What Is Pine Ridge?

[sethp]

This might help Joe.

http://knowledge.wpcarey.asu.edu/article.cfm?articleid=1565

Good article.

 

[Emerald_Dragon]

They stay because their culture is all that they have left, the government has taken everything else.

I would agree. It would also be hard to ask for help from people in the state. Natives are concidered 2nd class in a lot of communities. Elsewhere it is african americans and mexican americans that people are predjeduce (spa) against, there it is the natives.

There is a lot of distrust too toward the "whites" especially by the elders. They can remember when kids were forceably taken to boarding schools where they were abused and punished for talking their native language. Would you ask for help if you had experienced something like that?

 

[cloudy]

I would agree. It would also be hard to ask for help from people in the state. Natives are concidered 2nd class in a lot of communities. Elsewhere it is african americans and mexican americans that people are predjeduce (spa) against, there it is the natives.

There is a lot of distrust too toward the "whites" especially by the elders. They can remember when kids were forceably taken to boarding schools where they were abused and punished for talking their native language. Would you ask for help if you had experienced something like that?

My SO's parents were some of those that were taken as children.

No, we have a hard time trusting people, and rightly so.

It's not just there that Natives are considered second class citizens. Even in "enlightened" Canada, we have racial epithets yelled at us out of passing cars - still.

 

[Joe Wordsworth]

We have a reservation, in Mississippi. Some of my clients are properly from there. Choctaw. Nice enough people, those I've met. Demando is a Golf Instructor, actually.

All-in-all, though, I never entirely understood the practical purpose of a reservation in 2008. I'm not sure practicality is the measure of it, either, truth be told--which would go a long way to explaining it.

 

[cloudy]

We have a reservation, in Mississippi. Some of my clients are properly from there. Choctaw. Nice enough people, those I've met. Demando is a Golf Instructor, actually.

All-in-all, though, I never entirely understood the practical purpose of a reservation in 2008. I'm not sure practicality is the measure of it, either, truth be told--which would go a long way to explaining it.

Living on the reservation is a way of keeping a little bit of the culture intact.

We used to live in small villages, and the reservations are much like that today. People help each other, feed each other, if necessary, and are close enough to do that.

The Choctaw are good people. (That's my nation, Joe)

 

[starrkers]

Please excuse my threadjack, Joe, and my total ignorance of the subject. I try to understand the American system, and fail dismally. It is rather different (I think) to the Aussie set up, but there are also striking similarities.

Questions: When the reservations were set up, were different tribes (is that even the right term?) pushed together, or were they kept in tribal groups? Are they within traditional tribal lands?
What was the supposed purpose of the reservations? Were they supposed to shield the native people from white man illness (I know chicken pox did nasty things to Australian native populations, I assume similar happened in America), an attempt to let the people live in traditional ways, or just an out-of-sight, out-of-mind thing?
How big are these reservations? How many people live on them? How many reservations are there? Were the inhabitants ever confined to the reservations or have they always been allowed to come and go as they please?

 

[cloudy]

Questions: When the reservations were set up, were different tribes (is that even the right term?) pushed together, or were they kept in tribal groups?

Some were originally pushed together, but they're separate now. (yes, "tribe" or "nation" is correct )

Are they within traditional tribal lands?

Some are, such as Pine Ridge, some aren't (most of the reservations in Oklahoma are tribes from the southeast who were forced there on the Trail of Tears).

What was the supposed purpose of the reservations? Were they supposed to shield the native people from white man illness (I know chicken pox did nasty things to Australian native populations, I assume similar happened in America), an attempt to let the people live in traditional ways, or just an out-of-sight, out-of-mind thing?

Originally, I think it was a compromise: white folks wanted the land, and in order to keep raids, etc., to a minimum, treaties were signed (but most never kept to). Tribes wanted to keep to their traditional ways, but unfortunately (especially with the plains tribes), the reduction in land made that nigh impossible.

How big are these reservations? How many people live on them? How many reservations are there?

They vary in size and number of people. There are quite a few reservations - more in the west than in other areas, and few in the southeastern states, since most of those people, mine included, were forced out.

Were the inhabitants ever confined to the reservations or have they always been allowed to come and go as they please?

People used to be strictly confined to them, but I'm not sure when that eased.

 

[Emerald_Dragon]

Please excuse my threadjack, Joe, and my total ignorance of the subject. I try to understand the American system, and fail dismally. It is rather different (I think) to the Aussie set up, but there are also striking similarities.

Questions: When the reservations were set up, were different tribes (is that even the right term?) pushed together, or were they kept in tribal groups? Are they within traditional tribal lands?
What was the supposed purpose of the reservations? Were they supposed to shield the native people from white man illness (I know chicken pox did nasty things to Australian native populations, I assume similar happened in America), an attempt to let the people live in traditional ways, or just an out-of-sight, out-of-mind thing?
How big are these reservations? How many people live on them? How many reservations are there? Were the inhabitants ever confined to the reservations or have they always been allowed to come and go as they please?

Reservations were a dumping ground to get rid of an unwanted people. They were not alowed to leave in the beginning. There are also some nasty stories about blankets contaminated with disease that were given to them to make them sick.

Originally places like the Black Hills were given to them but as soon as gold was discovered there they were kicked out and moved somewhere else. I am assuming by gunpoint.

Then they were simply ignored and forgotten.

We lived near Cass Lake MN which is a native community. Even now days you dont hear about the violence there unless it is native against white. White on native or native on native murders ,rapes, assaults ect dont even make the local news paper. I was told this by a friend that is native who worked at the local hospital.

Part of the Problem with Pine Ridge is geography. Being from Australia you probably understand what it is to drive for hours and not see anything but the local vegatation. Pine Ridge is in the middle of that.
At least with Cass Lake they are on a main highway, have an incredible fishing lake and are 10 miles from Bemidji which has a university. They have some resourses to use, schools for the kids (which serve lunch and breakfast all through the summer to any kid that walks through the doors.) and the basics like electricity and running water.

With Pine Ridge it is not on the way to anywhere and doesn't have anything to draw industry or tourism.

 

[cloudy]

We lived near Cass Lake MN which is a native community.

Ojibway/Chippewa, yes?

My SO is Ojibway.

 

[starrkers]

Thank you, ladies.

 

[Emerald_Dragon]

Ojibway/Chippewa, yes?

My SO is Ojibway.

Yup Ojibiway is the culture up here.