http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=133734396
This NPR article from 2011 examines a Sioux reservation in South Dakota where the unemployment rate swells to 90 percent in the winter months. The article focuses on the fact that poverty has been a constant here for generations, leaving the residents without tangible hope for a better future. Despite government assistance, the reservations economy remains poor. Furthermore, 60 years ago a dam that was built on the Missouri River lead to flooding, which destroyed 100 acres of Sioux farmland. Reparations for these damages have yet to be paid.
The vast differences in wealth among Americans is not a new phenomenon. The moral and physical decay in Stephen Crane's Maggie are not so different then those in Ziebach County. However, the fact that we have not learned and changed the way we respond to impoverished sectors of our society is startling. While I cannot offer a fail proof solution to poverty in America, it is evident that the increasing divide between rich and poor highlights structural problems with the government.
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