In 2013, 147 people committed suicide in South Dakota. Since December 2014, 19 young people have committed suicide just on the Pine Ridge Reservation.
The Administration for Native Americans, a branch of the federal Department of Health and Human Services, has given the Oglala Sioux Tribe an emergency $400,000 grant, with a promise of another $400,000 next fiscal year, to support programs on Pine Ridge “to empower youth ages 8 to 24 to make changes in their communities, to be proud of their heritage, and to inspire them to celebrate life so that they may see that there is a positive future for them.”
Kevin Yellow Bird Steele, a spokesman for the tribe, said recently that the money will be used “to provide youth activities … in hope to get kids’ minds off suicide and move to a more positive approach to life.”
In meetings with young people last winter, Steele said, tribal leaders learned that young people say there is nothing to do on the reservation, so the grant is designed to provide new positive outlets for youth.
He added that such activities funded by the grant may include beautifying the reservation, planting gardens and trees, organizing community dinners and other social events, and adding sports such as horse competitions and softball tournaments.
“We’re trying to get communities involved, to bring people together,” he added [Jim Stasiowski, “On Suicide Watch: Feds, Oglala Sioux Tribe Team Up to Fight Youth Suicides,” Rapid City Journal, 2015.10.04].
Stasiowski’s report mentions a new skateboard park and improvements at a baseball diamond in Evergreen. The article mentions drugs, alcohol, and bullying as causes of the suicide epidemic from which we can hope skateboarding and baseball may distract young people. Neither Stasiowski nor the grant announcement mention rampant sexual abuse, which a Pine Ridge teacher and author has cited as an important cause of the self-destructive depression that is overwhelming these young people.
The ANA grant comes less than two weeks after news that Pine Ridge will receive an infusion of over $2 million from the feds and private funders to build an arts-entrepreneurship incubator. U.S. Assistant Secretary of Commerce Jay Williams sees that facility as another means to combat suicide:
Williams said he knew the reservation has been devastated since late 2014 by a rash of suicides among young people. In fact, he said, one of the artists at the Wednesday event spoke of despair that once gripped him.
“He said the experience of art saved his own life,” Williams said. “If the artists and artisans are able to pursue better opportunities … they may never see suicide as the only viable option” [Jim Stasiowski, “Arts and Business Incubator to Rise on Pine Ridge Indian Reservation,” Rapid City Journal, 2015.09.24].
The aspirations of this arts-entrepreneurship grant align with the efforts of Ohio woman Karen Posner, who made the Rapid City paper last month with her plan to help the reservation:
One project Posner is passionate about is developing a music and art program for youth in the community in the hopes of decreasing the high suicide rate among youth in the community.
“Art and music can give children an outlet and a passion that will help them deal with the stressors that are affecting them,” Posner said. “I’m not a psychologist. I’m just a parent really, and I know that it works” [Jennifer Jungwirth, “Ohio Student Starts Nonprofit to Benefit Pine Ridge,” Rapid City Journal, 2015.09.11].
* * *
South Dakota in general could use more arts and skateboarding. Our state has a higher-than-average suicide rate. According to CDC data crunched by Governing, South Dakota’s age-adjusted suicide rate in 2012 was the 14th highest in the nation. On that metric, the Dakotas occupy a middle ground among their neighbors :
- Minnesota: 40th
- Nebraska: 36th
- Iowa: 32nd
- North Dakota: 17th
- South Dakota: 14th
- Montana: 3rd
- Wyoming: 1st
You may be less likely to die in South Dakota than on Mars, but you’re more likely to kill yourself here. That’s where public investment in education, recreation, and economic development moves from merely good policy to moral imperative.
Sexual abuse is rampant in all areas that are poverty stricken so it is especially bad on the reservations. Add bullying, intoxicants, and a lack of protection, you can clearly see the results. These grants are a step in the right direction.
Band-Aid. No one wants to talk about the real issues. Pour some money on it rather than be honest. Too dicey especially for the politically correct stupid liberals.
