Koakuma's Open Salon Blog

We Cannot Leave People to Freeze

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 21:10:02 -0400

Passing the word on from One Spirit and the Lakota. The reservation needs help and they sent this email to me. You can go to their website and donate some dollars through paypal. I give them what I can for some years now and One Spirirt is the real deal:

We Cannot Leave People To Freeze

On Friday October 9th, the first winter storm whipped across the reservation. It was 11 degrees F, the winds were blowing at 20-30 mph, and it was snowing. We responded quickly to calls from two elders who were without heat and needed wood. When the men delivering the wood arrived at the first house, they were burning their clothes for heat.

During the next few months, urgent calls like these will come more frequently. We cannot leave people to freeze. There are men on the reservation who will cut the wood and deliver it. They need our help with equipment and transport costs. There are only a few more weeks when they will be able to gather and deliver the wood - between bouts of seriously cold weather.

It is critical that we continue to have the resources to not only meet urgent needs but to prevent these life-threatening situations from happening. That requires that we are able to support the men in gathering wood and delivering it before storms hit.

Right now the two wood programs are in need of a log splitter, 2 chain saws, and tires for a truck. These supplies can save lives this winter.

NO ONE SHOULD BE FORCED TO BURN THEIR CLOTHING IN ORDER TO STAY WARM.

Please donate now. The need is critical.

Love and Peace,
The One Spirit Team

One Spirit WEBSITE
One Spirit BLOG
One Spirit YAHOO GROUP

One Spirit
PO Box 416
Holyoke, CO 80734

Visit us on the web at www.nativeprogress.org
Paypal: OneSpirit@nativeprogress.org

“Let us put our minds together and see what life we
can make for our children.”
-Sitting Bull-

A Chance to Help Pine Ridge and Keep Lakota Elders Warm

Mon, 6 Apr 2009 23:04:42 -0400

I have had several questions from OS people about the elders of Pine Ridge and how they are doing since I wrote about them last. My contacts are limited. Mostly I save money to donate to help buy heaters. These people have so little. They should at least be warm.

Today I got an email from the organization I donate to. They have a chance to get some heaters at a greatly reduced price, but need cash to make it happen. If you can see it in your heart, please help the poorest Americans. I hate asking for money, but Pine Ridge is a third world enclave. People freeze to death there. Starve from lack of food. I know times are hard, but even five dollars can make a difference.

I send money through paypal and just say it is for the heater program in the remarks. This is the link to the donation page. Ninety percent of the donation gets to the people which is an amazingly low overhead for a charitable organization.

If you use paypal, you will need to fill in the donation amount and update the total. Thank you for helping.

Dear ONE Spirit sponsors, supporters and friends old and new,

This week ONE Spirit is faced with the challenge of raising $8600. We have a last opportunity to buy the remaining stock of 200 heaters for our heater distribution program at the discounted price of $43 each. (They normally sell for over $100.) These heaters have been amazingly effective and in many instances they have been the sole source of heat for families during this unbelievable winter. Pine Ridge just went through their 5th blizzard for this winter. The temperature tonight is forecast to be in the teens.

Recently we received a letter with the photos shown below. The family doesn't have much. Their "new" house has no heat and no running water. They survived the winter with the heater received through One Spirit.

We also spoke just this week with a Grandmother on the reservation who has raised 10 of her grandchildren. She has no propane but does have 2 heaters from ONE Spirit. She said they have kept her family warm for the past 2 winters, and dramatically lowered the amount of propane they needed to buy.

Another grandmother is raising 4 grandchildren under the age of eleven. The trailer they live in was given to them. The ceiling leaks, the floor has holes, there is no skirting to keep pipes from freezing. They survived with one of our heaters.

While most of us are looking to the warmer days of spring and putting heating needs behind us, ONE Spirit needs to ask you to help us take advantage of this last opportunity to acquire these heaters for the program.

Please donate ANY amount that you can - 200 families will be warm next winter because of your generosity.

Please forward this email to your friends and family - to anyone who might be concerned for the Lakota people.

Thank you again and again.

Love and Peace, Jeri and Diane

To DONATE

Street Art - OS Collage

Sat, 22 Nov 2008 10:11:22 -0500

Can you spare some warm?

Thu, 13 Nov 2008 09:11:32 -0500

This is not Street Art, but it is important.

