pine ridge

Photographer Aaron Huey is a longtime guest at Mountainfilm in Telluride who was most recently at the festival with his powerful series on the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota. Huey spoke emotionally at the festival in 2011 about his impressions of life there (see a similar talk he did at TED) and has continued to work on the subject, recently installing a striking billboard on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles with a collaborator, the acclaimed artist Shepard Fairey.

The Pine Ride Indian Reservation in South Dakota is home of the Lakota Sioux and has been called "ground zero" for Native American Issues.

The grim statistics on reservations like Pine Ridge today are the equivalent to that of a 3rd world country, revealing the legacy of colonization and treaty violations. Unemployment on the Reservation fluctuates between 80-90%. Many are homeless, and those with homes are packed into rotting buildings with up to 5 families. More than 90% of the population lives below the federal poverty line. The life expectancy for men is 47 years old — roughly the same as Afghanistan and Somalia.

Photojournalist Aaron Huey has spent the last six years uncovering the story of this relatively undocumented social injustice. We're honored to have Huey attend this year's festival as a special guest.

via TIME Magazine:

For the past six years, Aaron Huey has been documenting the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. His new project seeks to take that work and turn it into a grassroots information campaign, the Pine Ridge Billboard Project.

The grim statistics on Native Reservations today are the equivalent to that of a 3rd world country, revealing the legacy of colonization and treaty violations. Unemployment on the Reservation fluctuates between 80-90%. Many are homeless, and those with homes are packed into rotting buildings with up to 5 families. More than 90% of the population lives below the federal poverty line. The life expectancy for men is 47 years old - roughly the same as Afghanistan and Somalia.