How can things be so different and so bleak for kids and adults on the Fort Peck Reservation and other Reservations? Is this our best effort, or is this another way of passing the problem?
It is easy for people not living on Fort Peck to say that this is not their problem. In reality, we are all connected. You don't think so? Ask yourself this question: Would you let your kids live this way? As long as we think it is okay for some citizens of this country to live in third world conditions squalor, it will continue.
Love Has No Color is part of the solution. It isn't adding to the problem or waiting for someone else to do the heavy lifting.
At a Fun Day a few years back, one of our members brought her one-year-old son. From a statistical profile, that kid will have a forty-year increased lifespan advantage compared to a one-year-old born on the Reservation.
Most people familiar with life on the Reservation have heard of MMIW or MMIWG. Its function is to increase awareness and help put an end to Native women being murdered, exploited, forced into sex trafficking, or missing. Just step off the Reservation, and barely anybody has heard anything about this, much less thinking that it's a huge problem.
There is so much unemployment on the Reservation because there are few opportunities for work available.
Education lags behind every sector in Montana. It's not just math and science; it's life skills, too: kids on the Reservation are not prepared to live a successful, long, healthy life.
Love Has No Color was not aware of the food shortages these kids face until very recently. For the last five years, every event includes giving away non-perishable, high-quality food and household goods for hundreds of families. These things are bought locally from Darryl Werner's Main Street Grocery in Poplar.
The health disparities experienced on the Reservation are unbelievable. Love Has No Color is moving toward solutions every year. We just had our full-time Chiropractor, Dr. Megan Cartillar, move into private practice in North Dakota after nearly four years serving Fort Peck via HPDP.
We will continue to create innovative and outside the box solutions to help all on the Fort Peck Reservation and beyond.
If you wish to help, please reach out and join us!