Some interesting pictures of Pine Ridge Indian Rez

[which doctor]

http://www.aaronhuey.com/main.php

It's a flask site so on the left menu bar click Photo Galleries 1 then Pine Ridge.

For those of you not familiar with the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, I suggest you do some reading. It's really surprising to many that such poverty is still occurring in America.

From the wiki article:
"Unemployment on the Reservation hovers around 80% and 49% live below the Federal poverty level (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty_in_the_United_States).[1] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pine_Ridge_Indian_Reservation#cite_note-0) Adolescent suicide (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide) is four times the national average. Many of the families have no electricity, telephone, running water, or sewer. Many families use wood stoves to heat their homes. The population on Pine Ridge has among the shortest life expectancies (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_expectancy) of any group in the Western Hemisphere: approximately 47 years for males and in the low 50s for females. The infant mortality rate (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infant_mortality_rate) is five times the United States national average."

I think Aaron Huey's photographs do a very good job at documenting the abject poverty and clash of cultures that have occurred not only at Pine Ridge, but at indian reservations all over. Some reservations are better off because they are able to generate more revenue from casinos and tourism, but at Pine Ridge the local economy is severely limited and since it's in such a remote location, opportunities for tourism and industry remain low.

[Sugar Hill Kevis]

Thanks for posting that man, those photos are stunning... it's interesting to see how pervasive the US flag is within Native American culture, something I'd never really been aware of before... I've never really seen that degree of overlap before... Though admittedly, I'm very ignorant of the conditions of Native Americans today.

[which doctor]

Not a lot of Americans are familiar with their conditions either, probably because the US Gov't has forced them to live in such remote locations.

[Organic Revolution]

Damn dial-up speed internet. I cant even view the pictures.

[Oneironaut]

Absolutely amazing pictures.

One of my closest friends teaches History at the tribal school on Rosebud Res. Rosebud and Pine Ridge are two neighboring reservations and she can attest to similar levels of poverty there. I've lived on the Winnebago Res in Northeast Nebraska and while it is cosmetically cleaner than these Pine Ridge photos show, the same problems plague its residents. My mother was the first generation to move off the eastern Oklahoma Cherokee reservation... her stories are what made me turn radically left.

[fenix]

Pine RidgeIt's a flask site so on the left menu bar click Photo Galleries 1 then Pine Ridge.



Wonderful photos indeed. But at the same time ...I really got sad when watching them tho.

[S.O.I]

none of you knew about this??? :confused: ive never been even close to crossing the atlantic and ive know about and been irritated by this as long as i remember

[Plagueround]

Having lived on several reservations in my time, this is why I take offense to the idea that all Americans are over privileged.

[Sankofa]

Having lived on several reservations in my time, this is why I take offense to the idea that all Americans are over privileged.

I think, generally, when people make that claim, they don't have the indigenous population in mind.

To be more on-topic, I would think the vast majority of the American population is ignorant to the position they're in right now, and just plain don't care. "Reservations" are nothing more than rural ghettos they've been forced onto.