| Here is the contact info for the Salvation Army Shelter. Please contact this shelter and let them know that these policies are not acceptable and is racial discrimination! This issue with not being able to use a Tribal ID as verification has to be stopped somehow, they are just as valid as a state id or drivers license. Why should a tribal member have to acquire a state id? Salvation Army calls themselves a Christian based organization and then rejects a family with children inn below 0 temp's......... |
| Contact Information The Salvation Army Family Emergency Center 1403 W Broadway Spokane WA 99201 Phone: 509-325-6814 |
| **Please also click on the link at the end of the article and add your comments to this article!** |
| Homeless shelter rejects family's tribal ID |
| SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) - Two homeless American Indian grandparents from North Dakota slept in a car in subzero weather after they were turned away from a Salvation Army shelter that refused to accept their tribe-issued identification. The Salvation Army Family Emergency Center turned away Beverly and Darrell Azure and members of their family because photo identification they carried was inadequate, Salvation Army business administrator Richard Silvva said. The Shelter must safeguard the security of the people it takes in, including children, Silva told the Spokesman-Review. "In the process, we have to have valid identification," Silva said. "Identification that cannot be forged." Sophie Tonasket, director of the American Indian Community Center here, said she knows of others who have been turned away for the same reason from the Salvation Army shelter, called the SAFE Center. "These people are left out in the cold because they won't accept tribal ID, and that is a slap in the face of the tribes." Tonasket said. The SAFE Center is the only shelter that accepts families, Silva said. Its priority is to provide space for families with children, and then to married couples. The faith-based Christian oranization has to verify that couples are married and children are sleeping in rooms with their true parents, Silva said. "Our job is to try to help people," he said. "It behooves us to do some sort of screening." Beverly Azure, 49, and Darrell Azure, 56, arrived Jan.11, with their daughter, Anel Patnaude, and her two small children in a Dodge Shadow driven by Patnaude's partner, Larry Decoteau. All are Turtle Mountain Chippewa, from North Dakota, but they most recently lived in Gillette, Wyo. Upon arriving in Spokane, Azure said she called the SAFE Center and was told they would not be accepted without state ID. They were directed to the Indian center to obtain a state ID, which they could not afford, she said. The Azures, who do not drive because of health problems, do not have drivers licenses. They have photo IDs issued by the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa. "I've never had trouble before with our IDs. We've even cashed checks with them," Beverly Azure said. "It made me feel like we were being discriminated against." Tonasket said that because tribes are sovereign entities, tribal members should not be forced to depend on any state for proof of their identity. But the Salvation Army required a driver's license or a photo ID card issued by a state, a military ID or "things that are universally recognized as sufficient to be hired or receive government assistance," Silva said. "You can't even use a tribal ID card to get a job," he said. "They are generated by a local tribal office, and there is no way to verify that that is their true name or that they are related in some way." Using money sent by his mother, Decoteau found shelter the night of Jan.11 for Patnaude, her children and himslef, but Azure said there was no room for her and her husband. They slept in the Dodge as the temperature dropped to minus 5 degrees overnight. The extended family has been staying in a single room at a West Spokane motel, but they were uncertain where they would go if their money runs out. |
| SALVATION ARMY DISCRIMINATES!! |
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