The Heating Crisis on Pine Ridge
Each year there are deaths by freezing on the reservation, with the elderly being the most susceptible. Winters bring bitter cold and can reach -50 degrees below zero or worse. The vast majority of homes on the reservation are poorly insulated and many families do not have money for propane; thus firewood is the only way to keep warm during the frigid South Dakota winters. On average, families need 10-14 cords of wood per season to sustain themselves. Many families cannot meet this requirement. Adding to the already dire situation, the past few winters have seen increasingly severe weather patterns.
Our Solution:
In 2016 OLCERI built a sawmill onsite. Its original purpose was to reduce the cost of building model earth-bermed homes designed for use on the reservation. As winter came, we started getting requests for firewood – by the hundreds. Since then, OLCERI and its two partners each operate firewood banks distributing roughly 252 cords of wood per season to nearly 300 households (consisting of 6 to 8 individuals per household), which equates to approximately 20% of the reservation.
The organization prioritizes elders and handicapped individuals, followed by single-parent households, for the distribution of firewood.
OLCERI sources the logs from the hills of the reservation, primarily using insect-killed and fire-killed trees, acquired through a fire/forestry management program.
We train native program workers in the skills required to operate modern sophisticated wood processing equipment. These skills will be very useful for producing lumber for OLCERI reservation housing initiatives.