South Dakota Blizzard

women · **Posted:** Fri Jan 29, 2010 4:09 pm

I was notified of this via a friend:

Can any of you tell me what's going on?

There's been a push to notify news networks and disaster relief groups.

Quote:

Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe
Incident Command System
For further information:
Joe Brings Plenty, Tribal Chairman (605) 964-4155
Leo Fischer, Tri-County/Mni Waste Water System (605) 365-6940
Natalie Stites, Public Information Officer, Incident Command System
(715) 896-0158, Natalie.stites@gmail.com
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - January 28, 2010
DISASTER DECLARED ON THE CHEYENNE RIVER SIOUX INDIAN RESERVATION IN SOUTH DAKOTA.

Severe Ice Storms and Freezing Tempratures Have Knocked Down 3,000 Utility
Poles - Tribal Residents Have Been Without Electricity, Heat and Running Water
for Six Days.

Eagle Butte, South Dakota - The Chairman of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe has
declared a State of Emergency in central South Dakota, an Indian reservation
approximately the size of Connecticut with nearly 15,000 Tribal members. The Tribe is
still awaiting Presidential disaster declaration.

Days of ice storms and strong winds have downed over 3,000 utility poles across the
reservation. Thousands of already impoverished tribal residents have been without
electricity or heat for five days, with wind chill factors well below zero. Experts estimate
it may be as long as a month before all areas have electricity restored.

“Making matters worse,” said Tribal Chairman Joe Brings Plenty, “the loss of electricity
has also knocked out the Reservationʼs aging water system. We have no running water
on the entire Reservation, it is also affecting of Reservation communities such as Faith,
whose water is supplied from pipes running through the Reservation.”

The Tribe is working hard to bring families in, out of the cold and into shelters. The
South Dakota National Guard, The Stateʼs Department of Public Safety as well as the
Army Corps of Engineers have come to the reservation and supplied some emergency
generators. The Tribe would especially like to thank Wal-Mart for providing emergency
food and supplies, and the Navajo Nation for sending up a tribal utility crew to help with
the downed electrical lines.

However, much more assistance is still needed. No one facility can host a shelter large
enough for all the Tribal residents; additional generators are needed to set up additional
shelters. The Tribeʼs one and only grocery store has lost all of its perishables;
additional food is needed. Also, dialysis patients have had to be evacuated to Rapid
City.

woodrow · **Posted:** Sat Feb 06, 2010 9:36 pm

I am just north of cheyenne river in ND. We were also without power for 6 days. But I understand they got walloped much worse than we did. We were supposed to go down there, but are snowed in up here and have not been able to get down there. But we did manage to speak with a friend in Faith (Just off the Rez on the western edge) from what I got, the area was hit very hard. Faith is now without water and possibly some parts of the rez also are.

ghostwarrior · **Posted:** Sun Feb 07, 2010 11:01 am

In the midst of it all the People will survive once more. As the world rushed off to haiti... we see that the People of First Nations matter little.

The Dine power crew was an extreme gesture as they too were recently buried in snow and their power crews were restoring power to the People of their own Nation. I am thankful to the Dine for this thoughtfulness and kindness.

StormsRider · **Posted:** Mon Feb 08, 2010 7:14 am

Unbelievable that we promise billions of dollars to other ccountries every year and fail every year to take care of those in real need within our own borders. But there are those groups in AmeriKa that are not relevant and shunned almost completly by the government and exist only on the edge of the "good peoples" minds. I have often wondered if the way things are for Indiginous peoples is just blind blissful ignorance or if it is indeed punishment of the greatest magnitude. In these times of thinking about it I always come to the conclusion that no one can be this ignorant.

ghostwarrior · **Posted:** Mon Feb 08, 2010 11:35 am

The only thing i can say is that we The People must learn to care for one another. For the united states government is no benefactor or friend to any First Nations People in the united states unless they bow and beg and for federal dollars. Better to be poor and free then to take the scraps of the united states government.

woodrow · **Posted:** Mon Feb 08, 2010 5:52 pm

ghostwarrior wrote:

The only thing i can say is that we The People must learn to care for one another. For the united states government is no benefactor or friend to any First Nations People in the united states unless they bow and beg and for federal dollars. Better to be poor and free then to take the scraps of the united states government.

Any benefit that places shackles on the recipient, is not a benefit, it is bait for a trap.

I can not envision any human father who would let his children starve, while he feeds strangers. I do not know a proper name for one who does such, but I know he can not be human.

LostWhiteBrother · **Joined:** Sat Jul 25, 2009 5:49 am **Posts:** 903

I am near 30 and i can say I heard very little about conditions on the rez. The old systems of lying to cover your own mistakes and those of your ancestors still applies in many ways. But that system is changing rapidly, now at the age of 20 people are hearing or have heard alot about it. I lived in many states and some places we lived I am finding out now we were very close to a reservation. Never knew. It's the system that has been put into place as wool over our eyes, to keep us from knowing what actually goes on. If you look hard enough you can track most things down to certain places, government, companies, individuals, they all each set their little things in place and fight each other for control. I'd have to say SR ignorance is rampant in many parts of this country. Very intelligent, yet ignorant people. Some even specifically choose to be ignorant than to face the consequences of their actions.

South Dakota Blizzard

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