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“The Oglala Sioux Tribe is laying off 118 people after running out of money due to the federal government shutdown, Tribal President Bryan Brewer said Tuesday.
Brewer said the temporary layoffs on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation will hurt programs that provide meals to older people, prevent suicide, care for children removed from their homes, provide child care for working parents and help people pay their heating bills. The program that provides meals to elderly people will be limited to one meal a day, and other programs will be stopped because of a lack of federal money to keep them operating, he said.
“We don’t have any money now to help people with individual needs, electricity or anything like that. We have nothing right now,” Brewer said.
The furloughs amount to about 7 percent of the tribe’s employees, Brewer said. The tribe recently got permission to spend some of the federal money it had already drawn down, a move that prevented more extensive layoffs that could have sent up to half the tribe’s employees home, he said.
In addition to the layoffs, many other tribal employees will see their paychecks cut because they will work only 56 hours in an 80-hour pay period, Brewer said.”
– Rapid City Journal, Oglala Sioux Tribe lays off employees in government shutdown.
“The Chippewa Cree Tribe declared a financial disaster Tuesday due to the federal government shutdown, warning that nearly all tribal offices will be closed and programs halted if the budget stalemate in Congress isn’t resolved by Thursday.
The central Montana tribe already has cut back hours, furloughed staff and limited services after federal money for tribal programs was cut off following the Oct. 1 shutdown, spokesman Wade Colliflower said.”
– Billings Gazette, Tribe declares financial disaster due to shutdown.
“All tribal employees were ordered to work on Monday after a Thursday tribal council vote to keep services open despite lack of federal funding due to an ongoing Congressional budgeting stalemate that has left other agencies and services shutdown.
“There will be no furloughs,” CSKT spokesperson Rob McDonald said.
It’s unclear if the tribe will be reimbursed for paying for services in the shutdown that are usually federally funded, McDonald said. The exact cost of continuing to employ workers is unknown. ”
– Valley Journal, Tribe continues to fund workers; other agencies eye options in shutdown.
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Indian Country 52
Indian Country 52 is a weekly project by David Bernie that uses the medium of posters that promote issues and stories in Indian Country.
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This work by David Bernie is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. You may download, share, and post the images under the condition that the works are attributed to the artist.
