Lack of opportunities to earn a living, combined with other social and psychological forces, result in poor living conditions. Half the homes on reserve need major repairs. The proportion of native children taken into the care of welfare authorities is five times the national average. Juvenile delinquents number three times the national average. Causes of Death Accidental deaths are four to five times more common, suicides twice as common, and homicides ten times more common for native people than for non-natives.
Alcoholism is legendary, capturing entire communities in some instances.
Native babies die at twice the national average. Native men and women can expect to die ten years sooner than other Canadians. For example, for the better part of a century and as recently as the late 1960's many hundred of aboriginal families were disrupted by the placement of children in federally- funded residential schools hundreds of miles away from their homes. Although some of these schools were well run, many were not and thousands of children suffered physical, emotional, and even sexual abuse. Similarly, federal Indian policies and the Indian Act contributed to the breakdown of traditional social structures in aboriginal communities by removing most of the authority of band councils to make decisions about their communities.