MONTANA RURAL DEVELOPMENT PARTNERS, INC. Rural Resource Team Report Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation November 12 - 13, 2002 MT RDP Mission As our Mission, the Montana Rural Development Partners, Inc. is committed to supporting locally conceived strategies to sustain, improve, and develop vital and prosperous rural Montana communities by encouraging communication, coordination, and collaboration among private, public and tribal groups. 1 THE MONTANA RURAL DEVELOPMENT PARTNERS, INC. The Montana Rural Development Partners, Inc. is a collaborative public/private partnership that brings together six partner groups: local government, state government, federal government, tribal governments, non-profit organizations and private sector individuals and organizations. An Executive Committee representing the six partner groups governs MT RDP, INC. The Executive Committee as well as the Partners’ membership has established the following goals for the MT RDP, Inc.: Assist rural communities in visioning and strategic planning Serve as a resource for assisting communities in finding and obtaining grants for rural projects Serve and be recognized as a neutral forum for identification and resolution of multi-jurisdictional issues. The Partnership seeks to assist rural Montana communities with their needs and development efforts by matching the technical and financial resources of federal, state, and local governments and the private sector with locally conceived strategies/efforts. If you would like more information about the Montana Rural Development Partners, Inc. and how you may benefit as a member, contact: Gene Vuckovich, Executive Director Gloria O’Rourke, Deputy Director Montana Rural Development Partners, Inc. 118 East Seventh Street; Suite 2A Anaconda, Montana 59711 Ph: 406.563.5259 Fax: 406.563.5476 [email protected] [email protected] http://www.mtrdp.org 2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The elements are all here for the Rocky Boy Community to have a successful future. To become a growing, vibrant community takes people willing to roll up their sleeves and go to work. Once this nucleus begins to exert effort, it will begin to show more and more success. Then this nucleus needs to expand to include more and more of the community until the entire community is involved. But the work is not on the big jobs; it is on small ones that can be achieved quickly. The big ones come later after the Rocky Boy’s community has seen the results of the smaller efforts and sees that it can accomplish things. There is a number of short-term, accomplishable recommendations that the resource team has provided. The most important thing is to get the entire community involved in trying to find ways to accomplish its goals. A few celebrations at the successful conclusion of an activity that has involved a large number of citizens will lead to a feeling of accomplishment that will carry over into other activities. Look through the suggestions, pick out one, and get started! Each of you individually must decide what it is that you want to do—what kind of project you want to tackle. There are enough tasks for everyone. Each small step, every accomplishment, no matter how limited, is movement in the right direction toward achieving Rocky Boy’s goals. It can be done! There is no problem-facing you that cannot be solved by the people living in the community. It is your choice, your decision; you can do it. The Montana Rural Development Partners, Inc. can only help you to help yourself. On behalf of the Rocky Boy’s Resource Team, I want to thank the community and sponsors for the warm hospitality shown to us during our stay. The accommodations were outstanding and certainly deserve a gold star from this team! Thank you very much. We hope you will find great value in this report and remember, any team member is available for you to call to clarify or provide more information and assistance. Use these folks! The Montana Rural Development Partners, Inc. is here to help you in any way we can. Sincerely, Gene Vuckovich 3 INTRODUCTION It has been a pleasure for me to visit the Rocky Boy’s Community and participate, as the team leader, in the Community Assessment that took place on November 12-13, 2002. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Chippewa Cree Tribal Council and the Chippewa Cree Community Development Corporation for inviting Montana Rural Development Partners and the Community Assessment Team to the Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation. It is evident from this invitation that the Chippewa Cree people are extremely interested in economic and community development, and promoting partnerships that will improve the socio-economic status of their Tribal community. I would like to thank Luanne Belcourt and Lydia Sutherland for their hard work in the development of the agenda, sending invitations, and making preparations for the team visit. It is obvious that a lot of work went into this preparation and planning. I commend Luanne, Lydia, Richard Small, and other staff members for their hard