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Monday, April 16, 2018

THESE CONDITIONS CANNOT EXIST IN THE UNITED STATES

RFK VISITED PINE RIDGE RESERVATION 50 YEARS AGO TODAY

Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota (JFK+50) On April 16, 1968, Robert F. Kennedy visited the Pine Ridge Reservation* in South Dakota.  The visit came during his campaign to win the Democratic nomination for POTUS with the objections of advisers.

Ted Widmer tells us that Robert F. Kennedy was interested in the problems of Native Americans.  Their unemployment rate stood at 75% in 1968.  50% of their homes had no electricity or running water, and they had the second lowest life expectancy in the Western Hemisphere.

Senator Kennedy said...

"These...conditions cannot be permitted to exist in the United States."

The New York Senator also paid a visit to the site of the Wounded Knee Massacre** and on the night he won the California Primary, Robert Kennedy also won South Dakota's...."convincingly."

*Pine Ridge Reservation is an Oglala Lakota reservation located in SW South Dakota.  PRR was established in 1889.  Today it is the 8th largest reservation in the U.S.

**Wounded Knee Massacre (Dec 29, 1890) U.S. 7th Cavalry killed 150 or more Sioux men, women & children, many or most unarmed.

SOURCE

"Why Robert Kennedy Went to Pine Ridge", by Ted Widmer, The New York Times, April 16, 2018, www.nytimes.com/


Survivors of Wounded Knee
Photo by John C.H. Grabill (1891)
Library of Congress Image