Red Lake, Minnesota (AP)

The Red Lake Chippewa were awarded a grant worth as much as $250,000 to help the tribe’s young people, in the wake of a deadly shooting at their local Red Lake High School.

The March 21 shooting left 10 people dead, including 16-year-old gunman Jeff Weise.

The grant comes from the Blandin Foundation, which works to help strengthen communities in rural Minnesota. According to an outline submitted to the foundation in May by Red Lake Tribal Secretary Judy Roy, the band will use the grant to help Red Lake youth.

“The road to recovery will be long and difficult,” Red Lake Chairman Floyd Jourdain said in a prepared statement. “We have experienced several suicide attempts, one completed, among our teenagers.

“We know from experience that the most successful ways of dealing with these problems is to connect or reconnect the young people, and their parents if necessary, to the strengths of our culture.”

Blandin Foundation spokesman Patrick Marx said the grant is set up somewhat like a line of credit. The tribe can draw down money as the details of various youth programs are firmed up, he said.

“It’s just to be sure they get what they want,” Marx said. He said the money was approved June 11 and will start flowing when the tribe submits a request.

The Red Lake shooting was the deadliest in the United States since the 1999 killings at Columbine High School near Littleton, Colo., in which 15 people died.

“The tragedy is so compelling to the foundation that we are working on an expedited basis to assist the tribe with emergency funding for youth activities, as they requested,” said a statement from grants director Wade Fauth released June 30 by the foundation in Grand Rapids.

On the Net: http://www.blandinfoundation.org