Associated Press
BILLINGS, Mont. — Tribal leaders want the federal government to launch a new "Marshall Plan" to rebuild the nation’s reservations to help deal with a growing American Indian health crisis.
"They’ve rebuilt Germany, they’ve rebuilt Japan, and now they’re going to rebuild Afghanistan," said Alvin Windy Boy Sr., chairman of the Chippewa Cree tribe’s business committee on the Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation in Montana. "We’ve been annihilated by the turn of the century, but we’ve never been rebuilt."
Tribal leaders from Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota and South Dakota are meeting in Billings through today to discuss what they said is a growing disparity in health care for Indians living on reservations.
On Tuesday, tribal leaders said the federal government has an obligation under its treaties with the tribes to help meet basic needs — an obligation they argue has not been met.
Windy Boy said additional federal money is needed to address health problems that often result from the poverty on reservations.
One recent study by the Billings Area Indian Health Service found Indians in Montana and Wyoming are six times as likely to die from diabetes, and three times more likely to die from the flu or pneumonia. Indians in the two states also have a life expectancy nearly a decade shorter than the national average, the IHS said, and have rates of alcoholism far greater than non-Indians.
"Health, education and the general welfare of our people are not gifts from the government," said Tim Lame Woman, a member of the Northern Cheyenne tribe’s health board in Busby. "They are hard fought for and they are tribal rights."
The federal government spends more than $3,300 annually on each person receiving Medicare or Medicaid assistance, Windy Boy said. But he said that level drops to just $1,500 for Indians.
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