Dakotas Double Death

[bryndis]

Originally Posted by asmitty

Um, South Dakota actually.

Both states have a high percentage of native Americans due to the Trail of Tears, and both states have a DMV age of 14 for obtaining a license.

[MissFit29]

I thought Tracy's statements were a little off. She kept saying that Ruby just left her there, and she would not have done that to her. I think there's more to the accident than Tracy is letting on.

[MegtheEgg86]

Originally Posted by bryndis

Both states have a high percentage of native Americans due to the Trail of Tears, and both states have a DMV age of 14 for obtaining a license.

Not to be a pain, but the "high percentage" (there's not a high percentage of Native Americans anywhere, unfortunately) of Native Americans in North and South Dakota has nothing to do with the Trail of Tears. President Jackson forcibly relocated tribes of the southern U.S. (Cherokee, Chickasaw, Seminole, etc.) to what's now present-day Oklahoma, not North or South Dakota, or anywhere in the upper Midwest. As well, Ruby, Arnold, and Tracy were/are Yankton Sioux--a band indigenous to South Dakota.

3. Isn't it a known fact that once you got off the reservation, teenage pregnancy rates (i've heard) and graduation of high school is more likely to happen?

There are plenty of problems with reservations in the United States. I personally believe that has little to do with the people residing there, and much to do with the U.S. government. JMO, though.

[Mastermind]

I thought Tracy's statements were a little off. She kept saying that Ruby just left her there, and she would not have done that to her. I think there's more to the accident than Tracy is letting on.

I fully believe that there is a lie somewhere in this case. The only sources are either Tracy's statement of events or the police.

Here is a thought, what if Ruby and Arnold were never in the car to begin with. And that Tracy was alone or with someone else(a person more concerned about his own survival than Tracy's) in the care when the accident happened.

I mean other than her statement, what proof do we have that Arnold and Ruby were ever in the car when the accident occured.

When the car was found, was the car door open or closed?

[nohwheregirl]

Originally Posted by bryndis

3. Isn't it a known fact that once you got off the reservation, teenage pregnancy rates (i've heard) and graduation of high school is more likely to happen?

Sad, North dakota..

First of all, that's a counterfactual. That is, you can't say that moving a American Indian population off of the land that they own would cause them to graduate at higher rates and lower teenage pregnancy rates because it's not a disprovable hypothesis. You may have read those statistics somewhere that say American Indian Reservations have high levels of high school dropout and high levels of teenage pregnancy, but you're attributing cause and effect where it doesn't belong. Second, why should a sovereign people leave their home?

Ultimately, your statement has nothing to do with the case. I agree that the situation is extremely sad. The way the United States has treated it's Native peoples is one of our greatest shames. I don't see how that should lead one to think that the Archambeau family or the Brugiere family should have moved away from their homes. That's what your post seems to imply, but please correct me if I'm wrong.