Life on a Native Reserve (The Rez Sisters)

             In the beginning of "The Rez Sisters", we get a brief view of what life on a native reserve is like. Honestly, I hadn't seen or heard much about native reserves before this, but I had expected them to be much like what we saw in the beginning of this story. At first glance, it seems as if life in a native reserve is rather uneventful and that the people are not well off, and fairly poor. I think it was good to have started the play with Pelajia fixing her own roof as it was a good way to outline and almost symbolize everything that is said by the characters and is observed by the reader about what life in a reserve is like.The reason that I think that their lives on the reserve seem uneventful is that Pelajia says, "I'm just plain old Pelajia Rosella Patchnose and I'm here in plain, dusty, boring old Wasaychigan Hill... Wasy... waiting... waiting... nailing shining shingles with my trusty silver hammer on the roof of Pelajia Rosella Patchnose's little two bedroom welfare house"(pg.2) and also because the bingo seems to be a big part, if not the center, of their lives. But, it is a big part of their life because it gives them hope that they may win money and gain a better, easier life. This is what tells you that they are poor, as well as the fact that Pelajia refers to her house as a "welfare house". They are always hoping to win the cash prize, and Philomena wants to go to Espanola to win the bigger prize and, as she says, if she won, she would buy a better toilet. So, I think it will be interesting to learn more as we go, but life on a reserve seems pretty difficult from a first glance. What did everyone else think about reserves before they read this, and did it change after reading the beginning of the play?