Honor Beauvais’s every breath was a battle as a snowstorm battered the Rosebud Sioux Reservation in the US state of South Dakota.
The asthmatic 12-year-old’s condition had been worsening as his fragile lungs fought a massive infection brought on by influenza. His worried aunt and uncle begged for help clearing a path to their cattle ranch near the community of Two Strike so that emergency services could arrive.
But when an ambulance finally managed to get through, Honor’s uncle was already performing CPR, said his grandmother, Rose Cordier-Beauvais.
Honor, whose Lakota name is Yuonihan Ihanble, was pronounced dead last month at the Indian Health Service’s hospital on the reservation, one of six deaths that tribal leaders say “could have been prevented” if not for a series of systemic failures.
The community has expressed frustration at South Dakota’s Republican Governor Kristi Noem, the United States Congress, the Indian Health Service and even, for some, the tribe itself.
“We were all just in shock,” said Cordier-Beauvais, who recalled that, when the snow finally cleared enough to hold the funeral, the family gave out toys to other children as a symbol of how he played with his siblings. “He loved giving them toys.”
As the storm raged, families ran out of fuel, and two people froze to death, including one in their home, the Rosebud Sioux Tribe said in a letter this month seeking a presidential disaster declaration.
The letter described the situation as a “catastrophe” for the reservation, located in a remote area on the state’s far southern border with Nebraska, about 210km (130 miles) southeast of Rapid City.
In a scathing State of the Tribes address delivered last week in the state legislature, Peter Lengkeek, chairman of the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe, accused emergency services of being “slow to react” as tribes struggled to clear the snow, with many using what he described as “outdated equipment and dilapidated resources”.
Noem’s spokesperson, Ian Fury, said the claims were part of a “false narrative” and “couldn’t be further from the truth”. The Indian Health Service did not immediately return email messages from The Associated Press news agency seeking comment.
Noem, who is seen as a potential contender for the 2024 presidential race, declared an emergency on December 22 to respond to the winter storm and activated the state’s National Guard…