Native American children more likely to face long term effects of child poverty

RAPID CITY, S.D. (KEVN) - Nearly 13 million American children live in poverty. These statistics are growing, with the percentage of children living in poverty spiking after pandemic relief ended.

South Dakota holds 6 of America’s poorest counties, with nearly half of the population of children living in poverty in those areas.

“A lot of our children as they move into grade school throughout middle school, high school, end up having lower grades than other children,” says Anne Reddy, Rural America Initiative’s director of the HeadStart program.

Native American children see the highest rates of poverty, with 55% of the child population in Oglala Lakota County alone, living impoverished.

“They tend to be behind in reading, and mathematics. Need extra help, get held back, and eventually will drop out of high school completely. End up in jobs that don’t particularly have a high pay raise or recognition program within them, so they are in lower-paying jobs. You just see the cycle continue generation after generation,” Reddy concludes.

Children who grow up impoverished often lack the food, sanitation, shelter, health care, and education they need to survive and thrive.

“Honestly it would be an easier question to ask, you know, how does it not affect children? Pretty much in every domain, we see differences between children who grow up in poverty in adulthood versus children who do not. Things like educational attainment, job prospects, health, mental health, a number of different chronic health conditions,” says BreAnne Danzi, a clinical psychologist, and associate professor at South Dakota State University.

It’s not just individuals impacted, it’s the whole community.

“Communities that are dealing with poverty are seeing people dying sooner, people not having as much education, not as much economic attainment, not bringing as many resources into the community like resources for schools, healthcare, things like that,” Danzi continues.

The other counties with the highest reported levels of child poverty are Todd County, Mellete County, Corson County, and Ziebach County.

Native American children can be victims of a system not set up to support them, but there are organizations ready to combat those numbers.

Rural America Initiative is an organization that works with children from a young age... who are economically challenged and lack the basic resources they need.

“Here at Rural America Initiatives, we serve low-income children. They’re 100% below the poverty level. Our hope is that these children graduate from school, get higher paying jobs, and stay out of prison,” states Bruce Long Fox, Executive Director of Rural America Initiative

Their HeadStart programs begin working with children as early as age 0. As kids get older, they continue to guide them through high school.

“We also do a mentoring program that starts out with the 6th grade and goes all the way through high school. We try to provide sober adult role models to help the students be more successful,” Long Fox finishes.

Through the programs they are putting in place, RAI hopes that the services they provide will allow Native American children to break out of the generational pattern of poverty.

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