Indian Health Service

Emotionally Potent Oversimplification of the Day: Terry Anderson on the Indian Health Service

Matthew L.M. Fletcher4 Comments

Thanks to Rick Collins for sending this around — Terry Anderson WSJ Op-Ed on Indian Health Service

I’m not surprised that the WSJ carries the material that Terry Anderson writes. The NYTs does, too. I know that Terry is a really nice guy, despite my reservations about his free market/property rights approach to Indian affairs. We had him speak at Fed Bar a few years ago, and he expressed a great deal of support for tribal sovereignty. I had hoped he would engage tribal advocates on the positions they take on the federal trust relationship with the United States, and vice versa, but nothing really happened. I wanted this because I find his brand of editorial commentary (as opposed to his scholarly work) very troubling.

It’s usually a syllogism, repeating oversimplifications about Indian affairs again and again. For example, the one about Indian trust lands that gets noticed in the NYTs:

1. The United States owns all Indian lands.
2. Indians are poor.
2a. Quote/story from Indians angry at government.
3. Therefore, get rid of U.S. trust responsibility.

And the WSJ editorial (above), an obvious attack on the Obama health plan, unsurprising from a free market advocate:

1. IHS handles Indian health.
2. Indians are unhealthy.
3. Get rid of IHS.

Terry gets published in very respectful journals (Journal of Law & Econ., for example), but the work (despite the regression analyses) seems a little superficial to someone with roots in Indian Country. He wrote on tribal courts a few years back, attempting to refute the Cornell/Kalt theory that tribal courts help to develop tribal economies.

Here is the abstract to that paper, which advocates for PL280 to be expanded to all of Indian Country:

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United Keetoowah Claim against IHS Dismissed on Rule 19 Grounds

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here are the materials over this dispute where the IHS transferred an Indian health facility to the Cherokee Nation, over United Keetoowah’s objections. The case is United Keetoowah Band v. Kempthorne (E.D. Okla.).

United States Motion to Dismiss

UKB Response Brief

United States Reply Brief

United Keetoowah v Kempthorne DCT Order

Quinn v. Leavitt — Gender Discrimination Claim against IHS

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

In Quinn v. Leavitt, the District of South Dakota found in favor of the IHS in a sex discrimination claim against the Indian Health Service.

quinn-v-leavitt-dct-judgment

Southern Ute v. Leavitt Materials

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

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:

dct-order-6-16-2007

dct-order-10-18-2007

southern-ute-appellant-brief

ncai-amicus-brief

us-appellee-brief

[Southern Ute Reply brief not filed yet]

2008 Federally Recognized Tribes List

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

The 2008 list of federally recognized tribes is here: Federal Register Notice

“Slumber[ing] on its Rights”: Menominee Tribe v. US

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

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:

DCT Opinion

US Motion to Dismiss

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Indian Frauds: US v Refert — Impersonating an Indian

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

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.

CA8 Opinion

Appellant Brief

Appellee Brief

NYTs: “Running from Despair” — Profile of Wings of America

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

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.

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NYTs Editorial on Indian Health Care Bill

Matthew L.M. Fletcher1 Comment

From the NYTs:

Vetoing History’s Responsibility

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.

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Bush to Veto Indian Health Care Bill

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

From the New York Times:

Bush Threatens Veto of Indian Health Care Bill

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….