Humankind has not woven the web of life.
We are but one thread within it.
There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest it.
Life Expectancy - Conditions Life Expectancy
Some figures state that the life expectancy on the Reservation is 48 years old for men and 52 for women. Other reports state that the average life expectancy on the Reservation is 45 years old. These statistics are far from the 77.5 years of age life expectancy average found in the United States as a whole. According to current USDA Rural Development documents, the Lakota have the lowest life expectancy of any group in America.
Teenage suicide rate on the Pine Ridge Reservation is 150% higher than the U.S. national average for this age group.
The infant mortality rate is the highest on this continent and is about 300% higher than the U.S. national average.
More than half the Reservation's adults battle addiction and disease. Alcoholism, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and malnutrition are pervasive.
The rate of diabetes on the Reservation is reported to be 800% higher than the U.S. national average.
Recent reports indicate that almost 50% of the adults on the Reservation over the age of 40 have diabetes.
As a result of the high rate of diabetes on the Reservation, diabetic-related blindness, amputations, and kidney failure are common.
Cervical cancer is 500% higher than the U.S. national average.
It is reported that at least 60% of the homes on the Pine Ridge Reservation are infested with Black Mold, Stachybotrys. This infestation causes an often-fatal condition with infants, children, elderly, those with damaged immune systems, and those with lung and pulmonary conditions at the highest risk. Exposure to this mold can cause hemorrhaging of the lungs and brain as well as cancer.
A Federal Commodity Food Program is active but supplies mostly inappropriate foods (high in carbohydrate and/or sugar) for the largely diabetic population of the Reservation.
A small non-profit Food Co-op is in operation on the Reservation but is available only for those with funds to participate.
Many Reservation residents live without health care due to vast travel distances involved in accessing that care. Additional factors include under-funded, under-staffed medical facilities and outdated or non-existent medical equipment.
Preventive healthcare programs are rare.
In most of the treaties between the U.S. Government and Indian Nations, the U.S. government agreed to provide adequate medical care for Indians in return for vast quantities of land. The Indian Health Services (IHS) was set up to administer the health care for Indians under these treaties and receives an appropriation each year to fund Indian health care. Unfortunately, the appropriation is very small compared to the need and there is little hope for increased funding from Congress. The IHS is understaffed and ill-equipped and cant possibly address the needs of Indian communities. Nowhere is this more apparent than on the Pine Ridge Reservation.
Health Care
Housing Issues Housing Issues
The small BIA/Tribal Housing Authority homes on the Pine Ridge Reservation are overcrowded and scarce, resulting in many homeless families who often use tents or cars for shelter. Many families live in old cabins or dilapidated mobile homes and trailers.
According to a 2003 report from South Dakota State University, the majority of the current Tribal Housing Authority homes were built from 1970-1979. The report brings to light that a great percentage of that original construction by the BIA (Bureau of Indian Affairs) was shoddy and substandard. The report also states that 26% of the housing units on the Reservation are mobile homes, often purchased or obtained (through donations) as used, low-value units with negative-value equity.
Even though there is a large homeless population on the Reservation, most families never turn away a relative no matter how distant the blood relation. Consequently, many homes often have large numbers of people living in them.
In a recent case study, the Tribal Council estimated a need for at least 4,000 new homes in order to combat the homeless situation.
There is an estimated average of 17 people living in each family home (a home which may only have two to three rooms). Some larger homes, built for 6 to 8 people, have up to 30 people living in them.
Over-all, 59% of the Reservation homes are substandard.
Over 33% of the Reservation homes lack basic water and sewage systems as well as electricity.
Many residents must carry (often contaminated) water from the local rivers daily for their personal needs.
Some Reservation families are forced to sleep on dirt floors.
Without basic insulation or central heating in their homes, many residents on the Pine Ridge Reservation use their ovens to heat their homes.
Many Reservation homes lack adequate insulation. Even more homes lack central heating.
