Housing insecurity touches almost everyone in tribal communities in Montana. Its causes and consequences are deep-rooted, confoundingly complex, and often overlooked.

This three-part series, The Shelter Gap, explores Indian Country’s housing crisis by examining the barriers residents and developers face in buying, renting and building homes, investigating the root causes of chronic housing shortages on reservation land, and highlighting what’s possible when residents achieve stable housing.

Part 1 explains how a widespread reservation housing shortage prevents middle-class tribal citizens from living in reservation communities, perpetuating economic stagnation and cycles of poverty.

When Jacqueline Martin, a citizen of the Aaniiih Tribe, retired after a 32-year career in natural resourc

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