:00:00. > :00:00.Islamophobic. Chris Rogers will be here at 10pm
:00:00. > :00:16.with a round-up of two-day's news but first is Our World.
:00:17. > :00:21.In the hea The rt of america, entering
:00:22. > :00:43.If the reservation was an independent
:00:44. > :00:45.country, it would be amongst the poorest in the world.
:00:46. > :00:46.With 80% unemployment, rampant alcoholism and
:00:47. > :00:50.In the battle of Wounded Knee here 125 years ago,
:00:51. > :00:55.300 Native Americans were massacred by the US military.
:00:56. > :01:01.So it's really historical grief that continues to
:01:02. > :01:06.manifest and then gets re-incubated as the youth are committing suicide.
:01:07. > :01:09.Amid the poverty and isolation, a growing number of children on the
:01:10. > :01:12.reservation are taking their own lives.
:01:13. > :01:16.500, every year, of our kids get sent to hospitals and behaviour
:01:17. > :01:22.management centres for intervention and hospitalisation because they've
:01:23. > :01:48.No one is really sure how many people
:01:49. > :01:55.It covers 9000 square kilometres in South Dakota.
:01:56. > :01:59.And some estimates point to a population of around
:02:00. > :02:04.40,000 people, embers of the Oglala Sioux
:02:05. > :02:09.Born out of America's Indian Wars, it was
:02:10. > :02:13.originally classified as a prisoner of war camp.
:02:14. > :02:17.Nowadays, like other reservations in the United States,
:02:18. > :02:20.it's operated by a tribal council, which runs everything from schools
:02:21. > :02:25.The task of patrolling this vast reservation lies with just
:02:26. > :02:33.24 officers of the Oglala Sioux tribal police.
:02:34. > :02:47.In the far west of his beat is the town of
:02:48. > :02:55.In 1999, a tornado ripped through here.
:02:56. > :02:58.But almost two decades on, row after row of dilapidated
:02:59. > :03:09.emergency trailers remain as homes to hundreds of Lakhota people.
:03:10. > :03:11.As with elsewhere on the reservation, police are kept busy
:03:12. > :03:16.with the excess consumption of alcohol.
:03:17. > :03:31.Watch the tip of my pen, don't move your head.
:03:32. > :03:32.It's only mid-afternoon but the call-outs
:03:33. > :03:37.Her mother, father and juvenile brother were all 1029.
:03:38. > :03:40.We're going to help the other officer that's at an intoxicated
:03:41. > :03:48.parent, mother, father and juvenile son at a residence.
:03:49. > :04:06.After locating a young girl hiding in a paddock,
:04:07. > :04:21.police investigate why her family won't let her inside.
:04:22. > :04:26.Police officer, your door's coming open.
:04:27. > :04:30.With the girl's welfare at stake, the police have
:04:31. > :05:31.Don't kick my stuff and my door, or you're going
:05:32. > :05:43.The girl's juvenile brother, mother and father
:05:44. > :05:53.With no children's shelter on the reservation, police
:05:54. > :05:56.have to find somewhere safe for victims like
:05:57. > :06:04.You don't want to go nowhere else, huh?
:06:05. > :06:07.Well, for the time being, you've got to, because
:06:08. > :06:16.How often do you see something like that?
:06:17. > :06:23.It's kind of a re-occurring deal, involving the
:06:24. > :06:34.Probably about nine cases involving the same charges
:06:35. > :06:42.Want to make sure she won't take off.
:06:43. > :06:49.At just 11 years old, she's already been in this situation
:06:50. > :06:53.A lot of them hide it, just like the young man that we took from there.
:06:54. > :07:00.He, like I said, it's just a constant re-occurring deal for him.
:07:01. > :07:02.Now it's getting to that point where he's
:07:03. > :07:07.going to start throwing back the cold ones, drinking with the
:07:08. > :07:14.But it's the harsh reality of how it's becoming a norm
:07:15. > :07:28.Two miles from the township of Pine Ridge, across the
:07:29. > :07:33.state border in Nebraska, is the village of Whiteclay.
