CSDIW member helps to provide water to Native Americans
The Continental Society Daughters of Indian Wars recently met and pledged their continued support of Bacone College, the Native American College in Muskogee, Oklahoma, and the Sequoyah National Research Center at the University of Arkansas-little Rock.
Another project taken on by one of its members, Belinda Meacham Jones, of Benton, is the support to improve conditions on the Navajo Indian Reservation in Shiprock, New Mexico.
Jones and her husband Danny are working through their church to improve water availability, a basic need. The Jones, along with the church leaders, missions committee, and the leaders and pastors of the Native American Nation, led the effort to buy 15 275-gallon water tanks needed for multigenerational homes in the community of Four Corners. Each tank costs $485 and the goal has been met.
Jones said the pandemic has hit the Navajo Nation, which covers a 25,000-square-mile swath of the Four Corners region of the Southwest, with deadly force. It has the highest infection rate anywhere in the country, including New York City. In the Navajo Nation, nonaccess to water is a big cause of the COVID-19 crisis, she said.
CSDIW assists and encourages the preservation of records and historic sites associated with native and immigrant American ancestors. Among its activities is the awarding of Native American Scholarships to enrolled tribal members who plan to work with a tribe or nation in the field of education or social service and whose career goals involve working with Native Americans.
Eligible candidates for membership must prove lineal descendant of a Native or immigrant American ancestor who participated in any capacity with each other, passive or hostile, from 1607 to 1900.
To encourage research and documentation of Native American ancestry, a special membership certificate is awarded to those who can prove lineal descent of a Native ancestor.