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Imelda and Robert Barney stand outside their tepee with their grandson, 4-year-old Jayrell. Courtesy photo by Georgia Runsabove

When Roughing It in a Tepee Is the Good Life

By Georgia Runsabove

LAME DEER, Mont.—A house fire forced a Northern Cheyenne family to live in a tepee for nearly a month until cold weather drove them inside a tribally donated mobile home with no heat, electricity or bedrooms.

The local fire department has not determined the cause of the fire that destroyed Robert and Imelda Barney's three-bedroom mobile home Sept. 13 on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation. The Barneys suspect a short in the wiring sparked the blaze, but whatever the reason, the family of eight continues to suffer more than a month after losing their home.

"We're managing, but it's hard," Imelda Barney said.

Tribal President Geri Small visited the family camp soon after the fire and promised tribal assistance. Help arrived Oct. 3 in the form of a tribal trailer delivered by the Northern Cheyenne Tribal Housing Authority. But the Barnes refused to move in, saying the trailer, essentially a shell, was uninhabitable.

The trailer has no bedrooms or kitchen. There is one bathroom. The trailer lacks electricity. Exposed electrical wiring hangs from the walls and ceiling, which shows water damage from leaks in several areas. The carpet is soiled.

'It's Really Cold in There'

Last week, housing authority workmen built outside steps, but they said that was all they were told to do.

The Barneys held out, living in their tepee, until cold weather drove them inside the unheated trailer. "I feel like moving my tents into the trailer and setting them up in there," Imelda Barney said. "We moved our donated bed in there the first night it got cold. It's really cold in there, too, especially in the morning."

The Barneys and their friends can't help but wonder if their donated trailer is the best the tribe can do. Seven houses sit behind the housing authority offices, ready for occupancy and waiting to be moved. Throughout the five districts that make up the Northern Cheyenne Reservation, many boarded-up houses sit and wait to be remodeled.

"Nothing's definite with anybody," Imelda Barney said. "They say they're going to help, but they don't do it."

She was referring to the Northern Cheyenne Tribal Housing Authority. According to Director Lafe Haugen, policy has tied the agency's hands, preventing it from offering any emergency housing. "We're bound by federal dollars not to help her," Haugen said.

Friends deliver donated supplies to the campsite. The Barneys live about 10 miles out of town on top of the Birney Divide. Their wood supply is running low. Their camp is surrounded by tall pine trees. On freezing days, frost coats their needles.

View Inside Tepee

Earlier this month, on a sunny morning, with ashes smoldering in their homemade wood stove, the couple sat on their bed inside the tepee and expressed their disappointment, anger and hurt at tribal officials for not responding to the family's predicament.

Their grandson, 4-year-old Jayrell, oblivious to their harsh living arrangements, ran by outside holding on to his dog's tail in play. Their 13-month-old granddaughter, LaPrincia, moved to a small travel trailer with her parents not far from the tepee. It's warmer for her there since she's the youngest of the family.

A makeshift toilet site was located farther away with a blanket for the door, and their kitchen was under a blue tarp shade behind the tepee. Water jugs sat empty on the ground. Their cook stove resembled a great black contraption with no evidence of a propane tank to supply fuel.

Imelda Barney has been a Head Start teacher for 15 years. Even through this hardship, she still manages to make it to work everyday. Jayrell is a student in the program, which has helped out with food.

The Barneys talked about their ordeal with faces showing despair. They lost everything in the fire, they said, but they've come to terms with that. Harder to grasp is the lack of help from the tribal government.

"We used to be a tribe that took care of each other," Imelda Barney said. "Now they don't know how to go about helping because they have no heart."

A version of this story originally was published in a Northern Cheyenne tribal newsletter, The Village News, and is used with permission.

Georgia Runsabove's "Dear Crabby" blogs are available for syndication. Please contact reznet to purchase republishing rights.

Georgia Runsabove, Northern Cheyenne, writes newsletters for Lame Deer Schools on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation in Montana. She is a graduate of the Freedom Forum's 2003 American Indian Journalism Institute.

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