Eagle County congregations team up to provide Pine Ridge Reservation residents with nourishment and necessities
Donations will feed 25 families supported by Denver-based nonprofit Tipi Raisers
Joette Gilbert/Courtesy photo
Two Eagle County churches just wrapped up hosting twin food drives to support indigenous Oglala Lakota families living on Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. The congregations raised enough food to feed 25 families for approximately two months.
The connection with Pine Ridge Reservation was facilitated through the nonprofit organization Tipi Raisers, which is registered in Colorado and South Dakota and has a base in the Denver area.
Eagle resident Joette Gilbert first learned about Tipi Raisers and Pine Ridge Reservation last year when she helped coordinate Tipi Raisers’ Indigenous Wisdom Gathering during Eagle Flight Days in June.
Tipi Raisers was founded with the mission of alleviating poverty in Indigenous communities, as well as connecting Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities and promoting Indigenous wisdom and reconciliation. The Indigenous Wisdom gathering serves as a celebration of Indigenous knowledge and spirituality and aims to connect non-indigenous and indigenous people.
Tipi Raisers works to address poverty on the Pine Ridge Reservation in several ways, including through collecting donations of food and other supplies to send to 25 families it supports. The donations are organized by volunteers in Denver and driven to Pine Ridge monthly.
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Pine Ridge Reservation, also known as the Pine Ridge Agency, covers an area of nearly 3,500 square miles, more than twice the size of the state of Rhode Island. Pine Ridge Reservation has a population of approximately 20,000 people, and the several counties it spans are among the poorest in the United States.
Many of the families living on Pine Ridge Reservation struggle with food insecurity. A small grocery store reopened on the reservation in 2019, but many people are forced to drive as many as 80 miles to reach larger grocery stores outside of the reservation. Many people buy their food from gas stations, which do not typically carry essential items like baby formula.
Building Eagle County’s connection
After helping to coordinate the Indigenous Wisdom Gathering, Joette Gilbert stayed in touch with Dave Ventimiglia, the Tipi Raisers’ executive director.
“(As) our relationship grew, I started seeing all the things that they were trying to do, which included alleviating food shortages, and I immediately started thinking of mission kind of experiences that we could do here with my small church,” she said.
A food drive immediately came to mind. As a member of the First Lutheran Church of Gypsum, she began running a food drive through the church just before Easter.
Soon after, Joette Gilbert brought in her sister-in-law, Suzanne Gilbert, who is a member of the Episcopal Church of the Transfiguration. Joette and Suzanne Gilbert went to two services of the Episcopal Church of the Transfiguration, in Vail and in Edwards, to share information about Pine Ridge Reservation, Tipi Raisers and the food drive.
“I think it’s so important that this voice be heard, these people’s voice be heard,” Suzanne Gilbert said.
“Most people don’t even know where Pine Ridge is or what Pine Ridge is, so the fact that this is literally the poorest area in the nation and it’s six hours north of Denver, and we know nothing about it is pretty incredible,” Joette Gilbert said.
“When I told people at both churches, including ours, that three elders froze to death this winter during the Martin Luther King (weekend) cold snap, they froze to death in their homes, people were — they couldn’t believe it. This is something that just doesn’t happen (here),” Joette Gilbert said. “The majority of families that Tipi Raisers works with, they don’t even have access to heat. That’s why the three elders froze to death. This year, Tipi Raisers brought up 31 pickup trucks of cut firewood and 3,000 wood bricks to burn in woodstoves. In many of these homes, 17 people live in them.
The Episcopal Church of the Transfiguration’s food drive started in late March and ended this past weekend.
“People received this opportunity very openly. (They have been) open-hearted, very giving, everybody has been very generous,” Suzanne Gilbert said.
Donations consisted of non-perishable food items and other necessary supplies. People donated mac and cheese, Spam, canned vegetables, Vienna sausages, potato flakes, cooking oils, peanut butter, jelly, spaghetti sauces, pasta, sugar, flour, and baby formula.
“And then they also needed non-food items like diapers, shampoos, baby wipes, laundry soap, dish soap, toilet paper, those things that we sometimes take for granted,” Suzanne Gilbert said.
Joanne Gilbert estimated that between the two churches, they were able to collect nearly two months’ worth of food and other supplies for the 25 families.
“(The) goal was to collect as much food as possible, but also to raise the awareness of these people and their life on the reservation, and raise the awareness of Tipi Raisers and the work that they’re doing,” Joette Gilbert said.
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Going forward, there will be more opportunities for Eagle County residents to engage with and support families living on Pine Ridge Reservation, including another Indigenous Wisdom Gathering during Eagle Flight Days this year.
Joette Gilbert is also thinking creatively about how to boost engagement and support for Pine Ridge families.
“Maybe there are other ways that we can work with this community. Maybe there are things from the building industry that can help with firewood. There are so many ideas that can come out of how we can help people as a community,” she said.
Joette Gilbert urged people to come to the Indigenous Wisdom Gathering and to think about how they can do more to help the community living on Pine Ridge Reservation.
“I think that we can’t forget these people during the year. That’s one of the things Tipi Raisers told me, is that so many organizations think that they’re just going to go do good once, but it doesn’t create the relationship. It doesn’t create the commitment to making someone’s life better. So I think it’s important that we don’t forget about them,” Joette Gilbert said.
The Indigenous Wisdom Gathering hosted by Tipi Raisers will return to Eagle County this year during Eagle Flight Days, from June 28 through July 1.