:07:34. > :07:38.The town has a permanent population of only 14 people,
:07:39. > :07:42.but its four liquor stores sell nearly 4 million cans of high
:07:43. > :07:50.Almost all of it goes across the border to the
:07:51. > :07:55.reservation, where the sale of alcohol is banned.
:07:56. > :07:58.I pray that you just give her the strength to stay sober,
:07:59. > :08:01.and I just pray that you continue to give peace in Judy's heart.
:08:02. > :08:10.Abram Newman is a young religious worker who offers support
:08:11. > :08:15.to the 100 or more street people who get drunk
:08:16. > :08:17.on high strength beer and wander the streets.
:08:18. > :08:29.Well, in my experience, usually when people go
:08:30. > :08:32.to alcohol, it stops the healing process because you can't really
:08:33. > :08:36.think through things and process things.
:08:37. > :08:45.Temperatures in Whiteclay can get as low as minus 25 Celsius.
:08:46. > :08:49.The street people sleep in tents surrounded by rubbish heaps.
:08:50. > :09:01.The other people don't even belong here but they stay with us.
:09:02. > :09:25.It just popped up that four liquor licenses were given in stores
:09:26. > :09:27.that, some of them originally did not even have floors,
:09:28. > :09:31.And yet they are 200 yards off of a dry reservation.
:09:32. > :09:34.And yet they claim that they are not there to sell to the reservation.
:09:35. > :09:38.I'm not sure who they are there to sell to, then, because there's no
:09:39. > :09:45.Come and eat your peanut butter sandwich.
:09:46. > :09:47.Nora Bowerson knows the cost of alcoholism to the Lakhota community.
:09:48. > :09:49.She's the foster mother of seven children with foetal
:09:50. > :10:02.He is supplemented through two feedings
:10:03. > :10:07.but he can eat through his mouth, too.
:10:08. > :10:11.But he takes five seizure meds and a muscle relaxant and
:10:12. > :10:14.other meds through the day just to kind of keep him going.
:10:15. > :10:17.And Ariana has to be fed through actually a tube
:10:18. > :10:22.into her intestines because her stomach doesn't work,
:10:23. > :10:25.So she takes seizure meds and then is fed through her intestine.
:10:26. > :10:31.So that's some of the kids that I have to feed and medicate every
:10:32. > :10:35.It's estimated that one in four children born on the
:10:36. > :10:36.reservation is damaged by foetal alcohol syndrome.
:10:37. > :10:39.Nora has fostered over 100 affected children from the
:10:40. > :10:41.reservation, including one who took his own life.
:10:42. > :10:48.There is a really high rate of alcoholism.
:10:49. > :10:54.There's a high rate of family breakdown right now.
:10:55. > :10:58.People don't want to talk about this one
:10:59. > :11:00.but there's a really high rate of sexual abuse.
:11:01. > :11:08.You know, when you're talking to children who tell you that the
:11:09. > :11:11.reason they want to commit suicide is they are just tired of living,
:11:12. > :11:17.Because I think of myself at that age, and I
:11:18. > :11:20.was playing Barbies and living in a wonderful world
:11:21. > :11:29.And I can't imagine them thinking about being tired of living.
:11:30. > :11:32.These are the faces of the young suicide at Pine Ridge in
:11:33. > :11:39.In 2015 alone, at least in 19 children took their own lives.
:11:40. > :11:46.Hundreds more children were hospitalised after attempting
:11:47. > :11:49.suicide, prompting the tribal council to declare
:11:50. > :11:59.500, every year, of our kids get sent to hospitals or
:12:00. > :12:02.behaviour management centres for intervention
:12:03. > :12:04.and hospitalisation, because they tried
:12:05. > :12:12.It was the death of 12-year-old Santana Janis just
:12:13. > :12:15.over a year ago that focused national attention on youth suicides
:12:16. > :12:40.You couldn't ask for a better child to
:12:41. > :12:47.Keith Janis was Santana's grandfather, and in
:12:48. > :12:51.February last year he got a phone call that broke his heart.
