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Lakota Journal
Feb 2003
by Kim Karaff, Lakota Journal Martin Bureau
ROSEBUD--"We Demand Better health Care for our Oyate" read a banner that marchers carried on their two-mile walk from th Rosebud Sioux Tribal Offices to the IHS Hospital last week. Over the course of the afternoon and evening, over 100 people took part in activities, which included the gathering of public testimony. In addition, many onlookers stood at a distance, near the entrance to the IHS and RST tribal offices and on the porches of IHS housing units.
Upon arrival on the grounds of the IHS, a prayer was offered by Sam Wounded Head, an elder.
Dinah Crow Dog, elder, offered tobacco to grandmother earth, saying, "She is our medicine. We need to give back to her, so she will provide." She prayed to tunkasila to help the people understand what direction they need to take. "Give us our direction back. We are suffering."
Songs were offered before testimony by the public was taken.
Several tribal members and health care workers stood in the wind and offered emotional testimony about their IHS experiences and concerns.
One such person was elder, Vera Farmer, who says she went to IHS in October of last year because she had a sore throat. Because of the medical "inattention" she was given, she has not recovered.
Farmer, who was and still is on dialysis, held a full-time job and supported a family in spite of her medical condition, but since October she has not been able to work.
She says she was given a shot of an antibiotic and that the Physician's Assistant (on duty), PA Peterson, never asked her the proper questions before administering the shot. She had a violent allergic reaction to it. They sent her home, but within hours, she returned to the emergency room. Ultimately, they flew her to Rapid City because she had swollen could barely breathe. She says she nearly died.
"They need to talk to us. We are people. Instead, they treat us as they treated our ancestors in the 1800s. Killing us off, thinking no one will question their actions. I want to tell them, 'This is another time and place. We will not take this treatment.' That is what I want the people in that circle house over there to know," she said pointing to the IHS hospital.
Other members of Farmers' family have suffered at the hands of the IHS she says. In 1989, her husband underwent surgery, what they were told would be a fairly routine procedure, yet he has been in a wheelchair ever since. She says that the IHS doctor contracted the surgery with one of his friends, a surgeon in Minnesota. And recently, her grandson was stillborn. Farmer says the IHS took the body and did not return it to the family for 10 days.
"Look over there," Farmer said, "Look at their fancy houses. They are still there, drawing their big paychecks, and I can't work. I have worked all my life, and now I have to go begging around. I was raised to work and to support my family. Now they have made me pitiful. but I am working to regain my strength, so I can work."
Farmer says she has not received even an apology. She has asked that they reimburse her and her family's expenses involved with the cost of trips back and forth to Rapid City while she was hospitalized and to make up for her loss of wages. Her life savings are gone. She says she has not been treated respectfully in her requests.
"They forget that they are here for us, for what they did to us in the past. For our land, we are owed their services. We pay for their services. We have paid a great price," she said.
Before the marchers left to attend a meal and to hear further testimony, Alfred Bone Shirt, RST advocate and co-organizer of the march, stood to address the crowd.
"We are putting you on notice: Gayla Twiss, Dale Young, Linda Seuss, Liz Lestenkof, and PA Peterson, leave immediately. We are warning you, your services are not wanted here. And don't think that you can go off to some other IHS hospital and do your damage to other Indian people. You are not welcome there either. It is greed that keeps you here. Listen, if I had a whole nation of people saying you are failing us, I would go out the back door. We are on our way into the front door," he said.
His words echoed the sentiments of others, including tribal member Tome Roubideaux, who stood to say to IHS, "I am not your domesticated Indian anymore. I repeat, I am not your Indian." Roubideaux says that the IHS failed to protect his son from abuse for over a hear and a half.
Many of those who gave testimony said that for the most part it was not the workers who they have a problem with, but instead it is members of the administration.
"I like most of the people there. Sometimes we do get good doctors and nurses from the outside, but they don't stay long under those working environments. I have lived here 23 years and because of a condition, I have to have a simple operation from time to time so that I can swallow. Sometimes I have to wait over 11 hours, or they can't get a hold of the surgeon, and then they have to send me to Winner. It takes away my dignity," said Shirley Iron Shell.
"We thought things would be better with the new hospital. They said it would. They said, 'Now you will have your own surgeon.' But nothing has changed, only the walls," she concluded.
Rick Young, RST Tribal Council member, whose wife has been employed at IHS for 27 years, said he was there to speak up for the IHS employees who are "pushed around" and who fear retaliation if they speak up.
What we all here have to understand is that inside those walls, administration rules supreme. There is fear. It is upper management that has to go. We need energetic people who will work for us," he said.
According to Young, his wife was severely beaten, and although the person who assaulted his wife contacted an administrator at IHS, no one ever informed his wife of
the threat. Further, he said that weeks can go by without an administrator or another being at work. The head of nursing, Lis Lesterkof, showed up to work several times drunk and the remedy was to send her to treatment. But still, IHS workers report that she makes it so difficult on nurses because of her actions and attitude that it is hard to keep nurses at the facility he went on say.
