Holbrook Indian School Jolina Barron comes from the Yaqui tribe. She is a college-bound senior who is working to combine her passions for writing and photography by becoming a photojournalist.
A Seventh-day Adventist Boarding Academy Serving Native American Youth Since 1946
Hope: A Future Without Poverty on the Reservation
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By Jolina Barron, 12th grade
ative youth have adopted the “Rez mindset.” The unemployment rate on the Navajo Reservation is 42%, and 43% of Native Americans live below the poverty rate. In all the places that I’ve lived (over 20 different locations in four separate states), the reservation has had the biggest poverty issues. Native youth witness poverty on the reservation firsthand throughout their childhood. Children and adolescents on the reservation have the highest rates of major depressive episodes and the highest self-reported depression rates of any ethnic group. Native American youth have grown up believing that improving their condition in life is impossible. This
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carries into their adulthood and prevents the reservation from getting any better. The “Rez mindset” has permeated the young generations, causing them to believe that the reservation cannot be helped. Believing in the hopelessness of the situation creates and perpetuates
this form of self-fulfilling prophecy. Negative or positive things can happen as a result of people’s projected expectations. Living on the reservation and seeing its poor conditions leads its residents to accept their environment. All too often you hear the phrase, “Well,