The Ruralest of Healthcare = The Cruelest Outcomes in the US
- Reta Underwood
- Jun 4
- 4 min read
Trump budget proposes nearly a BILLION in cuts to Indian Country
WHY is this important for all of our country to know?
Reservations were not an option nor were treaties for our people. We had to comply or be killed. The US government made these "deals" with us and included healthcare, food, housing, etc.
Healthcare - Is our constitutional right as Native Americans. However, IHS is woefully underserving our people and has a long legacy of doing so. Currently understaffed hospitals and providers are often overwhelmed while people suffer. Would you tolerate not getting a tooth fixed or not get regular cleaning due to a wait of over a year or no dentist or hygienist to provide service? How about not having a place for your mom or granny to go and can't live alone? Or know what cirrhosis is as a child. Most reservations have no options for long term care unless admitted off the reservation away from family and their culture. Specialty care is a luxury and far and in between. Statistically our healthcare reality is so overwhelming most cannot comprehend the truth of it.
YET, this is posted on IHS website: The Indian Health Service, an agency within the Department of Health and Human Services , is responsible for providing federal health services to American Indians and Alaska Natives. The provision of health services to members of federally-recognized tribes grew out of the special government-to-government relationship between the federal government and Indian tribes. This relationship, established in 1787, is based on Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution, and has been given form and substance by numerous treaties, laws, Supreme Court decisions, and Executive Orders. The IHS is the principal federal health care provider and health advocate for Indian people, and its goal is to raise their health status to the highest possible level.
When doing a simple search for physician job openings there were over 150 openings alone.
What healthcare network can say it is functioning adequately with this many job openings? Care is not happening somewhere!
On to HOUSING. On reservations not only is housing a problem the quality of dwellings often under what American's consider standards. People are living in homes that would otherwise be condemned if they were off the reservation. People are homeless and forced to live in crowed spaces or leave the reservation just to have a place to live. This is not a new issue, it's an ongoing and one that is unlikely to change unless systems are implemented with adequate infrastructure elements one that will continue into the future.
A small personal story of housing of my childhood growing up on the reservation is one of fond memories yet unknown sacrifices only a child wouldn't recognize. One childhood home had a large woodstove in the center of the living room. Our only source of heat during subzero temps in the Dakota winters and a cooktop where meals were prepared and dishwater was heated. The 'slop' bucket was a chore that not a single one of us ever wanted to be assigned but was a necessity. When I was about 7 years old our family was provided a HUD house. This HUD house was part of the governments housing program and was a new house and the pride and joy of my parents. It had 3 bedrooms and one small bathroom a kitchen, dining room, living room and a basement. I laugh now as the whole house could fit in my living room today. But at the time it was a 'gift' to me and my family. So, what was wrong with it? Well, it was built to Florida standards not the plains of the Dakotas. The pipes were not protected from the cold, the windows were not storm windows, the house was not insulated appropriately, and it ran on electricity without a fireplace. Guess what happened across the reservation that first winter to all these homes and people living in them - hardship and heartache. We were lucky cause dad brought that old wood stove to our basement when we moved in. Call it luck if you wish but it saved us and our pipes, heating bill and we endured. My parents are now both with the Creator and our Ancestors, but that house still is a home to us and is occupied by my younger sister.
On FOOD - Do you know that we had a very healthy diet prior to colonization? We lived off the land and had healthy lifestyles. Today we are plagued with heart disease, diabetes, addiction, obesity and generational trauma. One way of moving forward in a good way is changing the food we eat and to grow our own. FACT - one tactic that was used to during extermination efforts of the government was to burn our wild rice and birch trees. We now have successfully implemented wild rice harvesting again and birch trees and the buffalo have made a comeback. With native cuisine of traditional foods making trends and reality folks like The Sioux Chef Sean Sherman and Crystal Wahpepah amongst others we have a chance as a people to become again a healthy living people.
1,800 American Bison (Buffalo) Return to Tribal Lands
7 Native American Chefs to Watch
Chef Sean Sherman | Indigenous food systems | foodways | Native people
North American Traditional Indigenous Food Systems
Turtle Island In summary, America's government is a dictated must for the first people of Turtle Island not a government that was ever embraced but forced upon us. It was and is not our desire to be dependent upon it but rather a reality; one that was guaranteed to us by its colonizing founding fathers and one that is expected to be upheld by today's governing leaders. However, as woefully pungent this dependency is it is one that is necessary and a right for those who are native to this land and live on or off the reservation.
Comments