I am concerned about what is happening right now at Pine Ridge after the blizzard and have been watching the blog of the relief organization I donate to closely. I'm going to scrape together another fifty dollars when I get paid. They have only raised three thousand and that can't go very far. According to the blog, it has already been spent on wood and gasoline to haul the wood into the rez.

"The Pine Ridge Reservation is the second largest reservation in the country, spanning 3,500 square miles. With a population of more than 60,000, it remains one of the poorest areas in the Western Hemisphere where 87% of the residents are unemployed and 90% live below the federal poverty level."

Donations to One Spirit are tax deductable and I always get a letter from them for the IRS. I have been sending One Spirit money to buy heaters for elders every winter for five years now. The heaters help cut costs by hundreds in savings, but are not much use with all the electric still out now.

Donate to One Spirit to help.

I also found this letter on the blog today and it is very sad:

Hi Everyone,

You have all been following the events happening at PRR. The following is a e-mail I sent to a company, I approached for desperately needed assistance this past week.

"Dear Ms. Butler,

My name is Edward Chandler and I stood before you this week looking for a bit of Corporate Charity, in the form of blankets, to warm the people of the Lakota Sioux Tribe at Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. Earlier in the week, this area was hit with a extremely damaging blizzard, creating much havoc. The Lakota Sioux are accustomed to severe winters, but this particular storm had wind exceeding 70 miles an hour and brought down over 600 electrical poles. Areas at Pine Ridge are still without electricity as I write this e-mail.

While I left the foyer of the Northwest Woolen Mills, I felt a quiet rejection at failing in my mission. I had failed the Lakota Sioux and I had failed One Spirit, the organization I volunteer for. My mission was to see the opportunity for the Northwest Woolen Mills to receive thousands of dollars worth of advertizing in every Native American newspaper in North America. But I failed to get that point across, because I had to grovel in the foyer of your business. I wasn't even extended the courtesy of being taken to a meeting room to plead my cause. I didn't want, nor did I expect hundreds of blankets. If I had been offered 50 blankets, I'll have been elated. One Spirit had expended their emergency funding on fuel, because of this storm and even though, we had raised over $3,000.00 in a emergency plea, that too was expended, in supplying emergency aide to the reservation people.

I live in Blackstone less than a mile from Northwest Woolen Mills and have read in the Woonsocket Call, where Northwest Woolen Mills has donated thousands of blankets to victims in foreign countries over the years. I had hoped that you would have extended some of that same corporate courtesy to Native American's, freezing to death, right here in South Dakota. but alas.

I lost in my bid for assistance, but Northwest Woolen Mills lost on a opportunity to be brought to the attention of every single Native American Tribe in North America.

I ask of you, the next time someone approach's you and asks about blankets, you at least take the person to a meeting room, to ask the nature of their business. Please don't treat that person like a homeless vagrant as I felt I was.

Cordially Yours,

Edward Broken Feather Chandler
Mohawk Elder

If you wish to send this corporation an e-mail regarding your feelings, their web site is: http://www.northwestwoolen.com/ Please keep your comments cordial and in due regard to their situation, in this economic turmoil.

Street Art - Help the Freezing Elders of the First People

Fri, 7 Nov 2008 12:11:22 -0500

Pine Ridge Rez is buried in snow and donations are needed urgently to keep elders alive. Please give what you can for wood and fuel. No Elder should freeze to death.

These words are from One Spirit who I give to all the time to help out on the Rez. They are good people who have done much for the rez for many years and the money will be used as they say:

THERE IS A BLIZZARD ON THE RESERVATION

* MUCH SNOW
* MORE THAN 60 MILE AN HOUR WINDS
* THE ELECTRICITY IS OUT
* POWER LINES ARE DOWN
* POLES ARE DOWN

THE ELECTRIC COMPANY SUGGESTS THAT IT WILL BE AT LEAST A COUPLE OF DAYS BEFORE POWER CAN BE RESTORED.

Our people on the reservation with 4 wheel drive are prepared to help elders and families stranded without food, water and heat but they need money for gas and wood.

The American Red Cross has been alerted and has confirmed to us that they will need the help of those on the reservation to reach outlying areas.

We have set up a process for folks who are going to help to get gas and wood. Can you contribute to this need?

Please give what you can. Many people on the reservation require dialysis, oxygen, nebulizers, and other medical care.

www.nativeprogress.org