I got this from a friend on another site, with the request that the info be spread {aka Permission}
I can post contact info, if anyone here doesn't already have it.
Quote:
| AS LONG AS THE GRASS GROWS AND THE RIVERS FLOW In 2003, the Bush administration, effectively stopped completion of a decade long project, named Mni Wiconi.. The ambitious project was designed to pipe treated water from the Missouri River to the arid Pine Ridge Reservation. Mni Wiconi, which means "water is life," would have brought water to what has been historically America's most economically depressed county. Many of the 35,000 people on Pine Ridge do not have running water and many of the wells on the reservation are polluted by septic system percolation or contaminated by nitrates. It is not uncommon for many of the Lakota People on Pine Ridge to get their water delivered by truck or transported in jugs. As the pipeline was laid across the arid landscape of South Dakota, it brought water to Indian as well as non-Indian residents. The project was nearing completion in 2002, an election year. George W. Bush hand-picked John Thune in 2002 to unseat incumbent Senator Tim Johnson (D-SD). Huge amounts of money were pumped into the race, the most expensive in South Dakota history. In an effort to fight the Republican money machine, a grassroots effort to register first-time voters was undertaken that yeided large numbers of new voters in the Indian communities of South Dakota. Pine Ridge voters voted in particularly high numbers and overwhelmingly in favor of Johnson over his Republican opponent. The "Indian vote" propelled Johnson to the slimmest of victories, 524 votes. Thune's loss did not go unnoticed by the Bush White House. Within months, the Bush administration, breaking previous promises and committments, cut funding to Mni Wiconi that stopped work on the project just as it was reaching the borders of Pine Ridge. Without access to a dependable supply of fresh water, Pine Ridge has little hope of economic development. Stopping the project just as it nears it's destination is a cut of the cruelest sort, one that perpetuates conditions normally associated with third world nations and long suffered by the people of Pine Ridge. George W. Bush wears his Christian faith on his sleeve and proudly describes himself as a "compassionate conservative." I urge you to call the White House and remind the President that exacting political revenge on America's most impoverished people is neither Christian nor compassionate. Tell the president to turn the water back on. sources: National Public Radio 8/8/2003 http://www.theramp.net/kohr4/HEROES.html#PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/arti...cal/news04.txt http://johnson.senate.gov/~johnson/r...002607531.html |
Its impossible to even imagine what its like there without having been there...
: ) and water pipelines. I did not know this had happened. man, do they ever need it. In some areas of Pine Ridge, people get skin conditions from bathing in the local water. Let alone drinking it.
I think it would be difficult, but it is an eye opener to those who think they know US law, let me tell ya! I was amazed at some points. I have never lived on a reservation, but still find the subject facinating and useful. I really enjoy NA studies and law, but I don't really want to move to New mexico to practice-HEHE! My major is Anthropology, but it is hard to agree with all 4 disciplines. My focus is genocide and ethnic conflict.
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