Sioux County, which is home to the North Dakota portion of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, is the least healthy place in the U.S., according to the County Health Rankings study.

The county ranks poorly in health indicators such as premature death, adult obesity, physical inactivity, excessive drinking, motor vehicle crash death rates and sexually transmitted diseases. It's the second year in a row that the North Dakota portion of the reservation has landed at the bottom of the list.

But Standing Rock isn't alone. Eight of the 10th least healthy places in the U.S. are in Indian Country, according to the rankings.

“We almost have a blind spot to the fact that we have counties, that represent all or part of Indian nations, that are some of the least healthy places certainly in each state and nationwide,” Patrick Remington, a professor of population health sciences at the University of Wisconsin in Madison who compiled the data used for the study, told Bloomberg News. “To me, that should be sort of a national disgrace.”

Get the Story:
Sioux Nation Reservation Is Least Healthy Place in U.S. (Bloomberg News 4/3)