Efforts begun to form Havre Indian Center

For years in the 1960s and ’70s, there was an Indian Center in Havre that served the Native population in Havre and the surrounding area.

William Main of Fort Belknap Indian Reservation said members took advantage of the services when he was young.

But in the 1980, the center folded.

That’s too bad, he said, because sometimes off-reservation Natives need help in accessing services guaranteed to reservation residents.

So he is holding a meeting at 6 p.m. at the TownHouse Inn on 1st Street to try to create a new Indian Center.

Main said he hopes the meeting will result in a firm commitment to form an Indian Center. He would like to get a board of directors elected to move the center forward.

He is working with Missoula Indian Center which has an organizational structure he thinks would work well in Havre.

Main said he believes that off-reservation Indians are losing benefits they are entitled to.

Natives who live in Havre and Chinook can obtain Indian health care by going to a clinic on the nearest reservation, but if a doctor needs to make a referral to a Great Falls doctor, Indian Health Services does not pay it.

There are a variety of other services that off-reservation Natives don’t know they are entitled to, he said.

Main said HRDC has been very helpful in working toward establishing the center.

“They have been great to work with, they think it’s a good idea,” Main said.

HRDC has offered to provide start-up office space at a minimal price, he said.

In the long run, he said, he would like to have an office in downtown Havre where it is more accessible to the public.