October 26, 2022

2022 AGSL Thanksgiving: supporting Indigenous families

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 five 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.

This year, we have deployed 20 shipments so far, mostly directly to families, and a few to the Allen Youth Center to share with families near the Center.

The Idea

Directly supporting more indigenous folks on the reservation would be an appropriate way to observe this federal holiday. To be more efficient on this occasion, I thought we could send a big shipment of basics to the Allen Youth Center to distribute.

I discussed this idea with the coordinator handling the Allen Youth Center and she confirmed they would welcome any help we could give, in any quantity. There’s a massive need for things like socks, diapers, OTC meds, blankets, coats, shampoo and conditioner, body soap, laundry soap, lotion, pantry foods, etc. COVID continues to be a big issue on the reservation and medications aren’t easily come by.

This would benefit approximately 100 local families that live near the Center.

The Details

Initial pricing gave me a sense of how much money we’d need to supply just a few families (these are examples so this won’t necessarily be the pricing available near Thanksgiving):

Kirkland Diapers Size 1-2, 192 count, $26 ($9.50 off until Oct 23)
Kirkland Diapers Size 3-6, 222 count, $36 ($9.50 off until Oct 23)
Limit 2 per member, 2 boxes in each size: $392 pretax

Or socks! Good quality socks from Costco range from 3-5 pairs per package and run $10-13 a package. If we wanted to send 2 packages of socks to ten individuals so they’d have a full week of clean socks, we’d need $200-260 pre-tax.

12 boxes of diapers and 20 packages of socks requires about $720 with tax. I’d love to supply a lot more than that, but any of these items in volume is going to cost a lot, even on sale.

The Plan

With our usual giving circle and a few extra folks pitching in, we’ll be able to send something like a dozen boxes of diapers and 20 packages of socks. But if we are lucky enough to get much more funding, I’d like to send the following.

1. To the Allen Youth Center: boxes of diapers in every size, cases of wipes, socks in various sizes, acetaminophen, ibuprofen, children’s ibuprofen, children’s cough and cold medication, thermometers, blankets, sets of shampoo and conditioner, packs of bar soap, lotion, pads and tampons, hand soap, dish soap, laundry detergent, men’s coats/sweaters/vests, women’s coats/sweaters/vests, childrens’ /sweaters/vests in various sizes, pairs of kids boots in various sizes, a selection of pantry foods.

If we somehow still have money after this, I will work my way down this list!

2. We’ll supply families listed on the Okini, most of whom live outside the AYC area and wouldn’t benefit from the supplies shipped to the Center. I pick one family at a time and shop for them. This takes a lot of time and attention as I shop for every individual in the family according to their sizes and needs. These are sent directly to the family/families.
3. The Okini holiday list, published mid-November: we’d pick a family and buy the requested gifts to be sent directly to the recipients.
4. Pine Ridge’s neighbor, Rosebud Reservation, has a holiday party for their people each year and ask for supplies for the meal, gifts for their elders (socks and gloves), and gifts for the kids.

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

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