Post winter break we have decided to begin doing community dinners.

We had our first dinner last Wednesday (1.23.09). We went to the He Dog Community Center and served some chili. Probably more important than the food was the epic basketball game that followed. The teams were composed of teachers and kids ranging from 3rd grade to high school. Many baskets were made and much fun was had. We’ll keep you updated on the schedule of future events.

Hi, my name is Montana and I was in a storm for like four days. It was hard for me because I didn’t have any wood for the first day and a half. I had to burn some of my old clothes to stay warm (so did the rest of my family). When the lights went out, I went to sleep until the next day. When I woke up the lights and heat were still off so my Grandma got us some more blankets. We laid in bed with the blankets just trying to stay warm until someone could bring us some wood. Once someone brought the wood, we were finally able to eat because we could cook off of the wood stove. We ate only a little bit because we had to share with all our family members.

I needed some food and I needed some more blankets. The weather was terrible and I was scared. It was extra hard since I had to care for my cousin too. I had to keep my little cousin until we went to get food from the church in Parmelee. We ate and I took food back to my house for my Grandma. I was feeling sad in the storm because there were a lot of people that didn’t have any wood stoves. Like us, they also didn’t have any food or wood…they were not warm and they didn’t eat for days. I thought about everything for a while and then I took some food to my auntie’s house. I took food to my Grandma too and I was proud of myself because helping is Great.

In my house there are seven people. After the wood came, we all stayed warm and stayed strong. We were able to get candles, blankets, and lamp oil from the church. After a week we were able to go back to school. When we had to get ready to go home from school, I didn’t want to leave because the lights were still off. Lucky for me, when we made it back home, the lights were on! I was happy and my life was much easier.

-Montana, 5th grade

Thank you for all of the donations that we have received in the past few days. Between all the boxes containing clothes, sleeping bags, batteries, food, flashlights, and candles we  are doing our best to stock the Lord’s Warriors church with the supplies needed to help support the Parmelee community.

Due to the positive response that we have received so far, we are in the process of establishing Beyond the Blizzard as a non-profit 501(c)3 organization in hopes of preparing the community for future hardships and developing a strong cooperative community network that utilizes the skills and abilities of all those living in and around the Parmelee area.

The infrastructure of greater Parmelee is continuing to prove its fragility. Parmelee and He Dog have had their electricity off and on over the past few days, currently on, but those in the surrounding area have yet to be re-connected. As we continue to work together to make sure folks have candles, heat, food, and water please continue to help and to pray for a quick and stabilizing reconstruction of our community.

A second storm with rain, snow and heavy winds has once again knocked out the electricity for the 1,200 people in the greater Parmalee area that had been temporarily patched into the He Dog power line. Relief–particularly food and heat sources–are needed now more than ever!

As the physical elements have passed, the real blizzard has just begun for the people of Parmelee. As mentioned in our initial post, our community was, is, and is to come in great need. Though Parmelee fully embodies the virtues of generosity, bravery, fortitude, and wisdom, it is still best described by its multi-dimensional state of poverty.
The people of Parmelee sacrificed much in an extreme effort to stay warm for short amounts of time…families have even burned, clothes, beds, kitchen cabinets, and other household furniture out of desperation.

In addition to the struggle for warmth, hunger remains. Unlike before, the hunger that brought many from their homes into the cold must now be innovatively served, as folks are not very eager to leave their houses. Relief has now adapted to a delivery system to meet the needs of the most needy. Both Lord’s Warriors and St. Agnes churches are still operating as feeding, supplies, and warming centers, but there is now a small group of people traveling through the town to drop off hot-meals and diapers.

Please contact us if you know of anyone who still needs help, where they live, and how we can get a hold of them.

Today was a day for some celebration…Parmelee got power restored about mid-afternoon! The collaborative of electric companies spliced line from the He Dog power-lines and ran it to the town of Parmelee. While this does help the 650 who live in the immediate area, it does not extend to the 550 who live in the surrounding communities. Additionally, the power restoration does not solve the heat, food, and poverty crises of the greater Parmelee community.

Thank you, thank you, thank you! We received numerous donations and calls/emails of donations that are on the way. Thank you so much for your support and help in this relief effort.

We called South Dakota Emergency Management and were told that it will likely be another 4-5 days until power will be restored. Cherry-Todd Electric, one of the power companies partnering with LaCreek to repair down poles, said that it could take up to 10 days for power to be restored.

It has currently been 7 days without power, and we are likely looking at another 7 where the community members of Parmelee need our help and support to stay warm and keep lights in the house. That means candles, wood, fuel oil, batteries, flashlights, and hand-crank radios.

Also, we talked with another church that is helping provide support to the community, please give them a call to see what specific items are needed to best help out the community.

Lord’s Warriors
(605) 747-5138
Ask for Charlotte

Yesterday was Veterans Day so there was no school in Todd County School District. The He Dog school staff took this as another opportunity to serve a meal to the Parmelee community. Organizing donations of pasta, sauce and meat from all of the staff members they were able to make several dishes to take into the community.

At 11:30pm on November 11th, Keloland news came out to report on the situation in Parmelee. They came by the school and talked with teachers, paraprofessionals, community members, and the school cook. After that they drove from the school into Parmelee. Along the way there were several downed powerlines, these are the ones that you can see in the photograph of the news story coverage. In Parmelee, they conducted several interviews talking to community members on camera as well as in person.

