ABSTRACT
For many Native peoples, landlessness begets homelessness but is conveniently glossed over. This formulation is central to the following narrative and, we suspect, to the ultimate effectiveness of efforts to counter homelessness among Indians in America. 1 Homelessness afflicts both urban and rural Indian populations, but, unlike the majority of the population, is particularly acute among the latter. In 1995, the US Department of Agriculture's unit on Rural Economic and Community Development held several conferences on rural homelessness across America in cooperation with the federal Interagency Council on the Homeless. Its report (Burt, 1996) noted the housing difficulties of Indians, on and off reservations, and provided grist for that year's Native American Housing Assistance and Self Determination Act. This legislation yielded block grants for American Indian housing through the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Despite this attention, some claim there were roughly 100,000 homeless or near-homeless Indian families in the United States a year later (Hamilton, 1997; Hensen and Taylor, 2002; US Commission on Civil Rights, 2003: 51).
