Amhran nam Bandia: Blizzard Followup

Sunday, November 09, 2008

Blizzard Followup

Here's a bulletin from Save Our Tribal Youth (S.O.T.Y.) with a concrete way to help some of those hard-hit by the blizzard:

Many of you are aware of the severe blizzard that just past over South Dakota leaving much of the state and especially isolated reservations without power and ability to travel due to snow drifts of several feet high.

Residents are asking for help in many ways with heat, food, basic needs and warm clothing.

Here is a quick and direct way you can get help to them. Cangleska Inc. is a women & children's shelter on Pine Ridge Reservation that houses moms and their kids who are in domestic violence situations and/or have become recently homeless. One of our sponsored families who suffered a fire is now in shelter.

They are asking for items for winter and for the upcoming Christmas holiday. MANY children will receive nothing at all. Most families do celebrate this holiday. Every child wants to receive a gift on Christmas day. Especially those in shelters who generally are forced to leave their homes suddenly with only what they are wearing.
You can help!!

Cangleska Shelter is asking for (NEW) blankets, coats of all sizes (infant to large teens), NEW foot gear such as winter boots and sturdy athletic shoes, diapers, formula, non-perishable baby foots, cereals, powdered milk, etc.

If you have the ability and can find it in your heart, please send a new unwrapped toy (such as an art-type item ((crayons, paints & paper, art kits)) and other suitable gifts that don't require batteries or additional items to Cangleska to help with their holiday gift program for the kids. Teens could use winter clothing and age appropriate books or scientific non-battery operated game.

Please send all items directly to the shelter -- they will know how best to distribute them to their residents and in their community outreach program.

We thank you for your help and assistance.
Below are addresses you can send things via UPS, Fed-Ex or postal service:

Please let them know you heard about them from Save Our Tribal Youth - we have begun working with them to help.
Thank you!

Via UPS or FedEx Ground: (FED EX AND UPS WON'T SHIP TO PO BOXES)
Cangleska, Inc.
1 Cangleska Road
Kyle, SD 57752

VIA US MAIL - POSTAL SERVICE
Cangleska, Inc.
P.O. Box 638
Kyle, SD 57752

PILAMAYA!
S.O.T.Y.

ETA: SOTY also has PayPal for donations on their website, and has other programs for sponsoring children and youth in need: http://www.saveourtribalyouth.com/

No comments:

Gaelic Polytheism, Cultural Preservation, Indigenous Solidarity

Occasional musings from one of the original troublemakers behind the contemporary Gaelic Polytheist (GP) (Gaelic: Ioma-Dhiadhachd Ghàidhealach; Irish: Ildiachas Gaelach) and Celtic Reconstructionist traditions. Allegedly the person to blame for that unwieldy, awkward, misinterpreted and misrepresented, umbrella tradition name (CR), and most definitely to blame for the Nigheanan nan Cailleach agus Ora nam Bandia branches of the community.

Clann Eóghainn na h-Oitrich, NicAoidh, agus Eóganachta. Tha mi a fuireach ann Wabanahkik. Co-còrdadh: Gä•sweñta’.

While my family culture growing up was predominantly diasporan Gael (Irish/Scottish-American), and my low BQ gives me white skin privilege / passing privilege, I also have Indigenous heritage from both Turtle Island (Yę Iswąre tatene utkéware hęwu) and Sápmi, as well as cherished African-American ancestors who survived the Middle Passage and the Underground Railroad. I am one of the people who has researched Cherokee blood myths to find the hidden truth that so many of us share - Black ancestors who made the excruciating choice to assimilate and pass in order to stay alive after escaping slavery.

As an unenrolled relative, reconnecting with the community we're pretty certain my ancestors are from, I'm a long-term member of several Indigenous-led collectives, active in Indian Country in largely a backup/support role since the 1980s, and in more recent years in interfaith and political work as both a collective member, extended family member, and as a representative of both our GP groups and the descendant crew. I don't presume to steer the canoe, even when I'm another grunt helping paddle one that my cousins, aunties, and adopted siblings have built and are helming. But except for my fellow Gaels and other diverse relatives, I jumped out of the ship over a decade ago. I'd much rather dive deep with the prop-fouling otters, be a shieldmaiden in the metaphorical jet ski clan, and continue my work with the side of the family I live with now, than get back into that rotting colonists' ship... unless it's to sabotage and change the course. Which I've been known to do sometimes.

It's one of multiple ways that my life is lived in liminal zones.

And if it's not abundantly clear, I fully support and unreservedly defend Indigenous Sovereignty: the right of Tribal Nations to determine their citizenship criteria, as well as their right to set the definition of who is and is not Indigenous. Descendants - those of us with documented ancestry but whose ancestors chose to separate from the tribe and live as non-Natives - need to abide by the criteria for Indigeneity set by the Nations we descend from. Even if it's complicated and not what you want to hear. And this applies exponentially if the documentation is iffy. To violate that boundary by trying to claim full Native status - by self-Indigenization - is dishonorable to the ancestors, as well as a violation of hospitality. Real descendants seeking to reconnect need to do so with profound respect, and on the terms set by the living relatives and Elders in that specific culture and community. And if the answer is "No," or "Not that way," to accept that.

I serve on the governing councils of CAORANN and Gaol Naofa; however, all opinions expressed on this blog, and posted elsewhere under my own name on social media, are my own.