A young girl died Tuesday night after being attacked by a pack of dogs at the "Crazy Horse housing complex" on the notorious Pine Ridge Reservation near the South Dakota Badlands, according to the AP and a local newspaper.

The Rapid City Journal was first to report the tragic story:

Police Chief Ron Duke said the little girl was attacked around 5 p.m. while she was sledding near the housing area.

Duke said the child's death has renewed concerns about packs of dogs running uncontrolled in every district of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.

Parents should not leave their children outside unsupervised, Duke said.

Observers have warned for years about the threat posed by roaming dogs on America's dilapidated Native American reservations, including Pine Ridge—site of the infamous Wounded Knee Massacre and permanent home of the Oglala Lakota, where 1 in 4 residents don't have cars and 8 of 10 households are affected by alcoholism.

Mired in poverty and crime, residents of Pine Ridge have long complained that the "urban jungle" lacks adequate social and safety services, and help hasn't been forthcoming from the federal government that displaced their ancestors.

The U.S. government "made us many promises, more than I can remember," Lakota chief Red Cloud is reported to have said on his resettlement at the reservation. "But they never kept but one. They promised to take our land, and they took it."

[Photo credit: AP]