We both wanted to visit the memorial to the hundreds of Indians who were slaughtered at the 1890 Wounded Knee site.
It was sad. It was an event that is a shameful part of our history where so many lives were needlessly taken. We thought of the site as a Native American equivalent of the Arlington National Cemetery. Sacred ground.
It is on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.
We drove to the site to find.....a sign.
And a group of individuals who wouldn't leave us alone. Wouldn't even let us read the sign--standing between us and it. Trying to sell us cheap trinkets or panhandling for money.
We felt we were at a holy shrine, but that it had been desecrated.
We stopped later at a gas station on the reservation, and were once again accosted. I had to tell people to leave me alone, and then later found that they had sneaked around the camper and had knocked on Vicky's window to hassle her. Bothering a woman like that after being told to go away?
We left without making any purchases.
We will avoid the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in the future....sadly.
Can this problem be solved, please? I know it is complex, and I know people of good will want it to be fixed, but an air of hopelessness hangs over this entire place. It is not what our country is all about.
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