Rural Post Offices

By Winona LaDuke
Contributing Writer

Post offices in Pine Point (Ponsford), Naytauwaush, S Lake and Ponemah are scheduled to close doors this year as a result of federal budget cuts. It turns out, not all budget cuts are equal. U.S. Postal Service suffered financial losses of $8.5 billion in 2010. One might ask whether or not the USPS is a business or a service in this country, and question the long term costs of the closures. Post office closures in the Dakotas and Minnesota will impact many communities, but the White Earth reservation villages and other tribal towns of Squaw Lake, Ponemah, Brookston (Minnesota), and Manderson, Wounded Knee and Wakpala (South Dakota) as well as Mandaree will mean hardships for a largely Native community. Most of the post office closures are in the rural areas serving both Native and many rural elderly. Eliminating some 3600 post offices, mostly rural, will save the USPS less than seven tenths of one percent of their operating budget. Nationally, a number of tribal communities will be hit. That math might worth questioning in terms of what it costs in more than financial terms.

The U.S. Postal Service (emphasis on the word Service) is, to some of us, basic American infrastructure. And yet, is treated as a business. As such, budget savings for post office closures are estimated to be at around $1 billion, while $3 billion is saved by cutting Saturday services. Layoffs in the largely rural post office closures will result in the loss of 4000 jobs – also a burden to already impoverished communities.  Many of these communities have few other infrastructure options. For instance, if the South Dakota town of Porcupine loses it’s post office, residents will have to travel some 72 miles round trip to get money orders or special services. Some five of eleven Arizona closings are on reservations, and in South Dakota (which may have the most closures) some ten out of eighty are tribal post offices.

Just to use a comparison, the 2008 Troubled Asset Relief Program (also known as the federal bail out of large banks), cost American tax payers $500 billion in one program, ended up to $l.2 trillion in total (including some European banks that US tax payers bailed out). That is why, in part, this post office penny pinching seems particularly ironic.

Problems? While email and the Internet is seen as the answer (and works well), many rural elderly and native families do not have Internet access.On White Earth, household Internet access is estimated at less than than ten percent. This complicates things. The 500 plus residents of Ponsford and the 600 plus residents of Naytauwash already face a number of   challenges and obstacles in keeping income, jobs and within the confines of the justice system.  Tribal residents on the reservation and in these villages are generally low income (almost half are below the poverty level) and many receive federal or state assistance; a number are in various negotiations with the justice departments.There are more children living below the poverty level in these communities than elsewhere in Becker and Mahnomen Counties, and there is a higher proportion of people without vehicles or a valid drivers license. In addition, many people living in the area move from the urban area to the reservation tribal community and need a reliable mail address.

Kathy French, Ponsford postmistress for a decade, estimates that she serves around 220 families, most of them Native. “We have a lot of people with multiple families using the same post box”,  French explains, pointing out as well that many people move from the Twin Cities back and forth to the reservation.

What does this mean? Let’s start with the paperwork of being poor. Consider record keeping and making sure that your income and job interviews are documented. Then recognize that, to successfully secure a job, you will need either Internet access or a valid postal address. On top of that, voting is enhanced with a valid postal address. This would seem to be rather easy to make happen, but there are 220 mail boxes in Pine Point and the same numbers or so in Naytauwash, and those are held by local people who need to receive mail, and be able to correspond with agencies, whether social services, justice department or energy assistance.  Losing those post offices will be a burden to these people.

Why is this especially discriminatory? The rural poor, like the rest of us, are already facing winter. That can be daunting, and needs special attention. For instance, a working car and a valid driver’s license (both requiring insurance) which is often unobtainable for the rural Native (insurance requires an ongoing income).

Why wouldn’t people have a reliable address? Because people move around. The tribal residents of White Earth have a higher rate of transience than most members of Becker county or Mahnomen County. Folks move between households, move to other relatives houses, go wild ricing and leeching, and they need a post office box because they can’t keep an address. The people who they live with often cannot forward mail well. I have a pile of mail for a couple of people who have lived with us , and it needs to get to them (confession number one) it would be nice if I had a solid address for them. Children in poverty need to have parents who can meet requirements of probation, parole, court appearances and social services. Since our communities have a higher rate than the non-Indian community of this set of challenges, and our children have a higher rate of being at risk of having a parent involved in the criminal justice system, the postal service is worth something to us all.

I used to believe that through wind, snow, sleet or rain, the mail would be delivered. I even watched that Kevin Costner movie, “The Postman”, more than once, and liked it. Proposals to replace the post office with a village mail box are considered by many in Ponsford to put the mail at risk of vandalism. Other proposals to put the post offices in rural stores may have some benefit, yet mean we have less in our communities.

In the end, healthy rural communities need more, not less, infrastructure. Rural post offices should be kept; the Anishinaabeg of White Earth (not to mention tribal members of Ponemah, Wounded Knee, Manderson, or S Lake) have enough challenges to meet, and our taxes should be worth some services.

If the Bank of Scotland could get $84 billion in a federal bail out in 2008 (Bank of America got a slim $91.4 billion), it would seem that the US Postal Service might deserve more of a break.

Post office closure comments are being taken by: Post Office Review Coordinator, PO Box 7500, Sioux Falls, SD 57117, or PO Review Coordinator l762 l6th Avenue South Comstock, MN 56525. Or maybe call your federal representative, or send them a letter while you still can.

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