BRO QUEST 2009

Heading out of Glacier, we rolled through some pretty awful foothills (as mentioned) and ended up in Browning, which is on the Blackfoot Indian Reservation. Browning was fairly chaotic, with lots of stray dogs and derelict buildings and not much economic activity/healthy lifestyle options. We also saw a gigantic bald man on an ATV (with snowplow attached) ride from the casino to the subway, presumably for a $5 footlong, talking on his bluetooth headset the whole while.

Welcome to the Rez.

Most of Montana (read: white people) warned us, repeatedly, about the rez. The warnings always took a sort of circumspect "I'm trying not to be a racist, but..." tone, with people telling us "x town is awfully sketchy, I wouldn't go there" etc. There was a lot of insinuation that basically every pale-face ever would be immediately scalped/eaten upon setting foot in an Indian Reservation, and pretty much even looking in the direction of a reservation after nightfall was an open invitation for a circle-the-wagons style raid.

As one might guess from the tone of the above post, most of Montana is full of bullshit re: reservations. The owner of SPORTS CLUB (see photos later) gave the only grounded-in-reality summation of the reservation situation, saying that "honestly it's not that bad, but some of the tribes don't really like white people, because honestly, we screwed them over. In any group of people you'll have one or two assholes that make everyone look bad, but everybody's just trying to live their lives."

The real problem on the Rez is the real problem in most troubled neighborhoods/ghettos: poverty. It has nothing to do with a culture's "moral superiority", "in-built work ethic" or their supposed genetic weakness towards alcohol/drugs--if you have a cloistered group of people of any ethnicity/culture and put them in an area void of gainful employment/avenues for economic advancement, you're going to get malnutrition, crime and violence. This has been proven time and again through both scientific and anecdotal studies. The only real solution is not enforced morality or increasingly severe laws, but economic opportunities. Deep down, everybody wants to own a home larger than they can afford filled with stuff they don't need--but everyone is willing to settle for less. The trick is to provide an engine for economic advancement that allows people to achieve anything at all, never mind the American dream.

Didn't mean to get too preachy, we're currently in North Dakota and getting close to wrapping up all the stuff that's happened in the preceding days for your reading enjoyment. Next blog post from me will be lighthearted fare concerning bike wrecks, mosquitos, beer, etc.