Native American Community News

The Pine Ridge Oglala Lakota [Sioux] Reservation in South Dakota is among the poorest of all American Indian Reservations. Roughly the size of the State of Connecticut, its 11,000 square miles are home to about 35,000 people with an average annual income of less than $4,000, an 80-85% unemployment rate, and an estimated life expectancy of 45-48 years old.

The Lakota People are a alliance of Native American Nations who most mainstream Americans often refer to collectively as the Sioux. Beyond a vague historical knowledge of the Little Big Horn, Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, Custer, and Wounded Knee through movies such as “Dances with Wolves”, “Thunderheart”, and "Skins" little is known about them by the average U.S. citizen.

In violation of United Nations Declaration on Rights of Indigenous People the U.S. government plans to forcibly take land from the Lipan Apache people to construct a fence and levee to keep illegal immigrants from crossing the U.S. border. The following is a letter from Margo Tamez, the daughter of a family being threatened by agents of the U.S. government.

Dear Relatives,