BIA: Disbanding Hot Shot crews

Tuesday, April 1, 2008

BIA: Disbanding Hot Shot crews

Penny wise pound foolish - Feds continue wildland firefighting cuts - Budget reductions - Reduction in force (RIF) at BIA/NIFC.

Here is the decision that the BIA has made on the Reduction of Interagency Hotshot Crews within the Bureau of Indian affairs.

Effective immediately -March 19 - The following IHC's will be disbanded. All equipment to be returned regional headquarters office.
$100,000 dollars appropriated for this reduction in force.

Southwest area - Mescalero interagency hotshots -Mescalero Apache tribe
Rocky Mountain Region - Bear Paw interagency hotshots - Chippewa Cree tribe

CAL FIRE NEWS recognizes the American Indian wildland firefighters in the Southwest United States and their important contributions to firefighting nationwide.
Although the risks are high, and the pay is low, the work demanding and dangerous, most American Indian men and women battle fires as a matter of pride.
We thank these disbanded crews for their service to the Country.

"As long as I can remember, Indian firefighters have taken pride in
fighting fires. They didn’t want to be second best, they wanted to
be number one in this field. Not only does firefighting bring pres-
tige and pride, but it also...creates employment for men and women.
It helps our economic situation by bringing money home to pay
rent and buy clothes for the families.... The Tribe stands 100 per-
cent behind us and expects us to act as tribal emissaries."
Blackfeet firefighter Joe Bear 1987

The Mescalero Hotshots began trainee status in 1986.
After the Mescalero crew had fulfilled its probationary period, it was transitioned into Type 1 Inter-agency Hotshot Crew in 1987.
The Mescalero Hotshots are an elite BIA-funded IHC Native American federal fire-fighting crew based on the Mescalero Apache Indian Reservation, Mescalero, New Mexico.
Startup of the Mescalero crew was strongly supported by the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Mescalero Apache Tribe

The Bear Paw Fire Crew re-organized and re-structured the entire chain of command in the spring of 2007. The Bear Paw Fire Program is now under the direct authority of the Chippewa-Cree Natural Resources Forest Manager.
The re-structuring provides better control, monitoring and management of the Bear Paw Fire Program by the CCTNatural Resources Department, and also the ability to make the necessary changes and revisions to the program to meet compliance requirements of BIA-NIFC.

How did this save money?

The newly-formed Bear Paw Hotshots received their entire funding from the Chippewa-Cree Business Committee to maintain and train the crew as required in the National Interagency Hotshot Standards Guide.

The Bear Paw crew was recognized as a Type I IHC in training status in 2004 and received full funding from the BIA NIFC office.
The ‘Bear Paw’ crew was named after the Bear Paw Mountains on the Rocky Boy Indian Reservation.

CONTACT INFORMATION - NATIVE AMERICAN FIREFIGHTERS:

MESCALERO HOTSHOTS IHC - Mescalero Apache Tribe.
Mescalero Agency
PO Box 189
Mescalero, NM 88340

BASE CAMP:
Telephone: 505.464.0314
Fax: 505.464.4899

BEAR PAW HOTSHOTS BIA IHC - Chippewa Cree Indian Nations.
Rocky Boy Tribe
RR1 Box 542Box Elder, MT 59521

BASE CAMP:
Telephone: 406.395.4207 / 4083
Fax: 406.395.4382

Source documents:
Wildlandfire.com - Original BIA Document File
Wildfires Today - United States Wildland Fire News today: (1)"
Fire warriors - .PDF

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Tuesday, April 1, 2008