For the Oglala Lakota Sioux Tribe in the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, access to clean water is a daily obstacle.
The tribe is one of dozens of Indigenous tribes across the United States that are faced with a shortage of safe water and as a result, their population is experiencing various fatal illnesses.
Alessandro Sachs, an Italian citizen who has lived in Superior since 2017, recently led Boulder Rotary’s efforts to help the tribe improve its access to clean water after learning about its difficulties during a Rotary International Conference.
“A Lakota man on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation has a life expectancy fifteen — one five — fifteen years shorter than a non-native man living just a hundred miles away in Rapid City, which is also in South Dakota,” said Sachs, co-chairman of the Boulder Rotary.
With the goal to connect homes to a clean water source, the Boulder Rotary Club (District 5450), a branch of a global service organization whose volunteers are dedicated to solving humanitarian problems, partnered with the nonprofit Running Strong for American Indian Youth and established the CLEAN water project in 2019.
“Our goal was to set an example and communicate as long as possible that this is happening and it is also happening in other reservations to Indigenous people,” Sachs said. “I would not restrict it to Native Americans.”
Running Strong works to benefit Native American communities and was co-founded by Olympic track and field gold medalist Billy Mills, who was raised on Pine Reserve Oglala Lakota.
“I joined Rotary maybe three or so years ago because they’re model service above self,” said Lynn Johnson, a hydrologist and co-chair of the World Community Service of the Boulder Rotary Club.
When associates of Boulder Rotary learned about the water shortage within Native American communities, they formed a team to work on the CLEAN water project, composed of multiple researchers, professionals and scientists committed to helping the Oglala Lakota people.
The nonprofit and the Rotary paid to improve access on the reservation to an existing $450 million federal project that in 2008 began supplying clean water to residents through the Mni Wiconi system from the Missouri River. The funding helped improve the initial buildout of that system that was flawed because of high prices to connect to the water supply, leaving many to walk long distances to retrieve clean water if they cannot afford the connection.
“Their territory is cut up in parcels, and if you don’t live near the main artery of the pipeline, you have to pay to connect your house to the treated water,” Sachs said. “So for many many years, they used water from wells, and a big percentage of those wells, those are contaminated.”
Many wells used for drinking water are contaminated with arsenic and uranium, which causes the reservation’s residents to be subject to unusually high cancer rates, kidney failure, heart disease and death. Because of the lack of accessible clean water, the Oglala Lakota Tribe in Pine Ridge has the lowest life expectancy in the country, at 68.2%. They also are one the most impoverished communities on a large reservation in the U.S.
Ken Lone Elk is the Running Strong water coordinator at Lakota Sioux Nation and operates the on-site team that assists families on the reservation with using the funding to access clean water.
“(Lone Elk is) the real hero here I think, he and his workers,” Johnson said.
As of August 2021, 22 Rotary Clubs have raised more than $140,000. With Running Strong agreeing to match up to $150,000, the Boulder Rotary’s project has raised almost $300,000, and has been able to connect 50 homes to the central water supply system. The Rotary is still accepting funding that will be matched by Running Strong.
“It’s worth it in terms of payoff or reduced health issues, disease, increased life span, less time of people having to go search for clean water to drink and categories such as that,” Johnson said.
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