August 2012, Newsletter

For those of you who read National Geographic magazine you may have read the article that has claimed the front page of the August edition. For those of you who haven’t you can click on this link http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2012/08/pine-ridge/fuller-text and read the entire article and scroll through the pictures. It is such an informative article as to what the Native Americans go through on a daily basis and what they have gone through these past hundreds of years.

Aside from that, lightning has caused two wild fires that have burned over 40,000 acres of land on the Rosebud Reservations. We have been acquiring truckloads of drinks and assorted food that will be distributed to Rosebud Reservations especially to those who have been evacuated from their homes and fighting the fires.

On a good note, the food program went very well. We were able to supply hungry Native American families with food, which is one less thing they have to worry about for now. They were very grateful for the food we brought them and appreciative of the support that you give them. All of this was made possible due to everyone’s generosity and kindness. Thank you for your support, you have helped families make it through another month once again.

Before we know it, winter is going to be here and we are going to be trading in our shorts and tank tops for pants and sweaters. It’s hard to think about winter when it has been in the 90’s and 100’s across most of the nation. But for the Reservations in South Dakota winter is about a month away. Native American children are soon going to be walking in the snow to school with temperatures below freezing. Most of them won’t even have a jacket or even warm clothes to wear on that long and blistering walk to school. Some of them catching pneumonia and worse, some of them may even die from it. All because they couldn’t afford a nice warm jacket, warm socks or even decent tennis shoes or boots. But they still have to walk to school either way.

That is why our “Winter Lifeguard” program has been so successful every year. This program allows Native American families to go to Wal-Mart and purchase pants, jackets, gloves, socks, basically any type of warm clothing or shoes for children, tax free. This is a huge help considering the unemployment rate is at 80% on the Reservations. Any amount will help, but $75 is the full amount of the Wal-Mart voucher, so please send what you can today. It will help a child stay warm this winter especially when they have to walk to school in below zero temperatures and snow on the ground. If you can’t afford to contribute money we always accept gently-worn clothing for all ages, sizes and genders. You can ship clothing, jackets, shoes, etc to:

NAHA
12085 Quaal Rd
Black Hawk, SD 57718