About this story: When the State of Montana and the Crow Tribe declared an emergency in March 2020 because of the COVID 19 pandemic, Plenty Doors Community Development Corporation shifted its focus from building individual and community capacity to assist with the pandemic response. Plenty Doors joined the incident command team and worked with government entities, healthcare organizations and other nonprofits.

Watch a video and read more about Plenty Doors’ story:

“One day, we stopped looking back and started looking forward. It was no longer about what had been done to us and what we had lost, but about what we wanted to become – what our Creator made us to be. Once we did that, we were no longer mired in the hurt and the anger and resentment that helped to hold us down. Those things still happened, of course, but now, our focus was not solely in righting the injustices of the past, which might return us only to where we had been, but it was to create a future that was better for those who follow and, in doing that, we became the leaders.”

This quote read at the beginning of the video is from Curtis Yarlott, the founding board president of Plenty Doors CDC.

The mission of the Plenty Doors Community Development Corporation is to improve our communities through economic development, individual and community capacity building, business development, promotion and preservation of culture, environment and food sovereignty.

When the State of Montana and the Crow Tribe declared an emergency in March 2020 because of the COVID 19 pandemic, Plenty Doors Community Development Corporation shifted its focus from building individual and community capacity to assist with the pandemic response. Plenty Doors joined the incident command team and worked with government entities, healthcare organizations and other nonprofits.

It was a difficult time. We had no grocery store, the municipal water and wastewater infrastructure needed repair and 40 % of rural home owners do not have access to water/safe water. Many families had little income and lived in multifamily, multigeneration homes. The Tribe had ordered a shelter in place restricting people from travel off the reservation.

The Plenty Doors Team drove over 100 miles round trip, weekly so we could purchase cleaning supplies for quarantined families and eventually to any family who needed them. We purchased water for communities and families, we purchased fuel for food pantries and hunters, set up an account at the local butcher so hunters who wanted to donate meat could take it there for processing. We partnered with the Little Big Horn College to sew masks for the community. Community members sewed masks and donated them to Plenty Doors so we could distribute. We purchased masks and other products from local entrepreneurs in effort to support the local economy.

We received generous monetary donations, pet food, diapers, clothes, and masks from foundations, other communities and nonprofits. Community members and local businesses donated cleaning supplies, toilet paper, balms, sweet grass, masks and food. We formed a network of nonprofits serving the Reservation to ensure we minimized duplication. With funding we were able to hire a temporary employees to coordinate the masks and cleaning supplies boxes, to assist with Low Income Energy Assistance Program (LIEAP), Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and TNAF Program applications, etc.

Because access to safe water was an issue across the reservation, we formed the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Taskforce to connect home owners to existing resources. We partnered with the Apsaalooke Nation Housing Authority, the Crow Tribe, the Wyola School District and the Indian Health Service to repair the Wyola Lift station.

At the end of 2020 we received a generous donation of 1,500 backpacks, school supplies, books and clothes that were given out to families just prior to Christmas.

The work Plenty Doors did during the first year of COVID was not possible without the help of many people and organizations. We were able to provide over 3,000 cleaning supply boxes, 25,000 masks, along with helping numerous families with water, groceries, utilities, and rent, etc.

Aho means thank you in our language. The work we did would not be possible without the help of many people. Aho, John Doyle and Emery Three Irons, Aho to the Little Big Horn College, Aho to Indy Hill, Olivia Williamson, and Jess Birdinground, Aho to Bryan Rogers, Rosie Other Medicine and Twila Old Chief. Aho to all who donated money, masks, time and backpacks. Aho Linda for nominating me. 😊