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 * Indians today **

Currently living Indians mostly live in a modern society that they now have become a part of. This means that the most do not live like in the old days, but like ordinary people. Thus, they have been forced to abandon much of their traditional culture, but some parts of their culture have survived. For many, particularly smaller tribes it has been difficult to preserve cultural tradition, and many strains have lost both the language and religion. While the larger tribes have managed to preserve part of the culture, but it has not been easy! Thousands of Indian children have been abducted from their tribe and been placed in boarding schools. Here, they have become "Americanized". They were told that they could not speak their native language, English only. They had English names and were told that everything they had grown up in had with the devil to do. They should forget their original roots and thus be "saved". These cost schools have had an incredibly detrimental effect on the Native Americans culture and created several generations of Indians who were ashamed of their origins. Many Indians today live under poverty, particularly among the poorest areas in the United States. The bad economic situation has great impact on the Indians' social conditions. From one area to another area, it is of course differences, but unfortunately many of them having it really bad. This applies especially to the South, but also a bit of poverty in North America.