Several present then got up to address the fear that many tribal members feel about speaking up.
Sid ..... (transrciptionist note: last name illegible) tribal member said, "Take heart. There are other people all over the world who know of what we face here. They see and hear. They care. The know that it is sometimes people who look like us, whose faces are Indian, who oppress us."
One tribal member identified only as Delores said, "I am not afraid. They tried to kill me once and it didn't work. I am still here. They gave me the wrong medicine and I nearly died, but I am still here."
Later Roubideaux said, "If you do not stand with what is right, you become a collaborator in acts of injustice. We
need the moral courage to stand and be counted. It is about the power of one. And when the power of one meets other powers of one, there is a collective voice. Sovereignty rests with the people. It grows inside us. Sometimes our anger can lead us to sovereignty of self. Direct it inward to build strength. Don't rely on courts or governments."
"We are good at speaking and practicing the white culture. Let's go to what Crow Dog said earlier. Let's look into our language, at the knowledge that is locked into a Lakota word. Education is the power we can use. English is the language we need to do business. We need to master it, but not forget the power that is in our own words. We are paying too high a price for what little quality we have. But we don't have to have things "given" us. We need to understand that no government is the people--not the tribal government. We are the people," he said.
"Blacks have dreams. We have visions. There's nothing worse than a people with vision who become blinded. Remember we have vision," Robideaux concluded.
Delbert "Buzz" Zephier, a Yankton Sioux, tribal member, traveled to the rally with several members of the family to support RST efforts.
The people are the power and the voice," he said. Ht also cautioned the IHS not to send its "leftovers" to the Yankton IHS facility, saying, "We have our own problems, our own misfits. They seem to end up with us."
His daughter, Francis Zephier said, "I would rather stand with a handful of strong people than with a million weak ones." She went on to talk about her concerns with another issue that she believes affects the health of tribal members. She showed pictures of black mold that infests so many homes on her reservation and on others, including Pine Ridge.
"This mold makes us sick. We don't yet know all the ways. But it seems connected to SIDS and to pulmonary hemorrhage. Our own homes making us sick and our own health care workers unable or unwilling to give us quality care," she said.
The march was organized by members of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe (RST) Health Board who have tried to work with the administration of the hospital and with the Aberdeen Regional office of IHS over the past months. They say those efforts have been unfruitful--their requests have been ignored and promises made to them have been broken.
"It comes down to a question of how self-governing, we as a tribe, want to be. Do we want to be wards of the federal government forever or do we want to start exercising our sovereign rights," asked Vernon "Ice" Schmidt, current Vice-President of RST.
"There are many ways that tribal governments can manage their own health care. Alaska tribes are doing it. I visited them. Everyone I met there was happy with their health care. As a matter of fact, 20 years ago our own tribe administered successful health clinics in the communities and provided our elderly and sick with home health care because the old hospital could not provide the needs of the people," he said.
"But we thought that when we gained our new hospital that our problems would be taken care of. That was a mistake. We need to take another look. The Self-Determination Act gives tribes the opportunity to contract their own services and an amendment to that act makes it even easier for tribes to get the needed money to provide their own services. Right now a great deal of the dollars allocated to our tribe for health care stay in Aberdeen--that money could be coming directly to the tribe," Schmidt said.
Schmidt gave an example saying that currently the Aberdeen office spends about $300,000 doing 3rd party billing--contracting for that service off-reservation. He says that those are jobs that could be done by tribal members right on the reservation.
"It's not rocket-science. We need jobs. We have trained workers and we can train more if we need to. There is no sense paying a middle man," he said.
Lois Antoine, elder, stood to speak in support of IHS and its employees.
"I support those who have cared for my family and me. I will not belittle their efforts. We need to respect all persons. All human beings make mistakes. We need to respect all persons. I thank IHS. I have been treated with respect, the same respect that I give to others, I receive," she said.
Antoine also had other concerns.
"Who will be hurt by this? Many of our tribal members work there. Are we jeopardizing them and their jobs? Also, this is an election-year. Is this why the rally was called--to gain votes," she asked.
Tribal council member John "Tez" Duysak, Upper Cut Meat, said that the upcoming elections (next fall) had nothing to do with the rally. He recounted the history of the talks that the RST Health Board had tried to have with the Aberdeen officials and with the local IHS administration.
"As a new tribal council member, and as a young and somewhat naive person, I believed every promise they made to us. I would go away from meetings feeling like we had accomplished some things. But I learned better. I learned they only say things to try to placate me," he said.
"All they did is call us together to tell us what a wonderful job IHS is doing for us and to ask us work to help them," Duysak said.
Employees at IHS who have come to the RST Health Board with concerns have been terminated or are in the process of being terminated, according to Duysak.
"They promised us that would not happen, and it is happening now. It is a violation of their civil rights," he said.
