"Pine Ridge is the scariest place I’ve ever been — more so than in a Taliban ambush,”

Behind the Scenes: Still Wounded

Aaron Huey arrived on the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota at the start of a self-assigned photographic road trip to document poverty in America.

The poverty he found on the reservation stopped him cold.

“Pine Ridge is the scariest place I’ve ever been — more so than in a Taliban ambush,” Mr. Huey said. “It was emotionally devastating. I‘d call my wife late at night crying.”

Overwhelmed by the poverty — and at the same time by scenes of people trying to maintain the Lakota way of life — Mr. Huey abandoned the rest of his nationwide project to focus on Pine Ridge. Five years later, he’s still photographing on the reservation, which includes the Wounded Knee battlefield.

Mr. Huey, 33, is a photographer for National Geographic Adventure and National Geographic Traveler. He also freelances for The New Yorker and Geo. In 2007, he photographed in Afghanistan for The Times.

I interviewed him by telephone and e-mail.


http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/20/behind-22/

At bottom of OP link
"Correction

An earlier version of this post incorrectly quoted Mr. Huey as saying, “Pine Ridge is the scariest place I’ve ever been — more so than in a Taliban ambush.” Instead, he said, “Pine Ridge is the scariest place I’ve ever seen — not more so than in a Taliban ambush.” Mr. Huey also made the point that although Wounded Knee may be referred to elsewhere as a battlefield, as it was in an earlier version of this post, it is more accurately called a massacre site. “Battle connotes some kind of fair fight,” he wrote in an e-mail message. “It was a massacre with Gatling guns.”"

In the youth, I found a big part of my story — a new generation desperate to be warriors again.

and

I want to find the light in this darkness.

and

The story of the Lakota is the story of all indigenous people on every continent — they are steamrolled by the dominant society and pushed to the verge of extinction. Assimilate or die.

There are glimmers of hope in his story - but, wow.

The same thing happens on Rosebud, Cheyenne River, Standing Rock, etc (all rez's). There is not only the alcohol problem but also meth. I ask a Pine Ridge patient once why she didn't call the tribal police about something. She said they are some of the biggest meth users. Her words not mine. Alcohol is such a problem that fetal alcohol syndrome is very prevalent and several years ago the police were locking up any drunk pregnant woman. Child abuse is rampant unfortunately. Kids drop out of school early and when still in school don't show up. Those that want to learn have it difficult with the disruptions in class by the ones that don't want to learn.

There are few jobs on the Rez. Places are vandalized often. Yes it is the fault of the way things were handled many many years ago and it has mushroomed into the problem today. However many Lakota run on slow time or fast time or don't show up at all. It is difficult to keep a job with this problem. I asked once why the Lakota didn't open up the Rez to tourist, maybe sell things like the Navajo. I was told that had been suggested but the elders did not want all the people.

Most Lakota will not open up to white people until they know you very well. There is still very very strong resentment to loosing their land, they want the Black Hills back, which will never happen and they know it.

The people in the past that ran the Indian Agency's on the Rez were less that honest,money was not given to people that should have been. When a dams were built, people were told to move, a town/homes were flooded and are still underwater.

The Lakota do not own their own homes on the Rez. They can lease for 99 years but it cannot "stay in the family". Lands on the Rez in the past were sold to white ranchers and this was done by the tribe. Many white people live on the Rez in ranches.

I do not know what the answer is. I have some great Lakota friends in the medical/education field. Some that worked their butts off to accomplish what they have. Most educated Lakota are terribly worried what is to become of their culture that is being destroyed by drugs/alcohol.

One more thing about sweat lodges. I was told to never go to a sweat at Pine Ridge because of all the bad spirits due to the alcohol/drugs there. This coming from a medicine man from SD.

everything that you say is fairly accurate. I can't say so much about the little details you've added specific to Pine Ridge because I have never been there, but in general most reservations have those type of socioeconomic problems including mine. (Blackfeet in MT)

There is one area that is so devastated, drug ridden and crime ridden that they attempt to keep the people there corralled. Then again, great strides have been made in other areas.

little in the way of discrimination and distrust while living and working on reservations. I've generally found the people to be welcoming, interested and friendly. It's mainly the whites on the reservations who cause a lot of the racial issues, though they'd never admit to it and EVERYTHING, to them, is the fault of "those natives." As if they're not living on reservations, what little land does remain to "those people."

mike kohr

husband is Native American. My first best friend was Native American. Husband and I have experienced a lot of "stares".

Alcohol is rampant up here among the native people. Its a curse. But when your village is washing out to sea and unemployment is almost total, despair is a consequence.

to help them to process alcohol. It's like taking a hit of crack and becoming instantly addicted. I have several Natives in my family; one suffers from alcoholism, as did his brother and father, and another won't touch the stuff because she knows how low her resistance is.

etc, have the greatest tolerance like Jewish people. Alcoholism runs in my family and I don't drink. I don't want to tempt fate.

could you explain further?

from whom do they get the 99-yr leases?

from website: International Brotherhoood Days

-clip-
While the men of these First Nations were overseas, engaged in our war efforts in WW I and WW II, the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), convinced many Native men (many who could not read or write and spoke English as a second language), to sign over grazing rights to White farmers for rates that fell far below market value. The BIA told these Native men that if they were to die in the war, the grazing fees would provide for their families.

