Storm disaster for Sioux flies under compassion radar
Written by Administrator
Friday, 12 February 2010
Storm disaster for Sioux flies under compassion radar Febuary 10, 2010
No photos or video of sweet suffering faces. No popular vacation landscape for a backdrop. No personal connective ties. Are those the reasons the natural disaster in the Great Plains has gone below our philanthropy radar?
How many of us knew anything about the massive winter storms that have left the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation without power or water or heat for nearly two weeks? (Yes, I know many reading this are on the East Coast, like me, nervously wondering if today's latest blizzard will knock out our power. But we have resources that tribal people with 80% unemployment in the remote plains simply don't.)
USA TODAY carried a story nine days ago but, like most media focused on millions suffering in Haiti, we didn't keep an eye on Native American who are still as freezing, isolated, and miserably unsafe now as then.
Outraged Keith Olbermann is now raising funds at MSNBC for the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe Storm Relief - Emergency Assistance Fund.
The Episcopal Bishop of South Dakota, John Tarrant is calling for relief funds from Episcopal Relief and Development, and set Valentine's Day for a special collection to help the 30,000 Sioux in an area the size of Connecticut.
According to Episcopal News Service, Tribal Chairman Joe Brings Plenty, said they lost 3,000 power poles and the reservation water system.
The South Dakota National Guard, the state Department of Public Safety, and the Army Corps of Engineers have supplied some emergency generators. But according to the release, food, medical supplies and additional generators are needed.The tribe's one and only grocery store lost all perishables. Dialysis patients are also being evacuated three hours away, to Rapid City.
And more snow is on the way. Is more aid?
Thousands of residents of the Cheyenne River Reservation of South Dakota, home to these dancers shown in 2004 at the dedication ceremony for the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian, have been without heat, power, or water for two weeks after ice storms.
Are we like the applauding audience on that old TV show Queen For A Day where the housewife with the most piteous tale and the greatest audience response could win a new fridge?
Do we move faster to help the cute, the convenient, the folks who tell the saddest story? Why do some causes get snowed with aid while others don't?