Periodically, Reservation residents are found dead from hypothermia (freezing).
It is reported that at least 60% of the homes on the Pine Ridge Reservation need to be burned to the ground and replaced with new housing due to infestation of the potentially-fatal Black Mold, Stachybotrys. There is no insurance or government program to assist families in replacing their homes.
39% of the homes on the Pine Ridge Reservation have no electricity.
The most common form of heating fuel is propane. Wood-burning is the second most common form of heating a home although wood supplies are often expensive or difficult to obtain.
Many Reservation homes lack basic furniture and appliances such as beds, refrigerators, and stoves.
60% of Reservation families have no land-line telephone. The Tribe has recently issued basic cell phones to the residents. However, these cell phones (commonly called commodity phones) do not operate off the Reservation at all and are often inoperable in the rural areas on the Reservation or during storms or wind.
Computers and internet connections are very rare.
Federal and tribal heat assistance programs (such as LLEAP) are limited by their funding. In the winter of 2005-2006, the average one-time only payment to a family was said to be approximately $250-$300 to cover the entire winter. For many, that amount did not even fill their propane heating tanks one time.
Daily Life Daily Life
Most Reservation families live in rural and often isolated areas.
The largest town on the Reservation is the village of Pine Ridge which has a population of approximately 5,720 people and is the administrative center for the Reservation.
There are few improved (paved) roads on the Reservation and most of the rural homes are inaccessible during times of rain or snow.
Weather is extreme on the Reservation. Severe winds are always a factor. Traditionally, summer temperatures reach well over 110*F and winters bring bitter cold with temperatures that can reach -50*F below zero or worse. Flooding, tornados, or wildfires are always a risk.
The Pine Ridge Reservation still has no banks, discount stores, or movie theaters. It has only one grocery store of any moderate size and it is located in the village of Pine Ridge on the Reservation. A motel just opened in 2006 near the Oglala Lakota College at Kyle, South Dakota. There are said to be about 8 Bed and Breakfast or campsite locations found across the Reservation but that number varies from time to time since most are part of a private home.
Several of the banks and lending institutions nearest to the Reservation have been targeted for investigation of fraudulent or predatory lending practices, with the citizens of the Pine Ridge Reservation as their victims.
There are no public libraries except one at the Oglala Lakota College.
There is one radio station on the Pine Ridge Reservation. KILI 90.1FM is located near the town of Porcupine on the Reservation.
Transportation
There is no public transportation available on the Reservation.
Only a minority of Reservation residents own an operable automobile.
Predominant form of travel for all ages on the Reservation is walking or hitchhiking.
There is one very small airport on the Reservation servicing both the Pine Ridge Reservation and Shannon County. It's longest, paved runway extends 4,969 feet. There are no commercial flights available. The majority of flights using the airport are Federal, State, or County Government-related.
The nearest commercial airport and/or commercial bus line is located in Rapid City, South Dakota (approximately 120 miles away).
Many wells and much of the water and land on the Reservation is contaminated with pesticides and other poisons from farming, mining, open dumps, and commercial and governmental mining operations outside the Reservation. A further source of contamination is buried ordnance and hazardous materials from closed U.S. military bombing ranges on the Reservation.
Scientific studies show that the High Plains/Oglala Aquifer which begins underneath the Pine Ridge Reservation is predicted to run dry in less than 30 years due to commercial interest use and dryland farming in numerous states south of the Reservation. This critical North American underground water resource is not renewable at anything near the present consumption rate. The recent years of drought have simply accelerated the problem.
Scientific studies show that much of the High Plains/Oglala Aquifer has been contaminated with farming pesticides and commercial, factory, mining, and industrial contaminants in the States of South Dakota, Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas.
These statistics concerning the Pine Ridge Oglala Lakota (Sioux) Reservation were compiled from recent Political, Educational, Government, Non-Profit, and Tribal Publications. An earlier version was published by the same author in 2002 entitled, Hidden Away, in the Land of Plenty.
