Northern Cheyenne Fire Relief

Relief efforts for the Northern Cheyenne families displaced by the Montana wildfires are getting more organized. So far eighteen families have lost everything, about 32 houses have been destroyed, and the fire is still spreading. There is now a Facebook page for coordinating the relief effort. Please follow them for the most up to date information:

Northern Cheyenne Fire Relief - Lame Deer Boys & Girls Club

Update: Friday, June 29, 2012. 12:07am
The Boys & Girls Club disaster relief shelter in Lame Deer is doing well. The salvation army arrived this evening with kitchen staff to help serve our meals to the displaced victims of the Ash Creek fires. The donation area is now at the Catholic Church in Lame Deer. Allen Fisher is the main point of contact for the donations, please send him a facebook message, or post on this page regarding donations, and Allen will get back to you. You can also call the B&G Club to speak with him at 406-477-6654. Please keep us in your prayers during this trying time. Thank you.

We're currently compiling the needs for our community members who are displaced and have lost everything due to the fires. We're doing inventory of what we already have in donations and then we will have a more finalized list for people to pass on to their networks. ETA: Updated List Here and In Comments.
Donations can be dropped off at [or mailed to] the Boys and Girls Club:
Northern Cheyenne Boys and Girls Club
101 Cheyenne Ave
Lame Deer MT, 59043
and Allen Fisher will coordinate the storage and transport of items to Ashland and Birney. Cash donations are always helpful, please use the link below.

[You can send cash directly via PayPal.] Our donation account is bgcncn@gmail.com. The email is linked to the Boys and Girls Club's Account. Thank you everyone. Send it far and wide. 18 families so far that have nothing left.

The fire is continuing to spread. Details on the wildfire itself, projected movements and map of the area affected are being posted here:

Ash Creek Fire: Incident Overview

Video of Fire

All photos courtesy Northern Cheyenne Tribal Health
and Northern Cheyenne Fire Relief - Lame Deer Boys & Girls Club

Emergency: Wildfires Hit Northern Cheyenne Nation

The Ash Creek Fire is estimated to be approximately 110,000 acres, on the eastern side of the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation in southeastern Montana
Photo by  John Youngbear, Wednesday, June 27, 2012
The wildfires ravaging the country have now hit the Northern Cheyenne Nation in Montana. A number of families have lost their homes and all their possessions. Things are still very dangerous there, and the community is fighting to get the wildfires under control.

Photo by Elton Harris via Billings Gazette

An emergency shelter has been set up at the Boys and Girls Club in Lame Deer.

Please consider helping out the people who have been hit hard by this disaster.

Current needs: Children's clothing, diapers, adult clothing and shoes, toiletries, eventually household goods will be needed. ETA: Updated, More Extensive List Here and Here.
There are currently emergency shelters and the Red Cross is providing food and water.

All donations of items can be sent to:

Northern Cheyenne Boys and Girls Club
101 Cheyenne Ave
Lame Deer MT, 59043

Monetary donations can be sent to:

The American Red Cross of Montana 
**Important: You must state that the funds are for the Northern Cheyenne Reservation**

Our prayers are with our friends and their community in this difficult time.
Photo by  John Youngbear, Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Photos courtesy Northern Cheyenne Tribal Health.

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ETA 7:12pm ET: The Fire is uncontained and headed for Lame Deer.

Our prayers with our friends fighting the fire and taking care of survivors.

With the power outages and maxed-out phones, updates from friends are spotty. Regular updates are being posted on Facebook by Northern Cheyenne Tribal Health, and the KURL-8 Fire Watch.

Update, 6pm ET from Northern Cheyenne Tribal Health

ASH CREEK FIRE INFORMATION, 06/28/12

Basic information
Date of origin: Sunday, June 25, 2012 approx. 04:22
Location: 10 miles NE of Lame Deer, Mont., in Ash Creek
Incident Commander: Tom Heintz

Current Situation
Total Personnel: 118
Size: 110,000 acres
Percent Contained: 5-percent
Fire Behavior: Surface fire with occasional torching and long range spotting.

Significant Events: Ash Creek Fire was transferred to IMT 2 Heintz at 06:00; HWY 212 is closed from Lame Deer to Broadus, Mont.

Outlook
Planned Actions: Anchor and Flank; Hold flanks of the fire where feasible and identify and provide protection to values at risk.
Growth Potential: HIGH

Photo by Elton Harris via Billings Gazette
ETA: More photos at ICTMN: Northern Cheyenne Reservation Burning, in Photos

Quick Note on Copyright

Please do not copy and paste entire blog posts on to your blog or other media without the express, written permission of the author. Linking to my posts and including brief quotes with links is always fine, but please respect copyright and the rights of those of us who generate content. Thanks.

This notice is at the bottom of every page on my blog. I am usually totally cool with friends and colleagues quoting at length, or even reposting whole entries as long as they ask. However, not everyone has had the common courtesy to simply ask.

This being the Internet, I know it's hard to enforce this without a dedicated team of lawyers. I'm not interested in shutting down the free flow of information between friends and colleagues. But I'm just reminding folks to practice common courtesy here. I sometimes go back and add updates and additional content to my posts. And even though this is not a for-pay medium, I would like to have at least some control over where my content appears. Again, quoting with credit and linkage is fine, just don't swipe whole posts or personal images (such as the picture of my grandmother or other relatives, or me for that matter) without dropping me a line and getting my OK. OK?

Moran Taing. image adapted from the carmina gadelica
this version copyright ©2012 kpn