Reagan Discusses American Indians

President Reagan’s comments at Moscow State University regarding the status of American Indians is astonishing and indicates that in 7 1/2 years he has not had even one native American issue cross his desk.

To recapitulate what the President said to the Russian students:

- That Indians choose to live in primitive conditions on reservations that the U.S. government allowed them to have under benevolent U.S. government control.

- That they could freely choose American “citizenship” off the reservation (which presumably they don’t have while living on the reservation).

- That he personally knew that there were many wealthy Indians who earned oil royalties from their land.

Can anyone doubt in 1988 the shallowness of Reagan’s scripted understanding of his own people? Imagine if Reagan had made a comment about black Americans of similar gravity, e.g., that blacks choose to live in ghettos and attend segregated schools or that he personaly knows many wealthy blacks from having hosted the Lakers after they won the NBA championship last season.

Fifteen years after the Wounded Knee uprising is too long to have such attitudes in the White House.

RICHARD M. WALDEN

Los Angeles