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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.
Thanks for reading our blog series. To read from the beginning, go here. We want to express our sincere gratitude and appreciation to everyone who has supported us, most notably our families, our friends in Telluride, and the folks at Mountainfilm who provided the inspiration to undertake our journey and a forum to share our experience.
We really appreciate you reading our blog posts these past months. Some were long, some were short, some were pretty good, and some were probably a little less interesting than you might have hoped. We conveyed our experience here in Ghana as best we knew how, but sometimes, words just don’t suffice. So for this week’s blog post, please enjoy a selection of photos from our trip. No reading involved!
A new uranium mining boom is threatening further harm to the people, water, wildlands and biodiversity of the Grand Canyon region.
The Obama administration is considering a plan that would protect up to 1 million acres of the Grand Canyon’s watersheds from new uranium mining. But only one of the alternatives they’re considering — Alternative B — affords protections across the entire 1 million acre watershed.
Power in the Pristine filmmaker James Q Martin, part of Rios Libres, put together this PSA, narrated by Craig Childs, to bring people to action.
Martin reminds us that May 4th is the last day the government will be accepting public comments, so take action by visiting www.ProtectGrandCanyon.org today.
The Denver Art Museum is hosting Streets of Afghanistan this Thursday, April 28, in an effort to connect communities and cultures in a country that has endured nearly four decades of conflict. The exhibit is a life-size exhibition that recreates the streets of Kabul and the rural roads of Afghanistan, including stunning portraits of the people who live there.
Proceeds from the exhibition, created by Mountain2Mountain (M2M), a Colorado-based nonprofit, will support programs including girls’ education, efforts to help imprisoned women and children and support for the Afghan youth movement. We are honored to welcome Shannon Galpin, the founder of M2M, as a special guest to the Mountainfilm Festival this year.
When: April 28, 2011
Where: Denver Art Museum — 100 West 14th Avenue Parkway
Earlier this month, over 10,000 climate activists convereged on Washington D.C. for Powershift 2011, national youth climate summit.
Bill McKibben and Tim DeChristopher were both on hand with powerful speeches.
You can catch both McKibben and DeChristopher as special guests at this year’s festival.
Congratulations to artist Antrim Caskey who was recently announced as a winner of the 43rd Annual Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Awards for her work ‘Dragline,’ a photographic expose of mountaintop removal coal mining.
“The winners this year reflect the interests of Robert Kennedy, particularly in justice and the plight of the downtrodden,” said RFK Journalism Committee Chair Margaret Engel. “From the creative use of cartooning to illustrate solutions to poverty, to the persistence of a reporter continuing to cover America’s prisoners in Cuba, the journalists brought originality and passion to their work. From obvious places of misery, including Haiti and Afghanistan, to the still-sensitive issue of campus rapes and their unseen collateral damage, the winning journalists put their talents to use on behalf of people endangered by violence and destruction.”
George Gage, who’s currently working on the Bidder 70 documentary, sent us this picture of him “sleeping outside a cabin with no toilets out in coal country West Virginia meeting more activists.”
He sends his love.
Nawang Gombu Sherpa, who accompanied 2009 Mountainfilm special guest Jim Whittaker, during the first American ascent of Mt. Everest in 1963, died on Sunday April 24, 2011.
From Climbing magazine:
Gombu was born in Tibet and was the nephew of Tenzing Norgay, one of the first two men to climb Everest; he was the youngest climbing Sherpa on that 1953 expedition, reaching the South Col. In 1965, Gombu became the first man ever to climb Everest twice, summiting with an Indian expedition.
First Ascent athlete Jesse Coombs successfully ran Abiqua Falls, which his team measured at 94 feet, earlier this season and sent us a first person run through of the descent:
Lucas and I were looking for first descent waterfalls, and Heather Herbeck suggested Abiqua. We showed up on March 11th after looking at a couple other waterfalls that did not have enough water. As soon as I saw the waterfall from the bottom I knew it was in the realm of possible. After talking with Heather and Christie Glissmeyer and getting their perspective I walked to the top and saw that the lip was actually quite friendly.
We set up all the cameras and got in place. Ben Church from Oregon State University set up the rigging to keep everyone safe. I got in position at the top and slipped my JK Villain into the pool at the top. The height of this waterfall is no joke. It looks like you will fall off the earth. I made sure I was calm and happy, and that I was ready to be in the pool below. Lucas called on the radio and said he was ready and in place. I put the radio inside my dry top and paddled for the lip. I pulled off once wanting to make sure my head in the right mind set. I paddled again for the lip, picked up a little speed and took a left stroke at the lip to set my angle. The thought in my head was that this waterfall is every bit as tall as it looks.
I kept every motion smooth. I began my tuck half way down and got as tight as possible. I wondered in my head how hard the hit would be. And BOOM I get. My paddle got ripped way faster than I can contemplate. I surfaced to the right of the falls. I went for a hand roll and my skirt was blown. I saw that I was near the back pool and pulled water for it. I rolled up on a rock at the back of the pool and raised my fist in celebration.
This was the tallest waterfall I have ever run and I had a super clean line. I was stoked! And I had Lucas Gilman shooting it which means I KNOW he got the shot. He was shooting two NIKON video cameras and a still camera; tons of great footage. Plus we put a camera on the back of my boat that has beautiful footage. It was an amazing day!
Abiqua Falls has extra lore in the Pacific Northwest as it was first run in 2002 by my good friend Tim Gross. Unfortunately Tim landed upside down and was thrown from his boat hurting his knees. My second call after my successful descent was to Tim to share the good news of my descent. Ironically, Abiqua dealt me a collapsed lung and some shoulder damage. Sadly, nine days after I ran Abiqua, Tyler Bradt ran it at lower level and broke his back. Here’s to a full and speedy recovery Tyler.
What does it take to document a waterfall drop of this size? Lucas Gilman and his team give us a behind the scenes look:
The Green World Campaign is making it easy to make a difference. Last week they launched a year-long initiative called “ReGreen the World,” in which the organization is working to “plant trees in environmentally damaged areas, creating sustainable villages, restoring indigenous ecologies, and mitigating our climate crisis.”
How to plant 5 trees on your cell phone:
- Enter the number 85944
- Text the word TREE as the message (not case-sensitive)
- Send the message
- You’ll receive a free response message asking you to confirm your $5 donation
- Type ‘Yes’
This is a one-time donation. You may choose to do this up to 5 more times.
To inspire more people the take part, the images from Earth Day made their way onto the American Eagle screen in Times Square.
What could we do as global citizens if we really put our minds–and hearts–to it? The answer: Just about anything. -Marc Barasch
You can also take part in the iniatiative by donating on the Green World Campaign website. To further engage people, there is an interactive section that allows donors to track how many trees have been planted.
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