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Destria Cellicion, 34, of Phoenix, and a member of the New Mexico Zuni Native American tribe, talks with her case worker, Bryan J. Longie, a case manager at the Phoenix Indian Center. Associated Press Photo by Ross D. Franklin

Bad Economy's Toll on One Indian Family

By Jon Gambrell of the Associated Press

PHOENIX (AP) — With the economy's troubles growing more dismal each week, families are struggling to stay afloat, in some cases with half their monthly income and no job prospects.

As bank accounts bottom out and jaws tighten with each bill, many are finding an unpleasant reality.

This is a snapshot of how one family is coping.

A sad prelude to Christmas

Destria Cellicion, a member of New Mexico's Zuni tribe, is sitting on a tattered chair in her living room and she's crying. Soon, she and her five kids will be evicted from their two-bedroom apartment. Two weeks before Christmas.

"I cry at night when the kids are sleeping," she says. "Sometimes I feel like giving up."

Even when times were good, when she was making $1,800 a month, they weren't the best. With her job as a cook at a catering company, she was making her $710 monthly rent. And she was providing for her family, paying the bills without help for the first time in her 34 years.

What happened? How did it get to this?

Cellicion was laid off in September when food orders slowed. Life became unmanageable soon thereafter.

Her electricity was shut off and she had to go to a neighbor's house to prepare dinner for the children. Four meatloaf dinners heated up in a microwave.

She's had no luck finding a job. She's limited to applying to places within walking distance of her Phoenix neighborhood because she doesn't have a car, and without a baby sitter she has to take along her two toddlers.

When she goes out, she avoids stores and fast-food restaurants. They're places that 2-year-old P.J. remembers getting an occasional toy and some chicken nuggets.

"They get tired, they get thirsty, they want things when we pass the stores, and I can't afford that right now," she says.

She relies on a patchwork of help agencies

She relies on a food bank or another local charity, the Phoenix Indian Center. She always lets the children eat first. "I have what's left," she says.

She's tried to add a few homey touches to their austere apartment: a blue candle from a 99-cent store. A single maroon drape above the kitchen window. On a wall in the living room, a green cutout of a Christmas tree P.J. decorated with glitter and markers.

A picture of an American Indian woman draped in a white shawl, facing the wind alone.

Jon Gambrell is an Associated Press staff writer.