Southern Ute Tribe, with NCAI as amicus, is appealing a district court order allowing the IHS to set the tribe’s self-determination contract award at zero. The case is pending in the Tenth Circuit. Here are the materials:
[Southern Ute Reply brief not filed yet]
The 2008 list of federally recognized tribes is here: Federal Register Notice
This case regards a claim for contract support costs from IHS. The district court rejected the claim, in part, because the tribe “‘slumber[ed]’ on its rights.” Here are the materials:
Here are the materials in US v. Refert, an Eighth Circuit case affirming the conviction of a woman convicted of impersonating an Indian for purposes of receiving health care.
From the NYTs:
SANTA FE, N.M. — On a cold Saturday morning last month, 16-year-old Chantel Hunt ran across a highway onto a gravel road where the snow under her shoes packed into washboard ripples. She ran around a towering red rock butte, past two old mattresses dumped on the roadside, and into the shadow of a mesa she sometimes runs on top of.
Hunt, a high school junior and a resident of the Navajo Nation, was on a short training run for the national cross-country championships being held Saturday in San Diego. Her team, Wings of America, has risen to prominence with an unlikely collection of athletes. It is a group of American Indians from reservations around the country, and a Wings team has won a boys or a girls national title 20 times since first attending a championship meet in 1988.
From the NYTs:
President Bush’s threat to veto a bill intended to improve health care for the nation’s American Indians is both cruel and grossly unfair. Five years ago, the United States Commission on Civil Rights examined the government’s centuries-old treaty obligations for the welfare of Native Americans and found Washington spending 50 percent less per capita on their health care than is devoted to felons in prison and the poor on Medicaid.
From the New York Times:
The Bush administration threatened to veto Senate legislation designed to improve health care on Indian reservations, objecting to provisions involving pay and benefits for workers on some projects. The legislation would increase screening and mental health programs at the Indian Health Service, improve tribe members’ access to Medicare and Medicaid, and lead to new construction and modernization of health clinics on reservations. The bill would also require that the Davis Bacon Act, under which contractors and subcontractors must pay workers locally prevailing wages and fringe benefits, be applied to some of the projects. The administration said in a statement that the labor provision would violate longstanding administration policy.
Interestingly, NPR reported this morning that the Bush Administration’s reasoning was that the bill looses restrictions on proving citizenship in order to qualify for benefits. Guess they can’t keep their story straight….
Here are the materials for Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System v. McClellan, decided by the Ninth Circuit.
Here are the materials:
From Jerilyn Church:
The Indian Health Care Improvement Act of 2007 (IHCIA), Senate Bill S. 1200, is moving to the floor of the Senate! To ensure Congress understands the strong support of Indian Country for the reauthorization of the Indian Health Care Improvement Act, it is critical that your Senator hears from you now.
As you know, the IHCIA has been favorably reported out of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs and the Committee on Finance. It is now prepared to go to the floor of the Senate, and we need to make sure that your Senator supports the bill. We expect the bill to reach the Senate floor within 2 weeks! However, in order for the bill to move to the floor it will likely have to overcome a vote for cloture in which 60 Senators must vote to limit the debate on the bill under consideration. The motion for cloture essentially prevents the bill from being filibustered. Once the motion for cloture has been obtained, the bill will then be debated under time constraints and voted upon by the Senate.
Please make your calls now because it is critical that we have the support of 60 Senators for the cloture vote confirmed before Thursday, October 25th.
Please contact your Senator and ask them to:
In order to reach your Senator, you can call the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 (this is not a toll-free call). Ask to be connected to your state’s Senator and you will be connected directly to your Senator’s office. Urge your Senator to support the motion for cloture, vote for passage of the bill, and to sign on as a co-sponsor if they have not done so already.
Below is a list of the current 21 Senators who have sponsored or co-sponsored the IHCIA. If your Senators are not on the list, please urge them to sign on as a co-sponsor.
IHCIA, S. 1200 – Sponsor & Co-Sponsor List
Sen. Byron Dorgan – (D – NM) Sponsor
Sen. Max Baucus – (D – MT) Co-sponsor
Sen. Jeff Bingaman – (D – NM) Co-sponsor
Sen. Barbara Boxer – (D – CA) Co-sponsor
Sen. Sherrod Brown – (D – OH) Co-sponsor
Sen. Maria Cantwell – (D – WA) Co-sponsor
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton – (D – NY) Co-sponsor
Sen. Thad Cochran – (R – MS) Co-sponsor
Sen. Pete Domenici – (R – NM) Co-sponsor
Sen. Richard Durbin – (D – IL) Co-sponsor
Sen. Daniel Inouye – (D – HI) Co-sponsor
Sen. Tim Johnson – (D – SD) Co-sponsor
Sen. Amy Klobuchar – (D – MN) Co-sponsor
Sen. Carl Levin – (D – MI) Co-sponsor
Sen. Lisa Murkowski – (R – AK) Co-sponsor
Sen. Patty Murray – (D – WA) Co-sponsor
Sen. Barack Obama (D – IL) Co-sponsor
Sen. Harry Reid – (D – NV) Co-sponsor
Sen. Debbie Stabenow – (D – MI) Co-sponsor
Sen. Ted Stevens – (R – AK) Co-sponsor
Sen. Jon Tester – (D-MT) Co-sponsor
If you have any questions or need more information please contact Steve Griggs, Legislative Associate, National Indian Health Board, at sgriggs@nihb.org. Thank you for helping to achieve the reauthorization of the Indian Health Care Improvement Act of 2007.
Turtle Talk 
You must be logged in to post a comment.