• BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) -- A shortage of propane fuel that has hit parts of the country during a stretch of cold weather could become a matter of life or death for thousands of people on an American Indian reservation in the Dakotas, the tribe's chairman said.
• The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, which straddles the North Dakota-South Dakota border and is home to more than 10,000 people, has opened public shelters for people without adequate heat due to the propane shortage that has caused a spike in prices. One shelter is in Fort Yates on the North Dakota side of the border, and the other in Wakpala on the South Dakota side.
• There are no natural gas lines on the reservation, and using electricity to heat homes can be too expensive for many impoverished families, Tribal Chairman Dave Archambault II said.
• "We have about 5,500 homes on Standing Rock with tribal members, and of those, maybe 90 percent are heated by propane," he said. "Propane has always been an inexpensive way to heat our homes. We used to heat our homes with wood stoves; we've converted a lot of those over to propane."
• The shelters set up in tribal office buildings are getting help from the American Red Cross. The chapter based in Rapid City, S.D., has sent its executive director and two volunteers to the reservation, along with a truck that can help provide hot meals, along with cots and blankets. The Red Cross is working with a tribal casino near Wakpala to provide meals to the shelters, and the agency also has officials in Bismarck, N.D., on standby to come to the reservation if needed, said Dan Kuecker, disaster program manager for western South Dakota.
• "Our hope is for this to be a relatively short-lived event," he said. "We plan to feed (shelter residents) for the next two to three days. We can expand our capability

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