Cherokee Nation Health Care

Choctaw Nation Health Services proudly welcomed Mary Smith, Principal Deputy Director of Indian Health Service; P. Benjamin Smith, Director, Office of Tribal Self- Governance, Indian Health Service; and RADM Kevin Meeks, Director of the Oklahoma City Area Indian Health Service to the Choctaw Nation McAlester Health Clinic and Choctaw Nation Health Care Center. Chief Batton along with Tribal dignitaries, and associates of health services, toured both facilities on October 20.

IHS is a very complex organization that serves the American Indian and Alaskan Native population. Effective health services for American Indians and Alaskan Natives had to integrate the philosophies of the tribes with those of the medical community. Because not all tribes signed treaties with the United States some people with Indian heritage were not eligible to participate with the federal government programs. Eligible people with Indian heritage were provided various services throughout the IHS programs; however, some IHS locations did not have the necessary equipment or facilities to provide comprehensive services.

For every nearby reservation, there is an Indian Hospital that is government funded for all Native Americans to receive free health care. I enjoy the convenient nature of when having health issues, I can depend on the Indian Hospital for my needs. Even if an Indian Hospital is not near we could go to any hospital to receive treatment and what is billed to us, we would give to the proper administrative workers

WIC partners with Indian Tribal Organizations (ITOs) to provide nutritional services to approximately 63,000 Native American participants. Similar to the general population of the U.S., almost half of Native American women are enrolled in the WIC program (USDA, 2015; Evans, Labbok, & Abrahams, 2011). Native Americans living on reservations are at higher risk of food insecurity and adverse health conditions such as diabetes and obesity than the general U.S population due to economic barriers,

One famous Indian tribe is the Cherokee. The Cherokee are original residents of the American southwest region, but now they occupy most of Oklahoma.There are three recognized Cherokee tribes. Most Cherokee people speak English today, but many still speak the Cherokee language. Children had jobs to do after school just like men and women had their own jobs. Many Cherokee Indians died when president Andrew Jackson forced them to leave their homes in Georgia. In the following essay I will be talking about the Cherokee life before,during,and after the Westward Expansion.

The specific objectives of this study were as follows: (1) a rapid review of the hepatitis C literature employing an Indigenous lens; (2) a series of sharing circles of Indigenous peoples with lived hepatitis C experiences (3) analysis of sharing circle discourse by the research team and Community Research Associates; (4) a series of validation exercises with key informants to increase robustness and enrich findings; (5) team-building and multi-directional capacity strengthening; and (6) development a larger community-based operating grant application for future research funding consideration. I performed the foundational aspects of this project, including the scoping review, sharing circle planning and initial qualitative analysis.

The Native American culture is the original culture of the United States. Members of Native American tribes live throughout the country. “There are an estimated 4.9 million persons, in 565 federally recognized tribes who are classified as American Indian or Alaska Native (AI/AI), alone or in combination with one or more other designated racial classifications. This demographic group compromises 1.6% of the U.S. population” (Horowitz, 2012). Wisconsin is home to the Ho-Chunk (Winnebago), Ojibwa (Chippewa), and the Potawatomi tribes (“American”, 2014). It is important for nurses within this state, as well as any other state, to understand the Native American belief system in order to provide a quality healthcare experience. Nurses are the primary point of contact in the healthcare setting. Client advocacy is one of the nurse’s major roles. Therefore, the nurse should have the highest level of diversity understanding for the cultures within the local region.

In America, the number of federally identified tribes is 562 with every tribe having its own culture, belief system and practices. That is why there seem diverse type of behaviors among this population related to healthcare seeking and healthcare attitudes. Amongst the most common components that lead to this diversity in healthcare seeking behaviors is the role of culture which affects healthcare intervention, prevention, and care. So, it is very important to understand the diversity of culture in particular

The inequalities in today’s indigenous communities are still strongly evident. Heard, Khoo & Birrell (2009), argued that while there has been an attempt in narrowing the gap between Indigenous and non Indigenous Australians, a barrier still exists in appropriate health care reaching indigenous people. The Indigenous people believe, health is more than the individual, it is

