wfn.org | Native Americans assist with wildfire recovery

["NewsDesk" <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

Feb. 5, 2004   News media contact: Linda Bloom7(646) 369-37597New York 7 
E-mail: newsdesk@umcom.org ALL-NA{038}

A UMNS Report
By David Wilson*

After assisting with wildfire recovery on two reservations in Southern
California last December, United Methodist disaster response workers from the
Oklahoma Indian Missionary Conference have returned to continue case
management with tribal members on a reservation near San Diego.

Several Native American reservations were affected by the widespread
wildfires that hit California in October, and case management is still
needed, according to Federal Emergency Management Agency officials. The
Oklahoma Indian Missionary Conference's Disaster Response Team worked with
the San Pasqual Reservation and the neighboring Rincon San Luiseno
Reservation in San Diego County.
	
Helbent Frazier, Native American liaison for FEMA, asked the team members to
return to assist at San Pasqual. Disaster Response Coordinator Phillis
McCarty, from the Kiowa tribe, and team member Faye Baker, who is Creek, left
Jan. 26 for the San Pasqual Reservation and planned to be there for at least
two weeks.
	
More than 70 percent of the San Pasqual Reservation was burned in the October
fires, and more than 60 homes were destroyed or damaged, according to
McCarty.
	
The fires affected many of the 510 tribal members. "We did get several things
completely accomplished while we were there the first time, but we didn't get
to do the case management one-on-one because everyone was so busy working to
get temporary housing and other things for the affected people," McCarty
said.
	
In a telephone interview on their fourth day on the San Pasqual Reservation,
McCarty said she and Baker were assessing the needs of affected tribal
members and meeting with other members, including some from the neighboring
La Jolla Reservation.
	
McCarty said they have been visiting six to seven tribal members each day. In
addition to assessing needs, the pair provides basic counseling.
	
"The stories that we are hearing are really amazing," she said.
	
McCarty expressed thanks for the San Pasqual tribe providing time for a
tribal committee member, Catalina Campos, to contact those who need
assistance and act as a liaison between the tribe and the Oklahoma team. The
tribe also is providing housing and some meals for the two Oklahoma workers. 
	
The Oklahoma team that visited in December received the same hospitality. The
Rev. Anita Phillips, who was part of that group, said some of the neighboring
tribes that have hotels have been housing other tribal members who lost their
homes in the fires.
	
"Some of the tribes have been very generous to those that lost everything,"
she said. "It is another remarkable way to show how native people are helping
other natives."
	
The Federal Emergency Management Agency originally contacted the Rev. Tom
Hazelwood, domestic disaster coordinator for the United Methodist Committee
on Relief, to see if the Oklahoma conference could send a disaster response
team to California. FEMA worked with the conference after tornadoes hit
Oklahoma in 1999 and again when fires affected the White Mountain Apache
tribe last summer.
	
The United Methodist Committee on Relief is providing additional financial
assistance for the Oklahoma Indian Mission Conference team members.

# # #

*Wilson is superintendent of the Oklahoma Indian Missionary Conference.

 
 

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United Methodist News Service
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