Modern Native American life has changed drastically from that of what it used to be. One can only imagine how incredibly hard life would have been in the late 1800s without the help of modern technology. In James Welch's book, Fool's Crow, one not only learns what the Western United States was like in the late 1800s, but can also grasp the ways of early Native Americans. Fools Crow, the main character in the book, portrays exactly what the average Indian boy of his day was like. He had strong family values, faithful religious beliefs, and knew his direction in life. Unfortunately this is not so true for most Native Americans of today. Many current Indians are suffering from poor family structure, lack of education, and loss of religious beliefs.

Family structure was one of the most important aspects of life for Native Americans of the 1800s. Back then there was almost no difference between an Indian man or woman's fifth cousins and his or hers sister. Both were treated the same, and both were respected immensely. But no

Education is a problem among Native Americans as well. It used to be that when a young Native American turned a certain age it was his or her duty to learn the ways of survival. For boys it was hunting and learning to provide for his future family. For the women it was learning various duties such as cooking, tanning hides, and caring for the children. Indians used to educate themselves in order to survive as a team. Each person learned to do his or her specific duty in order to prosper individually, and as a tribe or band. But now education is substantially different. It still focuses on the essentials for survival and the need for one to prosper as an individual, but it lacks what white people are learning. Teachers on reservations are often the product of poor education themselves, and have nothing to offer young Native Americans. One of the most prominent problems, however, is that reservations can't afford to hire quality teachers to educate their children. Thus, there continues to be uneducated Native Americans, which, in turn, causes this misfortunate cataclysm to

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Approximate Word count = 732
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)