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- Moonrise over Re-Member Volunteer center
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- Rays of the setting sun across the sky
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- Incoming thunderstorm. You could see them coming from 60 miles away. Amazing
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- The skies of South Dakota were stunning.
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- The Badlands
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- What are you looking at, cow?
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- The church and cemetery at the mass grave from the Massacre at Wounded Knee.
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- Setting up shop.
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- The house we started skirting before we got to work. Notice the front door is in the yard. If you look closely, you can see two mattresses stacked against the wall, where people sleep. Often up to 15-20 people may live in a trailer such as this.
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- The back of the house. There is no garbage pick-up on the reservation. People have to drive their garbage miles and miles to get to the nearest dump. Gas is expensive, especially when there are few jobs to be had on the reservation.
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- We couldn’t skirt part of the house because sewage was leaking from the trailer into the front yard.
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- 30-40% of houses on Pine Ridge don’t have electricity. Many people still rely on outhouses because there are no sewers and often times the water table can be hundreds and hundreds of feet deep. Most homes are heated by propane. The houses are in such poor condition that a lot of heat is lost. Putting a skirt around a trailer can help save families tons of money.
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- Dirt road to the horizon
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- A growing thunderstorm.
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- KILI Native-owned and operated radio station.
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- Catholic cemetary outside a Catholic-run school in Pine Ridge. Up through the 1970’s, children were taken from their families and forced into religious-run schools. At these schools, they were not allowed to use their language or practice their native beliefs.
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- A very hungry-looking dog at a house we were roofing.
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- The flight home. Many of these students had never flown on a plane.
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- Remember, we are all related.
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- Alcoholism is a major problem at Pine Ridge.
Sarah J. Carlson 
Right in my backyard… If my backyard was about a hundred miles away…
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So relatively in your backyard 😛 I have to say, South Dakota skies are amazing. The way you can watch storms roll in from like 60 miles away…. Though every time I’ve driven through South Dakota, I’ve been hailed on or nearly hailed on by like golf ball sized hail….. But seriously, it’s a great state.
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The eastern part gets pretty desolate. The parts next to the Black Hills are the best in my opinion. And if you like changes in weather, we’re your state. We went from BBQing a day ago to snow. If you ever need suggestions when you’re passing through again, let me know!
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