Pine Ridge Reservation
The Pine Ridge Reservation in rural South Dakota, home to the Oglala Lakota Nation, offers a stark reality of the connection between poor housing and poor health outcomes among Native Americans. Covering 2.1 million acres and housing nearly 19,000 residents (as of the 2010 census), Pine Ridge Reservation has the lowest per capita income in the country and contains the poorest county (Oglala Lakota County) in the nation. Not surprisingly, a 2020 study found that Oglala Lakota County ranked last for health outcomes (length and quality of life) and health factors (behaviors, clinical care, social and economic factors, and physical environment) in the state of South Dakota.
The average life expectancy on Pine Ridge is 66.81 years, the lowest in the United States. Other statistics, attributed to the Pine Ridge hospital, cite an average life expectancy for men of just 47 years. Women fare slightly better, with an average life expectancy of 55 years.Statistics on health outcome discrepancies produced by the Oglala Lakota Tribe are startling:
- Tuberculosis rate is 800% higher than America as a whole
- Infant mortality rate is 300% higher than America as a whole
- Teen suicide rate is 150% higher than America as a whole
- Approximately 85% of Lakota families are affected by alcoholism