After a 2 year wait, a family on the ShinnecockReservation received a house moved from a site in Southampton Village on Monday afternoon.
As the house moved to its new location. Shinnecock elder Elizabeth Thunder Bird Haile told us
"for two years we have been working on finding a house... and what happened is that there was a house that was going to be destroyed and this house and all the facilities have been donated by community people who care about a family whose house had fallen down around them... it was only a trailer to begin with. There was no help coming from any place else and there were 3 generations in that house."
Repairing and replacing housing on the Reservation is difficult due to lack of funds. A reservation house has no market value since it can't be re-sold and common ownership of the land means mortgages cannot be obtained.
The Padoquohan Medicine Lodge works to fix up or replace sub-standard housing on the reservation.
Reverend Holly Haile Davis who is Mrs. Haile's daughter explained that
"The Padoquohan Medicine Lodge has worked for about 10 years in assisting families who are in sub-standard and unsafe housing situations. The house that we are moving today is one that was donated by a family in Southampton Village. Raising the money to have it moved to the Reservation took us 2 years. But today is the day and we are very happy about our success"
The Medicine Lodge continues to raise tax-deductable funds to complete the work on this house and to be able to make repairs on other Shinnecock homes. They can be reached at Padoquohan Medicine Lodge, P.O. Box 5078 Southampton, New York, 11969.
This report was prepared for the 6:30pm Local News on WPKN 89.5 Bridgeport and WPKM 88.7 Montauk and streaming on the web at wpkn.org.
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