When the surviving Native veterans returned home after the war they found that they had signed leases that were as long as 100 years in length and were renewable at the discretion of the holder of the lease. This is one of the many ways in which most of the land on reservations is often worked and controlled by white farmers and ranchers. This also is in part why some reservations have a greater population of non-Indian people than Indian peoples.
-clip-

from webpage "Interesting Facts"
http://www.brotherhooddays.com/interestingfacts.html

mike kohr

This is what I have been told when working on the Cheyenne River Rez in SD.

The tribe owns the land on the Rez but in the past they did sell land to white ranchers. On this Rez it is not done anymore but the people that bought the land still own it and can sell it. These ranches are dotted all over this Rez. In fact the whole reason I found this out is looking at a rez map I noticed different colored areas sprinkled throughout the rez. When I asked about that I was told those are private (no longer belonging to the tribe) land. Keep in mind this rez is 4,266.987 sq mi.

Now the tribe does not sell the land/homes to the Native Americans but leases them for 99 years and because it is a lease they cannot sell it.

Native land which I actually understood that I could not really own. It lay outside the regular Rez area so it was common for that to happen on outlying areas.

When friends were part of an Underground Railway to help fugitives from the rez, I can only express my sadness and outrage.

It is hard to change your society when the good people are slaughtered, when the weak are in charge, when the small bits of change and transformation are set back by the outer (and inner) hatreds.

Kudos to this photographer.

Nothing has changed. The answers will not come from outside although we can support what they do to try to fix things - they must develop leaders and change things themselves. That sounds hard but it is also what they want. As you said they do not trust outsiders for good reasons.

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He didn't help for sure, but it's always been about that bad. Reservations live in nearly perpetual depressions.

Even though it pains me greatly to say that.

but I bet you'd agree that the same legacy of greed that gave us B*sh set up and then killed these reservations.

that neocons put forth to justify invading Iraq. Manifest Destiny and the neoconservative idea to reform and modernize Islam/Middle East have similar roots in modern colonialism.

during the 350 years after initial contact. By bullets, slave labor, starvation, contagious disease, and most recently pure neglect.

No, the Neocons haven't even come close to the Colonial genocide.

Yes they haven't specifically committed outright genocide, but if they had their way and could have wars in all the theaters they wanted to, Afghanistan, Iraq, then Iran, Syria, North Korea, Egypt and Saudi Arabia they would cause the deaths of maybe up to a billion people. This is part of my research area (I am Blackfeet, btw) and their are certainly parallels between Modern Colonial ideologies like Manifest Destiny and the neoconservative bid to reform and modernize Islam. You think Iraqis aren't dying of virtually all of those same things or close parallels to them right now? It's much more than genocide, it's what is known as unrestrained warfare and the belief that you have the right to impose your own ideology on others by gun. Very similar. It's just that one action has been going on for about 500 years and the other went considerably less, before it was mostly disgraced, although it's still going on in some forms.

But, I think the European colonials, and their descendants - the USA, EU, Israel - are in a relatively much weaker position today vis-a-vis the rest of the world than they were in 1500, when the exterminations of the indigenous peoples of the Americas started. Both sides hold technological trump cards that make a total war of extermination unthinkable -- a lose/lose -- except within the most extreme and hateful policy circles.

I suspect that if the Blackfeet and other tribes had a nuclear or chemical/bio deterrent, that the history of the colonial wars would have turned out quite differently.

I was replying to somebody who made a legacy of greed comment, and I pointed out how both neocons in Iraq and the US govt with regards to American Indians have roots in Modern Colonialism. Degrees of it or whether somebody had a nuclear weapon isn't relevant to what they were asking and what the answer is to that question.

You can definitely blame him for not doing anything to make it better, if not for helping to make it even worse.

I get the impression that people looked at the pictures and didn't read the text.

From the Q & A (emphases mine):


As for the problem and what people need to know about it, I’m not sure there is much to do. The Lakota, like most tribes, are self governed. Handouts aren’t the answer. Church groups painting over the gang signs on houses every few summers is not the answer. Pity is not the answer. The Lakota are an incredibly beautiful and proud people. There are pockets of strength in this failed state. They are usually formed around a school or a traditional teacher-medicine man or a strong head of a family who spreads it to his extended family.

I think I honestly want these photos to hurt the viewer. I want people to understand that what they see in these images is a result of a very long and very calculated oppression. It’s convenient that we can now step back and say: “Oh, no! Look. They are doing it to themselves! There is nothing we can do!” Very convenient for us. The story of the Lakota is the story of all indigenous people on every continent — they are steamrolled by the dominant society and pushed to the verge of extinction. Assimilate or die.



