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Members of several tribes will travel to Washington DC next week in an attempt to get lawmakers to revive a program aimed at helping them afford healthcare due to toxic poisoning.
The Mountain West News Bureau’s Yvette Fernandez has this preview.
The Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, was a federal program established in the 1990’s, aimed at providing financial support to people who were exposed to nuclear fallout and uranium mining, dating back to World War II.
It’s particularly impactful for the Navajo Nation, where uranium mining was critical in the making of the atomic bomb.
“We look at this as a social justice issue.”
Spokesperson Justin Ahasteen says the latest version of the bill should be brought up for a vote.
“They were paid with sickness and death. And that’s really just appalling and this bill gives them a chance to survive.”
Members of several tribes including Navajo, Laguna Pueblo, and Zuni have raised funds to travel by bus from New Mexico to Washington DC.
Stay tuned for more coverage on this story next week from the Mountain West News Bureau
Marie Dexter holds her great-grandson on her lap as drummers and dancers perform. (Photo: Ben Townsend)
A small group gathered in Nome, Alaska this week to honor two decades of Norton Sound Health Corporation’s Tribal Healing department.
Attendees were treated to speeches from the tribal healers, Native food, and a special drum performance.
KNOM’s Ben Townsend has more.
Standing before a crowd of family and friends, Maria Dexter read from a handful of handwritten notes.
“Although we have lost parts of our way of life with our language and subsistence lifestyle, I’m really happy and thankful that Norton Sound Health Corporation is keeping the traditional tribal healing program alive in this region.”
Dexter helped start Norton Sound Health Corporation’s Tribal Healing department in 2004.
Now, 20 years later, she is surrounded by seven women in the program, each wearing colorful kuspuks as they listen intently to every word their leader speaks.
The tribal healers are accredited by the hospital through a rigorous training program and employ a variety of Native practices to care for their patients.
Over the summer, the tribal healers handpick plants like stinkweed, sura, and rose root for use in their practice.
Following speeches from each tribal healer, elders were invited to fill a plate full of Native foods including seal and walrus.
For dessert, attendees could indulge in tundra delight and akutaq, also known as eskimo ice cream.
A four-man drummer group led by Carl Topkok then took to the front of the room.
They performed several songs over the course of half an hour as women from the audience took turns dancing.
Just feet away from the drummers, Dexter took in the performance with her granddaughter by her side and great-grandson in her lap.
She watched as the women she had mentored, the people she had cared for, and the community she had served for two decades celebrated together in the small room.
On Thursday, the Fort Belknap Indian Community in Montana welcomed home the remains of three children from the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania.
The names of the children are Almeda Heavy Hair, Bishop L. Shield, and John Bull.
They died at the school in the 1890s.
A repatriation delegation brought them home, which was followed by a wake, reinterment services, and a community feed.
Earlier this month, the Office of Army Cemeteries began disinterring the remains at the Carlisle Barracks cemetery of the children, and eight others from other tribes including from South Dakota and Oklahoma.
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