By: Revanche

Lakota Giving: Red Shirt 2026

November 11, 2026

Times are so tough for so many people across the US now and that struggle is greatly amplified on the Pine Ridge Reservation. I’ve been working with One Spirit, an organization that supports the residents of the Reservation in many ways. My most common interaction with them is through their service connecting donors to the needs lists of the families so that we can shop for them directly. They also support larger projects to help the people of the Reservation become more self sufficient. They reported that in the past few months, food prices have skyrocketed to the extent that the single full service grocery store in Pine Ridge is too expensive for locals to shop. They have to travel long distances off the reservation to purchase groceries instead which is, of course, also a high expense thanks to terribly high gas prices. One Spirit’s service provider for food, Feeding South Dakota Food Bank, previously offered many choices for their two food pantries – approximately 240 items. In the last few months they’ve only been able to offer 8% of that. They can now only choose from up to 20 items and there is no fresh food at all.  The food crisis has become a food emergency, as opposed to a crisis. It’s bad.

In September, after fielding a worry from the reservation coordinator about the increasing food insecurity, picking 1-3 families to help felt very uncomfortable. Even though that’s how I normally make the most of our collective funds, it felt wrong to only help some families when the most fundamental basic needs were unmet.

I really wanted to buy in bulk to help all the families in need. With no way of knowing what would come of it, I sent out the call for help, and simultaneously asked our coordinator if she could find someone who would be able to take receipt of the shipments and distribute it to the community. Then I moved on to price-checking the essentials while hoping. Food, shampoo, toothpaste, feminine hygiene products, cleaning supplies, diapers and formula are ALWAYS needed.

My heart worried and worried over whether we’d be able to buy even a small fraction of the list I’d made up. Y’all really came through. We had folks contributing from all over, from $5 to $500, making it possible to help more than just 1 or 3 families in the very rural Red Shirt village.

I primarily shopped at Costco for the best price per unit, and stacked sales and coupons at other stores, to get as much as we could for our dollars. We sent food, toothpaste, toothbrushes, shampoo and conditioner. Feeding people is important, as is basic healthcare and hygiene.

Sadly it couldn’t all be shipped in a single pallet, or several boxes. We had to track, and track down sometimes, more than 50 shipments to get the job done. On the other end, our community organizer had to keep up with the stream of shipments and organize it all so that the mobile neighbors could come get what they needed. He then ferried supplies out to the remote neighbors who have no way of getting over to his place. With the price of gas being so high, both I and One Spirit sent him cash to help with the cost of driving supplies to folks.

I compiled a complete list to share what we were able to send to our Lakota neighbors this harvest season though, lamentably, none of it is fresh food. That is a nut I’d like to crack at some point:

80 lbs all purpose flour
150 lbs rice
36 cans vienna sausage
30 cans chicken breast
72 cans black beans
84 cans green beans
48 cans diced tomatoes
48 cans tuna
30 lbs oatmeal
10 jugs of 1 pint maple syrup
12 lbs baking powder
6 quart vegetable oil
30 lbs pancake mix
7.9 lbs chicken bouillon
60 cans sweet peas
8 lbs egg powder
10 1-lb hams
8 Ct sea salt
20 lbs sugar
8 jars Skippy peanut butter
6 cases saltines
13 lbs mashed potatoes mix
72 oz chocolate chips

180 oz Dawn dishwashing liquid
9 bottles of shampoo and conditioner
228 ct Always pads
40 ct toothbrushes
32 ct toothpastes
4 ct 70% ethyl rubbing alcohol – 16.0 fl oz
60 bars soap

It’s hard to estimate how long this will last but we reached at least 20 families and I’m so grateful we were able to show these families that we cared.

If we continue to receive donations into the winter, I’ll be glad to keep working with One Spirit and locals on the reservation to help alleviate the ongoing food emergency.

As always: Every penny helps! Send a gift to any of the following with a note saying “Pine Ridge”:

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

Please supply your email address if you’d like updates on where the money goes.