| Tuesday, February 9, 2010 |
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An apologetic Salvation Army in Spokane is now accepting tribal identification at its family emergency shelter and has offered “to make things right” with a Native American family it turned away earlier this month.
“Tribal documents are now being treated with the same respect” as drivers’ licenses, state or U.S. military identification cards, said Richard Silva, business administrator for the Salvation Army in Spokane.
Meanwhile, the Turtle Mountain Chippewa couple that was denied shelter on Jan. 11 has received an outpouring of help from concerned donors who read about their plight in The Spokesman-Review.
The family has had 10 days’ occupancy at a hotel paid for, as well as offers of food, clothes and toys, according to Carolyn Samuels Werre, homeless and family services coordinator for the American Indian Community Center in Spokane.
“I think this opened a lot of people’s eyes,” said Samuels, who received numerous phone calls from across the country about Darrell and Beverly Azure.
As a result of the Salvation Army Family Emergency Center’s policy of not accepting Indian ID cards, the Azures had to sleep in their car upon arriving in Spokane on a night when the temperature dropped below zero.
Samuels was not the only one receiving calls.
“We’ve had people calling us from all over the country and Canada … from tribal members and concerned parties to chastise us, which we deserved,” said Silva.
He said his office is drafting a letter, which it will send to tribes in the region, if not the nation, admitting to and apologizing for its oversight in turning the Azures away because of a flawed policy.
Silva said the policy of not accepting Indian ID came about “over the course of time because of the impression” that the cards were not uniform in their validity.
“That was not just wrong, it’s illegal,” Silva said, citing the federal government’s acceptance of tribal documents in establishing identity for purposes of employment.
“Why should the Salvation Army (policy) be tighter than the federal government’s,” Silva said.
In addition, he said, other charitable entities, including the Spokane Neighborhood Action Program and the Salvation Army in Seattle has been accepting Indian IDs.
Silva said his office would meet with officials of the American Indian Community Center to forge a stronger relationship, to be sensitive to the needs of tribal members, and “to create the opportunity for them and other social service agencies to review our policies.”
The Salvation Army in Spokane, he said, “will institute basic board review to make sure our policies are not discriminatory.”
The Azures came to Spokane with their daughter, her children and partner after the building in which they were living was condemned in Gillette, Wyo., where affordable housing is scarce.
Samuels said the Indian Center would be working with the family to find them permanent housing.