'State of Emergency': Pine Ridge Reservation Flooding Exposes Racial Divide in Climate Crisis

Flooding has inundated the Lakota Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, leading to a serious crisis for its Native American population—and a slow government response that, critics say, exposes the racial imbalance in American disaster relief. 

“This is a state of emergency right now,” said Pine Ridge resident Henry Red Cloud.

Rapidly melting snow from a recent blizzard is soaking the reservation and already damaged water lines, cutting the community off from safe drinking water. Roads are mostly impassable mud pits. 

Pine Ridge, according to The New York Times, is “in a state of shock and triage.”

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Help is on the way from the federal government, though it’s moving at a glacial pace. The distinction between the pace of recovery at Pine Ridge and other areas of the Midwest affected by the disaster was noted by a number of observers. 

“Unlike in Nebraska, where the National Guard rescued 111 people, including some by helicopter and boat,” the Times reported, “outside help for Pine Ridge was conspicuously scarce at first.”

Roads are washed out and flooded, so most aid is being trucked in by boat and horse. 

The National Guard arrived on scene over the weekend to assist the Red Shirt, Pine Ridge, Porcupine, Evergreen, and Wounded Knee communities on the reservation.