The White Earth Band of Ojibwe has cut budgets and frozen employee salaries in response to the national economic recession, Chairwoman Erma Vizenor said in her annual State of the Nation address on Tuesday.

“The effect has been economically severe and harsh to us on the White Earth Reservation,” said Vizenor, The Detroit Lakes Tribune reported.

The tribe froze the salaries of all 1,700 employees. “It sounds bleak and it is," Vizenor said.

But Vizenor said a bright spot is the $767 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The law provides $2.5 billion for Indian Country projects.

“This total package in this one stimulus bill is more than what (happened in) eight years of what President Bush did for Indian Country,” Vizenor said.

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Recession severe for White Earth Reservation, but progress still taking place (The Detroit Lakes Tribune 3/18)