“Wo’okiye was’te qa wico zani o’wacin yuhapo”
S
ota
I
ya
Y
e
Y
api - www.earthskyweb.com/sota.htm - Anpetu Iyamni, Oct. 3, 2018
Page 13
people to get their input and their
voice heard.”
“I have been going to the
Sisseton School Board meetings.
I know they’re talking about
implementing Dakota language. I
haven’t been there in the past few
months. I don’t know the update on
it.”
“As for the aquifer and filtering
water, I’m in total agreement with
it.”
“As we all know, water is the
need for life in everything, and …
we need to keep it clean. For our
drinking. So you might as well filter
it while you’re trying to keep it clean
with our aquifer.”
“As for closing comments,
I would … keep on, hopefully
before this term is up, Medicaid
will be implemented in our Tribal
health programs to where it’ll help
reimburse the programs to where
we’re not using the Tribal dollar
every time.”
“We’ll supplement that Tribal
dollar.”
“Not only that, I’d like to try a
Tribal health model with our Tribal
programs. Because I know a lot of
people don’t know where to go, the
resources we have for healthcare,
education, and stuff like that.”
“I’d like to get to where
it’s pushed out there. To where
everybody knows what’s going on,
where to get their resources, and
where they can get their help.”
“I’d also still be a proponent of
compacting our IHS. I think we can
do a better job. I know the issues
with (not) wanting it to be political.
I don’t want it to be political either,
but I know our healthcare could
be a lot better if it’s run by us
ourselves.”
“I’ll keep pushing for Medicaid
expansion at the national level. I
know Dauggard didn’t address it. I
wish he would’ve. It would’ve really
helped our healthcare needs there.”
Myrna: “I am not for dis-
enrolling sexual predators from the
Tribe, and I am not for dis-enrolling
addicts from the Tribe. And this is
why….”
“It’s a human rights violation,
and you cannot exile your members
without due process.”
“And the way it’s set up right
now just for the addicts under the
controlled substances act, we call it
exclusion, but it’s dis-enrollment.”
“You cannot do that without
due process, and there’s no
administrative remedy in place for
them to come forward and address
their concerns with that.”
“Copyright to medicinal
plants. It’s always been a secret,
because people don’t like to tell
where these medicinal plants are and
what they’re used for.”
“So it’s Tribal knowledge. So I
don’t believe unless it’s going to go
public and we can patent it, I don’t
believe there’s any copyrights to it.
Because it’s a secret.”
“The water in the aquifers.
We have 11 aquifers within our
reservation boundaries. And what
I would like to see is a Tribal water
rights office.”
“Because right now the water
rights report that we did when I was
still in OEP, there were 236 water
rights permits given to non-Indians
within the reservation boundaries
by the state of South Dakota’s water
rights office.”
“OEP and water rights are
two separate issues. And they get
confused, but water rights are
different. And we need our own
water rights office to address our
water rights issues.”
“The Dakota language. Sisseton
public school gets impact aid
money. They have plenty of money
to hire a Dakota language teacher
there. And way back, I don’t know
how many years ago now, 11, 13
years ago, but I filed a civil rights
complaint against the Sisseton
public school district for the
treatment of our Native American
students. At least three of them got
mistreated there.”
“And at that time we asked
for a Native American counselor,
and there was something else, two
things we asked for. Oh, and we did
a cultural sensitivity training for the
teachers that were supposed to go on
every semester before school started
and at semester break they were
supposed to have a refresher course
on cultural sensitivity training.”
“We basically organized it, Jake
and I organized it.”
“And he was one of the
speakers, actually.”
“But … the Sisseton public
school district fell down on that, on
what they had planned to do.”
“They were never held
accountable.”
“Steven Schulte was the
superintendent at the time.”
“But the US Commission on
Civil Rights came from Denver
and they tried to do a mediation
between the Sisseton community
and the Tribe, because it was clear to
them that racism existed here. And
they were never held accountable.”
“But they do get plenty of
impact aid money, and I think they
need to be approached.”
“The school board has a
different chairman now. Hellwig is
no longer there. He pretty much
ruled that school board.”
“So I think maybe now is the
time to go and approach them to
hire that Dakota language teacher.
And they can pay for that impact
aid money. Because the students
really don’t benefit from that.”
“As far as the districts … must
approve everything before it goes to
Council.”
“We have a political process
in place where issues are brought to
the district and we make motions.
And it’s to be taken back through
the District Chairman’s Association,
back to Council.”
“But I know they have
emergent situations.”
“I guess without leaving the
voice of the people out, maybe
call an emergency general council
meeting or something to that effect.
Because if there’s information, it
shouldn’t be an emergency. There
should be time.”
“But all the districts meet
differently, but maybe all districts
could call emergency meetings or
something like that.”
