Really? The only thing holding them back is themselves? Not substance abuse? Not the trauma of residential schools? Not racist attitudes of the folks that now live on their land?
My wife and sister in law where talking about this last night. My wife mentioned she had while at Regina Uni had been interested for a bit in Justice. One of the courses she took was on Aborigials and there was 5 Aboriginals in the class all from different tribes. They all said the thing that is causing the most harm to the Aboriginal people in Canada is the Aboriginals themselves.
Now if you read the article I linked from the Toronto Star the priest mentioned the effect of the institutions…no social skills, friends, and everything else that is more the norm. I get that issue as I have and am still dealing with the same effects of being institutionalized….RLA. The other problem that goes with this and helps it continue is those who are around the person and their elders. If all they do is make excuses for you and encourage you to stay the same you never move forward. Trust me…it's very easy to fall into this pattern when those who are supposed to be helping you sit the and encourage you to stay the same.
Yes it is hard to take a leap of faith and walk away from the comfort blanket of everything one knows. But the reality as has been mentioned before is that people would rather see you stay in the gutter and stagnate with them then move out and forward. And to many have a vested interest in maintaining the poverty status quo and keep themselves as the poverty pimps.