In an epic wildfire season that's destroyed hundreds of homes throughout the West, it's been an especially brutal one on Montana's Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation.

Since June, 49 wildfires have torched 19 houses on the reservation and ruined vast expanses of rangeland. The tribe has experienced widespread evacuations, while older residents and others have suffered from pervasive smoke.

That's left a 4,500-person reservation already short on resources struggling to recover.

The Northern Cheyenne live in the heart of an arid region where blazes have burned a combined half-million acres this summer. That's about half the size of Rhode Island, and includes 90 square miles on the reservation.

Also hard hit has been the neighboring Crow Indian Reservation, where almost 150 square miles have burned but only one house.