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O'siyo Brothers and Sister!
Janet penned this week's editorial after an
elder forwarded this issue's lead story. She had to. No child could have
read what I had to say after I heard the shameful actions of two
Oklahoma IHS programs. Pray someone at the Creek or Cherokee Nation
wakes up
with a heart and corrects this situation.
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In this issue, the lead article is one we hate to see about any of our
tribes. A young Cherokee couple is saddled with a huge emergency room
bill because two tribes and the IHS are more willing to see critically
ill Indians die than to unravel a tangle of procedural "gotchas."
I realize times are hard for all Indian nations when it comes to IHS
funding (and that blame rests squarely on our "fiscally responsible"
federal legislators' desks, where highways to nowhere have more
priority), but surely there's something somewhere in the Cherokee or
Creek Nations' budgets that could be scraped together to avoid this kind
of PR fiasco. Granted, health services ARE the US Government's
responsibility by treaty, and they should not be let off the hook when
their own processes fail, but
when they do, surely tribes doing as well as the Cherokee and Creek are
with their own enterprises could step in and do what the U.S government
will not to protect their own.
Beyond the obvious heartlessness, I can't believe either Cherokee or the
Creek Nation allowed this kind of begging-for-bad-publicity situation to
happen, let alone turn down an appeal.
I'm not going to even go to "they should help this couple who did the
only thing they could do to save a life" because I know better than to
attribute compassion to government functionaries. Sad to say that's
clearly as true of Indian functionaries as white.
I'm told by a former nurse for the IHS who also worked in VA systems
that both systems have mirroring problems in their processes and
procedures, and the tribal-to-tribal processes to deal with healthcare
for Indians in this increasingly mobile society are inconsistent and
never work to the advantage of Indian people. It's past time for tribes
to get their acts together, work together, and demand that the IHS work
with them.
+/// Janet Smith
owlstar@bellsouth.net
/*/+ P. O. Box 672168 OwlStar Trading Post
+ / * Marietta, GA 30008, U.S.A.
http://www.owlstar.com
* + jewelry, music, flags, herbs
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dohiyi Ani Oginalii
Gary Smith (*,*)
wotanging@bellsouth.net
P. O. Box 672168 (`-') gars@nanews.org
Marietta, GA 30006, U.S.A. ===w=w===
http://www.nanews.org
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CONTENTS LIST OF ARTICLES IN
VOLUME 15, ISSUE 002
FOR ARTICLES GOT TO
WOTANGING IKCHE-Native American News
Editorial Section: . Shameful Actions Of 2 IHS
Centers
- Couple Denied Tribal Health Benefits
- Alaskans Face Physical And Cultural Erosion
- Tribes File Class Action Trust Accounting Lawsuit
- House Indian Committee Hopes Sink Under Dispute
- Western Shoshone Fighting For 1863 Property Rights
- Tribal Chairman: My Home Is Your Home
- Tribes Confident Of A New Bison Management Deal
- The Tribes Are Back On The Bison Range
- Navajo VP Throws Weight Behind Judicial Branch
- El Paso, Navajo Attempt To Find Common Ground
- Tribal Land Dispute Nears End
- The Little Tribe That Could
- Lawmaker Apologizes For Comments
- Indian Center's Fundraising Lags
- Sky City Gains Historic Designation
- Milwaukee Fabrication Firm Wins Casino Contract
- Lost Cherokee Group Seeks Federal Status
- City Stops Trail That Cuts Through Cemetery
- Na Strife And Transition
- US Attorney: Critic Hides Contempt For Tribes
- C. Camp: Indian Country Is America's Waste Dump
- Harjo: President Ford And Federal Indian Policy
- Jodi Rave: DOI Mum On Class Action Tribal Suit
- Untangling The Mystery Of The Inca
- Zapatistas Celebrate 13th Anniversary Of Uprising
- Covering Their Faces In Order To Be Seen
- Social Work Diploma Program Launched In Manitoba
- Urban Reserve Not Supported By General Population
- Aboriginal Diabetics Get Cash Boost
- N.S. Overstepped Authority, Says Millbrook Chief
- B.C. History, Not Race, Fuels Fishing Decisions
- Me'tis Concerned Minister's Ability Diverted
- Anglicans Name Bishop For Native Canadians
- Two Peoples Linked By Polluted Lands
- RCMP Apologizes For Holding Native Naked
- Seminole Tribe Sued Over Purchase Of Hard Rock
- Aim Slaying Hearing For Canadian Man Delayed
- Native Justice-- McKinley County Detention Center
- History: Carlisle Indian School
- Rustywire: Aunt HB And The Indian Health Clinic
- Verse: Hawaiian Book Of Days
- Lee Goins Poem: The Nation
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Along the U.S.-Mexico
border, the body count continues to pile up daily. Meanwhile, the
Minutemen patrol the U.S.-Mexico border and shameless politicians find
it easy to denounce illegal immigration as the cause of all the nation's
problems - including linking it with "the war on terror."
Amidst all the clatter, the only views not being heard are the ones that
matter most. Thus here, we bring you a truly historic column, featuring
the views of those that have come before us to these lands:
American Indians:
"I feel that as Native Peoples of the Americas, we have the right to be
anywhere on this continent as we have for generations. To hear people
telling my relatives that they are "illegal aliens" and criminals and to
get out of our own land is very disturbing!" ---Maria Yellow Horse Brave
Heart, PhD, President/Director, The Takini Network |