The state of South Dakota received $17.5 million in low income heating funds, KELO-TV reports.

Of that amount, $3.3 million went directly to tribes. The Oglala Sioux Tribe received $1.2 million, the largest amount, but it's been hard to keep up with rising energy costs this winter.

"It was pretty hectic, and it was kind of scary because of the cold and you know people dying on different reservations, and that," Susan Two Eagle, who administers the tribe's funds from the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, told KELO. "It was kind of scary, I mean, and one night when I would go home thinking, 'I hope we got everyone that, you know, really needed it.'"

The tribe is hoping to renegotiate the formula used to calculate its share of LIHEAP funds. The money has been declining due to cuts at the federal level -- the tribe saw $1.7 million in 2010-2011.

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Long Winter, Reduced Funds Challenge Tribe's Heating Program (KELO 3/4)