美国国家公共电台 NPR A Return To The Rosebud Reservation Finds Tough Times Have Gotten Tougher

A Return To The Rosebud¹ Reservation Finds Tough Times Have Gotten Tougher

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

This summer, NPR reporters are going home, back to the communities where their families are from, to see what's changed. NPR's Kirk Siegler travels back to the Rosebud Reservation in rural South Dakota, where his parents worked when he was born.

KIRK SIEGLER, BYLINE²: I was born in the small town of Valentine, Neb., because it was the closest hospital to the Rosebud Reservation just over the state line in South Dakota. My mom, Jeannie, taught here at the St. Francis Indian School back then.

JEANNIE SIEGLER: Yeah, here's the sign. Welcome to the land of Lakota Oyate.

K. SIEGLER: We're traveling back for the first time in 30 years. My parents first moved here from the East Coast in the '70s because there were teaching jobs.

I was really little.

J. SIEGLER: Yes, you were tiny.

K. SIEGLER: The sky is huge out here. The rolling prairie stretches out for miles. It's pocked with these little canyons³ that are lush with pine forests. At the edge of one of them is the village of St. Francis.

(SOUNDBITE OF CHURCH BELLS RINGING)

K. SIEGLER: At the Catholic mission, noon mass is letting out. We run into people my parents knew, most notably⁴ a woman named Jody Waln.

JODY WALN: Jeannie, I'm Jody.

J. SIEGLER: Oh, it's Jody. I thought that was you. Oh, my goodness.

K. SIEGLER: Waln is a Rosebud Sioux tribal⁵ member and famous rabble⁶ rouser here.

WALN: A lot of memories came back.

K. SIEGLER: Now 60, Waln hasn't lost any of her fire. She does social work 24/7. She invites us over for a look at the children's shelter she's now running in the nearby town of Rosebud. This reservation has been rocked lately by drug abuse, namely meth and fentanyl. And there are a lot of broken homes.

WALN: Like, at my work, I see the direct consequences of it.

J. SIEGLER: Oh, yeah.

WALN: It's bad.

K. SIEGLER: The Rosebud Sioux Tribe has had to condemn⁷ 160 reservation houses lately due to meth contamination. The drugs touch everything - the housing shortage, the suicide crisis. They're squeezing other people's ability to get even basic health care.

WALN: We're so overwhelmed with the immediate⁸ daily obstacles and struggles that there's no looking to the future.

K. SIEGLER: This was a problem back when we lived here. But it's gotten way worse. Jody says there's plenty of blame to go around - broken treaties, neglect. But she says some of her people also have a hard time taking ownership of their own weaknesses.

WALN: Among us Lakota people, you know, when you need help with something, it's like, where the heck is everybody? But you pop that beer can, and you've got all kinds of friends.

WAYNE BOYD: We're in this vacuum.

K. SIEGLER: Through Jody, we meet several tribal leaders, including Wayne Boyd.

BOYD: We don't have access to what every other American has. And we're forced to live on whatever crumbs⁹ that the government feels fit to give us this year.

K. SIEGLER: Boyd says bureaucratic¹⁰ tangles¹¹ also make it harder to deliver health care, to attract new investment here. When I asked him if anything had improved since we lived here, he had to think for a while.

BOYD: I don't know. There's a lot more comfort things here. We have electricity everywhere. We have running water everywhere.

K. SIEGLER: There's electricity and water everywhere. That's what he could say. Folks here listed off a lot of the same problems I hear in other places on my beat covering rural America - the suicides, drugs, poor health care. It's just that on an isolated¹² reservation, these are all magnified by 10. Back in the car, it's hard for me and mom to take it all in. A lot of things seem to have gone backward, not forward.

J. SIEGLER: You can see life is still tough here for many people. But there are a lot of good things that people do.

K. SIEGLER: I was just a baby when we moved away from the Rosebud after five years to Montana. My parents still talk about it, though, all the time, especially my mom, who remembers her students most.

J. SIEGLER: How much is it?

TAKISHA FARMER: Two dollars. Does that work for you?

J. SIEGLER: Yeah.

K. SIEGLER: One morning, we stop at a flea¹³ market in Mission, the biggest town on the reservation. And I meet 18-year-old Takisha Farmer. She says all the problems here overshadow the good.

FARMER: 'Cause there's gangs. And there is all that here. But there are people who, you know, are going to college, are getting off this reservation, are valedictorians.

K. SIEGLER: Farmer and her boyfriend Kenyon Fast Horse sell stuff at this market to make some extra money for college. Fast Horse says people turn to drugs and alcohol out of despair.

KENYON FAST HORSE: It's hard. You know, like, that's how people look at us different - because it is hard because there's not much around here.

