Health Care is One Of The Largest Issues Facing American Indians Today

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.

Though American Indians are enjoying an independent public health system with above $3 billion funds provided by Congress annually for delivering healthcare services to them, still figure and facts on health status of American Indians reveal that they are facing many difficulties and have to suffer from diverse type of illness and disease at a misappropriate level. Since long it was identified by medical communities that there are wide spread diseases diabetes, alcoholism, tuberculosis, suicide, unintentional injuries, and other health conditions among American Indian and they are dying of these diseases at shocking rates (American Heart Association [AHA], 2010). Through this essay I want to discuss the healthcare status of American Indians in the perspective of their culture as how it impacted and lead to develop mistrust between amongst the medical community and American Indians.

In summary, The Indian Health Service was established as an operational division agency within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHA), which is responsible for providing medical and health care services for federally recognized Indian and Alaskan Native American tribes within the United States. The main objective of this governmental health care organization is to provide Native American and Alaskan Indians with health care services, and to help the Indian tribes assimilate to general population without discrimination. Although these healthcare services are of great

The American Indian Policy Review Commission's report on the health of Native Americans said it best when they stated,"the federal responsibility to provide health services to Indians has its roots in the unique moral, historical, and treaty obligations of the federal government, no court has ever ruled on the precise nature of that legal basis nor defined the specific legal rights for Indians created by those obligations" (DeFine 1997 p.4). Thus, the Indian Health Service has always worked in strange and ambiguous ways.

Further, as mentioned by Stuart (1991, p.10), I believed there is a risk of assimilating American Indians into the American society. Using the Fijian example, despite the constitution recognition of its indigenous people on their ownership of lands, unique culture, traditions and language, some policies are clearly violating this rights. The government continuous effort

Despite this special government-to-government relationship, deeply rooted in the history of the United States and its treatment of Indian nations, federal policies for dealing with Indian nations have not always been faithful to this trust responsibility. Federal policy has varied radically from a policy of annihilation, to assimilation, to termination, to self-determination. Each has been influenced by the political and social climate of the era originating to the policy. So, for example, when gold fever spurred non-Indians to invade Indian Country to extract this precious metal, federal legislation removed this land from the Indian Country, resulting in broken treaty promises and removal of tribes from place to place. The trust relationship and federal supervisory authority over Indian nations rests upon Congress' plenary power over Indian affairs.

The state of dental care for Native Americans is appalling. Native Americans are faced with oral ailments at a ridiculously disproportionate rate compared to other ethnic or cultural groups, and have limited access to adequate care. Despite the valiant efforts of sovereign tribal governments, the obstacles that they face are difficult to overcome alone. Reform is necessary; and must be accomplished as soon as possible, so dental care can be provided to thousands of people in need.

The use of grounded theory supported also by archival theories will develop a conceptual understanding of the propagating epidemic plaguing Native Americans not only on the Pine Ridge Reservation, but nationwide. There are several archived published articles and studies pointing fingers and making accusation, however the solid evidence only exists in the statistics. It is the presumption that the supportive data acquired through an extensive in-depth study will produce empirically significant evidence to establish theoretical support for change.

It is because of this historical injustice meted against the American Indians over the historic development of this nation that there have been various legislations targeted toward ensuring the American Indians too get the adequate medical care. One most significant and helpful legislation

In this case, the most important issues are inadequate access to health care, environmental hazards, behavioral risk factors, and building trust with the Narragansett community. The first three issues are important because they directly affect the health of the Native American population. Additionally, building trust with the Narragansett tribe in order to perform research and collaborative planning is the key to designing successful care programs specifically for the Narragansett Indian Tribe. The first key issue is regarding Native Americans’ insufficient access to health care. With the percentage of unemployment within the Native American population in Rhode Island as high as 26 percent (The Office of Minority Health, 2015), “one-third of Native American adults said there was a time in the past year when they could not afford to see a doctor” (Parrish, 2012). There is not many people from the tribe can afford health access due to the fact that 42.2 percent of the Native American population is living in poverty (The Office of Minority Health, 2015). Aside from inadequate access to health care, some of the environmental health hazards that Native Americans are often exposed to include “surface and groundwater pollution, air pollution, hazardous waste, highway run-off, illegal dumping, lead paint, radon, and biological and chemical contamination of drinking water” (Parrish, 2012). According to the Environmental

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

Throughout the decades, United States policy in Indian affairs shifted, and eventually Congress took steps to establish certain protections for Native American religious practices. In 1978, Congress enacted the American Indian Religious Freedom Act which stated:

Furthermore, American Indian organizations and activist groups like AIM and NIYC “emphasized the rights of all tribes and all Indians, combined to legitimize and empower supratribal Indianness as an identity, a source of pride, and a basis for activism” (Nagel “The Politics of American Indian Ethnicity” 137), which encouraged especially youths to return to their Native roots. In this connection, the grassroots movement in the cities, which of course counts to Red Power, plays a major role. It established various services, for example Health Care Centers, Community Schools and study programs, for American Indians. In his article, Nicolas G. Rosenthal describes the work of the Indian Health Care Centers as crucial to advocate for self-determination and embrace Indian identity (142, 153), which shows how important activism was in urban areas. Additional, the Milwaukee Community School, where academics were combined with traditional Indian cultures to provide a sense of identity (Krouse 535,

Barriers to consider are the lack of correct data or the proper data collection done by IHS. The possibilities of lack of resources, lack of money, personnel to carry out the plan, and establishing the program on schedule will be major barriers to overcome. Other barriers that might also causes concerns are the lack of community support with modern western medicine. Furthermore, the lack of knowledge of culture and traditions of different Native American tribes should be considered. Other challenges to consider are not raising enough money to fully assist all Native American communities. Furthermore, the possibilities of not meeting all the demands of keeping the cost of supplies, equipment and materials, low and affordable can put the plan at risk.

Your discussion is very informative and you brought up a lot of valuable information about the challenges in rural areas and American Indians. I agree, lack of transportation prevents the people from seeking medical help. The residents in rural areas lack the resources (transportation, healthcare services and workers) to comply in taking care of their health. Poverty and low education level are also widespread, which can make a huge impact on their health. Instead of eating nutritious foods, they might end up buying cheaper foods that are not as healthy. The government should focus in helping the American Indians and minimize the healthcare gaps. According to Harkness and DeMarcus (2016, p. 360), “federal, state, and local public officials