Partnership With Native Americans

EMERGENCY SERVICES: PURPOSE OF THE PROGRAM: To provide winter warmth, seasonal services, shelter supplies, and disaster relief, and to support Tribal readiness to respond when disaster strikes SITUATION: With climate change driving more frequent and damaging disasters such as flooding, forest fires, blizzards, and tornadoes, PWNA is a critical first responder for the reservations. We also equip Native communities to plan, train, and respond to such events when they strike locally. Winter warmth is always a concern for the Elders, too. Homelessness is rising disproportionately among Tribal citizens. Native Americans face overcrowding 8 times more often than Whites. 40% of Native Americans live in substandard homes, and on any given night, more than 21,000 are homeless (sheltered, unsheltered). In addition, lack of access to clean drinking water is an issue. 75% of Hopi residents rely on water contaminated with arsenic, and 30% of Navajo families haul water due to 521 abandoned uranium mines. In a 2023 case, the Supreme Court ruled that "Tribes have rights to as much water as they need to establish a permanent homeland, and those rights stretch back at least as long as any given reservation has existed." Yet they ruled there is no promise or obligation on the part of the U.S. government to aid tribes in securing water access. So, while clean drinking water is a basic human right, water access remains a hardship for 48% of homes on the reservations. PWNA RESPONSE: PWNA cannot predict every emergency, so we give seasonal aid to help prepare for them. In 2024, this included year-round aid to 66 shelters for the aged, homeless, disabled, and domestic abuse victims, aiding approximately 8,549 people. We also provided firewood, coal, or winter fuel vouchers to Sisseton Wahpeton and Navajo Elders, as well as winter and/or summer emergency boxes to 26 partners on 10 reservations. These emergency kits equipped Native Elders with supplies such as blankets, batteries, candles, water, nonperishable foods, and other items helpful during winter storms, and water, sunscreen, bug spray, fire extinguishers, and other items helpful during the summer heat, storms, and outages. PWNA rotates its seasonal readiness services to different Tribal communities each year to avoid creating dependency, but the level of need suggests increasing these services as funding permits. Life on the reservation often means less access to outside aid when disaster strikes - and it struck 10 times for the Northern Cheyenne, Navajo, Mescalero Apache, and San Carlos Apache in 2024. The Watch fire on San Carlos Apache lands and the South Fork and Salt fires on Mescalero Apache lands burned more than 19,000 acres of Native lands and displaced thousands of their citizens. PWNA provided disaster relief for wildfires in 3 communities, a water shortage, a winter storm, flooding, and COVID relief in 4 communities, delivering 509,850 pounds of staple foods, bottled water, hygiene kits, diapers, blankets, PPE, and other essentials to assist about 2,750 households. PWNA also invests in emergency planning and training with Tribal communities. With support from Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies, Feeding America, and Pathward, we supported a Tribal Emergency Management Summit and facilitated training on mental health, life-saving skills, mass fatality management, First Aid/CPR, CERT, FEMA Tribal courses, and other first responder skills. This planning and training benefited Tribal participants representing Blackfeet, Cheyenne River, Crow, Crow Creek, Navajo, Fort Peck, Lower Brule, Northern Cheyenne, Omaha, Pine Ridge, Rosebud, Santee, Lake Traverse, Standing Rock, Winnebago, Yakima, and Yankton reservations in the Northern Plains and Fort Apache, Kaibab, Quechan, and San Carlos reservations in the Southwest. With additional support from Feeding America, PWNA extended their support of the Natives Prepared project as the Sisseton Wahpeton and Hualapai initiated their implementation of food access and preparedness plans developed in the 2023 phase. AT&T also assisted with cots for the Mescalero wildfire response. Altogether, 479 Tribal citizens across 23 reservations trained and/or engaged around disaster readiness in 2024. *DBA programs of PWNA for Emergency services: Southwest Reservation Aid (SWRA), Northern Plains Reservation Aid (NRPA), Southwest Indian Relief Council (SWIRC), Navajo Relief Fund (NRF), Sioux Nation Relief Fund (SNRF), and Native American Aid (NAA).