If we're going to be so simpleminded as to hang the suffering of indigenous people on dimson, then please explain to me how these people have flourished since January 2009, between 1993 and 2001, between 1977 and 1981, and so forth. The unpleasant truth is that these people and MANY groups like them have been fucked over and around for generations by everyone in power, and when you look at that level of hopelessness and destruction, the good intentions of people in Washington don't count for shit. And it's a problem so deep and ingrained that it's not going to get fixed in one generation, let alone in one administration.

I predict we will be reading stories a lot like this in the next 25-30 years, only based in the New Orleans area. Just a guess.

elected to high office.

Strange...

But but but but... BUSH!

Not really. They don't even fulfill their basic obligations to us.

And then there is Lt. Col. George A.Custer. Truman's director of the BIA, Dillion S. Meyer, was a piece of work.

see "Your Heroes Are Not Our Heroes." http://www.brotherhooddays.com/HEROES.html#HARRY S TRUMAN:

Whole neighborhoods of people who are not a part of the larger Bay Area culture that everyone else (?) shares in.

The Taliban, at least, are fighting for something. When a people has been so broken that they have no hope, it is a terrible thing to see.

Near, Blue Dog and Enemy Swim. Saw much just like those pictures. Things are somewhat better there now. More populated area compared to Pine Ridge.

I can say though...it is still a "cowboys and indians" mentality out there still. The racial divide is very great and the bigotry and misunderstanding of native people is still a big barrier.

Thanks for posting this.

Glad to do it.

The Native Americans of the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota are Lakota Sioux. The reservation is part of a larger territory established for the Lakota in 1868 by the United States government and later parceled out to non-Native homesteaders and broken up into smaller tribal reservations. Today, Pine Ridge is home to approximately 18,000 Lakota Sioux. In the total of about 2,000,000 acres of space, there are about 40,000 people living in total.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the Pine Ridge Reservation primarily lies within the two poorest counties in the United States. It has few natural resources and no industry. The nearest major city and center for seasonal employment is Rapid City, 120 miles away. Currently, unemployment on Pine Ridge is estimated to be 87% and the per capita income* is $6,067 USD.

As a result, 97% of the residents of Pine Ridge are living below the Federal poverty level**. The pervasive poverty has created a community where many families go without electricity, fuel oil and telephone services for at least part of the year. A severe housing shortage forces hundreds into homelessness while thousands of others live in overcrowded, substandard accommodations.

The population on Pine Ridge has the shortest life expectancy of any group in the Northern Hemisphere: approximately 47 years for males and 50 years for females. Access to medical care is limited and the infant mortality rate is five times the United States national average. These abysmal statistics reflect the true impact of poverty on families.

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://nativepro...

Link on how to help

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://nativepro...

I am barely making it but I am going to send $100.00 today.

I would like to see, in my lifetime, a shift in national focus. I'd like to see us healing our internal wounds.

I don't have much hope.

Thank you, Bill.

you can help

http://friendsofpineridgereservation.org/projects /

I send gifts for the Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) kids, there's many other small needs that you can help fill.

Neat to have a way to send them things.

I even entertained the idea of going and living on the rez, about three years ago, when they said that any of us who were tired of the Straight World could come and join them.

after reading the article, i was wondering how i could give something to them, something useful. Your link is exactly what i needed.

Truly heartbreaking. I detest what we have done to the Native Indians.

There is a Visa offered by US Bank, which is HQed in Minneapolis (not a NYC bank). Proceeds from the Visa go to the American Indian Relief Council. If everyone got one of these Visas, maybe the money could help. I'm not advocating going into debt. I pay the bill in full each month.

When I use the card, many salespeople mention how cool the card is....a beautiful portrait of a Native Indian is on it...this gives me the opportunity to tell them of the benefits of the card and how it helps the Indian Community.

Is the land so bad that nothing can be grown on it? Raising goats possibly? Hell, it's a damn shame that the Indians can't grow hemp there. Hemp is such a great gift from Mother Nature...makes strong fabrics, ropes, even oil, I believe. Of course TPTB don't want the Indians to better themselves.

With the Age of Aquarius coming soon, I have some hope. This Pisces Age has been just shit and violence.

Hell, it's a damn shame that the Indians can't grow hemp there.

The same principle that underlies the explosion in Indian gaming on reservations closer to cities might apply here: that tribal nations are subject to state but not Federal law. As far as I know, the prohibition against hemp is Federal.

I have often wondered how tribes could profit from their sovereignty in ways besides gaming (done to death, and Pine Ridge is too remote anyway), storing nuclear waste (actually proposed on a rez in Arizona!), etc.

Tribal lands are subject to national environmental laws, but not state environmental laws.

Tribes are mostly subject to federal law, not state. They are only subject to it in terms of Indian Gaming because of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act which federalized state law, except most states never had gaming laws, so they pretty much made it up on the fly. Tribes often work with states on various issues and freely allow them certain priveleges they aren't necessarily allowed to have for various reasons, but outside of that they have a unigue relationship with the federal government. Indian tribes are essentially protectorates of the federal government. For the most part, they don't have to consult with the state or answer to them on anything.

