Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed
The U.S. Senate Finance Committee is due to vote Tuesday on the nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.
His path to confirmation by the full Senate is uncertain.
Alaska Public Media Washington correspondent Liz Ruskin has more.
At a hearing last week, U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) pressed Kennedy on his support for the Indian Health Service, an often overshadowed agency within the Health Department.
The Indian Health Service provides care for more than two million American Indians and Alaska Natives from the country’s 574 federally recognized tribes in 37 states.
Kennedy says he plans to elevate the importance of Indigenous health.
“I’m going to bring in a Native at the assistant secretary level. I’d like to get him actually designated as an assistant secretary for the first time in American history, to make sure all of the decisions that we make in our agency are conscious of the impacts on the first nations.”
Kennedy says Alaska is one of his favorite places and that he’s spent time with Gwich’in people in Arctic Village.
Sen. Murkowski called Kennedy a health influencer, and she urged him to use his platform to increase public confidence in vaccines.
He has for decades cast doubt on their safety.
Public health experts say vaccine skepticism is lowering vaccination rates and risks the return of illnesses like polio and measles.
(Courtesy Native Renewables)
Energy inequity is evident for Native communities across Arizona.
It’s estimated that 21% of Navajo homes and 35% of Hopi homes lack access to electricity.
Alex Gonzalez has more.
62-year-old Leonard Selestewa is a member of the Hopi Tribe in Arizona and didn’t have electricity at his house for years.
He adds that, for much of his life, he adapted to an “off-grid” world and found light in the sun, kerosene lamps, gas-run generators, flashlights, and other battery-operated devices.
That was before Native Renewables came along.
It’s a nonprofit that offers free solar-energy systems on the Navajo and Hopi reservations. They determined Selestewa’s home was eligible.
“The system is carrying the TV, the DVD player, and the small light. We could watch movies all night and do something actually called a movie marathon if we wanted to.”
Selestewa says he is appreciative of Native Renewables for bringing light into his life.
In addition to the women-led organization installing off-grid solar systems with battery storage for free, they also aim to educate Native communities on solar energy and provide workforce development to ensure Native folks have the needed skills to install and maintain systems for years to come.
Selestewa says despite there being transmission lines running through Navajo and Hopi lands, the power hasn’t been for them.
That is a result of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signing into law the Rural Electrification Act, which would allow farmers to access low-cost loans to build power lines and usher in electricity. But Native communities were excluded.
Then, in 1966, Congress enacted a ban on development for land the Navajo and Hopi people were contesting. That ban wasn’t lifted until 2009.
“Hopi families out there are without the basic things, especially electricity, and in many cases, indoor plumbing, water. And that is almost like ten times on the Navajo side. Like I said, their population is in the thousands where ours is just a mere 20,000, 25,000.”
Since 2015, Native Renewables has created 19 jobs for people from the Navajo Nation and Hopi Tribe.
Former President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act awarded the group several million dollars in federal funding.
This story includes original reporting by Yessenia Funes for Atmos.
Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today.
