audio, stills, text and or video: Go to zReportage.com to see more - 2015 marks the 125th Anniversary of Wounded Knee, which took place near Wounded Knee creek on the Pine Ridge Reservation in 1890. 150 mostly battle-retreating innocent women and children were murdered, which in some way, signified the defeat of the Plains Indians and the triumph of European civilization. The reservation system was created as a series of concentration camps to control a Native population from further impeding the progress of Manifest Destiny. The counties that make up Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota have been consistently the poorest of 3,143 counties in the USA. The poverty on Pine Ridge can only be described as third world, with homes overcrowded, and many are without running water. Pine Ridge Statistics : Unemployment rate of 80% - Per capita income of $4,000 - 8 Times the United States rate of diabetes - 5 Times the United States rate of cervical cancer - Twice the rate of heart disease - 8 Times the United States rate of Tuberculosis - Alcoholism rate estimated as high as 80% - 1 in 4 infants born with fetal alcohol syndrome or effects - Suicide rate more than twice the national rate - Teen suicide rate 4 times the national rate - Infant mortality is three times the national rate - Life expectancy on Pine Ridge is the lowest in the United States and the 2nd lowest in the Western Hemisphere. Only Haiti has a lower rate. In spite of the tragic consequences of depression, alcoholism, poverty, and disease that have followed for more than six generations, there is a yearning to preserve the Lakota way of life that persists to this day.
© Richard Tsong-Taatarii/ZUMA Wire/ZUMAPRESS.com

Feb. 13, 2013 - Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, South Dakota - PETE LITTLE BOY, dozes off in the wood stove heated trailer that his family lives in. He is suffering from a toothache, but there is no gas money to drive him to Rapid City, two hours away, to see a dentist.
© Richard Tsong-Taatarii/zReportage.com/ZUMA Press

Feb. 13, 2013 - Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, South Dakota - DARLENE BLACK BEAR RED STAR, a chronic inebriate, sheds a tear over news on the radio that a friend thought she had died in the streets of White Clay, a town on the edge of the reservation that sells 5 million cans of malt beer to natives a year.
© Richard Tsong-Taatarii/zReportage.com/ZUMA Press

Feb. 15, 2013 - Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, South Dakota - THOMAS D., a Lakota man with mental illness, warms by his trailer wood stove while unrolling a piece of candy during a cold winter day. He only has cotton socks drying on his bed. His sister, who looks after him, lives in a house next door.
© Richard Tsong-Taatarii/zReportage.com/ZUMA Press

Feb. 15, 2013 - Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, South Dakota - This frozen horse, hit by a car, was found on the side of a Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) road in the middle of winter on the Pine Ridge Reservation. The horse and the buffalo are the two most important animals in the Lakota culture.
© Richard Tsong-Taatarii/zReportage.com/ZUMA Press

Feb. 15, 2013 - Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, South Dakota - Sons of tribal chiefs see a band of horses running by during a protest at the Wounded Knee cemetery. It was considered a sign from the creator that a dispute over a piece of trading post land being sold by the family of a former white trader would be resolved favorably.
© Richard Tsong-Taatarii/zReportage.com/ZUMA Press

July 15, 2013 - Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, South Dakota - OLD NELSON takes a walk with son KALEB on a country road near his house. Walking is one of the few forms of therapy that Kaleb enjoys.
© Richard Tsong-Taatarii/zReportage.com/ZUMA Press

July 16, 2013 - Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, South Dakota - The stars are out on the eve of a Sun Dance ceremony in a remote part of Porcupine village. There are dozens of Sun Dances that maintain what is considered one of the seven sacred rites in the Lakota tradition.
© Richard Tsong-Taatarii/zReportage.com/ZUMA Press

July 16, 2013 - Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, South Dakota - A participant in a Sun Dance with 'pieces of flesh' that were sacrificed from a recent Sun Dance emerges from a tipi ready for another ceremony.
© Richard Tsong-Taatarii/zReportage.com/ZUMA Press

July 16, 2013 - Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, South Dakota - A family mourns the death of a matriarch who died from cirrhosis of the liver at the age of 52, the average lifespan of a Lakota woman on the reservation.
© Richard Tsong-Taatarii/zReportage.com/ZUMA Press

July 17, 2013 - Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, South Dakota - Participants in a Sun Dance in the remote village of Porcupine carry off a cotton wood tree to be symbolically used as the center of the universe in the ceremony which is considered one of the seven sacred rites.
© Richard Tsong-Taatarii/zReportage.com/ZUMA Press

July 17, 2013 - Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, South Dakota - Participants in a Sun Dance in a remote part of Porcupine village raise the sacred tree around which they will dance while tethered to a tree by a rope and hooks in their chests and shoulders. The spot where a cotton wood tree is planted represents the center of the universe.
© Richard Tsong-Taatarii/zReportage.com/ZUMA Press

July 18, 2013 - White Clay, Nebraska - Three Lakotas struggle with their alcoholism in a border town that sells 5 million cans of malt beer to natives a year. In the background is a mural that points to a period of time where a white settler received help from the Lakotas.
© Richard Tsong-Taatarii/zReportage.com/ZUMA Press

July 18, 2013 - Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, South Dakota - KAREN NOREEN HEHAKA ISNALA is raising KALEB 11, a son who a genetic mutation that makes him inordinately large for his age and autistic. There is a stigma to having a child with a disability in addition to the challenges of living on one of the poorest places in the United States. In spite of all the challenges, she refuses to have him institutionalized because of the United States' disgraceful record of properly caring for Native children, she said. Swimming in a pool is one of the few therapies that seem to help her son.
© Richard Tsong-Taatarii/zReportage.com/ZUMA Press

