tutu2

This was the biggest disappointment. It is filthy and garbage covered. Grave markers and crosses are broken and falling down and these people dont even have the sense,ambition, or pride to go pick up their own trash or right the crosses. The road is nothing more than a nonmaintained, rutted trail that is as neglected as the rest of this site. Lost Bird’s grave is in a sad state of neglect also. There is carving and grafitti on the monument itself! There are broken down cars and dilapitated trailer houses sitting in the massacre site. On top of this, my family and I narrowly escaped what I can only refer to as 5 hoodlums, 2 of which obviously were planning on robbing us or worse. Two of them were milling around our pick up and 3 more were coming at us from behind and we were able to get through them to our pickup and get away from them. As an enrolled member of the Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Cree Indians, I have grown up surrounded by Native culture and pride and I have NEVER in my life seen such a disgusting display. Every horrible thing ever said about reservations and Natives is epitomized in this site. I expected the reservation to be sad as Pine Ridge is pitiful; however, the fact that this monument and this site and those who suffered there are disrespected to this magnitude is sickening. To think that the young men of the Oglala Lakota use this sacred site as a way to lure and rob tourists is more than pathetic. This is not a place for anyone to be. It is sickening, sad, and dangerous. Do not go. Instead, visit the Story of Wounded Knee Museum in Wall, South Dakota. $5 admission for adults and more than worth every penny.