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Our Emergency Services provide disaster relief for tribes adversely affected by environmental emergencies. When disaster assistance is needed, the NAA program is quick to respond to the tribes within and beyond our regular service area.
The physical environment on the reservations we support is often harsh, giving rise to a wide range of environmental disasters such as floods, forest fires, blizzards, ice storms, and more. Some communities also experience acute or chronic contaminated-water emergencies. In the United States, 90,000 Native Americans are homeless and 40% of Native Americans live in substandard, overcrowded housing. The typical wait time for tribal housing assistance is three years or more.
When unexpected weather or environmental emergencies arise, our Disaster Relief service helps our reservation Program Partners assist communities in need and families who have been displaced.
NAA also assists homeless shelters on the reservations, along with shelters for the aged, disabled, veterans and others, as well as children in trauma.
Foster Crisis
A social worker knocks on the door of a reservation home late in the evening. Inside, the parents have been overwhelmed by unrelenting poverty and isolation, and their children must be placed in a safer situation.
 | A “care package” from NAA
often elicits the question,
“ Do I have to give it back?”
from an incredulous foster child
(NAA staff member's daughter
pictured in order to protect
identity of foster children). | Whatever the little ones have in the way of clothing and personal items is quickly tossed into a “reservation suitcase” — the simple plastic trash bag that so often accompanies foster children in Indian Country.
This gut-wrenching scenario can play out several times a week on large reservations. When it does Native American Aid is there to help, thanks to the input of local volunteers.
The primary requirement for emergency foster care is that the family must have a bed for each child. But in communities so poor that two dozen people may share each two-room bungalow, an extra bed is often an unimaginable luxury. How can I help?
Local Program Partners told NAA that inflatable air mattresses would be a big help for children in emergency foster placements. So would blankets, clothing, diapers, formula, and toiletries. Perhaps it would be possible to get real suitcases, and maybe — just maybe — some comforting teddy bears.
With the help of corporate donors, gift-in-kind charities, and generous people like you, NAA’s Emergency Care program was born. No price can be placed on the feeling of warmth and welcome that these gifts bring to a frightened and lonely child.
 | The most-needed items for infants and children
in crisis include diapers, formula, blankets,
clothing, and bath supplies. |
NAA is striving to expand this program to help children in crisis on all Indian reservations of the Northern Plains states. |
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