One Spirit
ONE Spirit is a Native American service organization founded to support American Indians. Our mission is to assist the Lakota people in preserving and revitalizing the Lakota culture, language, and self-sufficiency while meeting the basic needs of Lakota families, children, and elders. Our programs are the means of meeting the goals of the One Spirit mission.
The Lakota Indians of Pine Ridge and Cheyenne River Reservations in South Dakota
The Pine Ridge and Cheyenne River Reservations in South Dakota are part of a larger territory established for the Lakota in 1868 by the United States government and later parceled out to non-Native homesteaders and broken up into smaller tribal reservations. Today, Pine Ridge Reservation is home to about 40,000 Native Americans and Cheyenne Reservation about 20,000. According to the US Census Bureau, the reservations lie within the poorest counties in the United States.
Can you imagine that in the United States of America:
- There is a group of people who have the shortest life expectancy of any group in the Western Hemisphere, outside of Haiti?
- Families, children and elders go without food on a regular basis?
- Families are often without heat during sub-zero temperatures?
- People are without employment opportunities or adequate medical facilities?
That is the plight of Lakota People living on reservations in South Dakota.
- Life Expectancy is 48 years for men and 52 years for women.
- Unemployment is estimated to be 87%
- 90% live below the Federal poverty level.
- The teenage suicide rate is 3 1/2 times higher than the national average.
- Infant mortality is five times higher than the national average
- Diabetes, heart disease, cancer and malnutrition are epidemic.
Despite hardship and adversity, the Lakota maintain their cultural knowledge and traditions and preserve for their children and for the world, ancient wisdom that contributes to quality of life.