02/27/2025
UPDATE ON BEAVER CREEK CAMP
Our memory verse from the summer of 2024, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart. And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.” Proverbs 3:4-6 is a favorite verse of mine that I have LIVED for decades!
Our God knew in the summer of 2023 that in the winter of 2025, the Tribal Council would take Camp Beaver Creek away before the end of the 25-year lease resolution that had been given when the Council asked me to open the camp for our youth. The BIA had mismanaged the leasing process, and I had made every attempt to amend it with them, but the resolution was still active. After months of legal battles with the Tribal Council and $17,675.00 spent on our attorney, the Tribal Council informed me that they had taken the lease on Beaver Creek and given it to a non-profit of Island Mountain Development Corporation of Fort Belknap. This happened on December 18, 2024, and I had until January 26, 2025, to remove all personal items from the Camp Beaver Creek lease.
Blake Stiffarm posted on Facebook that he felt Fort Belknap Reservation should not be an incubator for Christianity. Since then, I have received verbal threats from others that they wanted me gone from the Reservation. I was given 39 days in the dead of winter to remove all personal items for the lease by January 26, 2025. Which we, by the grace of God, were able to do. Beaver Creek camp is now empty of all cabins, and there will not be a Free Camp for the youth of our Reservation in the summer of 2025. My heart is broken after 17 years, and for the thousands of kids who attended our camp for free. I am sorry, kids; it is out of my control. Note: it has been stated that I was behind on my lease payment, but I can give anyone who needs to see proof that when the Tribal Council in 2009 asked me to open this camp for our youth, there would be NO lease payments because the new camp would be for the youth. All upgrades and operation expenses would be at my personal cost.
I am an elder born on this Reservation in 1952. It has been the honor of my life to serve the community and the youth these many years. I am heartbroken to see it end. Thank you to the many, many elders, youth, and community members who have reached out in overwhelming support. If you want to understand the details, don't hesitate to contact me directly for the truth. I need your prayers regarding the continued protection of my tribal homesite lease.
My heart breaks for all the kids who have come to a (safe place) Beaver Creek camp for the last 15 years. They will not have a (safe place) Beaver Creek Camp to go to for a FREE week-long camp this upcoming summer of 2025.
I did ask the Tribal Land Department and Jayme Lamebull in December 2024 why they were doing this, and Councilman Blake Stiffarm, Councilman Randall Werk, and Councilwomen Randy Fetter stated that the Tribal Council, which is currently in power, can do whatever it wants. They said they were the Council of Change and that the people who elected them wanted change.
So, it appears the change they wanted was no camp for our youth. I hope the land and improvements I have provided at no cost to the community are well-cared for and will benefit the community's youth as intended.
Pastor Bruce Plummer
