[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (1999, Book II)]
[July 7, 1999]
[Page 1149]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Exchange With Reporters at Pine Ridge Indian Reservation
July 7, 1999

    Q. Mr. President, what did you learn from the Igloo neighborhood 
this morning?
    The President. Well, the woman who was speaking with me, Geraldine--some of you had to leave before she 
talked--there are 11 people living in her house and 17 members of her 
family living in the trailer next door connected to her house; 28 people 
there with five bedrooms between them.
    And she talked about how hard it was 
with no jobs to make ends meet and how she had to buy all the children's 
school clothes on installment, on layaway. And what she did was she had 
to find money for the children who were on the cross-country team--just 
to be able to do the most basic things in life.
    And she said, yes, they did need new 
housing, but the most important thing they needed was a way to make a 
living. Keep in mind--this is unbelievable--this country has had an 
unemployment rate of under 5 percent for 2 years; the unemployment rate 
here is almost 75 percent. We have to find a way not only to fix this, 
the very difficult housing circumstances, but to get them jobs.
    We'll talk more about it.

Note: The exchange began at approximately 10:30 a.m. at a new housing 
complex on the reservation. In his remarks, the President referred to 
Geraldine Blue Bird, resident, Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. A tape was 
not available for verification of the content of this exchange.