Given a cold shoulder?

February 10, 2010 6:53 PM

"The Cheyenne River Reservation located in the State of South Dakota, homeland of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, is currently facing an emergency situation due to an ice storm that crippled the electrical and water infrastructure. Though the ice storm has passed, the water and power system remains challenged and several Reservation communities have been without power for over ten (10) days. Moreover, a bitterly cold weather system is expected to come in by Sunday evening."

More coverage from USAtoday about the lack of coverage.

posted by FunkyHelix (11 comments total)

Complaining about the complete lack of coverage is one thing, but comparing this to Haiti? Seriously? That earthquake in Haiti probably killed more people than this ice storm affected in total.
posted by Mitrovarr at 7:29 PM on February 10, 2010

Anyone have any clue as to what we could do that might be useful to these people?
posted by HuronBob at 7:37 PM on February 10, 2010

generators, snowplows, fuel, clean drinking water, blankets, sleeping bags, insulation, food all leap to mind. refrigeration shouldn't be a problem here, anyway.

especially clean water, since they have no power for their san system.

and portolets.

and better insulated structures.

the npr thing said this was basically the first bad storm of the winter and they're just lining up to roll for like the next 2-3 months or so.
posted by toodleydoodley at 7:42 PM on February 10, 2010

Here's the NPR story.
posted by marsha56 at 8:04 PM on February 10, 2010

I used to live on this reservation back in the late '80s. I was just a toddler, but my father was a doc for the Indian Health Service. I didn't get to learn much about the rez while I was there, but it's been a research interest of mine ever since. It's a pretty bleak place to start out with, and these ice storms and water outages seem like just two more cruel events in a litany that could rival even the most downtrodden developing countries.

As if there weren't already a thousand reasons to give a couple dollars, I'll add only that the Indian Health Service is underfunded by about 50%, which means that most operating rooms close up halfway through the year, and that cardiologists, psychiatrists, and other specialists fly in on Cessnas maybe once a month. All this in a community with nearly twice the national suicide rate and five times the incidence of alcoholism. I'd ask you all to give if you can. Two donation sites are here (linked on the tribal website), and here (linked in the MSNBC story).
posted by The White Hat at 8:08 PM on February 10, 2010 [17 favorites]

I notice that all (hopefully all) the dialysis recipients have been caravanned out, so there's that need, too
posted by toodleydoodley at 8:12 PM on February 10, 2010

Can the last person to leave the federal and state departments of Basic Human Services please turn out the lights?
posted by Camofrog at 9:32 PM on February 10, 2010

Didn't the Bureau of Indian Affairs embezzle billions of dollars that ought to have gone to different tribes in the last century? Can't they be made to cough up some of that money now?
posted by Azaadistani at 7:39 AM on February 11, 2010

If you are referring to the Cobell vs. Salazar (Babbit, Kempthorne, Norton etc.) case over mismanagement of IIM trust funds then yes: they can be made to cough up some of that money (see also). A tiny bit of money relative to that which was mismanaged, anyway.
posted by Barry B. Palindromer at 8:01 AM on February 11, 2010

Anyone have any clue as to what we could do that might be useful to these people?

Grab a few of their kids, sneak them off the reservation, and place them with Baptist families with central heating.
posted by leonard horner at 10:48 AM on February 11, 2010 [1 favorite]

Anyone have any clue as to what we could do that might be useful to these people?

Cash money is the first priority. The first link in the post has a link for giving down at the bottom of the page. Keith Olberman has also been pushing this giving page (which had a $35,000 matching grant attached to it - looks like they've raised about $243,000).

Second, get in touch with your Senators and Congresspeople (and the White House) and express in no uncertain terms your disgust with how this whole thing has been handled. Demand that the Government provide the tribe with any and all assistance they need immediately.
posted by anastasiav at 11:11 AM on February 11, 2010 [2 favorites]