FEMA Trailers to Native Americans - Modern Smallpox Blankets for Indians?

According to popular legend, Andrew Jackson, infamous Indian-hater, helped poison the Native Americans by distributing smallpox-contaminated blankets among them. (Not true, by the way.) We do know that in his relocation of the Cherokee from the South to Oklahoma during the Trail of Tears, tens of thousands died from inadequate clothing and shelter as well as poor-quality food and contaminated water.

This was a travesty. Even Americans who hated Indians at the time agreed that this should never happen again when the truth came out. Today, the Trail of Tears and other cases of terrible treatment for Native Americans are among our most shameful national memories.

So why are we getting ready to do it again?

The Peculiar Trail of FEMA Trailers To South Dakota Indians

Senator Tim Johnson of South Dakota has been pushing to have unused FEMA trailers distributed among the Lakota and Dakota Sioux living there, who are counted among the most underhoused people in the country.

It sounds like a win-win: the FEMA trailers are just sitting there, fully furnished and unused. They have propane stoves, microwaves, air conditioning, and heat. They're not too hard to move (albeit expensive, perhaps at a price of $2000 each from their current location in Arkansas) and can be used as semi-permanent housing for people who don't have adequate homes of their own.

No problem, right?

Well, no problem except that people in New Orleans and other south Louisiana locations have been moving out of the trailers recently, opting to live in their vehicles or even outside in tents rather than the FEMA-provided lodging on their property.

You see, many of these $60,000 units (at least double the price of comparable new travel trailers available commercially) were build from substandard materials. To meet FEMA's demand for thousands upon thousands of these trailers, quick quick, trailer manufacturers worked people overtime. They ordered stock from suppliers who weren't prepared for the sudden run on pressboard and other critical materials.

And they cut corners. Lots of corners. Pressboard is traditionally made from scrap wood, glued together and treated with pressure for strength. But strength means nothing if your wood isn't properly preserved. Traditional lumber is cured - set out to dry until all the greenwood is aged well. Pressboard, on the other hand, is first soaked in formaldehyde and then baked in special ovens so that the formaldehyde is evaporated or sealed into the wood.

These trailers - well. The ovens to bake out formaldehyde weren't adequate, or the boards weren't baked at all, or they weren't baked long enough. In the rush, improperly cured pressboard was used in the construction of these new units. Some of the pressboard was shipped over from China, where we all know the quality control is'n t quite what we're used to in the US.

The result: formaldehyde is leeching from the pressboard under the floors, in the walls, in the ceilings. It's polluting the air in these tiny trailers. The Sierra Club recently did a survey of random FEMA trailers. Out of 44 trailers, all but 4 tested higher than 0.1 PPM formaldehyde - the EPA limit. One trailer had 5 PPM, fifty times the recommended EPA limit.

This isn't a small issue. Formaldehyde is a toxic chemical, and even in concentrations slightly higher than the EPA limit can cause red and itchy eyes, headaches, burning throat, and difficulty breathing. For those with asthma or other respiratory ailments, the reaction can be severe. And formaldehyde is not only a standard allergen, it is known to cause allergies. Some studies indicate it is also a carcinogen.

FEMA's official solution? Sending out workers to tell those who complained to - open their windows.

If the formaldehyde is leeching out of the floors and walls, though, opening windows only alleviates the problem short-term because the fumes will continue to emanate. And therefore people have been moving out of their trailers and into their cars just so they can breathe while they sleep.

Back To The Reservations

So - 2000 of these formaldehyde-soaked trailers are now headed for the Lakota and Dakota, to alleviate their housing problems, even though Native Americans have been shown in many studies to be more susceptible to asthma-related problems than any other ethnic group in America. And when Native Americans start getting sick in these houses, who will be responsible for the problem?

Why not alleviate the real Native American problem? Why not return land management of Indian reservations and properties to the Indians, who after all own the land?

Instead, the archaic Bureau of Indian Affairs, part of the Department of the Interior, manages Native American land just as it did back in 1840. It provides a certain number of schools to Native American children. It subdivides the land held by lease, making it all but worthless to those who own it. And it charges huge amounts for its mismanagement of Native American properties - money that could be earned by the Indians who actually own the rights to the land, and who could then spend that money on their own homes, apartments, and communities.

No, instead our government will generously donate worthless poisonous trailers to Native Americans who don't have the funds to buy or rent homes - while jealously guarding their right to dictate precisely what is done with Indian lands.

Do you see a problem here?

By the way, no one mentioned - did anyone ask the Lakota or Dakota whether they wanted the darn trailers to begin with? No one seems to be asking their opinion. Just taking care of the poor underprivileged Natives as usual.