Movie: “Wounded Heart-Pine Ridge and the Sioux”

      Last Monday in our class we watched a movie that Kohl gave to our teacher Melissa. This movie for me was an eye opener! In general the movie was great because it showed many hard situations that the Lakota tribe goes trough. Most of the time we all think that they have a good job and easy housing, but things are not that easy for them.  The movie showed that many of members of this tribe live in very bad housing conditions; some of their houses have mold and insects inside of their houses. Also, Lakota tribe have very bad health services; they showed a man talking about how once he went to the dentist because he had a tooth that hurt and the dentist took the wrong tooth by mistake. The movie also showed how some people in this tribe have very bad health because they can’t afford food sometimes, so they have to go to foods banks where most of the time the food they get is very unhealthy for them. That is why some of them have high blood pressure, obesity, among other problems. This reservation also has issues with alcoholism that leads to domestic violence inside their families. One of the old men from the tribe said that the only way they could help their tribe with this problem of alcoholism is by getting families more involved and aware of this big issue. Some of the children in the reservation have a very difficult time going to school because of family problems. Some of the young kids go to school with lack of sleep, hungry and many other problems. It is difficult for them go trough school without someone that gives them the support they need. I feel so sad about how Indians have been oppressed for a century or two and they still don’t have the rights they deserve. One of the hardest things in life is to put ourselves in somebody else’s shoes because it is hard to understand how is their life and how many hard things they go trough that we can’t really imagine.