:12:52. > :12:53.I got a call from my cousin, Earl, early in
:12:54. > :13:09.It's hard to imagine what would prompt any 12-year-old to take
:13:10. > :13:12.their own life, but Keith believes that Santana was severely depressed
:13:13. > :13:21.Alarmingly, the largest spike in suicides on the reservation has been
:13:22. > :13:31.Her death has impacted the whole reservation.
:13:32. > :13:37.Because Santana's death was at the end of a
:13:38. > :13:48.She was the ninth suicide victim in a month.
:13:49. > :13:58.Keith Janis has a turbulent history as an activist for the
:13:59. > :14:03.14 years ago he camped out here in the Badlands
:14:04. > :14:06.National Park and defied the authorities to remove him.
:14:07. > :14:08.He wanted to reclaim this land for his tribe,
:14:09. > :14:17.so that young Lakhota could reconnect with their heritage.
:14:18. > :14:32.They are stuck in the same rut that the federal
:14:33. > :14:40.government put the tribe in many, many, many generations ago, reliving
:14:41. > :14:43.the same kind of hurt and isolation that their grandfathers and mothers
:14:44. > :14:51.These young people, they are making the reservations, not just in Pine
:14:52. > :14:54.Ridge, but in Indian country, in native country, stronger.
:14:55. > :14:59.Yvonne DeCory is a suicide prevention worker
:15:00. > :15:08.at Pine Ridge who runs a theatre programme where teens perform skits
:15:09. > :15:10.and dances about suicide and show an alternative outcome
:15:11. > :15:21.We've got to take better care of our leaders,
:15:22. > :15:23.because they are our doctors, our lawyers, our next
:15:24. > :15:25.tribal chairman, our state legislators, our professional rodeo
:15:26. > :15:29.But when we bury them, those are our dreams
:15:30. > :15:41.# Lean on me, when you're not strong...#
:15:42. > :15:44.It's called The Bear Project and their skits portraying
:15:45. > :15:51.For 16-year-old Sky, this performance is particularly
:15:52. > :16:03.The skit, Lean On Me, is the one where I hold a gun to my head.
:16:04. > :16:05.That really gets to me, because on three separate occasions
:16:06. > :16:10.I've tried to kill myself with a gun.
:16:11. > :16:17.holding it to my head, wanting to pull the trigger.
:16:18. > :16:29.I love her with all my heart and growing up around
:16:30. > :16:33.the time where I wanted to kill myself it wasn't a very good time to
:16:34. > :16:43.We were going to be alone, so I had to stay here for her.
:16:44. > :16:50.All of the young participants have struggled with life on the
:16:51. > :16:52.reservation and are now reaching out to other kids
:16:53. > :17:13.I grew up not being able to eat most of the time.
:17:14. > :17:16.I grew up without a father, and I grew up with many of
:17:17. > :17:23.So that's kind of why I'm in The Bear Project,
:17:24. > :17:28.to tell people that it doesn't need to lead to anything that harms your
:17:29. > :17:43.Looking back, perhaps today's problems at
:17:44. > :17:45.Pine Ridge can be traced to the deliberate attempt to destroy
:17:46. > :17:47.the Lakhota people's culture and customs.
:17:48. > :17:49.In the late 1800s, Indian children were rounded up and sent
:17:50. > :17:52.to boarding schools, where they were forbidden to speak their language
:17:53. > :17:57.and banned from performing traditional ceremonies.
:17:58. > :18:00.Many Lakhota firmly believe that the legacy of Wounded Knee continues to
:18:01. > :18:09.So it's really historical grief that continues to
:18:10. > :18:16.manifest, and then gets re-incubated as the youth are
:18:17. > :18:24.So it becomes a constant grieving process.
