Families Cope With Hunger In Pine Ridge

[OmahaBlueDog]

For those who are not aware, Pine Ridge is an Oglala Sioux reservation in South Dakota.

http://www.keloland.com/newsdetail.cfm/families-cope-with-hunger-in-pine-ridge/?id=152359

Even though Long works for the tribe and both of her parents help out with their social security benefits, she still has to make some tough choices because there's just not enough to go around.

"The little ones eat first, and then the elderly eat next, and then the older children are the ones to eat last. And if we don't have enough, usually it's the older children that have to wait, or just bear with it," Christine said.

"Most of the time there's nothing left over, especially when the kids are growing up and eating more. That's where the bite takes all the dollar bills out the door," John said.

Delores Starr is the research director for the OST Smiles project, which has been tracking the dental health and nutrition of close to 250 Lakota families on the reservation for more than three years. She says the Long family's situation isn't unique.

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

1. But hey, let's attack a country that we are not at war with while

in the USA people live in poverty and deal with hunger every day.

Fucked up. Really fucked up.


It's too bad we can't look after our own house and keep it in order, but the USA doesn't really give a shit about those who have no voice.

[indie9197]

2. I remember when they planted large fields of industrial hemp

to make hempcrete, a building material, that they could have used as a way of generating income as well as using as a building material. The DEA came in and destroyed the crop.

[Mnemosyne]

3. The US has never met a treaty it felt obliged to honor. nt

[riderinthestorm]

4. Juxtaposing this thread alongside the many Syria threads where the US will spend big $$$

to send a message? uphold international norms of "honor"? or whatever....

All the while we have starving citizens here at home - well, this thread gets a hearty K&R from me as we contemplate the many billions of tax dollars we are about to piss away in Syria.

[OmahaBlueDog]

5. Thank you!

Charity does indeed begin at home.