Going Rogue on the Natives

“Pregnant women were sent off by ambulance, at times giving birth along the side of the road. Elders died before they even reached the hospital. Accidents in the evening and early morning — once handled by emergency-room doctors and nurses — started to fall to a team of emergency medical technicians .

‘We handle everything from the common cold to broken bones to suicides now,’ said Kenneth Pete, an EMT who directs the clinic’s team… Since the hospital emergency room closed, calls for EMTs have shot up from 130 to 500 each year. The three ambulances each have more than 100,000 miles on them and will need to be replaced soon…” Washington Post, December 22^nd, on the state of a former Shoshone-Paiute tribe health clinic that downgraded in 2007 from a full-blow hospital. Today, ailing members of the tribe face a nasty three hour drive to Boise, Idaho or a two hour plunge to a smaller facility in Elko, Nevada to get true hospital care.

Prior to 1975, Native American tribes relied on the big brother largesse of the federal government for their educational and medical needs. The Bureau of Indian Affairs doled out what it felt it should, Congress’ having abrogated the treaty agreements with most of the tribes, substituting its judgment and practices instead. Native Americans slowly began to oppose their disenfranchisement, rising to major activism in the troubled social unrest that coursed across the nation in the 1960s. By the 1970s, the tribes finally got Congress’ attention, securing a right to handle those federal funds themselves, taking over the administration of schools and medical facilities in their own lands. It was called the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act of 1975.

But we live with a stupid and heartless Congress that tends to cut budgets and ask questions later, not much of an improvement over their shoot first and ask questions later mantra of over a decade ago. Congress simply hit the easy button and told the Indian Health Service of the Bureau of Indian Affairs that it would simply have to live with a severely reduced budget, a reneging of signed contracts with lots of tribes, pretty much mirroring a practice of limiting financial payouts that has gone on for decades. According to recent calculations, the aggregate breach has generated unpaid debt to the tribes and their contractors of about $2 billion. It was easier not to pay these financial obligations and let the poor, little guys struggle with less. Morally reprehensible, but was it illegal?

“Now, more than a year after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled for a second time in favor of the tribes and ordered the government to pay up, the two federal agencies that are on the hook — the Indian Health Service and the Bureau of Indian Affairs — have settled fewer than 1 percent of the claims, agency records show. The Obama administration, meantime, is asking Congress to approve a proposal that would permanently limit how much Native Americans could be paid in the future for certain costs associated with government contracts… All this has federal contractors on edge again.

“‘This should put some fear into the small, medium and large contractors,’ said Sen. Mark Begich (D-Alaska), who represents 229 tribes that have unpaid claims estimated at $350 million. ‘This was a Supreme Court case, not based on Indian law, but contract law, and the federal government decided it could make partial payments.’… At issue are contract support costs that are spelled out in the agreements, under which the government pays tribes to run education, public safety and health programs on reservations. The support costs — which include items like travel expenses, legal and accounting fees, insurance costs and worker’s compensation fees — typically account for 20 percent of the value of the contract, according to Lloyd Miller, a lawyer who represented the tribes at the Supreme Court.” The Post.

It would be a cold matter for cold judicial determination if so many people weren’t suffering rather directly from this breach. But everyone is suffering with this Congressional march to slash school budgets, let vital infrastructure deteriorate below the danger zone, while continuing to order massive weapon systems and fight the big losing battle in Afghanistan. We don’t have the money to take care of our own or honor our contractual obligations anymore, say those charged with administering the dwindling funds authorized by Congress. “‘There is not enough money to go around to do all of the things the United States should do in Indian Country,’ said Kevin Washburn, assistant secretary for Indian affairs with the Interior Department, during a congressional hearing last month about the unpaid claims… The tribes, not surprisingly, call that excuse unacceptable.

“‘Can you imagine telling your landlord, ‘Sorry, I’m only going to pay you 80 percent of the rent this month?’ ’ said Noni Manning, a Shoshone-Paiute tribal member and former tribal finance manager. ‘In the rest of the world, a contract is a contract.’” The Post. Personally, I’ll take the medical and pension benefits accorded to the Grinches in Congress who hypocritically voted to constrict the helpless and the needy while slorpping at the trough of government-benefits and perks, traveling all over the world in total luxury on various missions “to see for themselves” regarding issues that really don’t need personal viewing (but are located in wondrous vacation spots).

I’m Peter Dekom, and will we ever prioritize the American people and their needs over the failed militaristic policies that have resulted in our global unpopularity and involvement in a litany of losses in major wars since the late 1960s?