Santa Clara Pueblo Fund in partnership with New Mexico Community Foundation

Fund to Provide Assistance in Fire Rehabilitation and Flooding Mitigation Efforts for People and Places of Santa Clara Pueblo

July 13, 2011, Santa Fe, N.M.—Santa Clara Pueblo, in partnership with the New Mexico Community Foundation (NMCF), announces the creation of the Santa Clara Pueblo Fund to support the current and long term costs of fire rehabilitation and flooding mitigation efforts in Santa Clara Canyon after the devastating loss of thousands of acres during the Las Conchas fire in northern New Mexico.

The pueblo is actively engaged in flash flooding mitigation. The Santa Clara Creek is being lined with sand bags, concrete barriers, and other measures to protect homes, tribal buildings, irrigation systems, waste water lagoons and farm land. The Santa Clara Pueblo Fund will also provide assistance with food, water, shovels, and other urgent necessities for pueblo residents and volunteers.

Santa Clara Pueblo lost more than 16,600 acres—or 80 percent—of tribal forested lands in the Las Conchas fire, and 95 percent of the pueblo watershed has been impacted. Thousands of acres of ancestral lands outside the reservation have also burned. With the start of the summer monsoon season, pueblo officials fear further destruction due to possible flooding and additional damage to pueblo water sources and their impact on local homes, buildings, irrigation systems, farms and wildlife.

An advised fund of NMCF, the Santa Clara Pueblo Fund will provide a central source for public contributions that will be used for short term fire and flood suppression efforts and long term rehabilitation, stabilization and repair efforts in Santa Clara Canyon. The fund is intended to help the pueblo address both the known and unforeseeable impacts from the Las Conchas fire now and in the future. One hundred percent of all donations to the fund will go directly to the pueblo relief effort.

“The New Mexico Community Foundation is proud to partner with Santa Clara Pueblo to provide immediate and long range financial assistance to pueblo residents and landscapes during this tragic time,” says Jenny Parks, NMCF President and CEO, noting that NMCF has already directed $10,000 in fire relief funding to Santa Clara Pueblo since the start of the Las Conchas fire. “The impact of the Las Conchas fire to the quality of life and cultural traditions at the pueblo is heartbreaking. We encourage all New Mexicans and those who love New Mexico to contribute to this fund and help our pueblo neighbors.”

“We are devastated by the vast damage to our once beautiful Santa Clara Canyon and P’o pii Khanu, the headwaters of our Santa Clara Creek,” adds Santa Clara Pueblo Governor Walter Dasheno. “This is our only homeland, the place we have been entrusted with since time immemorial. Never again in our lifetime will we see our Santa Clara Canyon as we have known it. It will take generations for our community and lands to recover from this fire. We thank the New Mexico Community Foundation for its efforts on our behalf as well as all those who have already sent their prayers and financial assistance.”

 

To learn more, read the complete news release.

Here's where to make an online donation.

CONTACT: Elizabeth “Libby” Madden
Director of Development, NMCF
505-270-9624 or emadden@nmcf.org