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All photos by Aaron Huey and can be seen at the New York Times interview here.

Aaron Huey arrived on the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota at the start of a self-assigned photographic road trip to document poverty in America.

The poverty he found on the reservation stopped him cold.

"Pine Ridge is the scariest place I've ever been - more so than in a Taliban ambush," Mr. Huey said.  "It was emotionally devastating.  I'd call my wife late at night crying."

Overwhelmed by the poverty – and at the same time by scenes of people trying to maintain the Lakota way of life – Mr. Huey abandoned the rest of his nationwide project to focus on Pine Ridge.  Five years later, he's still photographing on the reservation, which includes the Wounded Knee battlefield.

Mr. Huey, 33, is a photgrapher for National Geographic Adventure and National Geographic Traveler.  He also freelances for The New Yorker and Geo.  In 2007, he photographed in Afghanistan for The Times.

Still Wounded is an amazing photo series and great interview on this photographer and what he sees on the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota.

Rez Bomb is a love story/thriller about a Lakota girl, Harmony and a white guy, Scott who are very much in love but get into trouble with a brutal loan shark, Jaws. Jaws threatens Scott as he’s being released from six weeks in jail that if his now hefty debt including interest isn’t paid off by midnight its curtains.

Scott thinks he can pay it courtesy of a stash of pills he has hidden inside his guitar so heads to his home on Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, which he shares with Harmony. It is the poorest place in the USA and a world apart from the more affluent upbringing he had in Rapid City, South Dakota.

There he discovers both Harmony and the guitar are missing. So he goes searching for them both. We inter-cut his quest with Harmony’s previous six weeks as she flees Jaws. After taking a beating and discovering she’s pregnant she’s offered a place in protective housing allowing her to disappear from those chasing her. In the process she pawns all their valuables, including the guitar.

As Scott searches for her he is forced to confront his past and their families who oppose their relationship.

Check out the movie trailer here.

Hey kids!  Let’s play with Custer (better yet, let’s not)

via Buffalo Post:

McDonald’s is including a Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer toy in its Happy Meals.

Um, why?

Well, it’s all part of a promotion coinciding with the recent release of the movie “Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian.”

Um, did anyone at McDonald’s think that this might not be a good idea?

That would be a big “um, no.”

This story from the Rapid City Journal quotes McDonald’s spokeswoman Danya Proud as saying in an e-mail, “At McDonald’s, we value and respect people of all ethnicities, as well as their cultural history …. As with all Happy Meal promotions, our goal is to provide families a positive experience that can be shared by all.”

Some of the anger over the toy centers on the fact its nationwide distribution means that it inevitably will go to children on Indian reservations. Yeah, that’s pretty offensive – but so is the fact that the toy is going to children of any ethnicity. Poet Joy Harjo posted that “this is akin to giving away KKK figures or Hitler toys to children. Why don’t people get it when it comes to native people? … There’s such a blind spot in American cultural vision, or is it deliberate hatefulness?”

Sometimes, to me at least, it feels as though the sheer unthinking nature of a blind spot is almost worse.

deltafoxtrot:

On Tuesday evening at the White House, President Obama hosted an event celebrating poetry, music and the spoken word. In the United States, there has been a resurgence of interest in poetry, especially poems that are recited out loud. For the past several years, thousands of high school students have been learning about poetry through memorization and performance in a program called Poetry Out Loud. The top performer from each state competes in a national championship. It took place recently in Washington DC.

Wiyaka wins competition

Wiyaka This is the Poetry Out Loud champion from the western state of South Dakota who recently competed in the 2009 national competition in Washington. Wiyaka is a Native American whose family name is His Horse is Thunder. Her father is an Indian chief and she is related to Sitting Bull, a famous chief in the 19th century who fought to protect his tribe’s land. Native American tribes are known for storytelling, and Wiyaka says she is keeping that tradition alive, in her own way, by reciting poetry to audiences.

“I just want them to feel something when they hear it,” she said.