HUD Region VIII Welcomes Secretary Donovan to Montana Indian Country

On May 27, HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan, Deputy Assistant Secretary Rodger Boyd, Education Secretary Arne Duncan, Montana Governor Schweitzer, U. S. Senator Tester, and other government officials participated in a tour of HUD assisted housing and educational facilities on the Northern Cheyenne reservation. As a part of the tour of housing conditions on the reservation, Secretary Donovan visited numerous homes that have been designated for rehabilitation using Recovery Act funds. The Northern Cheyenne tribe has received $1,343,929 in Indian Housing Block Grant Recovery Act formula funding. The tribe will use these funds to modernize 35 previously developed homes. In addition to the formula funding, the Northern Cheyenne tribe is eligible to compete for additional Recovery Act funds.

Upon completing the reservation tour, Secretary Donovan and other federal/state government officials travelled to Billings to conduct a round table discussion on housing and education issues with the tribal chairpersons/vice chairpersons from all eight Montana tribes. The meeting was a highly successful forum for the exchange of information and ideas, which further strengthened the unique government-to-government relationship between the federal government and the Indian nations.