Plenty Doors helps members of the Crow Tribe build community, resilience and prosperity
For seven years, an elderly woman was without running water in her home on the Apsáalooke Nation, home of the Crow Tribe, in southern Montana. Her water main had broken years ago, but being on a fixed income, she couldn’t afford to fix it.
Without complaint, she quietly hauled her own water, until she was physically unable. She needed someone to step in and get her access to water.
When Plenty Doors Community Development Corporation, based on the reservation at Crow Agency, MT, learned of this situation, they helped the woman apply for funding through their WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) program to repair and reconnect her water supply.
Water, that essential source of life, now flows through the woman’s faucets and into her waiting hands.
“There's so much need on our reservation,” says Charlene Johnson, founder and executive director of Plenty Doors, as she reflects on this story. “People have told me (our work) creates hope. It gives them a hand up to get to where they need to be.”
Since Plenty Doors’ establishment in 2018, its mission has been to build the capacity of the Apsáalooke Nation and the 14,000 Crow, or Apsáalooke, people living on or near the reservation. (Apsáalooke means “children of the large-beaked bird,” which settlers misinterpreted as “crow.”)
In addition to WASH, Plenty Doors’ focus areas include supporting the development of Indigenous-owned businesses on the reservation and helping improve financial literacy through education and savings incentive programs. As a community development financial institution, Plenty Doors can give three types of loans—credit-builder, personal, and business—to help people and businesses advance.
In its short history, the non-profit has made a significant impact to the Crow people.
“In order for us to continue as an organization,” Johnson explains, “we need general operating funds to cover everything—the overhead cost of running a non-profit organization and building, the cost of services like having an accountant who works with us on our books. It's so important for us to function well as an organization.”
Enbridge recently supported Plenty Doors’ general operating funds with a $10,000 Fueling Futures grant. As we mark Native American Heritage Month, we recognize the organization’s strategic efforts to fill gaps to help individuals and businesses thrive in ways that ripple to benefit the whole community.
Plenty Doors’ work aligns with our commitment to building vibrant communities where we live and work, as well as our Indigenous Reconciliation Action Plan, specifically our pillar to strengthen people through employment and education.
Plenty Doors aims to a be a forward-thinking organization, and is continually exploring ways it can best help the Apsáalooke Reservation—now, and in the future.
For example, “we had a cohort of young people looking at how coal has impacted our Tribe, how decisions in the past have impacted where we’re at now,” says Johnson. “Now that coal has gone away, we’re looking at alternative ways of generating revenue and supporting our families. How do we get them prepared for climate change? How do we make our community more resilient for the future?”
Plenty Doors’ vision for the Apsáalooke Reservation is one of hope, resilience and prosperity.
Says Johnson: “We want to sustain our economy and preserve our culture.”