Fixing the basketball court and skate park are great… but the need for 3000 homes, 4000 jobs, a court system that works, safe homes for teenagers, curing the Frickin food desert, a detox center, in patient treatment facilities, halfway houses after treatment ( a real problem for people in sobriety is a safe place to stay) dental and preventative health care and other true issues need addressing. Ms Karen Posner might have well intentions and is getting her 15 minutes of fame from the poverty porn but she would be better channeling her efforts into one of the existing programs rather than starting another “non-profit” on the backs of the Oglala people. Art and business incubator is great but I need a job and someplce to live. Too much photo ops for bureaucrats n not enough true infrastructure and investment.
Jerry, you’re right.
Creative arts are very helpful. They ought to try getting someone from “All My Relations” gallery in Minneapolis to come out. It’s the best American Indian art gallery in the MN metro. They do lots of classes, including those on artistic heritage.
HC, poverty makes suicide rates rise. Didn’t you read the post? Color or ethnicity don’t lead to greater suicide. Poverty, child abuse, and similar issues affect everyone equally. Money will make it better, not worse.
Spike makes a lot of sense. Get to the meat of the issues and quit dancing around the libbie artsie fartsie fixes that don’t work.
hc u r such a shill.
gee grudz, not a racist at the moment?
spike-love it man, well said. doesn’t mean daugaard isn’t wrong about philosophy though. met a guy saturday who is bringing money/projects into SD Indian country but says his backers aren’t too excited after the “kill white people” sign apparently in White Clay. It certainly shows how angry racism and poverty makes for survival.
Leslie, Ah White Clay!
Haven’t seen the sign, but all buildings and land in white clay are owned by white people! Your acquaintance and his friend better get some thicker skin than that if they want to help.
White Clay epitomizes the “free enterprise” exploitation of natives. It is a despicable place where the devil is king. And every night he stands in the street corner and cackles with joy. And the Nebraska government, SD government, federal government and many others look the other way n pretend it’s not there. Only ones that give a damn are the grassroots Oglala people n they can’t stop it.
the kids are standin up though. 1491s, young tribal lawyers, activism, obama, redskins, social media- things they are a changin’ for the better. jeb bush-could he be anymore tone deaf, on anything? :)
will pass on the “thick skin” advice.
Something immediate to address the increased numbers makes sense, but I’ve read older kids on Facebook are contacting younger ones encouraging them to commit suicide. School administrators want to allow kids to stay at the schools for the weekend where it’s safer from bullying which they think is a major cause.
Spike dove in and Jerry mentioned some of the horrible pressures. Yes of course poverty, high alcoholism, abuse are major drivers, but parents are still responsible for the upbringing of their children.
One of the NY post articles and Colorlines want to blame racism. First off there’s only one race. We are the same other than made up differences, so it makes me angry when I read people wanting to place the responsibility mainly outside of their own community: On an overnight trip to Rapid City over the New Year, a group of girls including Santana overheard a white woman call them “filthy Indians” as they passed through a hotel lobby, he said. “My beautiful Lakota granddaughter,” he said. “She had to hear that. Our kids today just want to die because they’re sick of all this oppression.”
So again we have only one race but some of those who describe themselves as Native American want to blame someone else rather than accept their alcoholism, their unemployment, their lack of a solid family structure as the causes that Deb refers. And rather than smart progressive policies I call stupid liberals those who want to give the real reasons a pass and placate their white guilt by agreeing that “white” people are still the cause.
Love your kids. Give them a sense of self worth. Protect them. That’s what parents are supposed to do. That’s individual responsibility if you decide to have children. If you’re not up to the job then don’t have kids.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/02/us/pine-ridge-indian-reservation-struggles-with-suicides-among-young-people.html?_r=0
Sounds great HC. And if the parents don’t do any of those things for their children, just too damn bad for them? They have to die for the sins of their fathers (and mothers)? Because they should be more like you? You, of course, being the Gold Standard.
Oh, and HC, where did I blame the high suicide rate on skin color? It seems you are attributing to me several things I did not say. Read my first comment again and then talk to me about what is actually in my comments.
