Bush budget axes urban Indian health program

What does President Bush have against urban Indians? His recently released budget for 2007 proposes to eliminate the $33 million urban Indian health program under the Indian Health Service budget.

Why is he picking on us when census data reveals that two thirds of American Indians live in cities or urban centers?

In the early ’80s, another president proposed zeroing out urban Indian health funding six times. Fortunately, Congress felt differently and retained this vital funding.

Urban Indian Health Program funding supports 34 private, nonprofit, Indian-controlled community organizations across the country. Services to urban Indians range from direct medical, dental, mental health and substance abuse care to information and referral assistance to other community resources.

After WWII, my father came back from military service, decided that a college education was what he needed and worked hard to obtain his degree. In the late ’50s, he was recruited into the BIA and trained to be an Employment Assistance Officer, eventually helping put into practice the newly enacted Congressional policy of relocation.

Under this program, more than 36,000 Indians were enticed, advised or persuaded to move into U.S. cities. The outlook for education, training and employment were the key elements of this program. There was no mention that because they were moving off the reservation, they were no longer eligible for health benefits.

The failure or benefit of that program is debatable, depending on whom you are talking to. What is not debatable is the fact that generations of Indian families now live in urban areas from Flagstaff to New York City. They are indeed entrenched into the mainstream of those communities.

It seems that the U.S. government feels that their obligation is ended, that the treaties which promised health and education no longer need to be honored for those individuals and families who left their homelands for the cities. Not only is this not true, but it is wrong.

In Flagstaff, the urban Indian community is served by the Native Americans for Community Action (NACA)–Family Health Center, which is, actually, the last urban Indian health program established (1991). NACA makes every effort to understand and respect different Indian cultures and history, while balancing that with urban issues. Our success for the past 35 years is measured by this approach.

As a colleague of mine recently stated, “What is even more sinister about the Bush proposal is the fact that the administration says it is going to eliminate funding for urban Indians and use that money to expand tribal health programs, thus pitting one group of Indians against another. It was great to hear the National Congress of American Indians and the National Indian Health Board, two powerful tribal voices, express their deep opposition to the elimination of the urban Indian funding in their testimony to the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs.”

I am glad to say that the Navajo Nation, in their 2007 budget recommendation, recognized the value of services provided to urban tribal members by Urban Indian Health Programs and continues to support such efforts. This is encouraging indeed.

For reservation readers, we know that you have a brother, uncle or nephew/niece who may be working or going to school in far off places like Phoenix, Denver or San Francisco. Many take advantage of the services provided by urban Indian health programs. These services need to remain available.

If community members are concerned, then by all means speak out. Likewise, I hope that our Arizona congressional delegation takes note of this attempt to undermine the urban Indian communities in Arizona and speak out as well.

(Dana Russell is chief executive officer of the Native Americans for Community Action.)

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