The prevalence of diabetes is increasing in Canada, and is growing health concern. This increase is especially apparent in Canadian Aboriginal population where the estimated prevalence of diabetes is three to five times higher than in the general Canadian population. Because of the risk of several health complications such as coronary heart diseases, neuropathy, eye damage, kidney failure, and peripheral arterial diseases, diabetes is a one of the leading causes of mortality and morbidity. Developing health complications increases when diabetes is undiagnosed and represents unseen, but important burden with significant long-term impact on the people’s health status. First Nations individuals have more diabetes risk factors and suffer more diabetes-related health complications than non-Aboriginals. Therefore, accurate data on diabetes prevalence are essential for government, health care and research organizations.

Access to the communities is provided year round by Wasaya Airline and airstrips that are maintained by the Ontario Ministry of Transportation. Of course, each Aboriginal community is unique with its own set of traditions and ways of healing but my observation after working within the communities for over ten years is that they all suffer from improperished conditions and substandard housing. The local economies are primarily based upon government services (Indian and Northern Affairs) (INAC) and small business. Most of the reserves have six hundred people or less, and each community has a nursing station. The nursing stations are well-maintained functional buildings built in or about the early 1960’s and are maintained by Health Canada. First Nations and Inuit Health (FNIH) maintains responsibility for primary care services in the majority of the northwest Ontario reserve communities. In the north, nurses are the primary care givers working in an extended scope of practice, and client care is centrally coordinated by nurses working within interdisciplinary teams. The majority of the nursing and medical staff working for FNIH in the Sioux Lookout zone are Caucasian and do not come from local communities. This could outwardly appear as a reinforcement of power relations in the racial identities. There is only very limited cultural training given to employees when they are employed by FNIH. Medical advice and

Since the arrival of Columbus in 1492, American Indians have been in a continuous struggle with diseases. It may not be small pox anymore, but illnesses are still haunting the native population. According to statistics, Native Americans have much higher rates of disease than the overall population. This includes a higher death rate from alcoholism, tuberculosis, and diabetes than any other racial or ethnic group. Recent studies by Indian health experts show that diabetes among Indian youth ages 15-19 has increased 54% since 1996 and 40% of Indian children are overweight. Even though diabetes rates vary considerably among the Native American population, deaths caused from diabetes are 230 percent greater

I chose to research the Oneida Nation Tribe of Indians of Wisconsin Elderly Heath Care. Here is a little background on the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin. They are located in Brown and Outagamie Counties. They are descendants of an indigenous Iroquoian-speaking nation that arose in the present-day central-western New York. The Oneida Tribe is a sovereign government. Oneida means “long awaited” and they spoke Oneida. Lastly, they have three clans: Turtle, Bear, and Wolf Clan. The Turtle Clan represents the shifting of the earth and the cycles of the moon. The people of this clan represent the well of information and the keepers of the land. The Bear Clan known as Medicine people, the healers. There are stories passed down about how the Bear

The healthcare workers providing assistance to the American Indian population today are most likely non-Natives (Warne, 2007). The cultural knowledge of these providers for the American Indian is not vast and results in less quality care. More

Life expectancy on the reservation is 48 years old for men and 52 years for women. These statistics are far from the 77.5 years of age life expectancy in Chicago, Illinois. The USDA Rural development documents state that Navajo (Lakota) have the lowest life expectancy of any group in America. Teenage suicide rates are roughly 150% higher than they are for the rest of the country, 15.8% for attempted suicide in Chicago, IL (Chicago List, 2012). In addition infant mortality rate is the highest on this continent and is about 300% higher than the U.S national average. More than half of the reservation’s adults battle addiction and disease, such as alcoholism, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and malnutrition. There is a federal commodity food program but it supplies mostly inappropriate foods such as high sugar and carbohydrates. Lastly, U.S Government and Indian Nations agreed to provide adequate medical care for Indians in return for vast quantities of land. However, the appropriation is very small compared to what is needed. Most families live in isolated rural areas, and there are few paved roads to access health care. Weather is also an obstacle on the reservation such as severe winds and temperatures reaching over 110 degrees, which makes it difficult to travel. (Keshena, 2010).