Greetings Tribal Leaders & members:
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I am writing to you today, too ask all 350 plus Tribal Leaders and Members for help with our health care, the current IHS former and current management has allowed and is allowing child molesters into our hospitals and management id covering it up.
“As a member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, as a former member of our health board, and as the Coalition of Large Tribes’ legislative-affairs director, I was elated over the Wall Street Journal’s 2017 coverage of our health care plight, “‘People Are Dying Here’: Federal Hospitals Fail Tribes,” WSJ, did an excellent job contacting victims, relatives, and friends who lost loved ones because of Rosebud’s Emergency Room closing. The reporters also reached out to other Great Plains tribes and found the same results. Native American Indians were suffering atrocities because of mismanagement of the Indian Health Service (IHS). The story the reporters told was a Native one, with Native voices.
It seems that we Natives have come a long way in getting our stories told—or have we? Recently, WSJ, published two investigative reports on President Trump’s nominee for the director of Indian Health Services, Mr. Robert Weaver. These articles were not about what Natives thought of Mr. Weaver, though. It was about the Wall Street Journal trying to convince non-Indians to maintain their paternalistic views of Tribes and in this case, Robert Weaver, a member of the Quapaw Tribe of Oklahoma. Both articles got more fuel for its fire after the Wall Street Journal contacted Senator Tom Udall (D.-NM), who had questions about the nominee’s qualifications even though Tribes have contacted him advising him of their support for Mr. Weaver.
I find it disturbing that Senator Udall is providing questions to the WSJ and then he is using those same questions to hold up Mr. Weaver’s nomination hearing before the Senate Indian Affairs committee. Why is a senator and his staff, who have the best health care money can buy, really going against the wishes of Tribal Leaders? I personally know that this senator and/or his staff meet with Tribal Leaders as well as given resolutions and letters of support for Mr. Weaver from many Native sources—from the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, Great Plains Tribal Chairman’s Association, Rocky Mountain Tribal Leadership Council, the 11-state Coalition of Large Tribes, and additional individual tribes and organizations.
Where was this senator’s concern when we lost the Rosebud Emergency Room in late 2015, when our obstetrics and surgical departments closed, when nine Rosebud tribal members died, when our children were born on hospital bathroom floors and are now born off-reservation? What about other IHS hospitals that received termination letters due to substantial deficiencies and are still not providing even basic health care?
Where was Senator Udall when tribes worked with Congress to create better healthcare bills to save lives and create transparency? Why isn’t Senator Udall co-sponsoring the IHS bill? Where was his concern when IHS gave a contract to run the Rosebud Emergency Room to a company, Tribal Emergency Medicine, whose CEO settled a Medicare/Medicaid fraud suit by forking over ten million dollars? Where was Senator Udall during the passage of the just-enacted tax laws, and why didn’t he sign onto the Tribal Tax provisions amendments offered in the Senate?
Tribal members have dealt with IHS administrators with academic degrees from probably every Ivy League school in the United States. People with this level of education were working within the IHS from 2002 to 2010, when Senate findings showed mismanagement, reduced healthcare services and recurring diversions of even dire emergency patients to other hospitals. Had a heart attack at Rosebud? You had to get 60 miles to another hospital if you wanted a chance at survival. Many of these highly educated IHS people were still around during the congressional hearings of 2016, which found the same problems.
These degree-laden individuals met with us and lied to us over and over. They refused to consult with us and showed no sorrow that we lost loved ones thanks to their actions.
Why are the tribes supporting Mr. Weaver? Could it be because he built his own business to be a multi-million-dollar one? Sure, that’s one reason. To my knowledge, current IHS leadership has wildly mismanaged, not created, multi-million-dollar enterprises.
The most important reasons the tribes support Mr. Weaver are that he met with tribal leaders and he visited with friends and families who lost loved ones during the IHS travails. Mr. Weaver has promised open and honest consultations with tribes concerning health care. He is one of us and has, like us, used IHS as a healthcare provider. During the week of February 12th through the 15th 2018, Tribal Leaders knocked of Senate doors asking the Senate to hold the hearing. Those meeting with Senator Udall were told he wanted to delay the hearing because he wanted more questions answered. That what the hearing is for so have it and ask and get answers to your questions.
Give Mr. Robert Weaver a hearing on the Indian Health Service Director position.
In closing I am asking that you call (202) 224-6621 and tell them Tribes and their members want a hearing before the Senate Indian Affairs Committee.
You can also email his Chief of Staff: Bianca Ortiz-Wertheim, at bianca_ortizwertheim@tomudall.senate.gov; and state
Senator Udall, stop delaying the hearing for a Tribal member, Mr. Weaver have a hearing before the Senate Indian Affairs Committee ask your questions get your answers. Your delay is costing lives in the Great Plains.
Pila maya pelo (Thank you)
Mitakuye Oyasin (We are all related)
OJ Semans Sr.
