Indian Wellbeing Administrations: A Case Study

As policies of assimilation, the British North America Act, the Indian Act and the White and Red Papers are foundational documents that guide the understanding of the Indian Health Policy and its implications. The starting point for a discussion on healthcare jurisdiction is the British North America Act (1867). It

The history and the establishment of various Indian tribes in America took the path of revolution by human civil rights institutions. The Indian American citizen had to form a movement whose main aim was demand for their rights from the Native Americans and the government by sorting for cultural independent protection, advocating of their human rights and restoration of economic rights. Independence of the human race do not always come as an easy task but is involves a sequence of efforts against the violation of rights by their native colonies.

By 1940, Native Americans had experienced many changes and counter-changes in their legal status in the United States. Over the course of the nineteenth century, most tribes lost part or all of their ancestral lands and were forced to live on reservations. Following the American Civil War, the federal government abrogated most of the tribes’ remaining sovereignty and required communal lands to be allotted to individuals. The twentieth century also saw great changes for Native Americans, such as the Citizenship Act and the Indian New Deal. Alison R. Bernstein examines how the Second World War affected the status and lives of Native Americans in American Indians and World War II: Toward a New Era in Indian Affairs. Bernstein argues

In American Indian life, they believe their life is interconnected with the world, nature, and other people. The idea of a peoplehood matrix runs deep in Indian culture, in this essay the Cherokee, which is the holistic view of sacred history, language, ceremony, and homeland together. This holistic model shapes the life of the American Indians and how their sense of being and relationship to their history is strong and extremely valuable to them. This essay will try to explain how each aspect of the peoplehood matrix is important and interconnected to each other and the life of the Native Americans.

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.

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.

Healthcare is an ever changing entity with an ever changing population of clients. In current day 2016, the United Sates has become a melting pot of many different cultural backgrounds, which has led to changes within the system to accommodate the patient base. Unfortunately, not all changes have been able to effectively reach any and all persons from every background. We still see language and cultural barriers that have direct correlation to the inability to seek healthcare and or the ability to change cultural perspectives to ensure healthy lifestyles. Within this paper, the health of American Indian and Alaskan Native populations will be discussed along with the barriers to care and the

However, Hamilton states, “Disenrollment weakens the People, individually and collectively. Former tribal members lose their identities, their culture, and their benefits. Sometimes they lose their jobs and their homes. They struggle to put food on the table,” thus giving insight to the detrimental effects of disenrollment (n.d.). He also goes to explain that more often than not, tribes that disenroll their members experience instability and a plethora of other problems that may last for many generations (Hamilton, n.d.). Hamilton continues with facts such as blood quantum and disenrollment not being among tribal traditions, as they spawn from the U.S. federal government; “I personally think blood quantum should play some role in determining who is an Indian . . .Disenrollment should only be executed in the most extreme cases” (n.d.). The Association of American Indian Physicians (AAIP) lists other reasons against tribal disenrollment, “. . . tribal disenrollment leads to the loss of cultural identity and access to health care, education opportunity, job opportunity, and housing which are social determinants of health. . .” (Walker, 2015). Perhaps one of the most riveting effects of disenrollment would be the federal government no longer considering you an ‘Indian’ (Stretten, 2014). Following disenrollment, you would no longer be able to partake in any federal funds that are sent to the tribe, or receive any of the benefits that come with federal support (Stretten, 2014). Some of those benefits include education, law enforcement, and agriculture and range management (Stretten, 2014). Although disenrollment is not necessarily moral in all cases, it remains a part of the Native tribes’ culture and tradition

The most basic function of government is to protect its citizens from all types of oppression, whether it be militarily, economically, or socially. Paternalism is a method in which an authority, in this case the United States Government, limits a person or group’s rights or autonomy for their own good. It is compared to the relationship between a parent and a child, were the parent will take a stance over their naive and incapable child because they know what is best for them. This practice of paternalism has been used throughout much of the United States’ Indian policy, dating back to the 1800s.

The Nooksack Indian Tribe (will be called the Tribe throughout this proposal) has regressed in self-governance. Over the past four years disenrollment has been the core focus of the Tribe, which has caused discourse in self-determination. There is a dire need to reform the Tribe’s constitution for it does not address our inherent rights, describes who we are as Nooksack people, overcome political obstacles, conflict resolution, and leadership roles. The current constitution is based on the Indian Reorganization Act [IRA] cookie cutter constitutions made by the federal government. The IRA is connected to the assimilation of Indians through federal policy that has caused problems concerning tribal leadership, enrollment issues, gives authority

“Achieving a state of well-being requires healing the “mind, body and spirit” and is necessary to settle the dispute” (American Indian Heritage as a Peacemaking Process,

American Indians and Alaskan Natives have a relationship with the federal government that is unique due to the “trust relationship” between the US and American Indians/Alaskan Natives (AI/ANs) who are entitled to health care services provided by the US government by virtue of their membership in sovereign Indian nations. In order to contextualize the complex nature of Indian health programs it is necessary to become versed in the political and legal status of Indian tribes. Through numerous constitutional, legislative, judicial, executive rulings, and orders that were largely associated with the succession of land and subsequent treaty rights; the health care of AI/ANs has been one of many responsibilities guaranteed by the federal government. The foundations of which can be traced back to the year 1787. The ceded land has been interpreted in courts to mean that healthcare and services were in a sense prepaid by AI/AN tribes and 400 million acres of land. The misconception of “free healthcare” and a conservative political disdain from so called entitlement programs have also led to misconceptions regarding the federal government’s responsibility to provide health care and services to AI/ANs. Rhoades (2000) has argued that tribal sovereignty is the overarching principle guiding Indian health care on a daily basis.1 This paper will examine the history surrounding federally mandated healthcare to AI/ANs, pertinent issues of sovereignty, as well as case studies in tribal

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,

There are about 566 federally recognized tribal governments in the United States. These governments are dependent nations with a nationhood status and inherent powers of self governance. These powers entitle them to their laws as long as these laws are not contrary to the U.S. Constitution. It is because of these laws that sometimes a state police department with jurisdiction bordering a Native American reservation is frustrated while policing. The paper examines the challenges that these state law enforcers face while policing alongside Native Americans.

Titled in The Problem of Indian Administration, it was a survey of conditions on Indians reservations among the 26 states. The survey team, found by the Rockefeller Foundation, was made up of ten experts in different fields. It reflected the attempts to reform the American Indian policies that exerted a negative influence on Indians.