Upon arriving in Parmelee some of the teachers were notified that the tribe had delivered some ground bison, buckets of hard-boiled eggs, mayonnaise and a working generator to power the St. Agnes Church. Making use of the working hands available they set up shop at St. Agnes opening hundreds of packets of mayonnaise, cutting up hundreds of eggs to make egg salad to serve alongside the spaghetti when it arrived from the school.

Around noon, members of the Red Cross arrived at the St. Agnes Church to let people know that volunteers would be arriving to help provide support and feed people throughout the day.

At 2:00pm, hot spaghetti and chicken/rice soup was brought into St. Agnes and the serving began. Individuals of Parmelee were out and about walking around town. People took this opportunity to notify any and all that food would be served. When the food arrived several cars drove out into the community going door-to-door to let people know that there was a hot meal, lights and some heat available in the church.

At around 5:00pm a truck full of blankets, cots, clothes, lamp oil, candles, flashlights, canned food, snacks, diapers, toilet paper and kerosene arrived from Valentine, Nebraska. Thank you Mike Burge and all of those who donated through the KVSH Radio station! You helped keep 450 people warm, fed and a bit more hopeful for another night.

Many of the school staff stayed until 9:30pm handing out food, snacks and supplies. Lynda Douville, Parmelee Community Chair, also helped head up relief efforts at St. Agnes Church throughout the day.

Danny Kallenberg is a 1st grade teacher at the He Dog elementary school. He moved out to He Dog in July of 2008 with his wife Sandra and 1-year old daughter Elena. The following is a letter that Danny and Sandra wrote to send to family, friends and churches across the states:

“The current chapter in the Kallenberg narrative is life on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota. With Danny teaching, Sandra working with the neighborhood kids and three parishes, and Elena running the house, we find ourselves embracing our life amidst the isolated Native communities. We love living among and hearing the continued narratives of virtuous Lakota chiefs, warriors, visionaries, and healers. But, as with most things, there is much more to the (and their) story. We still get a queasy feeling every time we think about those who suffered and died on the Trail of Tears. For most of us the story ends there. Most of us never know, choose to know, or choose to act upon the knowledge of the incredible injustices and oppression that are still present among many Native communities. Personally we weren’t able to fully understand the depth and impact of the injustices, particularly the impact on the children, until we lived among them. They are our new community, our family, our “tiospaye”.
While Lakota virtues of Bravery, Generosity, Wisdom, and Fortitude are apparent across the Rosebud Reservation, poverty is perhaps the most prominent thing that is descriptive of community life. Poverty is descriptive of our community on four levels: poverty of resources, poverty of education, poverty of stability, and poverty of recreation.
Poverty of resources is extremely visible – we live in the 5th poorest county in the United States (Todd County). Parmelee specifically is the 10th poorest community in the entire nation and is the single poorest community on the Rosebud Reservation (per capita income is roughly $250 per month; i.e. a mere $8 per day!) Housing is overwhelmingly dilapidated. A limited and overpriced selection of groceries is a 50 mile round-trip. Retail is better understood as rummage sales or a six hour drive to Rapid City and back. Most struggle for food, electric, heat, and transportation. Kids are willing to walk 25 miles to see family and adults up to 150 miles! Unfortunately, like in most demographics of high poverty, children are hit the hardest.
The poverty of our education is seen in national, state, and district reports. While South Dakota’s public schools are ranked 17th in the nation, Todd County is one of the lowest performing districts in the state. On top of being in one of the state’s lowest performing districts, He Dog School has been tied for the lowest performing elementary school in the district for the past ten years. The funding is here and the technology is here, but many other critical elements are not.
The third dimension of poverty that overwhelms our community is poverty of stability. Poverty of stability refers to the holistic picture of home life. There is no regularity of food, shelter, utilities, house members, parents or guardians, residency, etc. To say that poverty of stability prevents children from flourishing is an understatement. Poverty of stability robs, nay, tortures children. Poverty of stability is not necessarily prescriptive of a child’s life on the Rez, but it does present many significant obstacles for those who wish to go after their dreams.
The final dimension of poverty that we recognize for children is poverty of recreation. In Mission (25 miles away) there is slightly more school activities available, but as far as our tri-community area of Upper Cut Meat, He Dog, and Parmelee, there is a shortage of after-school activities, hangouts, tutelage, and supervision. There are churches, but they are without regular worship, youth gatherings, and activities. There are community centers, but they are without consistent hours and lack directors, scheduled events, and organized programs. Entertainment for young children typically takes the form of fishing, bike riding, or tag and entertainment for adolescents often ends up in the form of fighting or vandalism without outlets like bowling, movies, or restaurants.
Our community is incredibly rich culturally, but it is largely overshadowed by its poverty. All four dimensions of poverty among the Sicangu Lakota on the Rosebud Reservation have contributed to the highest suicide rate in the world (a rate of 201 suicide deaths/100,000 people for males age 15-24 as compared to our national average of 11/100,000 for the same demographic; Additionally, in 2007, there were almost 150 attempts in six months time.) Though we may not be able to reconcile or reconstruct 150 years of damages to the Lakota people, we can respond by being faithful to our identity as Christians and heed the calls of mercy, hospitality, and justice. Please help us support the basic human needs of our communities’ children.

Much peace and many blessings,

Sandra and Danny Kallenberg