Hi- this is a really great piece. This subject can be difficult to write about and articulate but I think you did a wonderful job. Your sources made sense and flowed with your overarching claim. Your writing at the end about your experience was touching and good. Something that I would look back over is your second to the last sentence you bring up the THUG for a second but it seems a little out of place where it is right now. Overall very good work!

This is a topic prior to reading this post I did not know much about. The only main point I knew about was the lack of job availability, but I had never thought of the toll that takes on one’s mentality or perception of themselves. That makes Native Americans more susceptible to mental illnesses such as depression which causes many of them to turn to substance abuse, as the post said. I was surprised by the fact that there are so many prevention programs and media coverage of this yet I was not even remotely aware of this until coming across this post. In addition, the statistics mentioned in the middle of the third paragraph shocked me, in terms of the likelihood of a Native American school-aged child having used a substance versus a non-Native. It is imperative that action is taken in these matters, especially because this issue, along with several others they face, stems from the lack of socioeconomic equality.