If you haven't seen "Standing Silent Nation", it will either make you cry or scream in anger.

This info. is dated so if anyone has newer info., please post it.
This is nothing more than a modern version of "The Trail of Tears" in the way that the US government still treats these people.

I'm hoping that by now, the DEA has decided to allow the growing of hemp but I didn't see any recent entries.

Two good links to read:

http://www.thegoodhuman.com/2008/07/09/the-legality-of-... /

http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle-old/250/lakotahemp....

I only wish that I could have provided something more upbeat or positive.

Our government and some of its' agencies really are a disgusting entity at times.

Who is behind this? There has to be some PTB who is so sadistic and hateful of the Native Indians that he demands they be treated as such.

Why the hell would the DEA care about this? Don't they have bigger fish to fry? Someone is behind this. The Petroleum industry....would hemp compete with oils, plastics, etc? Probably that horrid David Rockefeller...I think he's 94 by now. Hateful little shit.

Probably the Medical Industry as well...the Native Indians had great healing remedies and such an appreciation of Nature.

And it appears that the Indian male youth has come under the spell of glorified gang violence....what a waste. This, I believe, was all engineered by a few evil PTB...give the gangster rappers some money/fame and let them use it to push violence and hatred of women as acceptable and desired.

Long ago I crossed Navajo territory around Lake Mead. The land could grow nothing. It was an eye-opening experience for me. Little shacks strewn across the land. I can still see them.

I'm sick. I've read that white men living near reservations make 'rape plans.' They go onto the reservation to find women and rape them. They get away with it because of the Indian's sovereign state. Who is to punish these rapists? The Indian police? The police where the white men live?

What evil exists in this culture and throughout the world. May the Lightness glare onto their evil until it is shriveled and gone.

I know that Alex White Plume lost (I believe) hundreds of thousands of dollars since he already had contracts to supply clothing manufacturers with hemp.

This is another good article explaining some of the inane reasons that the DEA is involved. I think that it's because growing and using hemp just makes too much sense to allow it to happen in the good ole US of A.

http://www.twofrog.com/hemp.html

One thing about our government, once they get a person or culture down, they will do everything in their power to keep them down. At times I wonder why more people don't snap and do something drastic on a regular basis even if it's illegal . I don't think that I could be as tolerant as the people who are still being repressed in the year 2009. This country has become the epitome of corporate and political corruption.

And the DEA comes in and harvests it. Under current law this is not a workable business model.

Alex is a good man that wants to bring development and self sufficiency to the reservation. He has some big obstacles in front of him.

mike kohr

I was really hoping that things had changed.

I still remember seeing the Documentary and the part where the DEA agents came in heavily armed even though there were women & children there.

Someone tries to make himself and his society better off and the government does all that they can to quash their hopes.

Some things never change.

south is not well marked and goes through the middle of the reservation. This road looks like it has been bombed - literally. The poverty on the reservation is unspeakable. We were told that this land was used by the military for missile testing and that there are still unexploded bombs in the area.

Our mistreatment of native americans continues and is shameful.

The government leases out the Natives land there...because the Natives are considered by the government to be too stupid to control their own lands. The government leases out thousands of acres to the big cattlemen..and the natives get hardly anything for it.
Although the land isn't all that great to start with..still the big cattlemen manage to make a good profit on it.
Let the Natives control their own reservation for a change. Let them raise the buffalo again.
Give them a little land that actually has good water and grass. I am sure they would exchange a large portion of the barren scrub lands they were stuck with for a little piece that you could actually grow something on.

hopefully Obama will see the need for the original Americans. I wish there was more representation on Congress.

Thanks so much for opening this door. Everyone should know.

"One very important thing to know is that there are a small handful of very positive people and places on Pine Ridge and that they are making a difference. Red Cloud Indian School is a leader among these positive forces, with 13 Gates scholarship recipients graduating from its school in only two years. As one of the most successful schools in the nation, they have completely flipped the paradigm on its head."

There are some positive things going on the reservation and I found a link to give, if so inclined.
http://www.redcloudschool.org /

Huh? I bet quite a few.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

I'm being sarcastic, by the way. I actually have extended family who are Native American - I don't know which nation or tribe, but they are from Northern Wisconsin. Blackhawks?

The photos at the blog are quite sad.

Wisconsin tribes include the Ojibwa (Chippewa), Menomonie, Oneida (transplanted from the East), Ho-Chunk (AKA Winnebago) and some smaller tribal groups. Blackhawk was a leader among the Sauk.

I met them so long ago, that I just can't recall.

as a less-preferred name, sort of like Black instead of African American. The largest tribe in Michigan's upper peninsula is named the Sault Ste. Marie Band of Chippewa Indians, so it's not that bad! We just prefer Ojibwa because it's more traditional.



Diane

Anishnabe and Ojibwa in MI

which is something like "Otchipwe" and refers to a specific group of the Anishinabe people. The Anishinabe, in turn, are a subgrouping of the very large eastern Algonkian language group, that also includes Cree, Potawotamie, Ottawa, and other closely related language groups.

