Kathleen Pickering Associate Professor Department of Anthropology Colorado State University

1. The Everyday Economy on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation: Empowering Community Responses to Rural Poverty Kathleen Pickering Associate Professor Department of Anthropology Colorado State University Special thanks to graduate research assistants David Bartecchi and Heather Schwartz This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0092527, a USDA-Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service NRICGP Rural Development Grant No. 0190121, an Annie E. Casey Foundation Grant No. 201.1855, an award from the Oglala Oyate Woitancan Empowerment Zone, and the Monfort Family Foundation’s Colorado State University Monfort Professorship

2. Pine Ridge

3. Methods • 5 year Longitudinal Study • Random Sample of 240 Households

4. Approaches to Poverty • The Everyday Economy (Braudel) • Fluid, Uncertain, Dynamic, Multi-Layered, Socially Embedded • BUT Structured and Patterned • Another Experience of Capitalism • Overcome View as “Informal,” “Unstructured,” “Other” • Equality and Economy (Michael Blim) • Social and Political Equality • Commitment to Equality in Every Choice or Action

5. The Nature of Work Wage

6. Self-Sufficiency and Natural Resources

7. Self-Sufficiency, Land and Housing • I Would Prefer to Live on My Own Land (62%) • I Live on My Own Land Now (23.7%)

8. Social Networks Outside

9. Local Social Networks: Access and Exclusion

10. Institutions for Change

11. CONCLUSIONS for POLICY • “Build Social Relationships,” rather than “Implement Programs” • Build Equality into Every Aspect (Decolonizing Policy) • Support Devolution, but Multi-Layered • Capitalize Entrepreneurship/ Home- Ownership • Support Creative Land Reform and Natural Resource Access • Conservation Reserve for Non-Farm Households • Environmental Services Contracts • Only Constant is Change • Build Flexibility into Program Design and Funding