Zitkato from the Chunka Luta Network has shared some new information, after completing the first leg of the CLN’s Chunka Luta Winter Drive, 2023.
(For those who don’t know the CLN is a Lakota-organized group working help the Lakota people live as Lakota, recognizing that as part of a global effort for liberation from the current systems of oppression.)
Zitkato and others brought a 20’ box truck full of firewood, coat|coats, and other winter supplies out to Pine Ridge, coming in right after a winter storm. To get there, they drove through 4 hours of freezing fog, leaving the people tense and the truck covered in ice when they got there, late at night. Despite the conditions and it being past sundown, the crew got to unloading the truck immediately - and good thing: by the time the sun came up, half the firewood had already gone out to the people. (And, forecasts show another storm coming.)
With this stage of the Winter Drive complete, the next step is buying a shipping container in Toronto, load it with supplies waiting for this opportunity, and bringing it onto the reservation, where it’ll stay to provide storage for ongoing and future ways CLN is helping the people. Along with that, the CLN is working to raise $2k to help an elder who has been in reciprocity with the CLN, and is hoping to deepen that relationship. The Chunka Luta Network, and their suppporters, were able to save this elder’s life, and as a way of giving back, he is willing to sell some of his land to the Network, to enable the land to receive better communal care, as well as bring a 2-bedroom home onto the land, to help house elders as the Network establishes better housing conditions.
https://www.gofundme.com/f/deliver-wood-coats-supplies-to-pine-ridge
This isn’t all the CLN is involved in. Among other things, they’re also helping a survivor of the Canadian 60s Scoop (a state-sanctioned child-abduction genocide) get his medical needs met. This is personally important to me. The survivor is from the same Lakota band that my own mom was “scooped” from, in the United States, and has done a lot to share Lakota knowledge remotely, with me and others, helping guide me toward the work I do today. They’re also working to improve roads, and provide at least one wheelchair.
https://gofundme.com/f/help-lostsioux-get-his-healthcare-needs-met
In addition to fundraising for specific causes like this, the CLN also accepts recurring donations through Patreon and LiberaPay. Giving through LiberaPay gets more of your contribution directly to the Network, but there might be some delay in getting supporter-only updates. Funds that come in through these platforms willl go toward things like:
- Helping me and my family survive our first seasons on the reservation, as we work to develop practices of food autonomy and regenerative horticulture with different kin than we’re used to working with.
- Setting up a more complete Web presence for the Chunka Luta Network, to help better communicate with supporters and comrades across the planet.
- A lot more that isn’t ready for presentation outside the Lakota people.
https://patreon.com/ChunkaLutaNetwork
https://liberapay.com/ChunkaLutaNetwork/
There’s also an Amazon wishlist: https://amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/203NW32W8SEID?ref_=wl_share
It’s important to say that all of this is part of, like I mentioned, part of a wider effort connecting the Lakota people with our innate capacity to live in liberatory and liberated ways. What the Chunka Luta Network is things that have been asked for by the traditional leadership of the Lakota nation. If you want an opportunity to support an Indigenous people, as a people, and are a settler on Turtle Island, this is where I think you should put your abilities to help. And I need to include that there are lots of non-financial opportunities to support the Chunka Luta Network. The Network recently secured the collaboration of a diesel mechanic, and so if you have anything with a diesel engine (tractor, truck, generator) you’re willing to gift or sell at fair price, please reach out. Additionally, the CLN has been asked to help revitalize the practice of Lakota quilting, and so anyone with an excess of materials or equipment for that, please also consider reaching out. To inquire about any of this, you can contact me, emsenn@emsenn.net
Thanks for taking the time to read.