Heya Jackpine - it's spelled Menominee. Also if you go far enough back - many Ojibwa came from the east coast.

he's talking about. When I first started working there, coming from a suburban life in a midwestern state, I thought I'd stepped into a third-world country on the lowest end of the totem pole. It was simply inconceivable that this was a part of what was supposed to be the richest nation on earth. I'd known in the abstract that it was supposed to be that way, but actually seeing and experiencing it in reality was something else entirely. The beauty and simplicity of the land juxtaposed with the utter, complete, grinding poverty, desolation and hopelessness was truly and is truly jarring. Meeting with people in their homes for my work often took all the professional control I could muster, seeing houses with only dirt floors, rags in the windows to keep the cold and wind out, no electricity or running water, no indoor plumbing, etc., etc., etc. To see children and elderly in those circumstances was especially difficult. Often, the elderly only spoke Lakota or they'd learned English as a second language while growing up and were beginning to forget it as they aged, going back to their first language.

I've lived on two other SD reservations and am currently living on one in the eastern part of the state that's in much better condition; none of them came close to Pine Ridge, although there were parts of Cheyenne River and Standing Rock that did. The rest of the state doesn't give a shit, indeed, mention Pine Ridge, or Indians in general in this state and you'll be treated to cold, cruel, mean-spirited, thoughtless, and breathtakingly ignorant comments like you wouldn't believe. Being Indian in this state is, in some ways, like being black in the pre-civil-rights-era South.

And the Wounded Knee site is, indeed, quite heartbreaking. And FYI, it was NOT a "battle." Several hundred women, children, elderly and sick being gunned down in the back as they fled from soldiers determined to get them no matter what is not a "battle", it is a massacre. And the fact that the soldiers involved not only received Congressional Medals of "Honor", but, to this day, all efforts to rescind those medals have come to naught, with the soldiers continuing to be called "brave" by none other than the likes of Senator John McCan't, is truly sickening and a major sore point with a lot of people around here and understandably so. The Wounded Knee Museum in Wall, SD, has a lot of graphic pictures taken right after, or shortly after, the massacre, and they're unbelievably painful to witness.

due to my boyfriend at the time running supplies through FBI lines and my much less risky fundraising activities. I got a front-row view of the FBI and COINTELPRO, and I haven't trusted the Feds ever since. I'm sure my file is still enshrined somewhere in Washington even today. MY SO at the time went the way of many brothers--alcoholism and prison. I'm one of the lucky ones.

Diane

Anishnabe in MI

My family is originally from from Canada, but moved to Bay Mills in the UP of MI. I hear that the LCO has a nice casino & convention center. I've never been there, though.

Cheers!

Diane

Anishnabe in MI

Very progressive stuff like Amy Goodman, and they have a local guy named Eric Schubring who I think is a good enough interviewer to go national.

LCO also has a pretty good community college.

the FBI dogged me for years because of my Indian friends, especially from Rosebud and Pine Ridge. I have lived near a few reservations and have met some great people and also seen the mass destruction of despair. I wish I had an answer for this problem. My favorite memories are singing Christmas Hymns in Lakota. Sometimes people that have nothing give the most.

Taking that risk, helping like that, all of that was and is still needed.
Carina in the Creek.

K&R

Appreciate it!

the same continent I live on. It's more like a third world nation but many of the reservations are like that in varying degrees. Most of them are mired in poverty.

When Canada legalized industrial hemp production someone named white plume tried several years in a row to plant, grow, and sell industrial hemp, not marijuana, just industrial hemp. The goal was to keep some to make the hemp cement bricks and insulation for homes (it is all the rage in green housing here in France now) and to make textiles and other products to be sold. This would have provided jobs. Hemp is basically the only cash crop that grows in this harsh country. The DEA took their industrial hemp crop several years in a row, just at harvest time when the stalks were ready to be used. Judging by the tags on the walls of the basements on the reservation "money, weed" "420" and the several overt cannabis leaves on the walls it looks like they have given up industrial hemp (big easy to spot fields) and have opted for growing a bit of weed here and there (good oudoor can get you over a thousand dollars a pound wholesale after all)........

The Woman Hanging From The Thirteenth Floor Window by Joy Harjo came to mind while reading this article in the NYTs. Although Ms Harjo is from a different tribe and the poem is about a woman living in Chicago, the article evoked similar images/emotions to me.


The Woman Hanging From The Thirteenth Floor Window

by Joy Harjo


She is the woman hanging from the 13th floor
window. Her hands are pressed white against the
concrete moulding of the tenement building. She
hangs from the 13th floor window in east Chicago,
with a swirl of birds over her head. They could
be a halo, or a storm of glass waiting to crush her.


She thinks she will be set free.


The woman hanging from the 13th floor window
on the east side of Chicago is not alone.
She is a woman of children, of the baby, Carlos,
and of Margaret, and of Jimmy who is the oldest.
She is her mother's daughter and her father's son.
She is several pieces between the two husbands
she has had. She is all the women of the apartment
building who stand watching her, watching themselves.