K. SIEGLER: When Fast Horse and Farmer came up in the reservation schools, they learned about Lakota culture and language. And this was a big change from the old days, when native students were forced to assimilate into white culture.

BEN BLACK BEAR JR: (Singing in Lakota).

K. SIEGLER: Back at the mission in St. Francis where we started our trip, there's a celebration for one of the retiring Jesuit priests. Ben Black Bear Jr. is singing a traditional Lakota song.

BLACK BEAR: (Singing in Lakota).

K. SIEGLER: Black Bear teaches Lakota language and culture in schools and online, something he thinks will help to start addressing the bigger challenges here. He's also working to modernize¹⁴ the language.

BLACK BEAR: Email - we've translated as (speaking Lakota). That's the Lakota version of email. So, you know, once kids learn that, they can use it, you know?

K. SIEGLER: Oh, and Black Bear also tells us there's no word in Lakota for goodbye.

So I'll come back. Is that right?

BLACK BEAR: (Laughter) OK, yeah. I'll see you again (laughter).

K. SIEGLER: Kirk Siegler, NPR News, on the Rosebud Reservation, S.D.

1 rosebud   

n.蔷薇花蕾，妙龄少女

参考例句：

• At West Ham he was thought of as the rosebud that never properly flowered.在西汉姆他被认为是一个尚未开放的花蕾。
• Unlike the Rosebud salve,this stuff is actually worth the money.跟玫瑰花蕾膏不一样，这个更值的买。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 canyons   

n.峡谷( canyon的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• This mountain range has many high peaks and deep canyons. 这条山脉有许多高峰和深谷。 来自辞典例句
• Do you use canyons or do we preserve them all? 是使用峡谷呢还是全封闭保存？ 来自互联网

4 notably   

adv.值得注意地，显著地，尤其地，特别地

参考例句：

• Many students were absent,notably the monitor.许多学生缺席，特别是连班长也没来。
• A notably short,silver-haired man,he plays basketball with his staff several times a week.他个子明显较为矮小，一头银发，每周都会和他的员工一起打几次篮球。

5 tribal   

adj.部族的，种族的

参考例句：

• He became skilled in several tribal lingoes.他精通几种部族的语言。
• The country was torn apart by fierce tribal hostilities.那个国家被部落间的激烈冲突弄得四分五裂。

6 rabble   

n.乌合之众，暴民；下等人

参考例句：

• They formed an army out of rabble.他们用乌合之众组成一支军队。
• Poverty in itself does not make men into a rabble.贫困自身并不能使人成为贱民。

7 condemn   

vt.谴责，指责；宣判(罪犯)，判刑

参考例句：

• Some praise him,whereas others condemn him.有些人赞扬他，而有些人谴责他。
• We mustn't condemn him on mere suppositions.我们不可全凭臆测来指责他。

8 immediate   

adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的

参考例句：

• His immediate neighbours felt it their duty to call.他的近邻认为他们有责任去拜访。
• We declared ourselves for the immediate convocation of the meeting.我们主张立即召开这个会议。

9 crumbs   

int. (表示惊讶)哎呀 n. 碎屑 名词crumb的复数形式

参考例句：

• She stood up and brushed the crumbs from her sweater. 她站起身掸掉了毛衣上的面包屑。
• Oh crumbs! Is that the time? 啊，天哪！都这会儿啦？

10 bureaucratic   

adj.官僚的，繁文缛节的

参考例句：

• The sweat of labour washed away his bureaucratic airs.劳动的汗水冲掉了他身上的官气。
• In this company you have to go through complex bureaucratic procedures just to get a new pencil.在这个公司里即使是领一支新铅笔，也必须通过繁琐的手续。

11 tangles   

（使）缠结， （使）乱作一团( tangle的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Long hair tangles easily. 长头发容易打结。
• Tangles like this still interrupted their intercourse. 像这类纠缠不清的误会仍然妨碍着他们的交情。

12 isolated   

adj.与世隔绝的

参考例句：

• His bad behaviour was just an isolated incident. 他的不良行为只是个别事件。
• Patients with the disease should be isolated. 这种病的患者应予以隔离。

13 flea   

n.跳蚤

参考例句：

• I'll put a flea in his ear if he bothers me once more.如果他再来打扰的话，我就要对他不客气了。
• Hunter has an interest in prowling around a flea market.亨特对逛跳蚤市场很感兴趣。

14 modernize   

vt.使现代化，使适应现代的需要

参考例句：

• It was their manifest failure to modernize the country's industries.他们使国家进行工业现代化，明显失败了。
• There is a pressing need to modernise our electoral system.我们的选举制度迫切需要现代化。