Deadly EF 3 Tornado in El Reno, Oklahoma Kills 2, Injures 29
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Follow us on Twitter #CATribalTribune www.CheyenneAndArapahoTribes.org June 1, 2019 -Vol. 15, Issue 11 Deadly EF 3 tornado in El Reno, Oklahoma kills 2, injures 29 The American Budget Value Inn on Hwy. 81 in El Reno, Okla. takes a direct hit Saturday night May 25 from an EF 3 torando. (EL RENO, OK) Giant green dumpsters were tossed like rocks into motel rooms. Mobile homes were not just destroyed, they were shredded to scrap. Cars and trucks were spun around or flipped upside down. Doors and ceilings were ripped from walls, but picture frames, of all things, were left hanging, slightly askew. “A gust came up and our house tipped over,” Robert Gawhega said, citizen of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes who survived the tornado that shook his trailer the way a child shakes a toy. “There I was, flying across the room.” Severe weather in El Reno on Saturday night made for a terrifying Memorial Day weekend. A brief but violent tornado tore a two-mile path through the outskirts of El Reno, demolishing much of the American Budget Value Inn motel and two of its neighbors, the Skyview mobile-home park and a car dealership. By Sunday afternoon, local officials said there had been two deaths. Tornadoes in this part of Oklahoma have a history of being wide and long, and of carving a path of mayhem for a dozen miles or more at times. But the tornado that struck El Reno was something different: Aerial images taken by local news outlets show a short, curvy finger of destruction from a funnel that only momentarily touched down, centering much of its bite on the motel, the trailer park and the auto dealer. “It’s a pretty devastating sight at this point in time,” El Reno Mayor Matt White told reporters on Sunday morning. “Pray for our community. We’ve been Gus Black hugs one of his granddaughters at an emergency shelter set up at the Jenks Simmons Field- house on Sunday. Black’s family of 10 escaped death when their home at Skyview Trailer Park was obliterated by the EF 3 tornado, with several family members sustaining major injuries. through a lot here lately.” El Reno is one of several Oklahoma towns and cities that have been hard hit by widespread flooding over the past week in Oklahoma. On Sunday in El Reno, as emergency crews continued to search through the rubble, there was a quiet sense that the town had been spared a far deadlier disaster. Officials said everyone who had been inside the motel when the tornado struck was alive and accounted for. “A lot of them hid, and a lot of them gathered up down below,” White said of the motel guests. The two people who died were from the Skyview trailer park. Tim and Bridget Solis were both found deceased. Late Sunday afternoon, White said the final grid search through the debris of the trailer park and the motel had been completed, with no more victims found and none expected. But some of the nearly 30 people who were injured remained hospitalized in serious or critical condition, he said. Cheyenne and Arapaho citizens Preston and Lena Black, along with eight other family members were among those who were rushed to nearby hospitals. “All you can do is cry out to God, you call out to God because that’s all you can do when you are flying around like a piece of paper. No one or nothing in this world can help you with something like that,” Gaynell Black, Cheyenne and Arapaho citizen told news crews. “When I found out it was an EF 3 tornado, it blew my mind, who survives that? Nobody … but we did,” Gus Black said, who was the one who pulled the children of the two who died, Tim and Bridget Solis from the rubble. They attempted to save the children’s parents, but were unable to reach them under the mountain of debris that had piled on top of them. Skyview Trailer Park in El Reno, Okla. also took a direct hit from a EF 3 tornado And stories of heroic efforts to save people continued to unfold. The granddaughter of where two local residents, Tim and Bridget Solis lost their lives and many families Gaynell Black, 16 year old Camilla Russell was the one who pulled her grandmother, her loss everything they owned when their mobile homes were picked up like weightless father Preston Black and her mother Lena Black from the rubble. “It was so scary, I didn’t know if my mom was alive because she wasn’t moving. It toys thrown through the air, shredding them to heaps of metal. EF 3 TORNADO / pg. 13 PAGE 2 Cheyenne & Arapaho Tribal Tribune Tsistsistas & Hinonoei Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes and Ponca Nation take lead on MMIW billboard campaign in Oklahoma (OKLAHOMA CITY, OK) Oklahomans Council (GIC) and founder of Not Our Na- recently learned that the state ranks tenth in tive