When she was young she ate wild rice on scraped down
plates in warm wood rooms. It was in the farther
north and she was the baby then. They rocked her.


~~read the rest of this poem @ link:
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poem.html?id=18...

They were celebrating the opening of an multi-generational center, for elders and preschoolers. Both danced. The building was made in a traditional way, with hard mud floors.
It was good to be there.

I gave a man from a reservation in South Dakota a ride to Regina, SK and then bus money for the rest of his trip to Saskatoon where he was trying to get to his Dad, who was dying. I don't know if he was from Pine Ridge, this post just brought his gaunt, tired face back to me and the tears again, I'll never forget the hopelessness and suffering I saw in that man/s eyes. He had walked much of the way already, it was -35%C and the wind cruel. We have our share of atrocities and poverty-stricken reservations, it makes me ill to think of what we've done to such a proud people.

people would even bother to stop for a hitchhiker these days, but to give him bus money for a trip he wasn't even looking forward to? You're cool for doing that...my hat's off to you, and a shame there aren't more like you around...these days, most people would tell them to fuck off

It was a horrible cold day ... I would hope if I hadn't helped him someone else would have. I'll never know if he made it in time to see his father though. That's always bothered me ... he came all that way and maybe was too late. I was afraid to offer the money but couldn't imagine him trying to get a ride on the double-lane from Regina to Saskatoon, so just pulled it out of my pocket and pressed it in his hand. Just so sad to think of his Dad and how hard the trip to see him was. I used to hitch-hike everywhere, it sucked then, probably a dozen times worse now trying to get a ride.

including in our own back yards.

Happy to rec

It looked like the third world countries I'd traveled to in college, not like part of the US. The poverty our proud indigenous people live in is disgusting and a crime.

As the proverbial white guy I ask myself the same question that I saw asked on another reply or in a related article: why, after so many years have other Lakota not been able to come back to Pine Ridge and help those who are still there to make changes for a better life?

I don't mean to sound ignorant or narrow-minded, but there surely have to be other Lakota who have gone off the rez and made good lives for themselves. So why have they not been able to have a positive impact on this sad place?

The pictures and Huey's narrative only present questions. Our world, our planet is literally made up of peoples who have been conquered and often ground under the boot of their conquerors, yet they get up and figure out how to make some type of decent life for themselves in the aftermath of such a tragic situation. So why are the Lakota here on this reservation seemingly so different?

I'm looking for answers or insight into what is obviously a very deep problem.

BIA Head Admits to American Indian Genocide
January 31, 2009 by Russell Means Freedom

2000 - Head of the Bureau of Indian Affairs admits to crimes, “Remarks of Kevin Gover, Assistant at the Ceremony Acknowledging the 175th Anniversary of the Establishment of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.”

“Immediately upon its establishment in 1824, the Office of Indian Affairs was an instrument by which the United States enforced its ambition against the Indian nations. As the nation expanded West, the agency participated in the ethnic cleansing that befell the western tribes. War begets tragedy, but the deliberate spread of disease, the decimation of the bison herds, the use of alcohol to destroy mind and body, and the cowardly killing of women and children made for tragedy on a scale so ghastly that it cannot be dismissed as merely the inevitable consequence of the clash of competing ways of life. After the devastation of tribal economies, the BIA set out to destroy all things Indian by forbidding the speaking of Indian languages, prohibiting traditional religious activities, outlawing traditional government, and making Indians ashamed of who they were. Worst of all, the BIA committed these acts against the children entrusted to its boarding schools. The trauma of shame, fear, and anger has passed from one generation to the next, and manifests itself in the rampant alcoholism, drug abuse, and domestic violence that plague Indian country. The BIA expresses its profound sorrow for these wrongs, extends this formal apology to Indian people for its historical conduct, and makes promises for its future conduct. “

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although, I don't think that the native Americans are the only group in the world who have been systematically persecuted and slaughtered by their conquerors, then subjugated in the worst possible fashion. What of the other tribes in the United States that still live on reservations and have faced similar attempts at genocide? The Cherokee and Navajo come to mind. Are they living under similar conditions on their reservations?

Aside: One comment that I read on the Russell Means Freedom website was ". . . Describing the gifts that Native people possess, Means said the language is tied to the natural world and Indian people understand the interpretations of natural law. It is not possible to translate Native languages into English, he said. “We have no word for ‘war’ or ‘warriors.’” That one statement certainly puts Russell Means' commentary into WTF territory. Which is too bad since it brings his credibility into question. At least for me.

No, there are many links there to persectuion of indigenous populations in many places around the world. They do seem to all share the same outcome though imo ...... a lack of identity and a vicious circle of shame, poverty and hopelessness. Definitely there are successful reservations, I live near one here. If they didn't have their Bear-Claw Casino I believe they could be seriously suffering like most of our northern reservations.

tourism to generate jobs and create some semblance of a local economy that might help to re-instill some of the pride that has been beaten out of the original Americans. With the recognition that we have been destroying their culture for over 500 years, now seems like a good time for America to start spending some money and resources to help to heal this awful wound.

