Native American team provides disaster response
 |
|
Members of the disaster early
response team from the Oklahoma Indian Missionary Conference remove
debris left by an April 24 tornado in Eagle Pass, Texas.
UMNS photos by Julio Corral and Mark Garza.
|
A UMNS Report
By Fran Coode Walsh*
May 17, 2007
The Rev. Julienne Judd is used to rushing into areas most people have evacuated.
As part of the disaster early response team from The United Methodist
Church's Oklahoma Indian Missionary Conference, Judd helps coordinate
volunteers who can travel to the site of a disaster within 42 to 84
hours, assess the damage and immediately start cleaning up debris and
helping as needed.
 |
|
"Every tribe has its own culture and ways of dealing with grief," says the Rev. Julienne Judd.
|
Fast response is key to helping survivors, according to Judd. "They're
so traumatized and ... (they) look around and see the devastation and
don't know where to begin," she said.
Judd and a team of eight volunteers arrived in Eagle Pass, Texas,
after an April 24 tornado killed seven residents and destroyed much of
the town.
"We were feeding chickens because there was no water here," Judd
said. "… We who come from other places that don't have the disaster ...
have the opportunity of looking around, saying, 'OK, what can we do and
how can we start?' And generally that helps the person who's in the
disaster to maybe just have a little peace and know where to start."
The team also offers the comfort of a familiar face. The group was
formed in response to the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal
Building in Oklahoma City, where federal recovery workers noticed "that
there were a lot of people who were responding ... but they didn't have
people of color who were specifically needed at that time," according to
Judd.
 |
|
Anthony Sacquat-Castro helps with
the cleanup.
|
The Rev. David Wilson, superintendent of the Oklahoma Indian Missionary
Conference, said the conference formed its own response teams and asked
the United Methodist Committee on Relief to train them. Now there are 10
team leaders who organize volunteers and try to respond whenever the
disasters involve Native American communities.
"Every tribe has its own culture and ways of dealing with grief,"
Judd said. "We've worked at Katrina with the victims there on the Houma
reservation. We have gone to California when they had the fires. We've
been to New York to (work with) the Native people … during 9/11." The
teams also responded to the 2005 shootings on the Red Lake reservation
in Minnesota, she said.
Wilson said people are sometimes skeptical about a Native American
team being "capable" of offering assistance, but he pointed out that
"Native people have lived with disasters all our lives. That helps us be
more prepared.
Helping Eagle Pass
The tornado in Eagle Pass affected a Kickapoo reservation. Two
members of Judd's team, Anthony and Lawana Sacquat-Castro, are from the
Kickapoo reservation near Horton, Kan. The husband-and-wife team wanted
to help their Native brothers and sisters and make sure none of their
family members were hurt. As it turned out, the reservation was not
significantly damaged, and no Castro family members were injured.
Judd is from the Kiowa and Choctaw Tribes of Oklahoma. She is the
pastor at the Lawrence (Kan.) Indian United Methodist Church and at
Sullivan Chapel in Topeka. She also is campus minister at Haskell Indian
Nations University in Lawrence and leads the Kahbeah Fellowship on the
Kickapoo reservation near Horton. The trip to Eagle Pass was her fifth
as a recovery team leader.
 |
|
Team members take a break from recovery work in Eagle Pass.
|
Native American people always respond positively when they see the
disaster teams, according to Judd, noting that team members receive a
lot of hugs and messages of thanks. "Responses like that definitely mean
we're making a difference," she said.
On this trip, the team cleaned up a mostly Hispanic neighborhood in
Eagle Pass. Few of the homeowners spoke English, but they were able to
communicate their gratitude in other ways. "They went to get us water
the first day," Judd said. "That was very inspirational for us because
as Native people we know that sometimes the best that you can do is
offer water, and so that … was something that touched us in our hearts."
It was the Castros' first experience with the response team - but not
their last. "This is one of the things that I've always wanted to do,"
said Lawana Sacquat-Castro. "That's what we believe: help one another,
Christ's children. We're all His children."
Plans are under way to train more disaster response team leaders this
fall in the Oklahoma Indian Missionary Conference. For more
information, contact Wilson at (405) 632-2006 or dwilson@oimc.org.
*Walsh is the supervising producer of UMTV, a unit of United Methodist Communications based in Nashville, Tenn.
News media contact: Fran Coode Walsh, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
Video Story
Native American Storm Team
Related Articles
United Methodists offer prayers, assistance in Kansas
Oklahoma United Methodists respond to wildfires
United Methodists help in Arkansas tornado relief
Churches heal emotions after Enterprise tornadoes
Native American events planned with new leader
Heart music: Native American Ministries Sunday
Resources
United Methodist Committee on Relief
Native American Comprehensive Plan
Native American Communications Office (NACO) | 
Translate
Korean News