work and the successful turnout from the community. Without your support and assistance this community assessment would not have been possible. My thanks also to Father Pete who let the team and community use St. Mary's church for the two days of the assessment. I would also like to thank the community assessment team comprised of Mary Lou Affleck, Fannie Mae Partnership Office, Billings; Maria Valandra, First Interstate Bank, Billings; Randy Hanson, Montana Department of Commerce, Havre, and Cindy Stene, USDA Rural Development, Great Falls. Each of these talented individuals has taken time from their 4 busy work schedules to volunteer time for this community assessment. They have provided the community with a wealth of information, resources, and suggestions that are a part of this assessment report. This report will help the Chippewa Cree Community Development Corporation continue their efforts to promote and implement sustainable economic and community development activity on the Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation. Bob Parsley, USDA Rural Development Assessment Team Leader 5 PROCESS FOR DEVELOPMENT OF THIS REPORT The Montana Rural Development Partners, Inc. has provided a resource team to assist the Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation in evaluating the community’s assets and liabilities and in developing suggestions for improving the environment, social and economic future of the Chippewa Cree people. The Chippewa Cree Community Development Corporation requested a community assessment from the Montana Rural Development Partners, Inc. The Chippewa Cree Community Development staff served as the community contacts and took the lead in agenda development, logistics and publicity for the assessment. Resource team members were selected to visit, interview citizens, business and community leaders; and develop a plan of recommended action for the city. The team members were carefully selected based on their fields of expertise that would be needed to respond to the problem areas identified. The Resource Team viewed the area and interviewed approximately 100 people over a two-day period on November 12th and 13th, 2002. The team interviewed representatives from the following segments of the community: Social Services/TERO; Agriculture and Roads; Banking and Gaming; Churches; Education and Youth; Housing; Retail Business and Utilities; Cultural and Elders/Seniors; Health Board; Law and Order; Public Relations, Specialty Projects and Enrollment. Each participant was asked to respond to three questions designed to begin communications and discussion and to serve as a basis for developing the action plan. The three questions were: What do you think are the major problems and challenges in your community? What do you think are the major strengths and assets in your community? What projects would you like to see completed in two, five, ten and twenty years in your community? Upon completion of the interviews, the team met to compare notes and share comments following the two days of intense study. The team then agreed that each team member would carefully analyze the things said, synthesize what they heard with their knowledge of programs and resources, prepare their notes and suggestions, and forward these items to be combined into MT RDP’s final report to Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation. A preliminary oral report and a summary of group recommendations was presented to the community on November 13th, 2002. Following the oral report, this formal written report was prepared and presented to the community. 6 RESOURCE TEAM MEMBERS Rocky Boy’s Team Leader: Bob Parsley Rocky Boy’s Team Member: Title: Rural Development Coordinator Mary Lou Affleck Agency: USDA/Rural Development Title: Sr. Dep. Director MT Partnership Address: P.O. Box 850 Ofc City/State/Zip: Bozeman, MT 59771 Agency: Fannie Mae Ph: 406.585.2565 Fx: 406.585.2565 Address: 404 N. 31st St. Email: [email protected] City/State/Zip: Billings, MT 59101 Ph: 406.259.7049 Fx: 406.259.7077 Web: http://www.rurdev.usda.gov/mt Email: [email protected] Web: http://www.fanniemae.com Rocky Boy’s Team Member: Rocky Boy’s Team Member: Randy Hanson Maria Valandra Title: Regional Development Officer Title: CRA Officer Agency: MT Dept. of Commerce Agency: 1st Interstate Bancsystem Address: P.O. Box 311 Address: P.O. Box 30918 City/State/Zip: Havre, MT 59501 City/State/Zip: Billings, MT 59116 Ph: 406.262.9579 Fx: 406.262.9581 Ph: 406.255.5395 Fx: 406.255.5350 Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Web: http://www.commerce.state.mt.us Web: http://www.firstinterstatebank.com/ Rocky Boy’s Team Member: Cindy Stene Title: CDM Agency: USDA/Rural Development Address: 12 3rd St. NW; 2nd Floor City/State/Zip: Great Falls, MT 59404 Ph: 406.761.4077 x 4 Fx: 406.452.3806 Email: [email protected] Web: http://www.rurdev.usda.gov/mt 7 LOCAL CONTACTS and COORDINATORS Special thanks to: Luanne Belcourt (Executive Director) and entire staff Lydia Sutherland Richard Small Kevin Parisian Chippewa Cree Community Development Corporation R.R.