Vanishing Point

Nothing in America matches the desperation of some of our Indian reservations and the hardscrabble communities that subsist on them.  The Pine Ridge Reservation straddles two achingly poor counties, one in South Dakota and one in Nebraska.  The per capita income of $4,524 is among the lowest in the United States.  Unemployment is over 80%.  It's no surprise that the reservation is a wellspring of drug addiction and alcoholism.  Brutally cold in the winter and blazing hot in summer, the earth is barely arable.  There are no mineral resources.  Home, sweet home, Leonard Peltier.