Wood is stacked up to use to heat the Northern Cheyenne Bureau of Indian Affairs jail in Montana.
Good wood news from the Northern Cheyenne BIA Jail
By Clara Caufield
Native Sun News Today Correspondent
nativesunnews.today LAME DEER, Mont. –– The harsh arctic winter conditions will soon arrive on the Great Plains, including the Northern Cheyenne Reservation where many poverty-stricken elders rely primarily on wood for winter warmth, often hard pressed to secure that basic necessity, especially as the Low Income Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) has seen drastic reductions in funding in the past few years. Now, for the second year, tribal elders on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation can receive free wood from a most unlikely source – the BIA inmate work program at the Lame Deer Adult Correctional Facility. Last year, through the Inmate Work Program, over thirty cords of Ponderosa pine were harvested, split and delivered by tribal inmates to needy elders on the reservation, with a similar amount expected to be delivered again this winter, targeting emergency needs said correctional staff. In addition to large cuts in federal funding, delays in getting the LIHEAP program budgets approved at the tribal level will delay timely payment to all LIHEAP recipients at Northern Cheyenne for several weeks and possibly a month explained Marlene Redneck, LIHEAP employee. “That is why the BIA wood assistance program is so helpful,” she said. Redneck, also a tribal elder who works part-time recently requested and received wood from the BIA Inmate Work Program. “I thought I might have to go get it, but they delivered it right away and I was so thankful,” she said.
Read the rest of the story on the Native Sun News Today website: Good wood news from the Northern Cheyenne BIA Jail (Contact Clara Caufield at acheyennevoice@gmail.com) Copyright permission Native Sun News
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