When the Modrite Fire moved into the town of Inchelium, Washington, on the Colville Indian Reservation, the River Warriors Society paid to get gas in over 70 families’ cars so they could evacuate. Faith Zacherle, who is part of the group, said they also put about 30 people up in hotel rooms.
But that’s just another day's work for Zacherle. The River Warriors Society is a group of canoe families from Upper Columbia tribes. Zacherle said their mission is to protect waterways and lands. The group has been working to support the Colville reservation in the wake of wildfires for over a decade.
Multiple fires are burning across parts of the nearly 1.4 million-acre reservation.
“Pretty much anything that our community needs, we deliver,” Zacherle said.
“ Our whole entire rez is on fire right now,” Zacherle said. “ I've got some Incheliumers camped in my yard. I've got people's pets.”
She and four other women have been doing what they can to meet an ever-changing set of needs for these fires.
“Pretty much anything that our community needs, we deliver,” Zacherle said.
When fires started in Spokane, some of the group's regular volunteers had to leave. Now, it’s just Zacherle and one other woman most days.
Zacherle said she's recently been driving between 400 and 500 miles a day around the reservation getting supplies to people.
Community members stepping up
Just in the past few weeks, River Warriors Society has raised about $20,000 for fire relief support. About half of that came from private donations, and the other half came from the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation. It’s the first time since the group started operating in 2015 that it has received funding from the tribes.
"We are just community action-based, and we only help when we can. We leave the firefighting to the professionals,” Turner said.
But the money is used quickly. The group is using about $2,000 a day to get gas to people like Corby Turner, a former firefighter who is using his forestry equipment to try to create defensible space and save people’s homes on the reservation.
“ We're basically a community-based operation. We're not certified firefighters. We're not licensed to fight fire. We are just community action-based, and we only help when we can. We leave the firefighting to the professionals,” Turner said.
When the Kaiser Canyon Fire sparked into Nespelem, Turner said he and other locals cleared vegetation, wet the landscape and dug fuel breaks with a bulldozer, holding the fire until aerial support and engines arrived.
“That 20 minutes gave them time to get here and properly get set up for the initial attack,” Turner said.
Turner said they pay for this equipment out of their own pockets. The River Warriors Society has helped keep them running.
The Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation do have EMS, fire and rescue services. But in disasters like this, they have to rely on partners, said Cody Desautel, the tribes' executive director.
“We're only funded for one station that's responsible for covering the entirety of the 1.4 million acres (of reservation land),” Desautel said.
The tribes get some funding from the Bureau of Indian Affairs for structure protection. Desautel said that accounts for one or maybe two staff with no equipment. So Desautel said the tribes have to contribute another $2.5 million to ensure adequate responses.
“We testify in Congress every time we get a chance about Interior (Department) appropriations to increase those funding levels, but it's a challenge across Indian country. It's not unique to Colville,” Desautel said.
The partnerships with federal and state agencies are working better this year than they have in the past, Desautel said. He thinks the reservation does have the resources needed now to fight the current fires. As of Thursday afternoon, there were over 1,000 firefighters working on the Kaiser Canyon and Modrite fires.
Nowhere to go
The Kaiser Canyon fire came close to, and burned within towns, making evacuations difficult at times.
“ Both access roads to get to Omak were blocked for a while because of fire activity right along the road,” Desautel said. “There just wasn't a lot of places to leave safely.”
The American Red Cross supported evacuation centers in Omak and Coulee Dam, but community members reported that some people helping to run one shelter made racist remarks.
The American Red Cross subsequently removed the people who reportedly made the remarks.
“We have opened an internal review, removed the individuals involved from response operations, and are requiring additional cultural awareness training for disaster response personnel. We remain committed to serving all communities with humanity, impartiality, and respect,” wrote Kristin Goodwillie, communications manager for the Red Cross Northwest Region, in a statement.
The incident is continuing to have an impact. Zacherle said some people are sleeping in their cars and in burned-out areas, rather than going to shelters.
Zacherle said the River Warriors Society is trying to book hotel rooms for families, but she said that’s difficult because there are fires all around the Northwest. Many hotels are at capacity.
Not enough resources to rebuild
Over 30 homes have been lost to the flames on the Colville reservation, and over 20 other structures have also been destroyed. The loss of these homes is exacerbated by a housing shortage on the reservation, Turner said.
“The average home has eight to 10 individuals living there. So with that being said, anybody that loses a house, it displaces anywhere from eight to 10, to even 15 people at times,” Turner said.
Turner’s family members lost two homes, including one that had been in their family for decades. When he went to look at that property after the fire tore through the area, the home was burned to the ground.
“Based on our original assessment, it seems like a lot of the structures we lost were not insured, so we’re trying to find out what services we can provide for those people,” Desautel said.
Read the audio transcript here.