K&R

This is a disgrace. It's been happening since our (white European) ancestors landed on this continent, but that is no excuse for what is still happening today.

Thanks for posting this.

Both Dakotas? There are programs that casino profits pay for? How does it work? Can't some of that money help from one state to another? Or is it the elders who don't want the benefits? Someone is making money on the alchohol?

I am not being beliggerent in any way. I am the first one to put a reference who the earth really belonged to and that we (of European heitage) invaded.

I just want to understand how the money flows. I am upset about the Govt handling the leasing of their land, because they think the first borns are incapable? Why isn't the first line of help coming from the money from casinos? If there are fifteen steps to climb, it won't hurt if the first four or five are from casino money?

What is the accepted way to phrase the concept of first borns? Is that strictly a Canadian phrasing?
I like first born. The people deserve the classiest of names. Alchohol drug dependentor or not.

Read all about it. I recommend clicking on the link for Prophecy Song to listen to this ethereal, empowering song...Amazing

http://thecalloftheland.com

in that it is located far from a population center and is only producing modest profits. Pine Ridge's "Prairie Wind Casino," like most Native owned casinos, will not be capable of propelling the population of that reservation into prosperity.

The Native casinos that get all the publicity and are very profitable are the exception and not the rule. Expecting a couple of dozen of these exceptional casinos to erase the extreme poverty that exists on many reservations is not based in reality. Not to mention it would be like asking the state of Illinois to share the revenues of their state lottery with Texas. We would not consider it. We should not expect the Mohegan Tribe of the eastern United States to divert revenue from their casino to the residents of Pine Ridge 1200 miles away.

mike kohr

gets back to the tribe.

I went through a really poor reservation town in California last year. Really crushing poverty.

They are about 40 miles away from one of the most successful casinos along interstate 5.

she said there was a casino down by Palm Springs, Ca. and that it brought in $40,000 A MONTH for every member of that tribe. I don't know the tribe or the casino, but was shocked to learn that. She said they didn't manage it well and still had alcohol and drug problems. I thought if they were making that kind of money they should be buying up the land around them and expanding the Rez. or really investing in alternative energy or some sort of sustainable living alternative.

a state under federal law to get a casino. They're called compacts and it really depends on how friendly the governor is to them at the time. Some just don't believe Indians should have casinos, others believe they can have them but they totally hose tribes on their compacts so it's almost not even worth doing, etc. Also, many tribes who have casinos are too remote, as the people of Pine Ridge are, so it's not good business for them.

I have never heard of any group of Indians that vote for Republicans. Indian demographics probably vote over 90 percent for Dems.

turn them Republican in some areas.

But that's not all that different than the operation to get Black people to vote for Republicans too. It just doesn't work in any significant numbers.

-author unknown-

United Native Americans (UNA), are proud to announce that it has bought the state of California from the Whites and is throwing it open to Indian settlement.
UNA bought California from three winos, found wandering in San Francisco. UNA determined that these three winos were the spokesman for the white people of California. These winos promptly signed the treaty, which was written in Lakota, and sold California for three cases of wine, one bottle of gin, and four cases of beer.
Lehman L. Brightman, Commissioner of White Affairs, has announced the following new policies; The Indians have generously agreed to give all Whites living in California four large reservations on which they are to make their new homes. Each reservation will consist of 20 acres and will be located in the following places: Death Valley, The Utah Salt Flats, The Badlands of South Dakota, and the Yukon territory in Alaska. These reservations shall belong to the whites, "...for as long as the sun shines or the grass grows." (or until the Indians want them back.)
All land on the reservations will be held in trust for the Whites by The Bureau of White Affairs, and any White who wants to use his land in any way, must secure permission from Commissioner Brightman.
Forced marches and evacuations of Whites are to begin immediately so as to open these lands to Indian settlement as quickly as possible.
When Whites arrive at the reservations they will be of course, allowed to sell trades and handicrafts at stands by the roadsides. Each White will be provided annually, with one thin blanket, one pair of tennis shoes, a supply of Spam and a copy of the book, "The Life of Crazy Horse."
Commissioner Brightman invites all, politically well connected Indian people, to apply for the positions of Reservation agents. If you have less than one year of education, do not speak English, have an authoritarian personality, proof of dishonesty, and a certificate of incompetence, consider yourself well qualified for the position. Paternalistic attitudes and delusions of grandeur a plus. No Whites need apply.
Commissioner Brightman also announced the founding of four boarding schools, to which all White youngsters will be sent at the age of six (6). "We want to take those kids far away from the backward culture of their parents," he said. The schools will be located on Alcatraz Island, the Florida Everglades, Point Barrow, Alaska, and Hong Kong.
All students arriving at the schools will be stripped of their clothing and forced to wear Indian garb. They will be forced to grow their hair long and in time wear it in braids. Upon arrival, at the schools all White children, will be given IQ tests to determine their understanding of Indian language, culture and survival skills. All those white children that do not measure up to Indian standards will be considered mentally compromised and shunted into courses appropriate to students destined to live lives engaged in menial hard labor. All courses will be taught in Lakota and any child caught speaking English will have their mouth washed out with soap, be whipped, and/or be locked in solitary confinement and denied food for a period of days.
Hospitals will be established for the reservations as follows: Whites at Death Valley Reservation may go to the Bangor, Maine Hospital; those at the Yukon Reservations may go to the Miami Beach Hospital; those at the Utah Salt Flats Reservations may go to the Juneau, Alaska Hospital; and those at the Badlands Reservation may receive medical care at the Honolulu, Hawaii, hospital.
All hospitals will be staffed by one medical student, a chiropractor, and two crabby army nurses. All hospitals will be supplied with one case of aspirin, a box of epson salts, and one box of bandaids, a pair of pliers, one set of vice grips, and an Exacto knife and a liberal supply of suppositories.

