Wichita's financially struggling Mid-America All-Indian Center gets a reprieve. The City Council this week voted to loan the center $175,000.

Center officials say the money will go to pay off debts, and will be repaid through fund-raisers such as bingo nights, Indian arts and crafts markets.

The acting chairman of the center board of trustees, Newman Washington, says he expects the center's 2005 budget to be completed within the next two weeks. The center laid off eleven employees in December.

Newman plans to meet with American Indians to discuss community input into the center. One of the laid-off workers, Andrea Walterscheid, said the board should maintain the original requirements because Native Americans have had enough taken away from them.