YANKTON, S.D. (AP) – Native American tribes are still sorting out how the government shutdown will affect them, though some in South Dakota are already seeing an impact.

General assistance – a welfare program that helps people with general needs not covered by other programs – has been cut, Yankton Sioux Tribe vice chairwoman Jean Archambeau said.

“(Tribal families are) already turning to us as a tribe on how they can be helped. We don’t know yet,” she said.

Money for heating assistance also isn’t coming as part of the shutdown. She said that’s especially daunting with colder weather approaching southeast South Dakota.

“I don’t know what we’re going to do. They’re already predicting snow out west and possibly in this area of the state,” she said.

Law enforcement, the school and hospital are all running as normal, Archambeau said.

The tribe has enough money to keep operating about a month, so the concern is mainly with individual families, although tribal leaders have started discussing the possibility of layoffs if the shutdown continues, she said.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Services has indicated that benefits from SNAP, the federal nutrition assistance program, for October 2013 are not affected by the government shutdown, the state Department of Health said.