Welcome to the website of the American Indian Education Center (AIEC) of Cleveland, Ohio.

For the past few years, we at the AIEC have been working hard to keep communication lines open between us and the Native community, as well as the non-Native community in which we strive to educate.

This website is a key element in fulfilling our mission to become self-sufficient and making sure that everyone has access to our information, resources, programs and events.

Not to mention updates on what's going on at the Center, pictures of our latest events, words from our Director, info on the largest Powwow in Ohio and so much more!

Please let us know how we're doing and how we can better this site for your convinience. The AIEC is honored by the continued support of its contributors and would not be able to go through these important changes without you. Visit our support page and find out how you can help us better the lives of Native Americans in Northeast Ohio.

Periodically there is a repeat column I am forced to write. It  usually takes an ignorant and insensitive remark by a non-Indian to prompt me to  return to the scene of the crime.

One of my advertising sales people for  Indian Education Today Magazine was seeking a timely ad to take advantage of the  "It's time-to-pay-taxes" portion of the year.

She approached one  so-called tax preparation office located in Rapid City,
SD and ran into this  crass remark, "Why should we advertise; Indians don't pay taxes." Ouch! When  will this ignorance come to an end?

All right, let's address this horrid  misconception. Indians hold jobs. As a matter of fact, many working for the  tribal government, Indian Health Service, Bureau of Indian Affairs or other  governmental agencies receive salaries ranging from $24,000 to $100,000  annually. Professional teachers and administrators working at the many Indian  schools on the reservations are also in the middle class pay income bracket.  These salaried employees pay all of the taxes every American citizen pays from  withholding to Medicare.

Every time an Indian buys groceries taxes are  included. When we purchase an automobile or a costly appliance, taxes are  included. When we fill the car up with gasoline we pay taxes. What so many  non-Indian citizens do not realize is that all of the sales taxes collected in  the towns bordering the Indian reservations never go to the Indian reservations.  They go to the state and the community where the purchase was made. 

There are no free rides for Indians when it comes to attending college.  Most apply for Pell Grants or for other grants available to students of all  colors. Others use the GI Bill, as I did, or get jobs and work there way through  college. There are some funds available through tribal funds or through the BIA,  but they are far and few.

Those lucky enough to belong to a tribe with a  rich casino can get scholarship grants that are set aside for the higher  education of tribal members. But keep in mind that only 5 percent of the Indian  nations earn 90 percent of the casino profits. That doesn't leave much for some  of the larger tribes such as those of the Great Sioux Nation or the Navajo  Nation.

And some non-Indians may find this hard to believe but Indians do  not get a monthly check from the BIA or from any other branch of the government.  If we own land on the reservation and that land is leased to a rancher or  farmer, we do receive an annual lease check for the use of our land. This method  of payment for leasing land or renting a house is common throughout America for  non-Indians as well. The BIA usually distributes these not-so-large-checks.  Nearly every merchant worth their salt knows when these checks are distributed  and plan their sales accordingly.

Now, let's talk about all of that  wonderful, free health care. If an Indian works for an organization or federal  agency that provides health insurance, that insurance company is billed whenever  that employee uses the services of the Indian Health Service Hospital. The same  holds true if the Indian man or woman is on Medicare.

Some tribes use the  profits from their casinos to build healthcare facilities on their reservations.  They also use their casino profits to purchase health insurance policies for  their tribal members. That insurance helps to cover treatment at the tribal  health care facilities.

The I.H.S. has hospitals on some Indian  reservations, not all. Reservation residents do use these facilities. However,  it is written into the treaty agreements between the Indian nations and the  United States government that health care will be provided in exchange for the  millions of acres of land ceded in the treaty agreements.

The services  provided by the I.H.S. are not considered to be the best. The large and sparsely  populated reservations have a hard time hiring doctors with any lengthy  experience. Most of the doctors assigned to the Indian hospitals are first or  second year doctors paying off a government loan for their education. They are  learning while on the job and from the complaints I hear from so many of their  patients, their inexperience does have its unfavorable consequences.

If  Indians had all of the benefits attributed to us by the non-Indian world we  would be the most intelligent, wealthiest and most protected people in America.  Indians would be debt free, trouble free, illness free, tax free and positively  carefree.

But we (Indians) know that is not the case. It is only the  majority of non-Indians who still continue to believe these myths,  misconceptions and outright fallacies.

So please believe me when I say  that Indians do not get a monthly check from the government, many of us do pay  for our health care, we do not get a free college education and, to bury the  biggest misconception of all, we do pay taxes. April the 15th looms as large for  us as it does for the rest of America.

Tim Giago is the president of  the Native American Journalists Foundation,
Inc.,