That’s individual responsibility if you decide to have children. If you’re not up to the job then don’t have kids. I hope to keerist you take that statement and beat it into the head of every freaking right wing nut job in this country,every single kounterfeit kristian kristapo out there!
This to me is how to establish intelligent policy. Not personal.
No Deb, you blamed poverty I understand that. Others want to blame “white” people.
Yes, individual responsibility is a Republican talking point, but who should care most about their kids and protect them?
“who should care most about their kids and protect them?”
Parents, without a doubt. And if the parents don’t, or even actively hurt their children?
Deb, that continues to be a great part of the problem. How do we help kids in severely disfunctional homes and situations.
There may not always be the real bad things going on in that home but the poverty is severe. Housing is such a challenge, you graduate from high school n you can’t open the want ads and find an apartment. Very discouraging for some people.
The universities on the reservations are fabulous. They provide opportunity, community and education.
And thank you Leslie for the positive notes. Our own Billy Mills is the greatest. I know so many college educated , business owning, ranching, teaching, pow wowing, bad ass, good hearted natives I could fill a Rush game with them. Efforts of many talented people, young and old, can be lost in the overwhelming challenges in the reservation communities.
I didn’t mean to offend you or your acquaintance, I hope they noticed the beautiful Elder citizens facility the tribe is building in White Clay. The thick skin advice comes from a very wise elder that helped many people and organizations on the rez.
HC, Sorry I agree and disagree. The reality of the world is we are many colors , our diversity makes us great. And the best thing we can do with the Santana’s of our communities is to teach them to protect themselves from such ignorance.
Peace to all
Mike, Mike mike….I love it! You forgot Ammosexual. .lol
The lakota had a good culture of individual n communal responsibilities when they wandered the plains. Some of these problems HC are as a DIRECT result of my great grandparents being forced on the reservations at gunpoint by white people. Fact. This in direct contradiction to a government to government treaty. But many people want that to be forgotten because the government gave gramps some left over flour n put his kids in a boarding school (also at gunpoint)
So we can harbor anger or deal with the reality of today. As I watched the Rapid City incident unfold it was quite amazing the kids themselves testified they did not think anything racist occurred, but those around them seemed hell bent on teaching another generation to hate just like themselves. We all have to let the past go and make the best of what things are now or it’s to our own detriment.
We will never agree HC That’s the problem right there. YOU are the ones that want to forget that your government that you love so much stole our land. The reality of today is your government made a big mistake n didn’t kill us all.
It’s hard to let the past go when a person stands at the Wounded Knee massacre gravesite. The anguish of children butchered by drunk soldiers still fills the air. What if your grandmother was tossed in that mass grave? 25 medals of honor? Yea right. N believe it or not most of us don’t look to liberal white apologists for sympathy.
But my friend, don’t let the voices of some represent us all. I took my grandson to one Rush game. Bunch of drunks. It was just naive of everyone to think that trip qualified as a reward. Those kids thought they were going to experience something good.
I believe we should celebrate our diversity.
hc-you really do not know what you are talking about. where are u?
Tell us hc, how did you handle your diversity growing up. Was it simple for you to be who you are in a society that really does not want much if anything to do with you? How were you isolated in such a way that you did not feel threatened by who you are? These are more or less the situations that have happened causing this need.
The issues we should be speaking of is how a start, any kind of start may provide the spark needed to find the ways of protection and healing. Children are our greatest resource, they must be protected with a guiding honest hand. They must know that they are part of a society that welcomes them without prejudice regardless of any preconceived notions.
Yes, individual responsibility is a Republican talking point, That is all it is. Wingnuts force people to have children they don’t want and those kids grow up unwanted and destitute or spend their formative years in foster homes if they weren’t born wingnut white and perfectly sound. They soon learn about white privilege and being unloved until they reach the age of majority and are turned loose in society that didn’t love them and want them when they were younger.
Like every social issue out there,wingnuts will milk it for political gain and campaign contributions. Kids be damned!
Do you read your own posts? If you teach kids they should have killed us all, what do you think they will internalize?
