They are 'locked up on Reserves' because that is where the AFN - the chief opponents of disbanding the Indian Act - prefer to have them stay.
That may sound offensive but they are at a disadvantage for the amount of 'help' the taxpayers send their way. If the total was divided between the living members the amount should be 'a tidy sum' if we are treating them right and if they paid for services as they use them it would probably be less than is diverted to the various 'off Rez' services. Same with utilities and groceries and hardware, all factored in to equal the amount that is sent to the Rez and the surrounding communities.
We allow cross border shopping to avoid a few taxes but if a Rez tries to sell some smokes it is a crime serious enough that the Army is called. They should have stores that rival the size of Home Depot, duty free and online shopping is now available.
Clinics on a Rez should be allowed to offer Patients/Clients 'tradition diets' while they are there as a way to treat diseases such as chronic alcoholism.
Should either of those 2 ideas be implemented and they are in the 'black' I doubt the international chains that start losing money to sent back to the nest the army gets called out so their interests are protected.
Just going back to 1867 how much has been spent on court cases? Now that there are no more issues before them the whole system is about to be abandoned and a new set of treaties will be implemented that will need 70 years in the Courts to iron out what all the fine print means. If all the 'fine tuning' was done at the ICC the matters would be settled without any court appearances if Canada was paying the whole bill no matter who won or lost.
The last one I saw was 20 years in the courts with the taxpayer coughing up $200M in Lawyers fees alone.
Just when the current documents will start paying off for the Indians it is time to change the rules, at great cost to them. Just when coal fired power was cheap and relatively clean it was time to treat it like we were in the industrial revolution and it has to be shut down even though the alternative will cost the people a great deal of money.
Continuous rape more or less.
(in part)
Hey, it's just more money for Saudi Arabia. Hooray !
Stock piled for a war against Iran, Yemen is target practice. That makes them 'proxy warriors' for what nation in the area?
Did we just lose the market the pipe was for?