By: Revanche

2023 AGSL Thanksgiving: supporting Indigenous families

November 3, 2023

The Background

The Pine Ridge Reservation is part of a larger territory established for the Lakota in 1868 that was later broken up into smaller tribal reservations. The Pine Ridge reservation portion of the territory includes Pine Ridge, Wounded Knee, Porcupine, Kyle, Oglala, Wanblee, Allen and more, and is now home to about 40,000 Native Americans. Pine Ridge County, within the reservation, is the poorest county per capita in the nation. Folks on the reservation are generally living in very poor, cramped conditions. Household sizes range from single adults to families with 16+ children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, all of whom need food, clothes and education. As you can imagine, with limited income, the need for assistance is great. It’s common for families to lack heat, running water, clothing, and basic household supplies, even more common for large families to run short of food.

For the past six years, friends have contributed to a pool of funds and I’ve used them to help families on the reservation through the Okini. Each year, our effort grows a little bit more.

In 2023, we’ve sent 43 shipments of new and like-new goods to the Allen Youth Center and the Red Shirt School. We also directly helped 14 families. That sounds like a lot but it’s only chipping away at a mountain of need. For a lot of reasons, this year has been harder. The prices of goods and gas for the folks on the reservation have skyrocketed at a time when donations are much lower than usual.

The Idea

Directly supporting more Indigenous folks on the reservation would be an appropriate way to observe this federal holiday. Last year, our goal was to send lots of basics in bulk to the Allen Youth Center to distribute to the approximately 100 local families that live near the Center. Last year’s report: We did pretty well!

I’m starting later in the year than is ideal, so I’m hoping we can help a few more families. We could give the kids holiday gifts when they wouldn’t otherwise get presents, or supply another family with warm clothes and blankets, or send bulk supplies to the Allen Youth Center to share with the community.

The Plan

If folks are able to pitch in again, I’d like to see how many people we can help this year. I’ll shop the best possible sales that are available at the time we have funding. With my full time job, full time parenting and life, I can’t optimize every single sale but I always do my best to make the most of every penny that comes in.

The Need

We’ll need our community’s help to help Indigenous families this holiday season. If you’re able to contribute funds, we would deeply appreciate your help, as would the families! Sharing this post widely would be a great help as well.

Important: To accept a wider range of donations, I’ve teamed up with my dear longtime friend Ruth Tillman. She and I go back over a decade and I trust her implicitly with financial matters. She’s publicly visible, whereas I remain pseudonymous, and she can accept money on behalf of the project at:

Venmo: @RK-Tillman
PayPal: ruthtillman@gmail.com
Cashapp: $ruthkt

Please add a note that your gift is for Pine Ridge and include your email address to receive updates if you want them.

Thank you, as always, for supporting our Indigenous neighbors!