It should be personal to all of us - Please help the reservation Propane Project

teacherken

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Friday November 23, 2012 · 3:00 PM PST

2012/11/23 · 15:00

I have never REALLY known cold. I am a middle class white American of Jewish background.

The house in which I grew up had an old oil burner, for which fuel had to be delivered. It heated hot water which was sent upas steam to old-fashioned radiators. So long as we had fuel, we had heat.

We had a gas stove until we remodeled the kitchen, and a gas hot water heater. Why we did not have gas furnace was beyond me.

We lived through power outages of several days. We once went through two days when the snow was high enough to prevent the fuel from getting through, just as our oil ran out. But we did not face freezing, as it was still in the 20s and house was well-insulated.

That was in a suburban area, where the oil truck only had to travel over several miles of suburban, well-maintained roads.

I have lived my entire life within major cities (New York, PhiladelphIa) or their close-in suburbs. The longest I have ever been without power was 5 days, and our house has gas hot water and a gas stove, so we had some access to heat in wintry conditions, although that power outage was during the heat of the DC summer after the derecho, and the house became quite warm, reaching 90 degrees at one point.

Not all Americans are as fortunate.

For too many of our First Peoples, they live in remote locations on what we still call "reservations" - areas often of concentrated poverty, in rural setting without the kinds of utility services that most Americans take for granted until they lose them, as many did in the aftermath of the derecho, and more recently even in parts of our largest city and its immediate surroundings in the aftermath of Sandy.

For those of us on the East Coast, these were extraordinary events.

For those on our rural reservations, getting through the winter is a struggle, every winter.

Which is why this community, often so generous to its members, has for the past few years, taken on the task of being generous to those who are not directly part of this community.

I am not Native American, even in part.

But this issue is nevertheless personal for me, as I will explain.

Even if it were not personal, it would matter to me.

And I am honored to be invited to participate in this community effort.

Please keep reading.

My wife and her family may well be part Micmac (Mi'kmaq), as she discovered at an extended family reunion on Prince Edward Island a few summers back. She is in part descended from a Tory who left New England to get away from the American Revolution. The evidence is pretty clear of a direct descent around 6 generations back from a man whose wife was First Peoples. That is one connection.

Her next oldest sibling is a sister who when living in New Mexico married a retired Marine Officer who grew up in a Pueblo near Albuquerque. Although they divorced, it was not before producing our beautiful niece, a registered member of the Pueblo, who now lives with her mother in rural Vermont.

Through another part of her family my wife and her brother own a piece of property in the Black Hills, the ownership of which has passed down through several generations to them, and about which they sometimes wonder if they should deed it back to the Lakota people from whom it was almost certainly stolen in the 19th Century. They have, as did their previous family owners, kept it undeveloped.

So for us, living as we do a middle class lifestyle in the suburbs of Washington DC, we can nevertheless see connections with those living at Rosebud.

But it is more than that.

The coldest I have ever been was visiting a friend who was a Priest at two small Orthodox Church in America rural parishes in Western Pennsylvania. I remember going out on the slope behind his home. It was about 10 below zero, exceedingly cold for that area, with a bit of a wind. But we could walk down the hill, where he had a coal-fired furnace, with no problem accumulating enough coal to get through the winter. He was not limited by the storage capacity of a propane tank needing to be refilled regularly to get through the Winter. And although he was paid a pittance by his parishes, he never had to worry about enough fuel.

I now teach in a school with many children from poor backgrounds. But they are not isolated on a rural reservation. The denseness of their neighborhoods provides some protection from the wind. And DC never gets as cold as it does in the Northern Plains, where average temperatures are often in the single digits and teens, and where extended periods below zero with bone-chilling winds are not uncommon.

These are fellow human beings.

These are our fellow citizens.

As we complete our Thanksgiving weekend and enter the season of gift-giving, perhaps you can consider using the information below to make a contribution to our ongoing efforts, as I did.

In my case I chose to take the money I earned this week and both purchase a heater and contribute a full delivery of propane. If you can be as generous, people will be gratefyl. Even if you can only make a contribution towards a delivery of propane, it will also be greatly appreciated.

This is personal.

These are our fellow human beings.

If we have some bounty our lives, think how good we will feel be sharing it.

I know I do.

What about you??

Since winter 2009-2010, thanks to the efforts of navajo, Native American Netroots and other Kossacks, low-income Indians at three Indian reservations have received propane and heaters to deal with the often-brutal winters of South Dakota. This is our fourth season of fund raising for this project, which literally saves lives because it catches people who fall through the cracks. Some have asked why we don't run this project through a regular charity. The reason is that our contacts on the reservations say they don't see the money when there is a middleman involved. That is why this is a unique project. You can learn more about the situation at the Rosebud Reservation, read some personal stories and see photos in Aji's post here.

Here is how you can help buy propane: The fastest way to help is to pick up the phone and call with your credit-card information. A family will get propane delivered either the same day or the next day.

ROSEBUD RESERVATION CONTACT:

Telephone St. Francis Energy Co. at:
605-747-2542

11 AM-6 PM MST EVERY DAY

Ask for Sherry or her mom Patsy, but others can help you also. Normally a minimum order is $150, but they have an account to accumulate small donations until they get enough for an full delivery. Credit cards welcome, and they are the only Indian-owned fuel company on the Rosebud. If you'd like to mail a check, make it payable to:

St. Francis Energy Co.

Attn: Sherry or Patsy

St. Francis Energy Co./Valandra's II

P.O. Box 140

St. Francis, South Dakota 57572

PLEASE NOTE: NOT A 501c3, PLEASE CONSULT YOUR TAX PREPARER.

Of course, all the propane in the world won't do you any good without a heater. Many families don't even have working heaters—or ones that work safely. Every year, there are house fires as a result of malfunctioning heaters that people can't afford to repair. So if you're flush or you have a few friends who can put your dollars together, a heater would be really welcome this Thanksgiving season.

You can order a heater and the necessary accessories from Northern Tool HERE and have it shipped to:

Sherry Cornelius

St. Francis Energy Co.

120 N. Main Street

Saint Francis, SD 57572

Here's what you'll be sending:

• Mr. Heater Big Buddy™ Indoor/Outdoor Propane Heater—18,000 BTU, Model# MH18B

You also need to include these accessories:

• Mr. Heater AC Power Adapter for Big Buddy Heaters—6 Volt, Model# F276127

• Mr. Heater 12-Ft. Hose with Regulator for Item# 173635

• Mr. Heater Fuel Filter for Buddy™ Heaters, Model# F273699

Order Total of $235.85 (includes shipping)

INTERNATIONAL DONORS:

If you live out of the country, please use our PayPal link at Native American Netroots. The donation button is in the middle right of the page. This process takes about two weeks for the funds to hit the reservation, so telephoning the propane companies directly is definitely the fastest way to help.

Photos show Rosebud Indian Reservation residents thanking Daily Kos donors for propane and heaters last winter.

This content was created by a Daily Kos Community member.

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