The bitter Northern Plains winter hits the Dakotas with fierce blizzards every year and the arctic wind blows from September into May. Many Native American families – often with 10 or more people in the household, including children and the elderly – have no heat at all in their paper-thin, un-insulated homes.
“. . . a Sioux grandmother literally froze to death on the Rosebud Reservation because she couldn’t afford to pay for fuel (see article below).”
NAHA has purchased small heating stoves and propane fuel for hundreds of families on the Rosebud and Pine Ridge Reservations who have no heat in their homes. These stoves can bring the temperature in at least one room of the home up to a livable 50-degree temperature.
If you would like to make a tax-deductible donation to this program, you can visit our confidential and secure donation page to help provide heating assistance for a Native American family in need.
Please don’t forget that 97% of our total budget goes towards our programs to help as many families as possible. Your donation could prevent another tragedy like Sara Swift Hawk from happening.
And, as you will see in the letter below, NAHA receives many pleas for heating assistance throughout the winter months. Without the funds that NAHA receives from our generous donors, we would not be able to help as many families as we have over the years. However, as heating fuel costs continue to rise, so do the requests for our assistance.
