Some people have cars and therefore don’t qualify for special transportation, but don’t have money for gas, and can’t get to the hospital for care. I’m not quite sure how people get out then. Dirt roads can become impassable after rain or snow. Perhaps that’s the point at which kids start to live off of Ramen noodles, although my impression is that sometimes that’s many kids’ main staple throughout the month – delicious, absolutely non-nutritious, and exceptionally cheap at something like a quarter per packet. Commodity foods (free food given out by the BIA) are given on the 10 th of each month, and food stamps are given out on the 1 st, and they don’t always last the whole month. I am at a loss to understand how they survive.
Yet even if there is the physical option of heat, many don’t have the money for it in the cold winter. Not all homes have electricity, water, or sewage, though my impression is that at this point, most do have these basic amenities. Or passed away, from car accidents or suicide or violence.Īnd finally, the rez is like a different country because much about the conditions is similar to those found in the third world. Many grandparents are the primary caretakers of their grandkids, with parents drunk or high or simply far away.
#Pine ridge charmstone 2011 tv#
Some kids have plenty of toys and watch cable TV and DVDs and use computers. Some kids are barefoot, even in stores and other indoor public places. Some people are dusty and some are polished, professional-looking. Many people, men and women, have long hair. Many have fat around their middles (“apple-shaped”), putting them at high risk of strokes and heart attacks. People are mostly dark-skinned and look Indian. (Pine Ridge, of course, being the main exception, along with a couple of other ever so slightly big towns.) There are gas stations and convenience stores and usually little else in most of the towns. They’re more scattered, makeshift in some undefinable way. In the towns, homes are clustered closer together, but generally not in neat suburban rhythms. There is land, land, land – vast and mostly untouched, with little agriculture (unlike the vast cornfields and other agricultural fields of much of Nebraska, South Dakota, Iowa, and the rest of the Midwest) – and dotted with trailers, far off along the dirt roads. Most people don't wear seatbelts and don't have driving licenses, and the rates of motor vehicle accidents are astronomically high (almost always alcohol-related). The roads are narrow, one lane in each direction, and most of the side roads meandering off the paved highway are covered only in dirt.
Of course, a lot of people do not have the means to leave permanently even if they wanted to, so the boundaries of poverty certainly do exist.īut despite the permeability of the boundary marked by “Welcome to Pine Ridge” (or, on some roads, by nothing at all), there is a subtle, initially imperceptible difference in the people, and there is a visible change once one enters the reservation. Everyone speaks English and only 10% of the population still speaks Lakota.
People eat American food (unfortunately) and dress in American clothes. There is no boundary preventing people on the reservation from entering America – people go shopping off the rez, travel to see their kids living in other parts of the country (often stationed there as part of their military service), and watch plenty of TV. Pine Ridge really does feel like another country, although in different ways than I expected. (Feb.Get ready: a long-winded attempt to pull together some of my impressions of Pine Ridge so far. Contests and cupcake recipes will keep fans eager for Kauffman’s next sweet treat. Kauffman describes her characters’ internal monologues and thoughtful conversations with an eloquence that makes them feel like the reader’s best friends, and secondary characters like gossipy bookie Alva and Riley’s goofy dog sparkle with personality. Riley’s Cupcake Club friends encourage her to heal her old romantic wounds and take a chance on Quinn’s obvious interest. Writer Quinn Brannigan, returning to his childhood town, gets a unique first impression of clumsy, adorable house stager Riley Brown when she flies off a treadmill and into the bushes of the seaside house he’s decided to rent. Romantic fun, lovable leads, and surprising emotional complexity in both the main relationship and the supporting deep friendships make this quick return to the tiny Georgia island of Sugarberry (after Sugar Rush) a deliciously warm and feel-good read.
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