Tag: Montana tribes

Brad Pitt To Help Build 20 Leed Platinum Homes For Tribes In Montana

 

Source: White Wolf Pack

Sioux & Assiniboine Tribes Team with Brad Pitt’s Make it Right Non-profit to Build 20 Platinum Homes

The Sioux and Assiniboine tribes of Fort Peck, Montana has formed a partnership with actor Brad Pitt’s Make it Right non-profit organization to build sustainable homes, buildings and communities on their reservation.

Pitt established Make it Right in 2007 to provide housing for people in need. The residents of the Fort Peck Indian Reservation fit that criterion. There are more than 600 people waiting for housing on the reservation, according to tribal officials.

“Overcrowding is a chronic problem, with multiple families commonly living together in two-bedroom homes due to lack of accommodation,” writes Taylor Royle, a spokesperson for Make it Right.

The new homes will be solar-powered homes with three or four bedrooms; two or three bathrooms and be available to tribal members whose income levels are at or below 60 percent of the Area Median Income.

 

“As a tribal designer working in Indian country, I feel we have an obligation to design and build housing that is tied to the culture, community and place of Fort Peck,” says Joseph Kunkel, Enterprise Rose Architectural Fellow from the Sustainable Native Communities Collaborative.

 

 

“We’re excited about the potential impact this project may offer the Assiniboine and Sioux community, along with provide a national precedent for Indian Housing nationwide.”

Construction is due to begin this year on the reservation.

Violence against women, kids on MT reservations discussed

 

 

Click image to see video coverage
Click image to see video coverage

Aug 7, 2013

by Claire Anderson – MTN News

GREAT FALLS, MT – Senator Max Baucus met with Montana Tribal leaders and government officials Tuesday to hear more about the problem of violence against women and children on state’s Indian reservations.

The urgencies is that we have a cycle of violence occurring within our communities that needs to break,” Northern Cheyenne Tribal Councilwoman Jace Killsback said.

Statistics show that the number of cases of violence against women and children on Montana Indian reservations are remarkably high.

“We all have an obligation all of us in Montana, on and off the Reservation, to do something about [it],” Baucus stated.

Baucus says an average of 7,500 children on reservations are victimized every year, and more than one in three Native American women have been raped or sexually assaulted.

“It’s always been an issue. We look at it from a historical perspective that our value system of our family’s was broken down through government policies,” Killsback explained.

I see it every day. I live it at home. You know the social deals that we have – and the lack of funding to address the problems that we have – hopefully these types of [forums] that we have will help us,” Fort Peck Reservation Councilman Robert Welch said.

Montanans, both on and off the reservations, are now looking for solutions.

“It’s up to all of us to do our very best to solve this and to prevent all that from reoccurring as much as we possibly can,” Baucus added.

Reservation leaders are hoping to establish places like safe havens, youth centers, and substance abuse programs thanks to federal funding, but these can’t come to life without monetary resources.

“The biggest issue now is resources. We don’t have the resources to develop…to promote federal programs for substance abuse [or] for dealing with child abuse, Killsback stated.

While lack of funding isn’t a problem unique to Montana’s Indian Reservations, tribal leaders, along with Sen. Baucus, hope these listening sessions are the stepping stone to create solutions – not just empty promises.