New tack for Indian health care...a state of emergency

Northwest tribal health advocates say the rising cost of fuel is exacerbating budget shortfalls at tribal and IHS clinics, and it is increasing the suffering of Indian people who need health care.

Andy Joseph Jr., the vice chairman for both the Portland Area Indian Health Board and an elected member of the Colville Confederated Tribes business council, believes the time for talk is over.

''We're not just maintaining status quo,'' Joseph said. ''We're losing ground. We're losing our elders.''

At a July meeting of the tribal delegates to the health board, Joseph was thinking. He was thinking about a Native cancer patient whose family had to choose between paying their bills and buying gas to drive her more than 100 miles each way for cancer treatments.

The patient died because the family couldn't afford the gas.

Joseph was thinking about this while Doni Wilder, the Portland Area director of the IHS, was giving her report to the delegates.

Fresh from a stint as the acting assistant director of the IHS, Wilder, who is Rosebud, was showing slides about the state of federally-funded care for Northwest Indian communities and relating anecdotes from her adventure in headquarters.

Her communication didn't relate to Joseph's growing sense of frustration and grief, or that of others in the room.

''The time for talk is over,'' he said, ''I am thinking of declaring a state of emergency in the Indian Health Service because of fuel prices. They're not only affecting us, they're killing our people.''

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