Heating stove project underway on Standing Rock

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) – A pilot project is underway to outfit homes on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation with heating stoves in the hopes of eventually ending residents’ reliance on propane, which can spike in price during the winter months.

The Sioux tribe also stocked up on cheaper propane over the summer to head off a crisis like the one last winter, when the price of propane skyrocketed due to a nationwide shortage caused by supply disruptions, a late and wet harvest, and unusually cold weather throughout the country.

Attorney and American Indian activist Chase Iron Eyes launched the “Heating the Rez” stove effort in February after the death of Debbie Dogskin, 61, who froze to death in an unheated mobile home. In just a couple of weeks, the project raised more than $60,000 through the crowdfunding site www.indiegogo.com, drawing donations from as far as Australia to Sweden.

The money is paying for the first 21 stoves, which burn pellets made of wood or other natural materials. Home installations began this week, Iron Eyes said.

“About half of the stoves are going to go to elders. The others will go to low-income eligible tribal members,” he said. “This is the test run. The families who get the stoves, we’re going to sell them pellets at competitive rates. The idea behind this isn’t to make a profit, but to make this pay for itself.”

The pellets are coming from Rapid City, South Dakota-based Deadwood Biofuels. The stoves were purchased from England’s Stove Works in Monroe, Virginia. A company official said the stoves are regulated by the federal Environmental Protection Agency for emissions and efficiency and can heat a “reasonable size” living area for about $5 per day.

Iron Eyes said officials will monitor how well the stoves work this winter and then decide whether to raise money to expand the project. He also is pursuing federal funding to create a pellet-making operation on the reservation, which is home to 10,000 residents. Pellets can be made of wood, grasses, and chokecherry pits, which are all readily available on the 3,600-square-mile reservation that straddles the North Dakota-South Dakota border.

“We want to change the way a significant portion of our people heat their homes,” Iron Eyes said.

The tribe declared a state of emergency last winter when propane prices soared a dollar above the $3.50-per-gallon mark that Tribal Chairman Dave Archambault II said is the benchmark for affordability for most reservation families, many of whom are impoverished. The tribe opened six shelters across the reservation, and the Red Cross provided cots, blankets and food.

The tribe last summer used $100,000 to pre-buy propane so it can be sold this winter to tribal residents in need for a little less than $2 per gallon, Archambault said. As many as 5,000 homes rely on propane on the reservation, which has no natural gas lines.

“We want to make sure that we cover for the colder months and keep propane affordable,” Archambault said.

The tribe also receives money through the federal government’s Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which helps the needy heat their homes. The tribe last year got about $1.5 million – a 40 percent reduction from the previous year due to federal budget cuts. Archambault did not immediately have an estimate on how much the tribe expects to receive this year.

Archambault said the tribe is not directly involved in the Heating the Rez project, but he applauds the effort.

“I’m just thankful that they want to help,” he said.

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