Pretty messed up. Here is a Freep article on the New Yorker profileL. Brooks Patterson.
From that article is a quote from the New Yorker article (which is under a paywall):
In answer to a question as to how Detroit might fix its financial problems, Patterson was quoted as saying: “I made a prediction a long time ago, and it’s come to pass. I said, ‘What we’re gonna do is turn Detroit into an Indian reservation, where we herd all the Indians into the city, build a fence around it, and then throw in the blankets and the corn.’ ”
Turtle Talk 
The remarks were a bit hard on both Detroit and our nations. However that being said Detroit would be better served if it had its own dedicated internal food and fuel supplies. The city should become somewhat self sustaining. The old fair grounds and many old brown zones could be turned into a large internal farming community to provide food and fuel for the community. MSU has a way to create low cost ethenol using Willow trees which could be grown in the brown out areas and converted to fuel. he willow in turn will clean the air and help with the co’s created by the cars the city produces. The fair grounds could become a place to produce healthy food and create jobs rather then giving it to some people for a few million to be turned into another useless strip mall. Think once the grounds been paved over reclaiming its a lot harder.
The remarks were meant to be insulting and harsh to both groups however it does make a very valid point in the need for funds and far more efficient and accountable management of the city and our nations. Both groups need to take hard looks at the way things are done and free themselves to think of new ways to improve the lives of all our peoples. One thing Native people and those of African decent share is a long history of having others enforce their desires and visions onto them. While the remarks were wrong the lack of funding and infrastructure in the city does look a lot like some of our nations which is a disgrace. It should make leaders of both parties ashamed that such things are allowed to go on in either a city or one of our native nations. Personally I hate calling them reservations or reserves. We are supposed to be independent nations but all to often we are constrained and not allowed to do anything to improve our places in society creating a prepetual downward trend of depression and hopelessness. This also happens in Detroit and other cities who suffered from harsh and hard economic times. Both the nations and cities have talented and hard working people who just need a chance to excel without being held back. Mutual goals could help both parties if allowed.