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Transportation Systems in Indian Country get Federal Grants

U-S Senator Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico says the grants will expand much-needed services in rural and often remote communities. The federal program has awarded almost half a million dollars to the Navajo Nation to meet increasing transportation demands within the country’s largest reservation that’s the size of West Virginia. Many tribal members live far from medical or veterans services. And many tribes bus students a hundred miles or more to and from school. One tribe in Nevada, the Duckwater Shoshone, lives 75 miles from the nearest town. A few tribes like the San Felipe Pueblo in New Mexico don’t have transit services at all. Funds will be used to buy buses or increase service in other areas. Leaders say they can’t attract skilled workers or get residents with jobs to work.