Dental care will consist of extractions only. All whites in need of vision correction will be given a pamphlet on how to squint.

All former White churches will be converted to amusement parks for the entertainment of Indians. Interesting statuary and religious artifacts will be purloined by Indian people and sold as curios and collectables for display in Indian museums and in private collections.

To honor the memory of the former White inhabitants, streets, towns, and geographical locations will be given quaint White names. Also at Indian sporting events, mascots depicting white people dressed in period clothing will be trotted out at halftime. These mascots will be made up to resemble cultural icons of the White race as interpreted by Indian experts. A few such examples will be Clem Kadidlehopper, Gomer Pyle, Elmer Fudd, Barney Fife, Yosemite Sam, and the Three Stooges. In this way Indian children will be educated of how White people looked and acted. Any Whites that protest this honor will be regarded as cranks and spoilsports.

Indian academics will immediately begin excavations of White cemeteries. Bones and artifacts will be removed and studied. Special attention will be paid to the skulls of White people. These skulls will be measured and scrutinized so that Indian people can determine just what is wrong with white people.

After these studies have been completed, the remains will be sent to Pine Ridge, South Dakota. The remains will be stored in cardboard boxes in the basement of The Red Cloud Indian School where they will collect dust and be forgotten. White people whose ancestors wind up in boxes at The Red Cloud School and wish to have the remains sent to them for re-burial will have to fill out 742 different forms, in triplicate, do 28 pushups, and 76 jumping jacks, all the while balancing a bowl of wild rice on their heads. If all these requirements are met successfully, and satisfy the subjective judgments of uninterested Indian bureaucrats, the remains will be promptly returned in 2.4 generations, more-or-less.


This version of a twist on American history, was taken from the Leonard Peltier newsletter, "In the Spirit of Crazy Horse." I first heard a version of this read by Calvin Jumping Bull in 1993 at International Brotherhood Days. I have taken liberties with various passages and have added additional paragraphs to the above text. I extend apologies to the unknown author of this piece.
mike kohr

north east Ohio. Youngstown/Stuebenville area.
Not much better here. Decades of manufacturing shutdowns has left it poverty stricken, destitute..sad but true.

But the level of poverty on reservations is typically on a whole different level. Places like Steubenville had like a 13 percent unemployment rate in August, for example, and my reservation in Montana had a 67 percent rate and that was back in 2005 before the crisis even hit. Pine Ridge is even worse. It's hard to imagine really, because places hit by manufacturing losses etc, live off and on in recession like conditions, while reservations are in perpetual depressions. Sometimes it's like stepping into a totally different country.

like it. Youngstown looks like a luxurious palace next to Pine Ridge. Like I said in another post, it's like stepping into another world. You really can't imagine it until you're actually there. Most of the people have dirt floors, tiny shacks, no windows even in winter, no heat, electricity, running water or indoor plumbing, etc. Most have no cars, or cars that can barely move from one street to the next and that's often a moot point because they too often don't even have money for one tank of gas, let alone any more than that. Many people will routinely have to walk thirty or more miles round trip just to do necessary business in the tribal office or other official business and often with young children in tow. Many have never even been to a restaurant, not that there are many on PR in the first place. And the brutal discrimination and racism they face not just outside the rez but by many whites on their own rez is unbelievable. I could go on and on, but you get the idea. There's really very little comparison.

on Pine Ridge or anything else Native, but I have been to NE Ohio, have driven through reservations area in northern Wisconsin/Michigan, and I work with people living in relative poverty on the mid-Atlantic. The thing that struck me about my brief acquaintance with the Native poverty was the prevalence of alcohol. I have seriously never seen anything like it. We stopped at a convenience store in Wisc. for film and cigs. We walk into the store and it was literally a grain alcohol store. Alcohol was featured prominently EVERYWHERE in the store, hitting you in the eye everywhere we looked. Prominently promoted. I mean, I'm from PA where we have state stores, and compared to state stores this convenience store was pushing alcohol. I knew there were alcohol problems on reservations before that, but I was really bowled over. Nowhere I have ever been, Youngstown, Pittsburgh, inner city Philadelphia, several crack houses, have I ever seen substance abuse displayed so prominently. Well...frat party, but that's a different demographic.

It is disgraceful that there is no help for communities like Pine Ridge. This should not be happening.