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Traditional Gatherings: A Time for Community Connection and Continuity
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Greetings! I hope this month's newsletter finds you and your family enjoying the last month of warm summer sun. August is typically a time in our American Indian communities for Traditional Gatherings or Yunnaxish (in Luiseno) and Matayuums ( in Kumeyaay) . Unlike the more commercially popular "powwows," a Gathering is a local, tribal event where our entire communities, young and old, come out to play softball, horse shoes, and traditional games like peon. The gathering grounds are laid out with a ring of ramadas built from cedar posts and thatched roofs made of fresh-cut willow boughs. Each ramada features a different booth, food, artisan jewelry, pottery, gourds, and some are geared more for the kids with candy, games, and dime store toy prizes.
Traditional Gatherings are a time for community connection, a time to remember our cultural traditions, and to ensure our cultural continuity. This practice is a core component of the ITLTRF's community outreach for disaster preparedness.
August's and September's ITLTRF program focus will be on Community Disaster Education, we will offer a new and a "refresher" course for Community Emergency Response Team Training, and we will be hosting a series of FEMA workshops for Tribal Emergency Management to assist our Tribal Governments in planning for the Continuity of their Governmental and Business Operations. In addition we are pleased to invite you to register for our Inaugural "Putt Fore Preparedness" Golf Tournament, which will celebrate and honor the work of our tribal first responders and law enforcement partners. To register your team, go to: Golf 2013.
Look for our booths and displays at a Gathering near you, or better yet, call our office and schedule a preparedness workshop in your community. Our team is ready to help you!
Thank you,
Chairman Mark Romero (Mesa Grande)
ITLTRF Executive Board Chairman
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Local Training Opportunities
- August 2-4, 2013: CERT T3 and Teen CERT Annex, San Bernardino County Fire Department and OES; 1743 Miro Way, Rialto, CA 92376; Click here to download registration form: CERT TTT Registration Form; contact is Michael. Ramirez@oes.sbccounty.gov
- August 6, 2013: IED Awareness/Bomb Threat Management Workshop; Ben Clark Public Safety Training Center, 16791 Davis Avenue, Riverside, CA 92518; Contact Deputy Jessica Stephenson Jessica Stephenson (951) 486-2861
- September 10-12, FEMA Workshops: Continuity of Operations, National Incident Management System, Threat and Hazard Risk Assessment, and L583, Emergency Management for Tribal Leaders at Harrah's Rincon. Click to Download Registration Form
- September 9-13, NAEPEC HazWOPER Course: Pechanga Tribal Government Center, 12784 Pechanga Road, Temecula, CA 92592. Click to Download Registration Form
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Tribes Receive Funding from SDG&E Grant Carlsbad, CA (July 11, 2013)
The Inter Tribal Long Term Recovery Foundation was awarded $32,500 through the SDG&E Safe San Diego Grant Program and will disperse it among 10 tribes that worked with us to receive $2500 each. The grant funding can be used for Community Emergency Response Team training (CERT) or Fire Safe Council activities that include community or fire safety outreach, coordination, or training. This is the third year the Foundation has acted as fiscal agent for tribal applicants to this program.
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Photo: Representatives from SDGE (left, center, and far right), Hans Degner (Jamul Indian Village tribal security officer; pictured second from left), Theresa Gregor (ITLTRF; left of center), and Paul Nysen (right of center), Scott Illions (right back), and Reuben Velasquez (second from center right) members of Inland Valley CERT & Pala Fire Department.
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Santa Ysabel, Jamul Indian Village, La Jolla, Los Coyotes, Mesa Grande, Pauma, Rincon, San Pasqual, Pala, and Campo received funding to host an array of emergency preparedness events and trainings. Since 2009, SDG&E has provided $90,000 to tribal community disaster recovery and preparedness education.
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ITLTRF Hosts Tribal Notification & Communication Drill
Rincon Indian Reservation (July 19, 2013)
The 2013 Tribal Notification & Communication Drill was the result of a yearlong partnership between the ITLTRF, seven tribes and tribal agencies, and sixteen area hospitals.
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Left: Fire Chief Mike Fisher (Rincon) contacting local area hospitals;
Right: Cal OES Southern California Tribal Liaison Bill Martinez documenting information received during the drill.
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In July 2012, after meeting with Indian Health Council Inc, the ITLTRF Board of Directors agreed to host a Table Top Exercise based on the topic, "Are we Ready Again" for another catastrophic fire or earthquake? ITLTRF invited all of our member tribes and tribal partners to the exercise,which included representatives from over ten tribes, tribal law enforcement and fire departments as well as local, state, and federal government and non-government officials.
The outcome of that meeting was the formation of the Tribal Notification and Communication Work Group. The two takeaways from the Table Top Exercise included 1) a goal to update contact information between tribes and tribal partners and 2) to establish and test a procedure about how and when we would contact one another in an emergency situation.
In September 2012 the ITLTRF was contactd by staff from UCSD Medical Center and Palomar Pomerado Health regarding an opportunity to partner and plan to prepare for mass casualty incidents in large venues in the county. The hospital planning team became invaluable to helping the ITLTRF and Cal EMA coordinate the information we needed to update communication for tribes and tribal partners.
By December 2012, ITLTRF, UCSD Medical Center, Cal EMA, and Indian Health Council Inc. formed the key planning team to develop the Notification Drill to test our "Tribal Communication and Notification Workbook." On July 19, 2013, the Planning Team conducted a two-hour notification drill from the Training Room in the Rincon Fire Department. The results of the Drill will be presented to the Workgroup in September 2013.
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