Pine Ridge was formed in 1889. Life is different everywhere, for everyone in 2015. My government? You want to blame me for this a hundred years later? The land is not going to be returned, but as of 2011 the money in trust was over 1 billion dollars. Good things could be done with that money. Not doing so is a choice.
“So far it seems that extreme poverty has not entered into the equation, but the steadfast refusal to accept any of the funds by the treaty councils has diminished over the years and a younger generation sees the settlement through the prism of the 21st century and as they gain the political power within the ranks of the tribal councils, the decisions of the settlement will gradually fall upon them. To a people steeped in perpetual poverty, one billion dollars offers many alternate possibilities.” Those are words from the Native American Journalists Association.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tim-giago/black-hills-claims-settle_b_533267.html
Statehood for the tribes and Mexico.
Of course, the South Dakota Democratic Party should urge President Obama to dissolve the Black Hills National Forest, move management of the land from the US Department of Agriculture into the Department of Interior; and, in cooperation with Bureau of Indian Affairs Division of Forestry and Wildfire Management, rename it Okawita Paha National Monument eventually becoming part of the Greater Missouri Basin National Wildlife Refuge. Mato Paha (Bear Butte), the associated national grasslands and the Sioux Ranger District of the Custer/Gallatin National Forest should be included in the move.
HC… You are incorrect. The money will never be accepted. N the meeting Giago talks of included return of federal lands in the black hills. Your right it is a choice, and that money is blood money n will never be accepted. I don’t blame you for what happened a hundred years ago. I blame the US government for breaking a treaty signed in good faith by the leaders of many tribes occupying the 1868 treaty lands. The younger generation seeing this in the “prism” of the 21st century recognize the illegal theft. I’m not teaching any kids you should have killed us all….I’m telling you the drunken US army back then filled with confederate soldiers and immigrants should have got it done cause we will never go away. It’s not the past.
The reservation system was forced on us at gunpoint and has created the poverty that now you want to blame us for.
You do not have a clue and never will. Your just justifying the atrocities of the manifest destiny.
hc-giago voted for noem.
The $1 billion came from interest on $16 million “taking ” award from your supreme court in 1980. Yes you are responsible for your government’s acts in 1876 and 1980. BTW, I understand only Homestake gold stolen from the Indians is worth in recent dollars: $76 Billion. How much good could they do with that, smart ass? last year Wharf took 72k oz gold and 323k oz silver.
but for that taking, Homestake, Wharf and YOU would not have clear title to “your” property. blame you for something done 100 years ago? yeah, you put your foot in it. Blame the Indians’ poverty on their lack of “pulling themselves up by their bootstraps” after genocide since 1492?
the reason i asked “where are you?” is so we might meet for coffee. but i think spike may have u pegged.
Leslie, I let the Giago Noem love affair gone bad RIP but thanks for mentioning it.
The homestake gold provided jobs in SD but most of that money was taken to California to build the Hearst empire. Crazy. How the hell did an individual end up owning the “richest square mile in the world”?
By thievery that’s how.
The Suicides in Indian country are really tragic. And there are many positive efforts being made to change things for the better.
I truly believe a lot of the west river racism is rooted in the fact the land was stolen fair and square from the lakota bands that signed a good faith treaty to avoid war.
As I was driving to Sioux Falls today I was daydreaming how some of that money could be used to improve housing on the reservation and another portion spent for transitional housing in Sioux Falls and other urban areas for those who want to leave the reservation. They need a place to land and have support while they change their lives.
It’s my guess this generation of “Native Americans” and those following need ever more than before to get out. In my view “culture” is overemphasized to build self esteem. Embracing diversity is fine in one way (we should all be tolerant) but too often it’s just a way to stay separate and different for no sensible reason. We’re just one race, we’re all the same, even if the older generations learned otherwise and hang on to the only thing they know.
As a joke I want to say “resistance is futile.” In Star Trek they did successfully not assimilate because they didn’t want to but kids want to be part of the bigger thing happening. Look at the names of the gangs on the reservation taken from the larger society. And they showed off their entertainment skills for Diane Sawyer and expressed their dreams of getting away.
