ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Amerind Risk Management Corp., the risk pool that
insures American Indian housing, is making a further demonstration of
Native solidarity by moving to Indian country.

On April 27, in conjunction with the Albuquerque-based group’s Spring
Institute, Amerind broke ground for its new headquarters on the Santa Ana
Pueblo.

The building, next to the Santa Ana Golf Course and the Santa Ana Star
Casino, represents “an historic event for our members,” according to Rod
Crawley, chief operating officer.

Crawley said Amerind’s membership, composed of Indian Housing Authorities
and tribally-designated housing entities, has been expressing a desire to
move onto tribal land since 1991.

The more than 200 members of Amerind represent more than 400 tribes (some
regional IHAs represent more than one tribe). The cooperative venture was
started in 1986 under the aegis of the Department of Housing and Urban
Development and the National American Indian Housing Council, because
housing insurance was either unavailable or extremely expensive in Indian
areas.

Leonard Armijo, governor of Santa Ana, will lead the dignitaries at the
groundbreaking, along with Amerind chairman Robert Gauthier from the
Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribes of Montana, Miss Indian New Mexico
Paulene Shebala, John Beirise, chief executive of Native American National
Bank, Denver, and Eugene Lujan, chairman of Southern Sandoval Investments
and the Gaming Regulatory Commission.

Amerind said it will be featured on the MSNBC television show “Pick of the
Week,” hosted by former National Football League quarterback Terry
Bradshaw, on May 4 and 6, for its outreach to Native communities. Amerind
said it came in first out of two dozen organizations the show was
considering.

The broadcast will feature an interview with Joel Frank, Amerind vice
chair, and images of a housing development on the Santa Ana Pueblo.

Amerind members have recently donated $12,000 towards relief of Indians
made homeless by last year’s devastating California wildfires. Added to a
$100,000 donation from Amerind itself, $112,000 has been raised for those
burned out in California rancherias like Barona and San Pascual.

Amerind has estimated that 138 Native families were displaced in the fires,
which destroyed 30,000 acres of Native land, and that only 12 of them were
covered by the Amerind risk pool.

Not traditional insurance, the Amerind pool nevertheless protects $6.5
billion of property in Indian country. It says it has paid out $125 million
in claims while saving its members more than $125 million in premiums since
inception.