Hurricane Katrina

19 September 2005

Outreach and Relief Efforts

Many of our immediate needs have been met by WalMart, Veterans for Peace, Plenty International, and many private citizens who recognized our need. The only immediate needs we still have at this point are cleaning supplies, building supplies and cash donations to provide those individual services that are unanticipated.

Our many thanks to the grassroots efforts being made throughout Indian Country to help our people. We are overwhelmed by the outpouring of support from our fellow tribal governments, organizations and individuals who continually show their generosity. A special thanks to the American Indian media who have taken our cause and brought it to you all.

Slowly our communities on the outskirts of New Orleans are being allowed back, some permanently and some simply to visit to salvage any personal items that may still be there. On Friday we visited the small community of Lafitte and were successful in locating several members who are able to return home. Unfortunately, there were several families that we were not able to make contact because they haven't returned home and one family in particularly had very little to return to with their mobile home destroyed beyond repair. Tomorrow portions of the St. Bernard community are being allowed back in to assess their damage. Our thoughts and prayers go with our tribal members who will be returning to their homes after being under nearly 9 ft of water for two weeks.

Earlier today, a group of volunteers began circulating flyers to tribal members in the Jefferson parish area. They were able to identify which families are in need of the supplies we have gathered and identified medical needs. We currently have physician volunteers with the EAGLE Relief Effort who arrived tonight and will be visiting that community first thing in the morning to address those needs.

Please keep checking our website for updates. We're been adding pictures of our volunteers and donors hard at work as well as providing updates on progress towards returning our people back to the community. The site is http://www.unitedhoumanation.org/

Brenda Dardar Robichaux
Principal Chief