Some stats
MORTALITY:
* Lakota men have a life expectancy of less than 44 years, one of the lowest of any country in the World
* The Lakota infant mortality rate is 300% more than the U.S. Average.
* One out of every four Lakota children born are fostered or adopted out to non-Indian homes.
* Teenage suicide rate is 150% higher than the U.S national average
DISEASE:
* Cervical cancer is 500% higher than the U.S national average.
* The rate of diabetes is 800% higher than the U.S national average.
* Federal Commodity Food Program provides high sugar, high fat, processed foods that increase our rates of diabetes and heart disease.
POVERTY:
* The median income is approximately $2,600 to $3,500 per year.
* 97% of our Lakota people live below the poverty line.
* Many families cannot afford heating oil, wood or propane and many residents use ovens to heat their homes.
UNEMPLOYMENT:
* Unemployment rates on our reservations are 80% or higher.
* There is very little industry to provide jobs
HOUSING:
* Elderly die each winter from hypothermia (freezing).
* 1/3 of the homes lack basic clean water and sewage while 40% lack electricity.
* 60% of Reservation families have no telephone.
* 60% of housing is infected with potentially fatal black molds.
* There is an estimated average of 17 people living in each family home (may only have two to three rooms). Some homes, built for 6 to 8 people, have up to 30 people living in them.
DRUGS AND ALCOHOL:
* More than half the Reservation’s adults battle addiction and disease.
* Alcoholism affects 9 in 10 families.
THREATENED CULTURE:
* Only 14% of the Lakota population can speak the Lakota language. The language is not being shared inter-generationally. * Today, the average age of a fluent Lakota speaker is 65 years.
* Our Lakota language is an Endangered Language, on the verge of extinction and is not allowed to be taught in the U.S. Government schools.
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What the devs have done to this coin is a travesty. It once had a 10 million dollar market cap. Think how that could have made a difference. Does the new website look like a serious attempt to tackle the above problems? Have they presented a convincing argument for its adoption? The side projects: selling paper wallets, maple coin etc., asset management etc. betray the devs ignorance of how important this coin could have been. The Lakota would have been given a massive injection of cash, the devs themselves would have been made wealthy, but instead they decided to undermine the whole project by trying to make $10 here and there. They should have focused on BTC adoption by merchants on the reservation, education, BTC tourism, from there the transition to MZC coin would be a small step. This was apparently what the BTC Oyate Project was all about, but the last tweet from them was about Payu being taken to court for child support payments. All they had to do was develop a respectable web presence and respond with positive PR, but they blew it because of their myopia.
