* MORTALITY - Lakotah men have a life expectancy of less than 44 years, lowest of any country in the World (excluding AIDS) including Haiti.
* Lakotah death rate is the highest in the United States.
* The Lakotah infant mortality rate is 300% more than the U.S. Average.
* Teenage suicide rate is 150% higher than the U.S national average for this group.
POVERTY:
* Median income is approximately $2,600 to $3,500 per year.
* 97% of our Lakotah people live below the poverty line.
* Many families cannot afford heating oil, wood or propane and many residents use ovens to heat their homes.
UNEMPLOYMENT:
* Unemployment rates on our reservations is 85% or higher.
* Government funding for job creation is lost through cronyism and corruption.
HOUSING:
* Elderly die each winter from hypothermia (freezing).
* 1/3 of the homes lack basic clean water and sewage while 40% lack electricity.
* 60% of Reservation families have no telephone.
* 60% of housing is infected with potentially fatal black molds.
* There is an estimated average of 17 people living in each family home (may only have two to three rooms). Some homes, built for 6 to 8 people, have up to 30 people living in them.
DRUGS AND ALCOHOL:
* More than half the Reservation’s adults battle addiction and disease.
* Alcoholism affects 8 in 10 families.
* Two known meth-amphetamine labs allowed to continue operation. Why?
DISEASE:
* The Tuberculosis rate on Lakotah reservations is approx. 800% higher than the U.S national average.
* Cervical cancer is 500% higher than the U.S national average.
* The rate of diabetes is 800% higher than the U.S national average.
* Federal Commodity Food Program provides high sugar foods that kill Native people through diabetes and heart disease.
INCARCERATION:
* Indian children incarceration rate 40% higher than whites.
* In South Dakota, 21 percent of state prisoners were Native, yet they only make up 9% of the population.
* Indians have the second largest state prison incarceration rate in the nation.
* Most Indians live on federal reservations. Less than 2% of Indians live where the state has jurisdiction!
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