Episcopal Press and News
Episcopal Church Struggles to Aid Blizzard-stricken Indians in the Dakotas
Episcopal News Service. February 13, 1997 [97-1688]
Jack Donovan, Communications assistant for the Episcopal Church's office of news and information.
(ENS) The dioceses of North and South Dakota are struggling to provide food and warmth for Indians suffering through the harshest winter in memory on the Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota.
"This winter the snow started in October and never left," said the Rev. John Floberg, vicar of St. Luke's, Fort Yates and St. James', Cannonball, the two Episcopal churches serving the North Dakota side of the reservation. "We've had nine snowstorms or blizzards."
Snow accumulations up to five times normal levels has conspired with a tripling of the price of propane and the cutting of federal funds for weatherizing and homebuilding to create a federal disaster area on the reservation. "The need for fuel has eaten into all other resources," Floberg said. "Food has been taken off the table to pay for it."
At the food pantries administered by Floberg's two churches, over 4,500 lbs. of food was distributed in January to 150 families. "We were open one hour in Fort Yates and an hour and a half in Cannonball," he said. "We stopped giving out only because that was all we could afford. There was more need, but we didn't have more resources." Nonetheless, the pantries supplied a week's worth of food to 800 individuals, enough to last until food stamps were issued in February.
The Presiding Bishop's Fund for World Relief issued two grants in early February, $25,000 to South Dakota and $20,000 to North Dakota.
Bishop Creighton Robertson of South Dakota will be meeting with diocesan officers on February 13 to determine the best use of the grant. Diocesan administrator Randy Barnhardt said that there was a good chance the money would be used for fuel assistance. The Indians on the reservation "don't have any fuel out there," he said. "My own heating bill is 50% higher than it's ever been, so I can't imagine what it's like on the reservation -- there's nothing out there, no trees, it's just prairie."
Some of the North Dakota grant has gone to weatherize Floberg's food pantries and stocking them with 28,000 pounds of food in preparation for increased demand over a longer period of time. Floberg said that once the primary need of food is addressed, the church will try to assist with an array of weather-related problems such as frozen water lines, broken hot water heaters, and the provision of better or additional heat sources
As the result of an interview with a radio station in nearby Fargo, Floberg said that he expects local people and the Red Cross to supply ample blankets and coats to the reservation. He noted that the Lutheran church had also donated quilts and blankets and that he was in conversation with the Methodist church regarding ways that they could assist him. "It's turning into a real ecumenical thing," he said.
He has also received help over the internet. "I sent out a prayer request online," said Floberg, whose QUEST address is JOHN FLOBERG. "Good old internet. Within two days we had calls saying, 'We've got resources. How can we help?"'