When I read the transcripts of the kids at the hockey game I had the feeling they wanted to join in with the drunk “white” guys and be part of the event. Consuelo Means said “they never talked to us before” like that’s normal? She struck me as an old I hate you and I want these kids to hate you to and I’m just really mad cause they haven’t accepted how we see you and how dare they not respect me. If I’m wrong about that particular point it doesn’t really matter because what’s proven over time is “races” blend together.
When Spike and his generation are gone the kids are gonna take the money. I hope they are able to make better lives for themselves away from these stinkin hellholes.
Spike, Leslie, and Roger, I don’t think HC has any idea how his assumption that white male is the norm to aspire to, colors his thoughts and words. That’s why it seems clear to him that he’s right and anyone who disagrees with him is wrong.
The key, HC, is simply to -believe- the people who are living it. You are watching from a safe distance. Of course your assumptions are much less accurate. How would you really know? You do have options. Rather than telling Spike and Roger about their lives, you can listen and believe.
HC, what you’re doing is nonsensical on it’s face.
Diane Sawyer? Really. That’s too funny. And your mistaken…because there are too many of us that have gained the white man’s education to ever abandon the land our grandparents are buried on. Those “hellholes” as you call them. Your generalization of the place reveals your ignorance. I’m sure you go to church
If anything, the coming generations will protest the theft of the Black Hills more than ever.
Spike out…..
hc-yer at a ball game. down front. you’ve got four young kids. the drunks in the next box get excited, start talking to your kids. they seem to be enjoying the drunks’ behavior. the drunks try to engage your kids. beer gets sprayed around. you are sober. what do you do?
you get up and say, “common kids, lets go.”
like every stupid drunk, someone says something distasteful at your back as you leave.
and, if you are a chaperone with the responsibility to other parents for their kids, you leave even sooner.
Even Fake Noise founder Rupert Mudrock believes there are different races. He goes so far as to think there are two Black races-a real one(Ben Carson) and a not real one (BH Obama). If Mudrock makes this stuff up,it has to be fair and balanced.
Spike- How the hell did an individual end up owning the “richest square mile in the world”?
Here is how it was done under wingnuts- http://www.protestbarrick.net/article.php?id=512
Good part starts in paragraph four.
What struck me last night are all the dead languages. I thought I read once there are probably thousands going back in history many before being written languages. All these cultures that have mixed and most now forgotten. There’s no reason to assume The United States of America and English will be any differently influenced over time as well as the Sioux Nation and every nation. We try to grab on to something that just isn’t really there and see race/ethnicity/whatever you want to call it as a solid rock to draw identity when it just isn’t. It’s all gonna continue to change whether it’s desired by some or not. Those are forces way beyond us regardless of our opinions.
http://www.indianz.com/News/2015/019184.asp
Bill Fleming: for the sock puppet you’re losing to at the Dakota Water Closet.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvBeW-k3gcM&feature=youtu.be
A friend just sent me this poem because it’s lovely. Sherman Alexie is a wonderful writer of the Ojibwa tribe in Minnesota.
The Powwow at the End of the World
BY SHERMAN ALEXIE
I am told by many of you that I must forgive and so I shall
after an Indian woman puts her shoulder to the Grand Coulee Dam
and topples it. I am told by many of you that I must forgive
and so I shall after the floodwaters burst each successive dam
downriver from the Grand Coulee. I am told by many of you
that I must forgive and so I shall after the floodwaters find
their way to the mouth of the Columbia River as it enters the Pacific
and causes all of it to rise. I am told by many of you that I must forgive
and so I shall after the first drop of floodwater is swallowed by that salmon
waiting in the Pacific. I am told by many of you that I must forgive and so I shall
after that salmon swims upstream, through the mouth of the Columbia
and then past the flooded cities, broken dams and abandoned reactors
of Hanford. I am told by many of you that I must forgive and so I shall
after that salmon swims through the mouth of the Spokane River
as it meets the Columbia, then upstream, until it arrives
in the shallows of a secret bay on the reservation where I wait alone.
