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On the Nez Perce Reservation in north-central Idaho, wildfire smoke often pollutes the air.
It can also seep into homes, so the tribe is handing out about 250 air cleaners to elders and others with health problems.
Rachel Cohen of the Mountain West News Bureau has more in part two of her report.
On a recent Thursday, Johna Boulafentis of the tribe’s air quality department was off to set up one of the air cleaners.
She stopped in at the apartment of elder Florene Davis.
“Did I turn it off? No, you have it on low now.”
Davis is 91. She’s soft spoken but chatty.
She mentors kids and college students in nimipuutímt, the Nez Perce language.
“Go one more and it’ll be really high. You’ll be like a young girl, hair flying through your hair.”
Davis says earlier this summer, she was traveling to a doctor’s appointment in Washington state.
Smoke was drifting down from British Columbia.
“We could feel it, notice the air was a little more heavy.”
Boulafentis shows her how to change the filter inside.
“That’s the main one to check? Yeah, frequently.”
This Nez Perce program is innovative – and aims to protect people from wildfire smoke indoors.
Erin McTigue with the EPA says tribal efforts like this are being replicated elsewhere.
“Some of these reservations are highly impacted by smoke, have lots of forested land that they’re trying to manage, have a lot of vulnerable individuals.”
And moving away is not an option for many tribal members.
“Whether people like it or not, this is this is our home.”
Aaron Miles is director of Natural Resources for the Nez Perce Tribe, which was forcibly removed from most of its homelands.
He says the U.S. government has an obligation to ensure clean air for the Tribe. At the same time… “the tribal government does everything it can to protect our people.”
That includes programs like this one to ensure indoor spaces are healthy.
It’s been smoky a few times since the air purifier has been running in Davis’ living room. She’s noticed its button turned “red” as it detected poor air quality and then started running its fans more intensely.
She’s glad to have it with her, keeping the air clean.
This reporting was supported in part by a grant from the Institute for Journalism and Natural Resources.
A small herd of bison kick up dust within the corral. (Photo: L. Cisneros / NPS)
More processing and tribal meat inspection.
That’s what officials who are tasked with getting buffalo into Native communities say are needed in the next farm bill.
South Dakota Public Broadcasting’s Lee Strubinger has more.
Troy Heinert is the executive director of the Intertribal Buffalo Council.
He says tribal entities need to be a part of the farm bill conversation.
“Often times we’re either an after thought or we’re completely neglected in some of those decisions.”
Heinert says that’s shifting.
The former South Dakota Democratic state lawmaker says he’s seeing federal farm bill language getting drafted to help meet needs for buffalo processing.
“Because there’s such a bottleneck in processing anyways. When you start talking tribes, rural nature, and buffalo on top of that, those processing capabilities start dropping even further.”
InterTribal Buffalo Council livestock trailers carry bison out of Grand Canyon National Park to their new homes on tribal lands. (Photo: L. Cisneros / NPS)
Heinert says the Intertribal Buffalo Council doles out grants to help with processing.
The group works with 83 tribes across 22 states that manage over 25,000 buffalo.
They expect to have relocated over 5,000 surplus buffalo to tribes in the last three years.
Heinert, who is Sicangu Lakota from Rosebud, says tribes are asking the USDA to work with them on meat inspection as well.
“The tribes in South Dakota — for the most part — are very rural. They’re the high population centers in those areas and yet there’s no processing. There’s definitely no inspectors. So, why shouldn’t we be able to train our own people to inspect tribal meat or tribal produced meat? And then for distribution to either our tribal membership, or put it on the retail market if that’s what the tribe chooses to do. Why would they hold us back economically?”
Many expect the current farm bill to get extended.
South Dakota U.S. Senators hope a new farm bill will get passed by the end of the year.
However, Congress must craft a budget by September 30 to avert a government shutdown.
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