3 Women Did All This in 2007

Here's the amazing work that the 3 shelter staff have done only this year. All in all, they provided 614 individuals with education and services.

Here's what they did:
answered 397 crisis calls;
provided emergency shelter to 188 women and 132 children;
helped 23 women obtain restraining orders, 10 get divorces, and 16 get medical assistance;
provided court advocacy support for 28 women; and
conducted community education programs for 360 women.

They must be exhausted!

They did all of that while coping with the vandalism and theft that caused them to lose their building, the supplies for women and children in need of emergency shelter, as well as their t.v. and computers.

They are also working on more general issues, such as improving the way the police respond to and report on sexual assaults, and developing education programs for schools.

To continue to do all of this, and more, the Pretty Bird Woman House really needs a house!

Thanks to all, the donations are coming in! (updated)

Thanks all you early donors!! When the checks start accumulating I'll get a thermometer up here that shows the total amount of donations they're getting.

The ChipIn widget that you see at the top of this page sometimes varies from the one in the link at the bottom of the page. If this happens for you, try clearing the cache from your computer by going to the tools menu on your browser.

Also, the email address that you see on the PayPal link is mine. I registered the ChipIn drive using my email address in case I had any questions, and I never thought the receiving account wouldn't be on the payment page. However, it will be on your receipt so don't worry.

Many people are also telling me that they're sending in donated items as well. Thank you. If the list of items needed changes I'll post it on the right side of the pages.

Also, please leave us a comment or suggestion. We really want to hear from you.

A Little About Georgia Littleshield

If you don't know about the Pretty Bird Woman House, you might not know about its dedicated director, Georgia Littleshield, so I thought I'd share a little bit about her with you. Georgia is a Registered Nurse and a member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe; she grew up on the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation. Shortly after she began her nursing career, Georgia found that she preferred working with women outside of a hospital setting. So, 12 years ago she started advocating for the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe at the Single Mother's Self-Sufficiency Program. After that she worked as an Advocate Specialist in education at the Family Violence program there.

In 2004, the South Dakota Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault (there is a link for the organization on the right side of this page) asked Georgia to go to the Standing Rock Reservation to start the Pretty Bird Woman House, which then opened its doors on January 5, 2005.

As you can see, Georgia was literally called to do this work!

Letter from Georgia Littleshield, Director Pretty Bird Woman House

Want to thank all of you that have so graciously given from your heart to help the women here on the Standing Rock Reservation. With your helpful dollars we have provided the services for One hundred and eighty eight women (188) and One hundred and thirty two children (132). We answered three hundred and ninety seven (397) CRISIS CALLS. What we did with your dollars was to pay for the three employees that provide these services for the women. We also paid for the phone and crisis lines. It is so great to be able to do the work when you have so much more to give. We had since then received a three year grant from the federal government. This will keep the workers paid but we still have the shelter crisis that we are with out a shelter. We are located on a 2.3 million acre reservation and have yet only one to two officers that cover the whole reservation per shift. With the lack of officers we were unable to prevent vandalism to the shelter that we were in. We had three break-ins to the shelter and a lot of food was taken and the large TV that was donated to us. The second break in they stole our computers. The vandals were coming through the walls. Breaking through the sheet rock, we had to move out to assure the safety of the women and children. We are currently looking for a new shelter home. We are doing a fund raiser to begin a fund for a shelter and a fence that will protect the area with a surveillance system.

Oh must tell you what changes are happening on the front of the Amnesty International report. I recently attended a court sentencing of man that pled guilty to a charge of sexual assault against a Native American Woman and the Mayor of his town testified that he was an up standing community member and that the community would except him back with open arms and to just give him probation. This angered the District Attorney of South Dakota. That men can be upstanding citizens, and do these things to Native women, and be accepted back into the community as if they did nothing wrong. Finally some one is seeing our problem and correcting it. The man did get 33 months incarceration and three years probation.

If you could please post this to the blog and thank you so much for all your support in getting a change started.

Georgia Little Shield/Director

Pretty Bird Woman House

Welcome

The purpose of this blog is to support the Pretty Bird Woman House, a women's shelter on the South Dakota side of the Standing Rock Reservation. The shelter is in dire straits right now. It has lost its building. The original building in which it was housed was rather run down but operable. However, this year there were so many burglaries in which people broke right through the walls of the building that became too unsafe to stay there. The shelter was forced to move out before it could find a new building. This is easier said than done on a reservation with a chronic housing shortage.

Until they find a new house, Georgia Littleshield and her two staff are driving the women to 2 other shelters, one outside the eastern edge of the Standing Rock Reservation and the other on the Cheyenne River Reservation. This strains the resources of the other shelters, and, due to the distances involved, limits the services that the PBWH staff can provide to the women of the reservation. The Standing Rock Tribal Council is now providing the shelter with free office an d storage space, but the PBWH really needs its own house in a safe location.

As you can see, the PBWH desperately needs a home of its own. As luck would have it, a suitable house has become available across from a police station. Considering that there are only a few police officers patrolling an area the size of Connecticut, this would be the perfect location for the shelter.

We are asking for your donations to help the PBWH buy this or another house in a safe location, along with an electronic fencing and security system. This will finally ensure the safety of the women seeking emergency shelter. We will be kicking off a ChipIn fundraiser on October 31st. In the meantime, please feel free to send your checks directly to the shelter. The address is on the right side of this page.

Pretty Bird Woman House is a 501 (c)3 charitable organization, which means that your donations are fully tax deductible.

If you like to shop, the shelter also needs donations, since many of their supplies were stolen during the burgularies. You can send: shampoo, conditioner, disposable diapers, baby wipes, towels, wash cloths, personal items, such as pads and tampons, and first aid items. I like www.drugstore.com because they give you free shipping on your first order over $25, and on orders over $50 thereafter.

Since winter is approaching, the shelter can also use nearly new or new winter coats, scarves, and gloves for women and children.

We really appreciate your support.