Leonard Wright, RST council representative from Rosebud, also addressed the concern that the rally was held to gain votes saying, "I am here to listen. I am on the Health Board. I have questions, and they are unanswered. I want to know how much health care should cost. What are they spending? Do they need to spend more? I want to know how we can keep everyone accountable--federal, state and local. I want to know if our people are being discriminated against. And I think we need to have people on our Health Board like Kenny Oliver crow Eagle, people who are knowledgeable about health care and who can talk that talk."
Crow Eagle, who has been a medic and a PA for many years, urged the tribal government to provide its own health care services saying, "We have had since the 1960s and 70s to become self-determined. Where have we been? We are a little late. We have been asleep."
Schmidt also addressed Antoine's concern by addressing the concern he has about the two-year terms. He wants to see that changed so that election politics aren't the focus of anyone's concerns.
"We need more time in office. We just get things going good and then it is time for an election. We have to start over. Then it is election time again. We have so much business to take care of--then we sit on boards, and we need to address our local constituents in the communities and the regular council business. We also have families. Four-year terms could work for us," he said.
Ellen Reddest (transcriber note: ? last name difficult to read) who works part-time at IHS and who recently became a nursing instructor at Sinte Gleska University said, "I took a $16,000 pay cut to leave IHS. I could not longer stand by and watch the genocide that goes on at IHS (Rosebud). I know of instances of breach of confidentiality, medical malpractice, disrespect of tribal people, and neglect. I tell my students, 'you must be advocates for your people--patients don't have medical knowledge.' I promise them every iota of knowledge I have."
Reddest said that by attending the rally and by speaking up she risks losing her IHS provided home. She told a story of a patient that she says would have died had she not been by his side and administered CPR. She said taht she had repeatedly called for a Dr. to see the patient and was hung up on and that the same doctor ignored her calls for a Doctor "STAT" several times.
Bill Mendoza, an IHS employee and tribal member stood up to say that he thanked those present for speaking. He said he listened with an open heart. Mendoza, who appears to be quite young, said, "I apologize to my elders for speaking. I am young, and I am learning. I want you to know that I take the thoughts of all the people with me with a good heart each day when I go to work. I carry that good with me all day, the best I can."
Homer Whirlwind Soldier, elder, spoke on behalf of caution concerning the protest. He reminded those there that the treaties are what they needed to be looking at and the law. He has educated himself on the law and said that the government could come in and terminate the tribe and services to the tribe because of a clause that says that services only need be given to people with 50% tribal blood.
"Are we ready to take this on ourselves. Sovereignty also means responsibility. you better know your history," he said.
Tribal member, Linda Elliot, co.. (transcriptionist note: word illegible) Whirlwind Soldier who she called her cousin, saying that she has lived other places and she
knows that there is a better health care "out there." She also recounted how she has stood up against bureaucracy for many years and took on governmental agencies and the South Dakota judicial system on behalf of her son and she has won.
"For many years, I stood alone. I raised my children and fought for my rights. We don't need to fear. When I came back here not too long ago, I found that all my fighting in California and Minnesota meant little because look here--it is like being back in the 1800s, right in the middle of the Indian Wars or something. There are places where all people are treated more respectfully, but not here in our own land. I respect my cousin but it is not us who should be afraid, it is them (health care workers)."
She went on to tell about how she has recently been diagnosed with cancer. When she went to IHS in Rosebud a doctor looked at her charts and noticed that a blood test she had had months earlier at a visit she made to the emergency room showed that her liver and another organ had not been functioning properly. She could have been diagnosed earlier had it been properly followed up on. When she told a medical doctor about this, he told her, "What use is that facility, if they're not going to do follow-up?"
Earlier, Sherman Marshall, tribal member and cancer survivor spoke on behalf of the 120 cancer survivors served by the IHS in Rosebud. Marshall who also once worked for IHS wanted the IHS to better serve cancer patients and survivors. He says that there needs to be a better community of services. Patients need to be able to see the same doctor. There needs to be a database for follow-up care. He would like to see IHS address the length of time it often takes between diagnosis and the beginning of treatment. He also wanted IHS to ensure that mammograms were given on a regular basis.
"Health services are a treaty right. It is not a gift. We, as cancer patients, aren't given the high priority we deserve," he said.
Organizers say they will combine their efforts with efforts on other South Dakota tribal lands to help them address the health care concerns faced on other reservations. Pine Ridge tribal members will be meeting, for example, with IHS hospital administrators on February 19. Pine Ridge hospital officials agreed to the meeting to avoid a demonstration that had been planned for that day. Lakota Journal will report on that meeting.
Gayla Twiss, IHS Rosebud Director was out of the office until February 24th. Dale Young, Assistant Service Unit Director at IHS Rosebud said that until they received a report on what had been talked about at the rally, he really couldn't comment. He believed administration would comment in the future.
In parting, Schmidt said that they also planned to address concerns with the RST judicial system in the near future. "Our next step is the court house," he said.
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