No, not really. They are not autonomous governments, they can't pass laws that conflict with the federal law, but they do act like their own state, as in Pennsylvania or California. There is one near by me. There is a Hard Rock Casino there. The area is about 12 city blocks. I don't think they have housing on all of them, but probably some of them. They typically legalize gambling on these reservations to be able to support themselves economically. But Native Americans are not subject to any taxes. This is even if one of them wants to move to St. Louis to be a retail salesman, he would pay no taxes on his income.
Alcholism is a big problem for Natives like Crack is a big problem for blacks. It is a negative steryotype that is based on ignorance. In reality, alcoholism, and crack too, is as common among any race typically in proportion to poverty. I know pleanty of white people who are/have been addicted to crack and alcoholism.
I can't say if they are happy or not. If I were one, I would be fucking angry. When white Europeans arrive in America, there were 15 million natives on the North American continent. Now they represent less than 1% of the population, and have to eek out a living by accommodating middle class whites who want to throw some money away and get fucked up. But I'm sure that the majority of Native Americans know that they were wronged, but probably don't do to bad, i don't think they live in terrible poverty, and don't really care too much. Although it has not always been this way, and i know there have been various militant movements around native American liberation, especially in the 60s.
"The emancipation of the working class will be an act of bears." - Karl Marx
"It's not power that corrupts, but bears." - VI Lenin
"Political power grows from the mouth of a bear." - Mao Zedong
"Bears are more dangerous than ideas. We don't let them have ideas. Why would we let them have bears?" - Josef Stalin