July 18, 2013 - Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, South Dakota - KAREN NOREEN HEHAKA ISNALA is raising KALEB 11, a son who a genetic mutation that makes him inordinately large for his age and autistic. There is a stigma to having a child with a disability in addition to the challenges of living on one of the poorest places in the United States. She helps him with a diaper because of his needs.
© Richard Tsong-Taatarii/zReportage.com/ZUMA Press

July 18, 2013 - Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, South Dakota - KAREN NOREEN HEHAKA ISNALA is raising KALEB 11, a son who a genetic mutation that makes him inordinately large for his age and autistic. There is a stigma to having a child with a disability in addition to the challenges of living on one of the poorest places in the United States. Karen helps her son into their FEMA trailer after therapy in an inflatable pool.
© Richard Tsong-Taatarii/zReportage.com/ZUMA Press

July 19, 2013 - Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, South Dakota - In the village of Oglala on the reservation, DEVIN RUNS ABOVE eats a breakfast of raw ramen because his mother was out drinking in White Clay, Nebraska, a reservation border town that sells 5 million cans of malt liquor to mostly Indians.
© Richard Tsong-Taatarii/zReportage.com/ZUMA Press

Oct. 1, 2013 - Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, South Dakota - JOE GIAGO cooks a medicinal puppy soup which is used in healing ceremonies. The Lakota believe that sunka or dog sacrificed himself for humans in a time of spiritual need. In the background is the fire used to heat rocks to be used in a sweat. Giago is holding on to a piece of wood he will shape into a traditional bow.
© Richard Tsong-Taatarii/zReportage.com/ZUMA Press

Oct. 1, 2013 - Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, South Dakota - KAREN NOREEN HEHAKA ISNALA is raising KALEB 11, a son who a genetic mutation that makes him inordinately large for his age and autistic. She is raising money to take her son to Sioux Falls to see a specialist.
© Richard Tsong-Taatarii/zReportage.com/ZUMA Press

Oct. 2, 2013 - Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, South Dakota - KALEB refuses to try a c-pap machine for his sleep apnea because of his claustrophobia.
© Richard Tsong-Taatarii/zReportage.com/ZUMA Press

Oct. 2, 2013 - Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, South Dakota - KALEB'S special education teacher, right, does not feel she can do much for him at the public school. Kaleb 11, has a genetic mutation that makes him inordinately large for his age and autistic.
© Richard Tsong-Taatarii/zReportage.com/ZUMA Press

Oct. 4, 2013 - Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, South Dakota - On the Pine Ridge reservation, Oid Nelson spends some time with son KALEB who loves playing with a smartphone.
© Richard Tsong-Taatarii/zReportage.com/ZUMA Press

Dec. 3, 2013 - Sioux Falls, South Dakota - At the Sanford Children's Hospital in Sioux Falls, KALEB walks down the hallway to see a specialist. The family drove 700 miles round trip from their home on the reservation.
© Richard Tsong-Taatarii/zReportage.com/ZUMA Press

Dec. 3, 2013 - Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, South Dakota - At a hotel in Sioux Falls, KAREN NOREEN HEHAKA ISNALA watches over her son, Kaleb. The next day he is to see a specialist.
© Richard Tsong-Taatarii/zReportage.com/ZUMA Press

Dec. 3, 2013 - Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, South Dakota - Sister NONA, father OLD NELSON, and KALEB head out from Sanford Children's Hospital after KALEB saw a specialist for a checkup. The family drove 700 miles round trip to see a decent specialist.
© Richard Tsong-Taatarii/zReportage.com/ZUMA Press

June 5, 2014 - Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, South Dakota - During the Crazy Horse Memorial Ride, participants wake up to take care of the horses in camp near the White River. The horse was essential to Lakota in effectively securing buffalo as a food source to survive the harsh and long winters.
© Richard Tsong-Taatarii/zReportage.com/ZUMA Press

June 6, 2014 - Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, South Dakota - In Porcupine on the Pine Ridge Reservation, a bison has been felled for meat and ceremonial purposes. Notably the hide and skull are used in sacred ceremonies.
© Richard Tsong-Taatarii/zReportage.com/ZUMA Press

June 6, 2014 - Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, South Dakota - In Porcupine on the reservation, a bison has been felled for meat and ceremonial purposes. Notably the hide and skull are used in sacred ceremonies.
© Richard Tsong-Taatarii/zReportage.com/ZUMA Press

June 6, 2014 - Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, South Dakota - ED IRON CLOUD III holds the heart of a buffalo after it has been slaughtered for meat and its different parts for ceremonial purposes. The buffalo before it was nearly exterminated was central to the thriving Lakota culture on the plains.
© Richard Tsong-Taatarii/zReportage.com/ZUMA Press

June 6, 2014 - Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, South Dakota - A hunter is allowed the honor of drinking the still warm blood of the buffalo as a tribute to the life it gave up.
© Richard Tsong-Taatarii/zReportage.com/ZUMA Press

June 7, 2014 - Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, South Dakota - ARCHIE TWO EAGLES JR. and SHAWN PATTON, far right, hold an ''emergency'' medicine bag that includes sage, sweet grass that will help them in times of spiritual need. Suicide is unusually high on the reservation. Shaman Rick Two Dogs holds an annual boy's youth camp to help them battle the negative influences that young Lakota men face including alcoholism and depression.
© Richard Tsong-Taatarii/zReportage.com/ZUMA Press