Daughters. the country for murdered and missing indig- The national billboard campaign was enous women (MMIW) cases. Now, two of initiated by the tribal alliance of the Rocky the sovereign Indian Nations within the state Mountain Tribal Leaders Council (RMTLC), are acting to bring awareness to what Senator the Great Plains Tribal Chairman’s Associ- Jon Tester D-MT) has described as “an epi- ation (GPTCA), and the Global Indigenous demic.” Billboards that strikingly convey the Council (GIC). Sister tribes of the Oklaho- tragedy will debut this week near Tulsa and ma Indian Nations, the Northern Cheyenne, Oklahoma City, in El Reno and Ponca City. Northern Arapaho and Ponca Tribe of Ne- “We both feel that this is a beautiful man- braska are part of the tribal organizations. ifestation of our desire to shed light on this The RMTLC-GPTCA-GIC alliance has ugly problem,” said Councilwoman Casey been at the forefront of recent efforts to se- Camp-Horinek of the Ponca Nation, when cure meaningful legislation to combat the commenting on the billboard campaign. MMIW epidemic. Three bills introduced this Councilwoman Camp-Horinek’s daughter, year by Senators Murkowski, Udall, Smith Suzaatah Horinek, is the Ponca Nation’s Di- and Cortez-Masto incorporate recommenda- rector and Coordinator for the Tribal Sexual tions made by the GIC-RMTLC-GPTCA al- Assault Support Program (TSAP). liance. In February 2019, Senator Jon Tester The billboard on the Cheyenne and Arap- (D-MT), introduced the Studying the Missing aho Nation is on I-40 West, near South Coun- and Murdered Indian Crisis Act. This legisla- try Club Road in El Reno. Cheyenne and tive call for the Government Accountability Arapaho Gov. Reggie Wassana said he is Office to conduct a full review of how feder- committed to supporting this proactive initia- al agencies respond to reports of missing and as some of the scenes were, the movie would the Not Invisible Act(H.R. 2438) with Dem- tive to raise awareness and make the MMIW murdered Native Americans and recommend not have made the impact it did without ocratic Congresswomen Deb Haaland and tragedy impossible to ignore. Wassana’s po- solutions based on their findings, originated them,” Grey Bull said, and explained that the Sharice Davids, which seeks to establish a sition reflects the findings of the 2018 Urban with the RMTLC. In April 2019, Senator Tes- billboards are to be seen in the same light. “In BIA-supported advisory committee on vio- Indian Health Institute MMIW report, which ter and Senator Steve Daines (R-MT) com- 15-years of conflict in Iraq the US suffered lent crime committed against tribal members. indicated that the situation for Native wom- mitted to championing the GIC-RMTLC- 4,541 fatalities. In 2016 alone, there were The Not Invisible Actis the first bill in history en and girls in Oklahoma could be far graver GPTCA amendments to Savanna’s Act and to 5,712 reported MMIW&G cases in the US. to be introduced by four Native Americans. due to underreporting and law enforcement fulfilling that commitment by securing the in- That should provide pause and context,” add- “The silent crisis of missing and murdered administrative failures. clusion of those amendments in the final bill. ed Tom Rodgers, Executive Vice President of indigenous women is wreaking havoc on our “I stand before you today, a full-blooded The amendments were previously supported Global Indigenous Council. families and our communities. All parties Native American woman, a Northern Arapa- by the bills original sponsor, former senator, “The initial imagery is stark for a reason. have to work together to raise awareness and ho/Hunkpapa Lakota. The statistics that hang Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND), Senators Lisa Mur- This can no longer be a silent crisis. The next find the most effective ways to fight this epi- over my head are these: I am among the most kowski (R-AK) and Cory Booker (D-NJ), wave of billboards leads with the headline, demic,” said Congressman Mullin. stalked, raped, murdered, sexually assault- and in the House, Congressman Ruben Gal- ‘Invisible No More,’” explained Rain Bear “If you have a pulse, MMIW impacts ed, and abused of any women in any ethnic lego (D-AZ), and Congresswomen Sharice Stands Last, Executive Director of Global you. You took form in the womb. You were group, and I am among those who suffer Davids (D-KS) and Deb Haaland (D-NM). Indigenous Council, adding that this is just nurtured surrounded by sacred water. You domestic violence 50 times higher than the Grey Bull relates the billboard campaign one part of the MMIW movement “being led were born of a life-giver, a woman, and that national average,” stated Lynnette Grey Bull, to the movie, Wind River, that brought the by many in many different communities.” woman was once a girl.