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Rosebud Sioux Tribe in South Dakota is pulling its share of funding from a clinic meant to provide women’s health services for enrolled members living in Rapid City.
One official says that’s because the clinic has not offered appointments for over a year.
SDPB’s Lee Strubinger has more.
The Native Women’s Health Clinic is contracted to provide obstetric and gynecologic services for eligible Indian women.
The clinic is located in the Oyate Health Center, but operates as a separate organization.
According to a report obtained by SDPB earlier this year, the clinic had 4,800 visits in 2021.
The number of visits plummeted to zero by April of 2023.
This April, both Rosebud and Cheyenne River Sioux tribes put the clinic on notice — saying they would pull their funding shares if the clinic failed to start seeing patients.
Rosebud Sioux Tribal President Scott Herman says the tribe has concern about the women’s health clinic.
“It was stated at one of the meetings they haven’t provided that service for a year and a half. It became an issue with some of the leadership as far as how we’re going to provide that service down there.”
Herman says the Rosebud Sioux Tribe is trying to correct a problem.
He says it’s too premature to say what the tribes plan to do with their shares allotted to the tribe to fund women’s health in Rapid City.
Patients are getting referred to midwives located at Oyate Health Center and floor below the clinic, as well as other clinics in Rapid City.
Herman says Rosebud’s resolution mirrors a Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe resolution to pull its shares from Native Women’s Health Clinic.
Cheyenne River officials have not return requests for comment. Additionally, the tribe voted last month to pull its publicly available council meeting video feed.
Oglala Sioux Tribal president Frank Star Comes Out has also not returned requests for comment.
Courtesy Diné College
Diné College in Tsaile, Ariz. is starting a new program that will focus on Navajo law.
Clark Adomaitis has more.
Diné College serves primarily a Navajo student population, and focuses on Navajo language and culture.
The college is collaborating with Arizona State University in offering 20 undergraduate students a Bachelor of Arts program in Navajo law starting in the fall.
“When it comes to Western law, that process is important and it’s followed.”
Patrick Blackwater is a Dean at Diné College.
“To understand what law is from different perspectives, especially from the Navajo Nation side, meaning the cultural side that level of fundamental law that should also be incorporated into it.”
Blackwater says that Navajo Fundamental Law is an important but not well understood aspect of legal practice on the Navajo Nation.
It is a written way of Life for Navajo people, which provides principles that were once only passed down verbally.
“Navajo fundamental law is the way in which Navajos understand natural law in which we communicate, interact with each other, but also every being and resource within the universe in this world…that’s how we understand our beginnings and our laws. And that’s what is mostly going to be the foundation of this program.”
Students who complete the Navajo Law program will have opportunities to study higher level law at Arizona State University.
Courtesy U.S. Sen. Tina Smith
U.S. Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN) has announced $1.75 million for the White Earth Nation in Minnesota to use energy storage to increase the tribe’s use of solar power.
The project will expand an existing solar array at an elementary school and community center in efforts to help lower electricity costs.
The funding is from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Electricity.
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