Operation Walking Shield

The Walking Shield American Indian Society provides housing, medical assistance, clothing, educational material and community infrastructure improvements to Native Americans living on Indian reservations. The Operation Walking Shield Program involves the acquisition of surplus military housing units, the relocation of the houses to reservation communities, and the integration of military troop readiness training exercises to prepare development sites and rehabilitate houses. The program provides a community-based, regional response to the chronic shortages of housing and conservation by the reuse of obsolete surplus resources. The program creates a model which is replicable, self-sustaining and cost-effective for all of the partners.

Walking Shield's mission is to improve the quality of life and create positive futures for American Indians who live on our nation's reservations by managing and coordinating programs that provide shelter, healthcare, food and clothing, educational assistance, community development assistance, and humanitarian support.

Through the Operation Walking Shield Program over 960 excess military base houses have been relocated to 13 Indian reservations. Infrastructure improvement projects have provided miles of new water and sewer lines and miles of road repair. Health Care projects have assisted over 70,000 American Indian patients living in remote locations. Humanitarian Aid efforts have reached ten's of thousands of people living on our nation's reservations.