Awake

Indian Country Today: Contruction of Seattle Homeless Center to Begin in February

SEATTLE - Forty-five homeless people died on the streets of Seattle in 2005. Each death shows how nightmarish life on the streets can be.

Rhonda Starr, 39, Warm Springs, died of unknown causes in January 2005. Susan Eileen Redhorn, 51, Yakima/Blackfeet, died of an infection in May. Jesse Madera, a 55-year-old American Indian, died of unknown causes in June. Alpheus George, 38, Tlingit, fell onto Interstate 5 in September. Davina Garrison, 43, Navajo, was murdered in November.

All told, six homeless people were murdered; seven committed suicide. Others died of an overdose, heart disease or infections. One was run over by a train, another by a truck.

When Chief Seattle Club opens at its new site in January 2007, it won't be able to give American Indians and Alaska Natives a place to sleep at night because of neighborhood regulations preventing the establishment of a homeless shelter.

But the club will be better equipped to help homeless Native people get off the streets.