While we are in South Dakota, we want to tour the Pine Ridge reservation. Is it tourist friendly? What kinds of activities, museums, shops, etc would we find there? How much time should we allow? Are there any evening or night activities? Thanks for the advice.
Pine Ridge
The reservation is one of the poorest places in the country. There is roughly 80% unemployment. Life expectancy is amongst the shortest in the Western Hemisphere at 47 for males and low-50%26#39;s for females - mostly due to the very high infant mortality rate. This is NOT a realy ';tourist friendly'; place. Not that the people are unfriendly but the circumstances mean there is not a lot to interest tourists. It is however a popular destination for mission and assistance project related visits - things like Habitat for Humanity.
About the only tourist and evening/night activities are nearby at the Prairie Wind Casino, about 30 miles west of Pine Ridge. Operated by the Oglala Sioux tribe.
There is a museum for the Wounded Knee Massacre of 1890 located in Wall, SD (on I-90). At Wounded Knee itself the National Park Service operate Fort Davis National Historic site for the battleground and the mass grave in the cemetary. Otherwise not a lot to see on the reservation lands other than the scenic value of rural South Dakota prairie lands.
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