The Oglala Sioux Tribe received a 2016 Ford Transit Connect from the Wounded Warriors Family Support. Photo from Lukas Partners / Facebook
Wounded Warriors Family Support, a non-profit based in Nebraska, launched a new venture to provide tribal veterans with safe and dependable transportation to and from Veterans Affairs facilities. The organization is donating vehicles to help veterans who need transportation and transition assistance on their reservations. So far, seven tribes have benefited from the program. “I have had the honor to serve with Native Americans during my 30 years of service," said John D. Folsom, a retired United States Marine Corps Reserve colonel who founded Wounded Warriors Family Support and serves as its president. "We have a firm commitment to support our Native American veterans, especially tribes that are the most isolated and poor.” The beneficiaries include the Oglala Sioux Tribe of South Dakota. Wounded Warriors Family Support donated a Ford vehicle in memory of Marine Lance Cpl. Brett Lundstrom, who was killed in action in Iraq in January 2006. “Brett was returned to Pine Ridge and honored with a warrior’s funeral,” Folsom said. “I appreciate his life and service, especially given the backdrop of the crushing poverty of the Pine Ridge reservation.” Other vehicles have been donated to the Blackfeet Nation, the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, the Fort Belknap Indian Community, the Northern Cheyenne Tribe, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation.
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