“Just so their voices are heard
and the districts have input. Because
it’s very important to get that voice
of the people. And to heed what
they say. And that can have input.
Let us have input.”
Lisa: “… As far as it goes
for intellectual copyright and the
aquifer water, I feel like we need
to protect our water. And we need
these rights. And I feel like at certain
times we’re going to need specialized
counsel, legal counsel, to give us
good direction.”
“So I’m open to that fact
that we do at times need to bring
in special counsel to give us good
direction on important issues and
how to protect and preserve our
aquifers and our waters.”
“The Dakota language … I
do believe that we can continue to
build rapport. We do have a couple
Tribal members that do sit on the
board. We do have Sherry. So we do
have resources within that we can
re-evaluate, look at, and make it an
initiative on how we can build this
rapport with the school systems and
how we can tap into the impact aid
dollars and allocate some of that to
Dakota language and culture.”
“I can’t answer for Gilbert
Robinson. I think Chairman did
that for us.”
“District approval. District
approval I can see, it’s difficult for
us to come together in unity on an
issue.”
“And we see that, it was
brought up tonight with the
administrative policy. How the
people really did want change, but
we can’t come together on the same
page.”
“We need to figure out how we
can communicate the district with
each district and get on the same
page.”
“One of the things that I
thought about is, each of our
casinos, we do do general assemblies,
and at those times we introduce a
training or we give out our bonuses
at that time.”
“That could be an avenue we
use at that time where we allow our
government to come in and spend
a half an hour and talk about an
initiative that’s on the table.”
“And reserve the next two
months out for this issue to be
talked about at the districts. And
we do the same here at the Tribal
programs.”
“We’re making a mandatory
employee meeting, and we’ll do the
normal employee functions, which
is training and updating them with
the information that’s happening at
properties.”
“But also give the government
some time to introduce an issue
that’s on the table. And give our
people notice that for the next two
months this issue should be talked
about within our districts.”
“It’s just getting the word out
there. We can do a lot of this stuff
within.”
“We just got to think outside
the box and be a little bit more
creative.”
“That’s one of the things. If
we make mandatory employee time
for our government we’re reaching
almost 1,000 of our membership
right there. And just letting them
know what the agenda is. And then
allocating the next two months
for that issue to be on the table in
each district, and a third month
coming back, with the results of the
discussions.”
“There’s ways we can do this.
We’ve got resources to do it is what
I’m saying.”
“As far as committed to this
position, I’d like to say that I would
continue to support the initiatives
that are on the table, to report to the
people. I feel like moving up in the
ranks from supervisor to manager
postition that, you don’t ever come
in and just start unraveling what
someone else has done. You come
in, you evaluate. And you address
issues as they arise. And you make
corrections to those issues as they
present themselves.”
“I feel like we come in support
Executives, Council, the initiatives
that are on the table. And get to
know the programs, how they’re
working. What’s working for them.
And help resolve issues as they
arise.”
Final words from Martha:
“How about a round of applause
for all of our candidates? You know
when you become a candidate you’re
really a servant of the people, and
with that you put yourself in a glass
house, and so we should give a lot
of credit to these people to trying
to meet that challenge. The election
is in six days. Don’t forget to vote.
Remember to vote with your mind
and not your heart. And thank
you all for being here … We’ll
have another forum on the 23rd of
October.”
(Editor’s note: We apologize for
errors in this transcript. There were
multiple times of crosstalk, with
conversations going on at the tables
where the audience was seated,
which interrupted what candidates
were saying [although some of that
chatter was interesting]. We hope to
have a clear video recording of the
next Executive candidates forum,
scheduled for Tuesday, October 23.
We also hope that KXSW finds a
way to record the forum, either live
or for retrieval afterwards by Oyate
unable to attend or to watch a live-
stream broadcast.)
Washington, DC – Sept. 26,
2018 – U.S. Sen. Mike Rounds
(R-S.D.) announced that his
legislation, S. 465, the Independent
Outside Audit of the Indian Health
Service Act, passed out of the Senate
Indian Affairs Committee today
with broad bipartisan support.
“South Dakota’s tribal
members have been in the midst
of a government-induced health
care crisis for decades due to poor
leadership and mismanagement at
the Indian Health Service (IHS),”
said Rounds. “Tribal members are
suffering and even dying due to
inadequate and disgraceful care.
There is no excuse for hospitals
not to reach basic benchmarks for
providing proper care. Instead of
threatening deadlines, requesting
extensions, changing administrators
and pointing fingers, the IHS,
HHS and the Centers for Medicare
and Medicaid Services (CMS) need
to work together – in close, real
consultation with the tribes - to
immediately resolve these problems
and improve care for our Native
American communities.”
