Lakota/Oglala Life-Today

Facts and figures about the South Dakota Reservations

The Greater Sioux Reservation was established in 1868 by the Ft. Laramie Treaty proceedings. It originally consisted of approximately 60 million acres in parts of what is now South Dakota, Nebraska and Wyoming. The promise was made at this Treaty gathering that this land should belong to the Lakota people
"AS LONG AS THE GRASS GROWS AND THE WATER FLOWS".
The Grass is still growing and the water is still flowing, so what happened?

Only eight years later, in 1876, white gold and land seekers entered the Black Hills under the protection of General Custer and the 7th Cav., illegally. Gold was found and as a result of this illegal act the U.S. Government opened up 7.7 million acres of the Black Hills to homesteading and private enterprise (meaning the seeking and removal of gold).

In 1889 the rest of what once was the land of the Greater Sioux Nation, was divided in to seven separate Reservations: Cheyenne River Agency, Crow Creek Agency, Lower Brule Agency, Sisseton Agency, Yankton Agency and Pine Ridge Agency.
People that used to hunt together support each other and had family ties had now been separated into seven weak bands of ragged and starving bands. The demoralization of a once great and proud Nation had come to new heights at that time.

The Pine Ridge Indian Reservation is located now in South Dakota with trust lands off reservation in Nebraska. However, most of the land is in Shannon County and Jackson County, known as the poorest counties in the entire U.S.
An estimated 40,000 people live on roughly 2,000,000 acres (3,468.86 sq mi) of poor acidy land that will not sustain farming and very little cattle operations. This is the eight largest Reservation in the U.S. , larger the Delaware and Rhode Island combined.
As a result in 80+ percent of unemployment and the distance between towns and access to employment, the immense and all consummating poverty is all to obvious to visitors in normal times. It becomes even more evident in times of natural disasters. The people are in a constant struggle with crushing financial burdens, housing, health educational and social services.

49% of the people live under the federal poverty level, that is almost 1 out of two people on this Reservation. Adolescence suicide is high, an estimated four times the National Average. Those are unacceptable numbers.
Many families live without electricity, running water, telephone or sewer. Wood stoves is the main source of heat in a large percentage of the houses outside established towns.
Life expectancy on the Reservation is the shortest of any population group in the Western Hemisphere: approximately 47 years for male and in the low 50s for female residence of the Reservation. The infant mortality rate is five time the national average.

To Friends, Relations and supporters.,

Over the last while, you have seen and heard of the terrible situations and conditions on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.

A few weeks ago, I asked you all to participate in a mass phone in campaign to the CNN. That campaign drew major media attention beacause of your help. Keith Olbermen picked up the story and aired it to the world. Also Oglala Sioux Tribe Declared a State of Emergency on Suicide.

I am asking for your help and support again.

I am asking that you join me tomorrow, Tuesday February 16th, in calling or emailing President Barack Obama at the White House, to inform him of the awful conditions facing my people here on Pine Ridge. And remind him of the promises that he has made to the First Nations/Native American people.

Tell him about the grinding poverty rates, the 80% unemployment and the desperation that is leading so many of our people and youth to commite suicide. We are asking that Aide is brought to our Lakota Nation in these matters.

1: When you make your call, please be respectful
2: State in your call Why you are calling, i.e., Suicide and poverty, etc
3: State that you would like to know what the President can do about this.
4: Remind respectfully that the President made promises to the First NationsNative American People during his campaign.

Help me to have our voices heard again, as you did a few weeks ago.

Together we can make a difference for the people. One voice together, loud enough for the President to open his mind and his heart to my people, the Lakota Nation of Pine Ridge Reservation.

Please begin calling during buisness hours which are 9am - 4 pm Eastern time. Keep calling and emailing all day.

I would be so grateful, if you would join me in this effort to help Our Lakota Nation be heard. Lets work together as one voice

Pila Unyape, Wopila Tanka Echichiyape
Respectfully, Autumn Two Bulls
Oglala Lakota of Pine Ridge South Dakota

PHONE THE WHITE HOUSE:
202 456 1111
http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/news/article_f86dfe92-e5ec-11de-ae92-001cc4c03286.html

http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact

Hello my name is Autumn Two Bulls and i am from the Oglala Lakota Nation on the Pine Ridge Reservation. As many of you know on Jan 20, 2010 i wanted to challenge the media's attention about the Dakota Indian reservations as well as my own (Pine Ridge). About the storms that hit us and not getting any real AIDE and why they wouldn't put us on the news. I set up a Campaign call in to CNN. Thousands of supporters called in the 3 hour time frame and continued to work hard to get there attention. I received many, many calls from all over the world asking me how they can help and i would tell them to help us bring awareness about the South Dakota reservations. And many friends and supporter have help us be heard. But there's something i want all of you to remember. That when the storms passes the poverty, genocide, and oppression, will still exists. The Lakota people will continue to struggle. As a nation we always used to take care of one another never leaving nobody out. But now our tribe is ran like the American government and it's everyman for him self. But how can every person be for themselves when there's no jobs, no hope to better your life.

I know the people in the tribal offices will read this and i want you to know that i am not trying to work against you. But it's time now when change has to come. It can happen real soon. We all have to work together in bringing change. Cause this is not about you. I's about a Nation who is hurting. About a Nation who has called out for a hand up not a hand out, the Lakota Nation. The Poverty will only get worse if something is not done to better the lives on the Pine Ridge reservation. Honestly i can only speak for mine at this time. Because this is where i from and i live here. I know first hand what it's like to suffer and hurt from genocide. It's a constant struggle just to survive here on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Children are born into poverty generation after generation. Teens die every year due to alcoholism, car wrecks, suicides, carelessness. More and More people are getting sick at a faster rate ever seen anywhere in the world. Diabetes, Cancers, and the list goes on. I am not trying to only focus on the negative but the truth needs to be spoken. We need to heal as a Nation. Our people don't deserve this kinda of treatment. What have we done so wrong to you that you keep innocent generations like this.

