"In 2005, photographer Aaron Huey set out to do a project on poverty in America. "I literally found Pine Ridge because it was just another poverty statistic," he recently told me. "But when I got there, I got taken in so deep, so fast."

Before he knew it, a story about poverty in general became a seven-year documentary about the Oglala Lakota of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. National Geographic recently asked him to shoot a story specifically for the magazine, now on the cover of the August issue.

Huey shares his experience — and some photos."

Get the Story:
Slideshow: The Light And Dark On Pine Ridge Reservation (NPR 8/13)

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NGM: Oglala Sioux Tribe perseveres in Wounded Knee's shadow (7/17)