Out West

Friday May 23, 2009

Today I finally got the Pine Ridge Reservation of the Oglala Lakota Nation in South Dakota after being in the car for more than 40 hours. Back in March, I came out here with my school for a service trip, I ended up liking it so much out here that I applied for a job as an intern at an organization called Re-Member and got it. So now I’m back in South Dakota, on Pine Ridge, pumped for be here for about a month.

Re-Member is an organization that acts as an outreach to the Lakota people of Pine Ridge. The purpose of the organization is right in the name: Re-Member. Not “remember” as in “remember you keys before you leave your house” but “Re-Member” meaning: to put back that which has been broken (opposite of dismember).  One of the prime functions of Re-Member is Crisis Management, or Emergency Home Repair. There is not enough time or supplies to fix all the homes and trailers on Pine Ridge, so Re-Member fixes the houses so that people can continue to live in them. Some frequent projects are building and installing bunk beds, building and installing outhouses, building and installing front steps and wheel chair ramps, skirting trailers, painting, and a lot more.

Some facts about Pine Ridge Reservation:

• ·         Unemployment rate of 80-90%
  
• ·         Per capita income of $4,000
  
• ·         8 times the United States rate of diabetes
  
• ·         Twice the rate of heart disease
  
• ·         8 times the United States rate of tuberculosis
  
• ·         Alcoholism rate estimated as high as 80%
  
• ·         1 in 4 infants born with fetal alcohol syndrome or effects
  
• ·         Suicide rate more than twice the national rate
  
• ·         Teen suicide rate 4 times the national rate
  
• ·         Infant mortality is three times the national rate
  
• ·         Life expectancy is the lowest in the US and 2^nd lowest in the Western Hemisphere, only Haiti has a lower rate
  
• ·         The reservation is roughly the side of Connecticut and has only 1 hospital
  

Other than myself, there are 6 other interns: Catie from Connecticut, Maureen from Massachusetts, Joey from New York, and Stephanie, Breanne, and Bekah who are all from Michigan.