The Poorest Town in America

Our focus over the last two months of traveling the USA has been trail running. We have run in some of the most beautiful places in the world. And although our gaze is set on the mountains and trails, something else keeps screaming at us and redirecting our attention: the profound poverty in America. Yesterday, we traveled through the single most impoverished town in the country, and it was the most shocking poverty I’ve ever seen. Even in the remotest, most impoverished Third World communities where I’ve lived and traveled, there were signs of life and hope. There were people engaged in productive work, preparing food and caring for children. There were businesses of some kind, even if they were only small rebottled Coke stands out of the back of a corrugated steel hut. But not in Pine Ridge, South Dakota. The scene was horrific. A handful of shops, boarded up and breaking down. A few dozen adults, high on alcohol and/or drugs, hanging around, lying around, their gaze unfocused. Graffiti everywhere, with one large message “death to the white man” scrawled across a building. Pine Ridge is a dry town. But a stone’s throw away is Whiteclay, Nebraska. According to some stats, there are 4 liquor stores and only 12 inhabitants in Whiteclay, where 12,500 cans of beer are sold every day. Pine Ridge is home to Lakota Native Americans, and located a few miles from the site of the Battle of Wounded Knee, where the U.S. Cavalry massacred 100’s of Lakota. Historical markers inform travelers of the events of years ago, but it’s the visions of today’s unfortunate souls that will impart a greater impression and lasting memory, although the two are undoubtedly connected.