We refuse to carry this Genocide. We are taking a stand now as the 7th generation. To empower ourselves to heal from the (Native American Holocaust- Historical Trauma 150 years of violations of human rights) I am a single mother who has recently adopted another child. I live in poverty as well so i know how it feels to want better. Because i am one of the people who knows the hurt all to well. I stepped up to help my people and started taking calls of people who needed heat. Only because i care and love my people. The calls came like you wouldn't believe. So i called out to the world to ask for you help to help the Lakota's on the Pine Ridge reservation. There were many families who hadn't received any help from the storm that was declared state of emergency on Pine Ridge in December and many families went with out and are still going with out.

I set up a way that the Lakota Families could receive help with Lakota plains propane Company.They do care about us Lakota's as they have helped many also in times of need even though they had a business to run. They were willing to work with me. So i gave them the list of names through email. And people call them and tell them they want to donate to a family on that list. And i then put the word out here on facebook of the way you could help us with no middle man. So you would know where your money was going. With your help we have helped over 150 Lakota families with propane, food, and electric. That's more than any org could do in a year. I worked alone out of my home here on the Pine Ridge reservation. My kids would also help me answer phones. So maybe many don't know this but i would like to personally Thank All of your for supporting us and loving us. And there are still many families who need your support and love. Let's remember those who have been forgotten. There's still a bigger picture of all this media attention. It's about conditions we have to live in all year round. We deserve a right to be treated fair. We don't want to live like this no more. We want change for the better of the people and the future generations now and to come.

I felt it was very important to get the medias attention. I am very happy that so many up in Cheyenne River Reservation got help and they raised so much money. But i would also like to remember the people here on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation who didn't receive any help at all from the State of Emergency in December. I only want to help my people because i love them I am one of them.

Wopila Tanka Echichiyapi
Oglala Lakota
Autumn Two Bulls

HERE'S MY CALL IN CAMPAIGN THAT WENT OUT TO CNN-THIS WAS THE DAY THAT THOUSANDS OF SUPPORTERS CALLED IN TO CNN AND WE SHOW THAT WE ALL CAN WORK TOGETHER!
Friends, Relative and supports of the Lakota Nations- Support us in this efforts to bring change. Show your support and call
To all my Relations, friends and supporters:

I have been told that your area news and the National news will not carry the story for my people unless and until CNN carries it. Each day someone has told me they have gone to CNN on Facebook, their website, or called into report our story, since the 12/20/09 State of Emergency was issued.

I am asking that we all come together TODAY, Friday, January 29th, 2010 at 6pm Atlantic; 5pm Eastern time, 4pm Central, etc. pick up your phone and call the direct line to the CNN News Room at 404-827-2658. Someone needs to post here all phone numbers into CNN. We want to inundate CNN with the voices of people who care and you must be relentless in your call. At the same time we want you to handle an email campaign listed below.

When you call, they will try to attempt to move your call to a computerized public info line.

First - tell them what state you are calling from and your name. Then ask them, When are you going to be reporting on the situation of the American Indians of North and South Dakota?

Second, do not let them try to forward you, let them know that you know that the National Guard and the Red Cross have been called into certain Reservations.

Lastly, when you hang up, pick up the phone and call again. The people of this country needs to let CNN know that while you empathize with the situation in Haiti and we know that many of you have rightfully done as the children on Pine Ridge had been doing and collecting food and money to be sent, that you are wondering why money is leaving this country while the only reporting on the AP wires has been from within the states of North and South Dakota AP Presses.

At the same time that those of you who can afford to call CNN are calling, to those of you who can multi-task or be online, please go now to cnn . com and click on the iReport button and register. If you are on or near one of the Reservations in South & North Dakota, please upload your pictures - but wait - lets all do this together for three full hours.

Do not worry about your grammar, do not worry about your spelling, simply tell the truth of the situation from your heart.

Wopila Tanka
Autumn Two Bulls
Lets Work Together

I am writing to encourage you to demonstrate dignity, justice and unity by supporting the allocation of $492.5 million to build a water supply system for the people of South Dakota's Lakota Sioux Reservation and fulfill a promise the U.S. government made to them more than 30 years ago. The Lakota Sioux Reservation includes two of the most impoverished counties in the United States with an unemployment rate of 86 percent.

Their water system is outdated and operating at capacity, leaving the tribe no room for economic expansion and preventing its housing authority from building new homes. This allocation would put a long-term solution in place and give the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe an opportunity to prosper. Without water -- the most basic building block of life and society -- the people of the Lakota Sioux Reservation have little hope of impacting their situation in a way where they may prosper and thrive.

And after this winter, their difficult situation has become almost unbearable. In January, an ice storm toppled more than 3,000 power poles, knocking out electricity to 13,000 people, leaving them without power, heat and water. Pipes burst. Water heaters froze to the core and cracked. People burned wood in their homes or drove around in their cars to stay warm. Many are still coping with cleanup and repair with little money or insurance to help them.

Please be accountable for delivering on the promises made to the Lakota Sioux Reservation pledged to them a generation ago. Please give them the water infrastructure they need to ensure their dignity and the possibility of their future.