Cheyenne River Tribal Reservation Recovery

Storm damage  - April 2010 Update

The Lakota people have an amazing resilience.  They have been through great massacres like Wounded Knee and have seen great suffering, but they have the strength to recover and keep going.
                                              - Tony Genia, senior program officer at Northwest Area Foundation. 

As a brutal winter turns to spring on the Cheyenne River Reservation, there are glaring reminders of the fierce winter ice storm that thrust the reservation into a state of emergency.  Three thousand snapped power lines have been replaced, but the rolling prairie is still littered with thousands of broken poles.  View video of the damage.

“You just can’t get a sense of the devastation until you drive 18 to 20 miles on the reservation, and mile-after-mile you see the broken poles that look like toothpicks,” said Genia. 

The reservation’s antiquated water system has been repaired, but it remains vulnerable to future storms.  Tribal leaders are lobbying for millions in federal dollars to modernize and update the system, so they never again left without running water for an extended period of time.

Northwest Area Foundation’s senior program officer, Tony Genia, joined representatives of Native Americans in Philanthropy and the Bush and South Dakota Community Foundations on April 1 in presenting more than $400,000 for disaster relief to the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe.   The money came from individual contributions to the South Dakota Community Foundation and Native Americans in Philanthropy spurred by a $50,000 Bush Foundation challenge grant and a $20,000 matching- contributions grant from the Northwest Area Foundation.     

“For all of you and for what you’ve done, we’re very grateful from deep down in our hearts.  Thank you so much,” said Cheyenne River Sioux Tribal Chairman Joseph Brings Plenty, who said the tribe was taken off guard by the disaster.  “We didn’t have bottled water.  We didn’t have blankets, and we didn’t have generators.” 

Genia added “it will take years for the people of Cheyenne River to recover.  There are hundreds of homes with broken pipes and water damage that is now turning mold.  Many people will not be able to return home for a year or more.  They’ve had to move in with family or friends.”

Most of the grant money will be used for housing repairs and to equip 12 emergency shelters across the reservation with generators and emergency food and water supplies.   Tribal leaders want to be proactive, so they never again have to face this type of threat to human life and welfare. 

Wrapping up their trip, Foundation representatives visited Arvill Looking Horse, a widely respective Native spiritual leader, who recalled the suffering in the remote reservation community of Green Grass, which was the first to experience the storm’s fury.  “It was pretty tough for three weeks.  No electricity, no water and no telephone – and it was really cold.”   As he spoke to the group, an eagle swirled overhead, sending a symbolic message that the Creator was watching over the Native people.     ##

Slideshow of foundations' visit to Cheyenne River Sioux reservation
Eileen Briggs describes the courage and resolve on the reservation.  Listen
February 2010 update


Letter from Kevin F. Walker
President and CEO
Northwest Area Foundation

The people of the Cheyenne River Reservation, a Native American tribal community in rural north central South Dakota, are struggling to recover from a brutal winter ice storm that pulled down thousands of power lines and cut water supplies, left thousands without heat or electricity, and forced many families from their homes.

Cheyenne River Sioux Tribal Chairman Joseph Brings Plenty has declared a state of emergency, and has issued an appeal for oil, propane, kerosene heaters, fuel, generators, non-perishable food and bottled water.  

In response, we at the Northwest Area Foundation have allocated a total $50,000 to help meet the emergency needs of a people with whom we have worked closely for over a decade.  A portion, $20,000, is intended to match grant dollars from the Bush Foundation.  The money will go directly to the tribe for food, water, relocation and heating fuel. 

We are glad to lend our support to the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, one of the many American Indian communities and nations with whom we have had a long-standing relationship. We also want to thank and acknowledge the Bush Foundation for its leadership in generating donations to address this emergency.

An important Foundation grantee, the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe has inspired us with its vision and action to reduce poverty long term. We stand with Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe as it confronts this crisis, and as it continues to advance community progress to sustainable prosperity.

Kevin Walker Signature

Read a statement from Chairman Joseph Brings Plenty

Read the Northwest Area Foundation news release