Wednesday October 10, 2001

BISMARCK, N.D. - The Air Force is donating 100 homes to a nonprofit group that will use them to replace mold-infested housing on an American Indian reservation.

The Tustin, Calif.-based Walking Shield American Indian Society hopes to get the first 50 homes to the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation in north-central North Dakota before Christmas.

"We will then close down because of the weather, and then next spring we'll install the next 50 units," said Phil Stevens, the group's founder. He wants to start moving the homes from the base near Minot, N.D., this month.

Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa officials estimate at least 320 federally subsidized homes on the reservation are infested with mold. The tribe estimates that about 220 homes must be destroyed.

"This will be a tremendous help," said Charles Trottier, a planner for the tribe. "We do have a great need."

The tribe also hopes to build 40 modular units by Christmas, he said.

Tribal officials say at least seven deaths are related to the mold, and that scores of people have been sickened by it. The infestation is blamed on the flooding of crawl spaces under the houses.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development will help pay to transport the homes, Stevens said. It will cost about $12,000 to move each duplex and Stevens hopes to move about five a week, he said.

Minot Air Force Base is also donating 197 homes to other reservations with housing problems.

Each of the homes is 1,200 square feet with three bedrooms, two baths and new roofs, windows and steel siding. They are being replaced with housing that meets new Air Force standards. The homes were built in the 1960s and are still in good shape, said Kevin Nelson, deputy civil engineer of Minot Air Force Base.

"We're either moving out these homes or tearing them down and then building new ones in their place," Nelson said.

In July, Congress approved $5 million to help with housing.

Two reports commissioned by the tribe found high numbers of toxic molds, including black stachybotrys mold, which can cause skin rashes, inflammation of the respiratory tract and suppression of the immune system. A U.S. Army Corps of Engineers report also found toxic molds.

The relief effort is part of Operation Walking Shield, a civil-military program established in 1994 that has provided more than 550 housing units to more than 3,300 homeless American Indians on 14 reservations in North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana and Minnesota.