Monday, March 23, 2009

Crow Creek Reservation Losing Power from Central Electric Cooperative

South Dakota-based Central Electric Cooperative has a policy in effect to provide electricity to its customers in the winter months regardless of their ability to pay. However, Crow Creek Reservation tribal members are getting their power turned off by the company in the midst of extreme blizzard conditions.

In numerous instances, Crow Creek residents have medical conditions that require the use of electricity, and many other residents have small children and/or elderly in the home.

In a place where tribal members remember promises from Central Electric to provide electrical power free of charge, tribal residents’ pay electricity rates one-third higher than the national average.

In 1955, Central Electric displaced an entire town of American Indians on the Crow Creek Reservation with the construction of the Big Bend Dam, built to provide a source of electricity. Read the entire article in Indian Country Today.




To read more about the situation on the Crow Creek Reservation and how the Can-Do organization is effecting change, follow this link.

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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

These people live in tax payer purchased homes, and spend their monthly taxpayer check on booze & drugs. Society has molded them into a welfare child, where no amount of money will buy them prosperity.

Peter N. Jones said...

I sure hope you are speaking from personal experience Anonymous, otherwise that is a fairly unsophisticated attitude. There are many, many Native Americans who do not live in tax payer purchased homes, do not spend their monthly check on booze and drugs, and who actually strive to not only contribute to American society, but to also show us "tax payers" how it is possible to live an honest, respectable, earth-friendly life. Sure, there are always a few who resort to drugs and alcohol, but that is not the majority. I think if you examine this site and it's sister site - Indigenous Peoples Issues and Resources - you will find countless examples of Native Americans and other indigenous peoples overcoming the colonial and imperial processes that have been forced upon them.

Unknown said...

Your comment is racist, offensive and intolerant...these people have repeatedly been lied to and had their lands stolen. The numbers of alcholics within their communties are very much the same as within American society. You show your obvious lack of eductaion on this subject and possibly many others as well. The unemployment on this reservation is over 80% BTW

Peter N. Jones said...

Thanks for chiming in KKKKK. Many people still don't understand the situation many Native American tribes are in, despite being right next door. Education is essential, for all parties.

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