Gifford Pinchot National Forest

Blog #4

Tuesday. 

Today we moved away from the Gifford Pinchot National forest to Warm Springs, Oregon. Although most of the day we spent our time traveling we did eventually get to our camping location, had dinner, and got ready to go to bed. Just before we thought that we were fine to go to sleep something out of the ordinary happened. It turns out the location we were placed to camp was a local camping area with a park. I didn’t think anything of it but it wasn’t long until we were thrown off balance. Some unknown individuals were walking amongst our camping area flashing their lights and disturbing some of our team members. This quickly turned some of them into panic mode but we worked fast to find a solution. We decided to quickly move each other's tents closer to each other with the emergency call “Purple,” in case those individuals were close to our camp again. It was a safety concern and I am glad that for the rest of the night we slept fine. This situation could be interpreted in a negative stigma towards those individuals in the reservation area, however, I am grateful that this happened to us because I don’t think we were fully aware of the disparities in this community. I made me think about those young kids that I saw riding on their scooters and skateboards through cracked streets, graffiti walls, loitered alcohol bottles, poor public restrooms and more. I noticed that it was easy for many individuals to think bad of those kids who were laughing and mimicking us as we passed by them to go the restroom. That that couple that encountered us at the bathroom station scared them because they were intoxicated as they asked a lot of questions. Even though how is describe it sounds fearful, I realize that there is a need for support in communities like these. You have to keep in mind that those kids may not have both parents at home with full-time jobs, that they may not have teachers who believe in them in their academics, that they are only behaving a certain way to get the essentials they need to survive first before they can find self-fulfillment, that they may be starving and the urger to steal for food is greater than their understanding of the consequences. We also have to keep in mind that the history of the ancestors of those adults has prohibited them from learning their cultural values and practices. That their parents may have suffered greatly from those boarding schools. Compared to the total U.S population, more than twice as many Native Americans live in poverty. In 2013, Native American men and women were nearly twice as likely as whites to be unemployed.  Native Americans experience serious psychological distress 1.5 more than the general population. And most importantly Native Americans use and abuse alcohol and other drugs at younger ages and higher rates than all other ethnic groups. In today's blog, my goals are to provide a different perspective to look into our situation at our camping area. It is important to see past the situation and seek to understand that many disparities need to be addressed to help our fellow communities to work together and make a difference. It is important to stay away from making assumptions based on first impressions.