Articles
“A nationwide propane shortage is hitting an American Indian reservation that straddles the border of North and South Dakota particularly hard, causing tribal officials to warn that the thousands of low-income residents who live there are running out of ways to heat their ramshackle homes.
The Standing Rock Reservation is on the wind-swept Northern Plains where there is little to block the icy gales that whip in from the northwest and create wind chills as low as 50 below. Many residents live in mobile homes, some with ill-fitting doors, others with boards tacked up where the windows should be, or deteriorating roofs that leak much-needed warmth.
The propane crisis escalated this week when Debbie Dogskin, 61, died while house-sitting for a friend in a rundown mobile home with an empty propane tank.
“We think she just fell asleep and died,” said her mother, Sara Dogskin, tears trickling from the corners of her eyes as she stared out the dining room window of her house just a few blocks from where her daughter died early Tuesday.
Preliminary autopsy results released Friday did not identify a cause of death, but Sioux County Sheriff Frank Landeis said he believes Dogskin froze to death because it was as cold inside the home as out that morning—1 degree below zero. Dogskin’s family said she had taken off some of her clothes, a symptom of the altered state of mind of someone in the advanced stages of hypothermia. Toxicology reports were expected in six to eight weeks.”
– Pioneer Press, Propane shortage fuels Dakotas reservation crisis
“Due to an extremely deadly winter here on the Northern Plains, a winter which has claimed the life of a tribal member, we are raising funds to deploy 20 home pilot projects to receive multi-fuel stoves to replace dependency on fossil fuels to heat our homes (namely propane). We will grow our fuel source and manufacture our own fuel sources in the immediate future to start this shift to renewables. We send our condolences to the family of the lady we lost to a home which could not afford to be heated. Google “Standing Rock propane crisis” for more info. email us at lastrealindians@gmail.com with any questions. We thank you genuinely. Lila wopila tanka ”
– Indiegogo and the Last Real Indians, Heating the Rez.
Download
Download the 18″x24″ poster (.pdf), Indian Country 52 #7 – Heat the Rez.
Close Ups
Indian Country 52
Indian Country 52 is a weekly project by David Bernie that uses the medium of posters that promote issues and stories in Indian Country.
Creative Commons License
This work by David Bernie is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. You may download, share, and post the images under the condition that the works are attributed to the artist.
