Craig, You're good at recognizing the symptoms, but when it comes to diagnosis, your inclination is to blame the patient for being ill. Of course reservation unemployment is high; there are no economies there. Those few hundred thousand acres are pretty desolate for the most part....
Wrong bill. Montana reservation land is some of the most beautiful and fertile in the state, well except for the burned out rusty cars. What you call desolate, a rancher calls perfect. Why would a tribe elder sell a tract to a small rancher on the rez? How come the rancher makes a go of it and the rez kids dont ask him for work, they break into the sheds and barns and steal chit?
The resources are amazing, the motivation is equally amazing. Hay, grain, cattle, maybe oil, casinos sans intimidation and pilfering, those folks could kick some serious tail if they wanted to.
