his job at the time and is unable to find one anywhere else save an electronics store owned by an acquaintance. This story though fictional is not unrealistic. Native Americans who find themselves with a criminal conviction are having a very hard time finding employment. Admittedly anyone who has a criminal record likely has a harder time finding employment but when Natives are 38% more likely, than the rest of the population, to be sent to prison in America, this leads to a higher rate of unemployment as well. Delphine Red Shirt discusses some of the alarming statistics behind Native incarceration rates in her article (link below), and it is clear to see there is an imbalance somewhere within the system and she suggests that better employment opportunities would hopefully lead to lower rates of repeat offenders. I hope that jobs will be made available to those who have served their time.

Article: http://www.argusleader.com/story/opinion/voices/2017/03/08/voice-americas-untouchables/98920654/

I find it so discouraging that people are still judged because of their race. I feel like I watch movies that show how far society has come, and am so encouraged by the fact that we have come such a long way, but then I read articles like this and the progress we have made seems so little. The statistics in this article are shocking, and it is hard to believe that these Native Americans are being incarcerated, specifically, 70% of Native Americans are being incarcerated, because of drug and alcohol problems. I feel like this should be old news, and we should have already gotten these people the help they need—so that they do not need to end up in prison, and do not end up being apart of another statistic. This reminds me of the characters in the stories we have read this semester that revolve around Native Americans with addictions to alcohol, and how they are using it to fix their problems, and trying to fix the disconnectedness they feel from the society they are trying to assimilate themselves into. It is clearly still a problem, if so many people are writing novels on it and it is still making head lines.