:18:25. > :18:27.You know, there are so many funerals in all of
:18:28. > :18:28.the nine districts of Pine Ridge in particular.
:18:29. > :18:35.There are funerals going on every single day.
:18:36. > :18:37.And I believe that's what's really at the root of
:18:38. > :18:40.a lot of our youth suicides, that intense amount of grief.
:18:41. > :18:43.At this seminar for social workers, police officers and
:18:44. > :18:48.teachers, Doctor Ruby Gibson is dealing with the pain inflicted on
:18:49. > :18:55.the Lakota people by policies aimed at destroying their culture.
:18:56. > :18:58.I mean it was designed to kill the Indian and the child and it worked
:18:59. > :19:02.It was a genocidal act and we are recovering from genocide.
:19:03. > :19:06.And most of us can't even go there and think about it because it's so
:19:07. > :19:12.Lakhota people have such a beautiful heart,
:19:13. > :19:18.And it's wounded because we've been forced to forget.
:19:19. > :19:21.Allow your mind to relax, as it focuses easily...
:19:22. > :19:24.At the Little Wound High School, Lakota students are encouraged to
:19:25. > :19:32.understand the problems facing their community.
:19:33. > :19:44.Think, what do you want the reservation to be like?
:19:45. > :19:47.What do you want it to look like out here?
:19:48. > :19:50.What kind of things would you like to see?
:19:51. > :19:52.We to help the community with houses, clothes,
:19:53. > :19:55.We need more community things to help people.
:19:56. > :19:58.What do you think the tribe is worried about?
:19:59. > :20:05.Just getting themselves money? Money for themselves?
:20:06. > :20:07.We are at a stage where the government has never
:20:08. > :20:10.really known what to do with the Indian people.
:20:11. > :20:12.By them prescribing solutions to our community has
:20:13. > :20:22.Although historical trauma weighs heavily on the tribe,
:20:23. > :20:27.one group of young Indians are offering real solutions
:20:28. > :20:29.and not getting bogged down in the past.
:20:30. > :20:32.It doesn't help us to keep telling the story of poverty over and over.
:20:33. > :20:35.And make people around the country feel sad, guilty or whatever.
:20:36. > :20:43.The reality is that the problem that exists in Indian
:20:44. > :20:53.So this house is really more than just
:20:54. > :20:54.a structure sitting out on the prairie.
:20:55. > :20:57.It's also allowed us to have conversations
:20:58. > :21:00.that otherwise would not have happened.
:21:01. > :21:02.Thunder Valley is a community development
:21:03. > :21:04.organisation which is teaching young Lakhota how to build environmentally
:21:05. > :21:16.We bring them here and we show them that it really is made out of straw.
:21:17. > :21:18.As well as agricultural skills to provide food sovereignty for the
:21:19. > :21:27.Tribal culture and customs are at the heart of the
:21:28. > :21:41.which has caught the attention of the White House.
:21:42. > :21:43.All of Thunder Valley's students are taught how to speak in
:21:44. > :21:45.Lakhota, to ensure the language survives.
:21:46. > :21:47.Our whole organisation's purpose is that we want to end poverty
:21:48. > :21:58.examples of what that could look like.
:21:59. > :22:00.It could create mechanisms in which investment, donations,
:22:01. > :22:02.programmes, different types of things that create hope,
:22:03. > :22:09.that meet the present needs of people, and
:22:10. > :22:22.inspire other communities to do the same thing.
:22:23. > :22:24.Although the challenges the tribe are facing are daunting,
:22:25. > :22:27.most of them agree that the solution will only be found from within.
:22:28. > :22:29.In recent times, attendances at community events, like this
:22:30. > :22:37.traditional powwow, are up, as children are introduced to the
:22:38. > :22:43.A clear message that the tribe lives on,
:22:44. > :22:54.determined to overcome the hand that history has dealt them.