{"id":7432,"date":"2020-07-23T16:28:14","date_gmt":"2020-07-23T20:28:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.indianz.com\/covid19\/?p=7432"},"modified":"2020-07-23T16:30:23","modified_gmt":"2020-07-23T20:30:23","slug":"sault-ste-marie-tribe-of-chippewa-indians-michigan-15","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/covid19\/2020\/07\/23\/sault-ste-marie-tribe-of-chippewa-indians-michigan-15\/","title":{"rendered":"Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians (Michigan)"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE<\/div>\n<div>JULY 23, 2020<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\n<div align=\"center\"><b>New COVID-19 Disaster Relief Program established, supersedes previous plans<br \/>\n<\/b><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>SAULT STE. MARIE, Mich. \u2014 On July 21, the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians Board of Directors voted to establish a new direct benefit plan for Sault Tribe members residing in the seven-county service area who have been impacted by the COVID-19 global pandemic. Members residing in the tribe\u2019s service area who have been impacted by the pandemic will each receive $1,000. Non-tribal parents or legal guardians of Sault Tribe minor children will be eligible to receive the benefit for their tribal child.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>Sault Tribe Chairperson Aaron Payment and other tribal leaders pushed for the use of total tribal enrollment population as part of the formula for a tribe\u2019s share of the $8 billion. Instead of the Sault Tribe\u2019s 44,000 enrollment, Treasury used 16,500, the Indian Housing Block Grant (IHBG) Statistic covering the service area.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>To be eligible, tribal members must:<\/div>\n<div>\u2014 Be an enrolled member of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe as of July 21, 2020;<\/div>\n<div>\u2014 Reside in the seven (7) county services area of the Sault Tribe as of July 21, 2020; and<\/div>\n<div>\u2014 Encountered COVID-19 financial hardships from March 1st through July 21, 2020.<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>A mail out and response survey must be completed by each member receiving $1,000 in order to comply with federal requirements. The forms are tentatively slated to be mailed out in August.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>The tribe had originally established a program to provide assistance to COVID-19-affected tribal members in the seven-county service area. After much discussion, the tribal board of directors voted unanimously at it\u2019s July 21 meeting that eligible members who complete a COVID-19 survey form would receive $1,000. The current members who applied for the original program will receive a letter explaining the new program as this one has been eliminated.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>While members in the service area will be excited to hear the news of the COVID-19 relief benefit for the service area, Payment acknowledged the downside to this decision. \u201cI deeply regret and apologize that the benefit plan approved last night does not include tribal members outside of the service area,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians will distribute payments to those affected by the COVID-10 pandemic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[390,34,89],"class_list":["post-7432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tribes","tag-cares-act","tag-michigan","tag-soo-tribe"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/covid19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/covid19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/covid19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/covid19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/covid19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7432"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/covid19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7432\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7436,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/covid19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7432\/revisions\/7436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/covid19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/covid19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/covid19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}