Pine Ridge Reservation Quotes

“It was never the poverty that deterred me, never the disease, unsanitary conditions, bugs or garbage, those things were never even a thought in my head as a reason for not staying. I kept looking for the good and always found it each day. I was happy on the reservation.
It would have all worked out if Chief could have been a little nicer to me. The only thing I was missing was love and respect from my partner. Maybe he had changed.”
― Little White Bird, The Dark Horse Speaks

“The big companies call the Lakota land a “Nuclear Energy Park,” or “Black Hills Multinational Energy Domain,” or even “National Sacrifice Area.” I ask myself: “Who and what is to be sacrificed here?” It makes me shudder. Some people say: “The collapse of the Soviet Union will kill the uranium mining and that will be our Indian ‘peace dividend.’” I don’t believe it. They’ll still find plenty of use for that evil stuff, and they’ll always find Indian land as the ideal site to test their weapons on. In 1942, the government seized 133,000 acres of the Pine Ridge Reservation as a gunnery range to practice aerial bombing. This was near Sheep Mountain in one of the most scenic parts of South Dakota.”
― Mary Brave Bird, Ohitika Woman