ONE SPIRIT

When outsiders try to understand Pine Ridge today, many will see unemployment and poverty statistics. But modern statistics are a terrible diagnostic tool. To understand the reality of South Dakota today, you have to understand the ledger of 1851.

To understand the crisis facing the youth, one must look at the environment they are forced to navigate. Pine Ridge is geographically isolated; it is a food desert that offers terribly few economic opportunities. The extreme poverty caused by these systemic conditions has snowballed into shackles that can feel impossible to overcome.

Lakota culture is passed down generation by generation. Through an oral tradition, the values and wisdom of ancestors are shared with each successive youngest one. From a very early age, the youth—revered as wakȟáŋheža, or sacred beings—are taught to ride horses, to cook traditional recipes, to draw a bow, and to craft intricate designs using porcupine quills. It’s these traditions that bind the Lakota to the natural resources they walk upon and the living beings they walk al

Throughout history, the economic wellbeing of a community has largely been dictated by its proximity to ports, trade routes, and fresh water. But for the Lakota, this isolation was not a choice; Pine Ridge’s boundaries were forced upon them. With very little local development allowed or encouraged over the decades, accessibility hasn’t improved much since the reservation’s inception. Today, Rapid City serves as the local hub for necessities, fresh food, and building materials

Lakota, Nakota, and Dakota. Are these just arbitrary words? Most people do not give it much thought, but in reality, these words have history. History that has affected every American's material reality. Why is that? How do the events of history, as far back as 1862, have anything to do with the events of today? Recently, 4 Lakota were taken into ICE custody, and reports say they are being held at Fort Snelling. On first observation, it sounds absurd: “How can Native American