Sacred Sun Dance by Kate Purdy

I’ll be off RB for a couple of weeks. I have been invited to attend the Sacred Sun Dance at the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation in South Dakota.
I am truly honored and am busy making and finding gifts and checking and double checking all my photography equipment.
My goal is to raise awareness for the plight of our Brothers & Sisters on the reservations in the U.S..
It amazes me that so many individuals, groups, and organizations work for charities all over the world, and I’m glad they do, but our First People tend to be forgotten, though they are right here with us. I want to help change that. We are all accountable for the welfare of each other. Pretending problems don’t exist is irresponsible and inexcusable.

The following information is from http://www.onespirit.org. Please visit this website, they are a great resource for current situations and needs, as well as stories of triumph and hope.

The Lakota Indians of Pine Ridge and Cheyenne River Reservations in South Dakota

“MY LANDS ARE WHERE
MY DEAD LIE BURIED.”

Chief Crazy Horse

The Pine Ridge and Cheyenne River Reservations in South Dakota are part of a larger territory established for the Lakota in 1868 by the United States government and later parceled out to non-Native homesteaders and broken up into smaller tribal reservations. Today, Pine Ridge Reservation is home to about 40,000 Native Americans and Cheyenne Reservation about 20,000. According to the US Census Bureau, the reservations lie within the poorest counties in the United States.

Can you imagine that in the United States of America:

There is a group of people who have the shortest life expectancy of any group in the Western Hemisphere, outside of Haiti?
Families, children and elders go without food on a regular basis?
Families are often without heat during sub-zero temperatures?
People are without employment opportunities or adequate medical facilities?
That is the plight of Lakota People living on reservations in South Dakota.

Life Expectancy is 48 years for men and 52 years for women.
Unemployment is estimated to be 87%
90% live below the Federal poverty level.
The teenage suicide rate is 3 1/2 times higher than the national average.
Infant mortality is five times higher than the national average
Diabetes, heart disease, cancer and malnutrition are epidemic.

Despite hardship and adversity, the Lakota maintain their cultural knowledge and traditions and preserve for their children and for the world, ancient wisdom that contributes to quality of life.

About 1/3 of the population still speak the Lakota language

Almost all maintain their traditional spiritual and cultural beliefs
They are leaders in knowledge of environmental preservation.
They are a sharing society – when one eats, they all eat – or they all do without.
Their exquisite beadwork, quillwork, quilting, sewing, painting is art at its best.
They wish to preserve their culture and find ways to be self-sufficient.