The American dream contends that all who persevere and strive for success will achieve it. This is not always the reality however. Many people live in a state of marked poverty throughout the United States. Not because they are lazy or indifferent but simply due to a wide variety of circumstances that are often beyond their ability to control. Such a situation exists on the Pine Ridge Reservation in southwestern South Dakota, the home of the Lakota Sioux [see map on pg. 7]. This is not an inviable place to live. Isolated, impoverished, underdeveloped, rife with extensive problems, the reason why anyone would remain there is far from apparent.
The Pine Ridge Indian Reservation is the site of one of the 565 federally recognized Indian Nations within the United States. There are approximately 30,000 to 40,000 people on Pine Ridge, most of whom identify as Oglala Lakota Sioux. The reservation spans 2.2 million acres, roughly the equivalent of Connecticut (A Hidden America, 2011). The topography of Pine Ridge comprises badlands, rolling grassland hills, dryland prairie, and areas dotted with pine trees (Pine Ridge Statistics). In spite of the large area and
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In seemingly every area there is a desperate and critical need. Unemployment rates are excessively high, alcoholism is rampant, housing is inadequate, health care is insufficient, and education is underfunded. Faced with all these extreme hardships, the answer as to why Pine Ridge still has thousands of people is confusing. They are not prisoners anymore, they can leave if they wish, and yet they stay. They may stay for a variety of reasons: they cannot afford to move, they have nowhere else to go, they are too beaten down in spirit to try for anything more. These could all certainly apply, but the more crucial reason for their continued presence in such an unenviable place is that for the Lakota, Pine Ridge Reservation is