I am told by many of you that I must forgive and so I shall after
that salmon leaps into the night air above the water, throws
a lightning bolt at the brush near my feet, and starts the fire
which will lead all of the lost Indians home. I am told
by many of you that I must forgive and so I shall
after we Indians have gathered around the fire with that salmon
who has three stories it must tell before sunrise: one story will teach us
how to pray; another story will make us laugh for hours;
the third story will give us reason to dance. I am told by many
of you that I must forgive and so I shall when I am dancing
with my tribe during the powwow at the end of the world.
Nice video, Larry. It would be lost on that guy. He’s brain-dead.
Lar, how did that fellow with the nice story about hunting licenses know that the 5 non-Indian guys didn’t have a tribal license? He didn’t, because he never asked them.
That’s an outstanding video Larry. Thanks for making it available.
The speaker’s point makes perfect sense. The state of ND says pasty people can hunt on tribal land without a tribal license. That is crapola.
I also appreciated his point that pasty people have continued to steal American Indian land even into the 1950s, 60s and 70s. And not just any land, but their prime, river bottom land.
When I was in college my summer job was working for a good old Norske, Lonesome George, on his farm along the James River. Even in the worst drought years, that river bottom land produced. In very wet years the bottom land was flooded, but it didn’t matter because the rest of the land was very productive. Lonesome George called the bottom land his insurance policy.
That’s what Missouri River dams stole, the tribes’ anti-poverty insurance policy.
Grudznick,
Would you walk up n ask 5 Indian guys with shotguns if they had a state hunting license? I know there’s a joke in there somewhere….
Deb, wonderful poem… thanks for sharing it. Sherman is a Spokene/Coeur d’Arlene native..not an Ojibwa. And yes an amazing person.
I thank you all for the dialogue about suicide on the rez and any efforts you may make or have made to help stop this scourge.
Sherman Alexie— Spokane/Coeur d’Alene. We must shove our Tribal affiliations down spell auto correct throats… but that’s another story.
Mr. Spike, if they were hunting I’d assume they have a hunting license. I wouldn’t get all naked and then film a tv show saying they were squatters and poachers. Because I wouldn’t know. 96% of all hunters have legal licenses. If you were an Asian guy, would you go hunting on tribal land without a license and risk the wrath?
Gruntz-didn’t I read a year or so back about Benda’s brother in law shooting an Indian family’s horses on tribal grounds and getting away with it because-white privilege/connections?
Wingnuts have finally stopped blocking mental health insurance totally,but being the wingnuts that they are,they will find some way to tie mental health services into a bill with no restrictions on firearms. Then they will claim Dems are the obstructionists to getting mental health services. We’ve seen this game many times before.
Pasty people? Flooded cities make a lovely poem? By chance one of my “Native American” friends called yesterday. He won’t put his foot back on the reservation. I wanted to stop in the Badlands area the last time I drove him back to Rapid City but it was then he told me a few reasons why. His personal take is it’s a waste of time to try to talk with someone who is fixated and angry about the land issue. I just try to be a realist since it’s been to the Supreme Court and money is there and could be used. Deb said poverty is the problem. Cash is there. Denigrating labels are not something I thought you would use Deb. In fact I thought you agreed there is no such thing as race.
HC-Miss Lindsey Graham,sinator from South Carolina was one of 31 wingnut sinators along with 37 wingnut congressweasels that voted against hurricane relief for New Jersey. Guess which Miss Lindsey has his hands out for federal relief for South Carolina with no memory of having voted against aid for New Jersey?
“Denigrating labels are not something I thought you would use Deb.”
What “denigrating labels” did I use? Are you talking about “pasty people”? That’s a descriptor referring to skin color. I am a “pasty” person, especially by the time February rolls around.
When I was in grad school one of my classmates was from Cameroon. What a magnificent skin color! He was so black, he was almost blue black! His skin was positively stunning. I’ve never seen anything like that in human skin before.
Some multiracial people have skin the color of strong coffee with plenty of cream in it. It’s the richest, warmest brown. And Australian Aboriginal people! They have the greatest dark, bold-featured faces!
