As the Navajo and Hopi Nations struggle to deal with snowstorms still affecting the Southwest, conditions on South Dakota’s Cheyenne Reservation – beset last week by blizzards and ice storms – are slowly improving.

But normal, as Andrea J. Cook of the Rapid City (S.D.) Journal reports, could still be weeks away. The reservation lost both power and water for days, and water is still scarce.

The community of Faith rented eight portable showers, which showed up yesterday and immediately proved highly popular with residents – who are using water from nearby Durkee Lake to flush their toilets.

Meanwhile, although the reservation community of Eagle Butte started getting water again on Wednesday, people still have to conserve it while reserves build back up. Two emergency shelters remain open.

“We took care of the elders, made them comfortable and kept them warm,” says health worker Marian Bagola.

Katherine Eagle Staff, a diabetic with a kidney transplant, is among the people using a shelter at an Eagle Butte nursing home.

“It was really cold, and there were no lights (at home),” Eagle Staff says. “It was hard to get around with only a flashlight.”

Still, people praised the way friends and neighbors have chipped in during the emergency.

“Everybody’s kept a real positive attidude,” says Faith police Chief Arlen Frankfurth.

Gwen Florio

Tags: Cheyenne River Sioux, Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation, Eagle Butte, S.D.

Here’s the story in its entirety from the Rapid City Journal. We’ll keep posting updates as they arrive:

A steady of influx of South Dakotans coming into Rapid City from the north central region of the state has prompted the Black Hills Chapter of the American Red Cross to open a shelter in Rapid City.

According to a news release from the Red Cross, the shelter will be housed in Fountain Springs Community Church on 2100 North Plaza Drive. The shelter opened at 1 p.m.today.

Last weekend, a powerful snow and ice storm ripped through the region, felling power lines and cutting off power and water to thousands of South Dakotans, many of them on the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation. When full power and water will be restored remains in question.

And while tribal officials have established a number of shelters throughout the reservation, scores of people have headed to Rapid City to seek shelter.

For more information, call 1-888-271-3130 or 342-4010.

Tags: Black Hills Chapter of the American Red Cross, buffalo post, Cheyenne River Sioux, Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation, Fountain Springs Community Church, Native American news, Rapid City, Red Cross, S.D.

The 14,000 people on South Dakota’s Cheynne River Sioux Reservation – as well as those in several rural communities – remain without water today, and none is expected until Friday.

The lack of water, as well as power outages affecting thousands, is a result of last week’s blizzards and ice storms. The weather knocked out the water system at Eagle Butte, which is operated by the tribe.

Joseph Brings Plenty, chairman of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, declared a state of emergency on the sprawling reservation Tuesday, the Rapid City Journal‘s Andrea Cook writes.

Dialysis patients from the Cheyenne River Reservation have been evacuated to Rapid City, where several are being housed in the Travelodge.

Even if if the plant is repaired by Friday, only the town of Eagle Butte will have water – and it will take a week and a half to replenish storage tanks. Meanwhile, more severe weather is predicted, with wind chills forecast to hit 30 below tomorrow night.

The outages aren’t just affecting people. Many ranchers can’t water their stock.
Bottled water and tanks of water are being trucked to Eagle Butte, and volunteers are distributing it to the elderly, Cook writes.

Gwen Florio

Tags: buffalo post, Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation, Native American news, weather