The Issues We Face

The Pine Ridge Indian Reservation resident’s face unemployment rates ranging from 73% to 85%, and have been embedded in a perpetual state of poverty. Continuous overcrowding due to lack of adequate housing, high rates of suicide, sexual, physical, mental and emotional abuses due to alcohoholism, drug addiction and dysfunctional families. Low-income families continue to struggle for subsistence on limited incomes and  face profound socio-economic third world living conditions.

Statistics

There are 46,000 Lakota people on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation:

• $6,143 per capita income
• $4,000 at household level
• 69% of the children are below the poverty line
• 73%-85% unemployment Rate
• Infant mortality rate 2.6 times the national average
• Suicide rate 72% higher than the national average
• Death Rates by Diabetes 5 times and Alcoholism 16 times the national average
• Pine Ridge Reservation public schools have highest dropout rates in the nation
• No Pine Ridge Reservation public school achieved adequate yearly progress in 2004/05