I am jealous of those folks wonderful skin colors. Those of us whose skin color is “white” are indeed bland, pasty people.
Oh, I almost forgot about the “race” thing HC. I think I’ve said this before, but I’ll restate:
We are all part of the Human Race. That’s the only “race” there is. However, it’s just an issue of terminology, not affecting the bigger question. “Race”, rather than the more scientifically accurate terms such as “ethnicity” or even simply “skin color” are used interchangeably. In my view, the term is not important. The fact of discrimination by the soon-to-be-minority “pasty people” by those of greater pigmentation (How’s that?) is the important issue.
Pasty is offensive to family values people. It conjures up disgusting images of naked breasts and no good wingnut would ever cloud their minds with impure thoughts-unless they figure they can get away with it. And as forgiving as their wives and lord appear to be,no worrys.
Now it conjures up images of naked breasts. It didn’t before, so I thank you for that. If there was a god, she’d probably smite me for thinking it but I don’t care.
Grudz you prolly only thought about naked gravy taters and like Jimmy Carter you had lust in your heart.
Gravy taters are, by definition, not naked. Jimmy Carter put his gravy on boiled peanuts.
Ironically HC I was just visiting with one of my “white american” friends that lives on the rez the other day. Moved there and taught for 40 years… Retired, built a home and will be buried there.
He gave me many reasons why he loves the place. But you wouldn’t care what he thinks anyway.
Just left Black Hills pow wow. What a wonderful celebration of culture. N HC you would be surprised how welcome you would be. The black hills settlement money is blood money n will never be accepted. That’s being realistic. And another reality is the rez isn’t going away. I know a former NFL football player that is an enrolled member at Pine Ridge, building a home in the “hellhole” you call the rez. Just one example of people trying to make a difference there.
Lots of challenges there for sure but it is also a place of beauty that you just don’t want to see.
My eighty year old “white” father in law rancher made of sinew and born n raised on the rez made of sinew would take you out in back of the barn and tie you in a knot if you talked like you do around him.
A friend of mine that is a social worker moved from Sioux Falls to pine ridge to make a difference. And she is. HC I think you would be surprised at the difference one person can make and that’s part of the beauty of the rez. It can be tough but there is beauty there you must not have experienced?
AND ALSO. ..we all know the money being spent in RC today by our good tribal members and our friends pays a lot of mortgages around this place.
Not everyone is hating on you HC. I’m not sure what you want us to do.
Mike I thought I liked you but now the image of Mr. Grudznick in pasties may haunt me forever.
Pasty old man breasts in pasties, while eating a pasty slathered in white sausage gravy. Good thing I can no longer jump rope.
My sincerest apologies,Spike. It is okay to not like me,nobody else does either. I’m from iowa. :)
“Not everyone is hating on you HC. I’m not sure what you want us to do.” I would like you to seriously think about why kids on the reservation are harming themselves. It is not a happy place or the abundance of social problems wouldn’t exist there. So I apologize for calling it a hellhole. It wasn’t meant to insult the residents but to reflect the statistics: 80% unemployment, high rate of alcoholism and drugs, physical abuse etc. Some young people may want to stay, but what are you willing to do for those who want a different life? For those who want to go I think they should be encouraged and given the skills and assistance. I remember reading in the 1980s about a young Native woman who moved to Minneapolis and described the difficulty she was having making it work. She wanted a better life for herself and her kids but had no support network in the city. Urbanization continues. Fallacies of race and religion keep people apart needlessly.
I’m not too good at posting youtube videos.
Hopefully this is Albert White Hat in 1996 Ken Burns film…The West
If it doesn’t work I apologize.
Http:// you tu.be/8L3MLFtjm5g
Didn’t work. Sorry.. Larry Kurtz help me out with posting this video. It’s worth it. I’m betting good money you know who Albert was.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8L3MLFtjm5g&feature=youtu.be
Powerful video,Spike. All I can say is wow!
Jeez. There is a very wise person. I am humbled by his eloquence. Thank you Spike.