Below are some basic statistics and history that illuminate just how difficult reservation life is for many of the Lakota families in Kyle, one of seven communities in the Medicine Root district that is our immediate focus. In this area, socioeconomic criteria are on par with the substandard quality of life in Haiti.
- The Pine Ridge reservation, which is larger than the state of Delaware, includes all of Oglala Lakota County, SD (known as Shannon County before 2015), consistently one of the poorest in the United States.
- The Lakota could not openly practice their language or ceremonies until 1978, when the Native American Freedom of Religion Act was passed.
- Unemployment rate is at a staggering 85%. Per capita incomes in some towns are as low as $3,100 per year.
- Over 65% of families live in sub-standard housing with 1/3 of these homes having no running water, heat or electricity.
- It is not uncommon to have 16 or more family and extended family members living under one roof in a cramped trailer home.
- The Lakota suffer a significantly lower health status and disproportionate rates of disease compared with all other Americans as a result of the struggles of life on the reservation.
- Life expectancy is 47 years old for men and 52 years old for women.
- Infant mortality is 300 times higher than the rest of the United States.
- 50% of the Lakota population over 40 years old have diabetes.
- Suicide rates for teens are 5x higher than the rest of the U.S.
- Pine Ridge schools are in the bottom 10% of funding received from the Department of Education.
- It is not uncommon to have children travel 60-80 miles round trip to school.
Additional information and references:
- US Report: Indigenous Women Face Harsh 2010 Winter Wrath Under Climate Change, Women’s News Network, Nov. 2010
- Behind the Lens: Still Wounded, New York Times, Oct. 2009
- Pine Ridge Indian Reservation on Wikipedia
- 2010 Census Data for Shannon County, USA