“The IHS will continue to
fail unless we take a close look
into the operations, funding,
quality of care and management
at the agency. That is why I
introduced legislation calling for a
comprehensive assessment of the
IHS. I’m pleased that the Senate
Indian Affairs Committee voted
to pass this legislation today, and
I look forward to considering it
on the Senate floor. This bill is a
necessary first step toward making
real changes so the IHS can truly
deliver the timely, adequate care the
federal government has a trust and
treaty obligation to provide to tribal
members.”
Rounds’ legislation would
require the Secretary of the
Department of Health and Human
Services (HHS) to contract an
assessment of IHS’s health care
delivery systems and financial
management processes only at
direct-care facilities. The Secretary
of HHS shall use existing funds
to enter into contracts with a
reputable private entity to conduct
an independent assessment in
coordination with the U.S.
Government Accountability Office
and the Office of the Inspector
General.
Rounds’ request for a
comprehensive assessment of
the IHS is supported by the
Great Plains Tribal Chairman’s
Association, which passed a
resolution in 2016 calling upon
Congress to demand an audit of
IHS. In 2017, the South Dakota
State Legislature passed a resolution
urging Congress to audit the IHS.
Since taking office in 2015,
Rounds and his staff have analyzed
the IHS and its shortcomings,
concluding there are three primary
areas of concern: there is no
funding allocation strategy for
the 12 IHS regions, there is no
standard of quality measurement
and there is high turnover of staff
resulting in low accountability
amongst management. Rounds’
assessment legislation is the first
step toward addressing the agency’s
longstanding failures.
Rounds sent a letter to the
Inspector General of HHS in 2016,
requesting an audit of the financial
aspects of hospital and health
care, medical services and overall
financial management at the IHS.
The HHS was only able to fulfill a
portion of the audit request.
The Sisseton Area POD and
the South Dakota Department of
Health are offering free influenza
vaccine on Oct. 10, 2018 from
4PM to 6:30PM at the Sisseton
High School in Sisseton. This
flu shot clinic is a test/exercise of
the Sisseton Area POD Plan. Flu
vaccines will be for infants and
children 6 months through 18 years
of age (parent consent required for
those under 18) and college students
with a student ID.
To move quickly through
the flu clinic, consent forms may
be obtained and completed prior
to arriving. Consent forms can be
picked up at all Sisseton School
District Administration Office or
printed from the Sisseton School
District website.
A POD (Point of Dispensing)
Plan is a coordinated effort among
several agencies and community
members to dispense and distribute
medication or vaccine to a regional
population in the event of a large
infectious disease outbreak or other
public health emergency, including
bioterrorism and pandemic
influenza. The Sisseton Area POD
receives funding from the South
Dakota Department of Health
through its federal preparedness
grants.
Vaccinating children helps
protect them from serious influenza
illness and complications, and
decreases the spread of influenza in
the community as children are often
the biggest spreaders of influenza to
adults and other children.
If you have questions about
the vaccine, please contact Robert
County Community Health
Services at 698-4183. For questions
regarding the scheduled clinic,
please contact Roberts County
Emergency Management at 698-
3800.
By Richard P. Holm, MD
South Dakota has the 14th
highest suicide rate in the U.S., and,
during this last year, suicide as a
cause of death has grown faster here
in South Dakota than most places.
Two SD counties rank in
the top one percent in the
nation. I have heard that,
in general, the highest risk
individual for suicide is the
widower, the elderly male
who recently lost his wife.
But the South Dakota public
health department tells us
that suicide rates are higher
here in younger people than in most
other states. For example, men aged
19 to 21-years-old, are at the highest
suicide risk. In addition, American
Indians are at 1.8 times higher risk
than other South Dakotans.
Risk factors for suicide
include: a family history of suicide;
a history of abuse-be it the abused
or the abuser; previous suicide
attempts or a history of mental
disorders (particularly depression)
and especially if the individual
has difficulty accessing mental
health treatment when needed; a
history of alcohol and substance
abuse; feelings of hopelessness and
loneliness especially with isolation;
recent loss (whether it be the death
of a family member, a friend that
moves, a divorce, or a large financial
loss); any new and significant
physical illness; and access to lethal
methods. There is also a higher risk
is for anyone present during local
epidemics of suicide, especially
where cultural beliefs suggest
that suicide is noble. All this
multiplies when the person is
reluctant to seek help because
of the stigma attached to
mental health disorders.
The challenging concern
is that suicide remains
extremely hard to predict.
Even when we’ve identified
who is at risk, suicide can be
difficult to prevent. We know that
“talking about it” is probably our
most important means of helping
someone who is suicidal. Although
we should all try to guide these at
risk individuals to talk about their
feelings with a professional, the
most important preventer of suicide
in many cases is not the doctor or
the care provider, but the kindly
neighbor who can give that person
an ear, offer true friendship, and call
for help when red flags are flying.
You may never know it, but
you might save a life by listening
and just being a friend.
*****
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