Keith Olbermann Helps Raise $250,000 for Storm-Ravaged Cheyenne River Reservation
TV pundit draws attention to “humanitarian crisis at home.”
For 14,000 Native Americans without heat or electricity, one minute of Keith Olbermann’s show was the attention they needed.
Less than a minute of air time. That’s all it took for Keith Olbermann to change the fate of Native Americans suffering one of the worst — and most ignored — natural disasters to hit the continental United States in years.
The Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation in South Dakota experienced debilitating ice storms and blizzards beginning on Jan. 22. The storms knocked out 2,500 utility poles and disrupted electricity and heat for 14,000 people, who were forced to live in sub-zero temperatures for nearly two weeks. Many homes were damaged, food spoiled, supplies dwindled to almost nothing, and all pleas for help seemed to fall on deaf ears.
Most of the media ignored this crisis, and despite calls for aid from the Sioux Nation, only $8,000 in donations had trickled in to help the reservation as of Feb. 9.
That’s when Keith Olbermann over at MSNBC took notice. In a brief segment of his show that night, Olbermann talked about the tragedy and the reservation’s need for immediate help, calling it a “humanitarian crisis at home.”
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