Nick Kristof with a heart-breaking story about the horrific situation on many Indian reservations:

Unemployment on Pine Ridge is estimated at around 70 percent, and virtually the only jobs are those working for the government or for the Oglala Sioux tribe itself.

There are, of course, some reservations around the country that have struck it rich with gambling or other ventures. But here in the prairies, those riches are only rumors.

Half the population over 40 on Pine Ridge has diabetes, and tuberculosis runs at eight times the national rate. As many as two-thirds of adults may be alcoholics, one-quarter of children are born with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders, and the life expectancy is somewhere around the high 40s — shorter than the average for sub-Saharan Africa. Less than 10 percent of children graduate from high school.

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May 9, 2012

Poverty's Poster Child

By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/10/opinion/kristof-povertys-poster-child.html