There is no major commercial development near the reservation, which sits within South Dakota's Shannon County in the shadow of the Badlands, and no factories or malls. Oglala who have ventured off-reservation to find work have more often found alienation and a different kind of penury and have returned. All are almost totally dependent on the Federal Government, which long ago signed treaties with the Oglalas promising education, health and welfare. Housing is the need that first assaults a visitor's eye. With only 1,500 units for the reservation's 26,000 people, tribal officials estimate that an average of 17 people are crammed into each dwelling.
Education is almost as ill-served.
But when his father died of cirrhosis of the liver and his mother was killed in a car crash, he dried out and returned to school. In San Francisco, he joined the Job Corps, specializing in cooking and culinary studies. Brave Heart wants to go to college, but was told not to bother applying for a tribal grant because the federally funded grant program had only 215 places for 524 applicants this fall. With the cuts, the number could drop to 115. Even food is a problem, and the Agriculture Department provides cheese, frozen ground beef, rice and other basics through its Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations.