Tribal officials depict health crisis

By Jomay Steen, Journal Staff Writer | Wednesday, April 19, 2006

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RAPID CITY -- To list American Indian health concerns, Fort Belknap (Mont.) Indian Community Tribal President Julia Doney has only to look to her own family's medical emergencies to find examples that reflect those of her neighbors and constituents.

Before an audience of 88 tribal and federal health-care officials in Rapid City on Tuesday, Doney described the health-care crises afflicting her Montana tribe and many other reservations throughout the nation. Those health problems include diabetes, cancer, heart disease, drug use, high infant mortality rates, vehicle injury/accidents, alcoholism and suicide.

As a suicide-crisis volunteer, Doney had been trained in intervention after the death of her nephew four years ago, who had hanged himself in a bedroom closet and was discovered by his mother.

"You think you're equipped to handle suicide, I thought I could help. But when it came to my son (after his cousin's death), all I could do was sit on the floor with him to hold him ever so gently and tell him how important he was," she said.

Tribal health directors and leaders from 45 tribes throughout the nation will meet today to conclude a two-day conference with officials from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services at the Region VIII Tribal Consultation Session at Rushmore Plaza Civic Center.

On Tuesday, Joe Nunez, regional director of U.S. Department of Health and Human Services of Denver, attended listening sessions where tribal leaders and state directors reported their concerns on the state of Indian health in South Dakota, North Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Nebraska, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Utah.

"Four years ago, the first original consultation session was held in Denver. But it made more sense to move it out farther into Indian Country," Nunez said of the quality of the sessions and the people who attend.

Although the reservations' medical issues were represented Tuesday, so were those of urban Indians.

Ernest House Jr., executive secretary of Colorado Commission of Indian Affairs, and Melissa Zito, Utah Department of Health, talked about the migration of Indians to urban areas.

House said that of the 45,000 Mountain Ute Tribe and Southern Ute Tribe members, 21,000 tribal people live in the Denver metro area, with an expected growth to 31,000 by 2010. Zito said that 9,000 Indians have migrated out of Utah's San Juan County into Salt Lake County, where its Walk-In Center treats urban Indian ailments.

But the 2007 budget has eliminated money for urban Indian health-care centers, including those of Denver Indian Health and Urban Services in Denver, Sioux San Hospital in Rapid City and The Indian Walk-In Center in Salt Lake City.

"The loss of funding will greatly impact community health centers, which are expected to absorb the funding for the 14,000 American Indians who walk in to their centers," Zito said. "Urban Indian health restoration is vital."

Don Lee, area director of the Aberdeen Area Indian Health Service, said that South Dakota reservations' emerging issues included methamphetamine abuse, suicide and dealing with the impending pandemic of avian flu.

"These are community issues we need to bond together to address," he said.

Jesse Taken Alive, Standing Rock Sioux Tribe council representative, said people on his reservation were battling diabetes, dialysis and heart disease as well as suicide. Lynn Davis, representing his brother Ken Davis, Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa chairman, agreed that youth suicide rates were increasing, but also pointed to the rise of meth use as another problem on his North Dakota reservation.

"It's a major health problem in our communities and we have very few meth treatment centers," Davis said.

John BlackHawk, chairman of the board of the Winnebago Tribe, said tribes had been targeted by drug cartels because of the lack of law enforcement, addiction rates of meth and relative low cost of the drug.

"Alcoholism is still anchored in many reservations, but the rise of meth has overtaken that addiction," BlackHawk said.

Jon Perez, director of the division of mental health at Indian Health Service, said he had only 15 minutes to talk about a drug problem that will take a generation to address. In 2003, health-care officials saw a rapid two-year rise of meth use in one area of the Navajo reservation and its subsequent spread throughout the reservation. "It hit, it hit quick and it hit hard," Perez said.

IHS officials realized that the problem and spread wasn't an anomaly. "When we say that meth abuse is a bigger problem than alcohol abuse, it's frightening," Perez said.

Officials will work on several of today's agenda items, which include reports on Medicare Part D, barriers to health care, pandemic avian flu organization, policies on federal quarantine regulations and individual consultation with federal agencies, representatives and tribes.

Contact Jomay Steen at 394-8418 or jomay.steen@rapidcityjournal.com.