The Ojibwe News (Bemidji, Minnesota), 1989-12-20

              'llWj^MM      I   III ill
Bemidji area tribes face health care cuts
According to information obtained
by the News the Bemidji Area Office
of the Indian Health Service (IHS)
ended fical year 1989 $1.3 million
dollars in the red, and began fiscal
year 1990 with $1.25 million of
obligations exceeding available
appropriation.
IHS documents reveal that most of
the over-expenditures are at the Red
Lake and White Earth Service Units
Hospitals and at the Bemidji Area
Office.
Over-expenditures during fiscal
1989 for these three installation are
as follows: Red Lake $750,000,
White Earth $250,000 and Bemidji
Area Office $400,000. Projected
fiscal 1990 over-expenditures for
these three locations, are as follows:
$400,000 (Red Lake), $300,000
(White Earth), and $600,000
(Bemidji Area Office).
Documents reveal that $450,000 of
the Red Lake deficit was made up
by applying medicare and medicaid
collection and converting other tribal
contracts to fiscal 1990 funding.
According to one IHS budget
analysis, converted fiscal 1989
over-expenditures to fiscal 1990
contracts simply delay facing the
financial crisis.
The tribes who had their fiscal
1989 funds converted to fiscal 1990
contracts are Bois Forte, Lower
Sioux, Mole Lake and Forest
County.
In an effort to seek financial relief
acting Area Director, Dr. Kathy
Annette and Bemidji Area office
staffers went to Washington, D.C,
to meet with IHS central office
management.
Also in attendance at this session
was a delegation lead by Monty
Hammitt, Red Lake Health Service
Director.
According to Washington sources.
Dr. Annette and company were told
that there are no funds available to
Auditor says health
care funds cut off
Tulsa, Okla. (AP) - A federal
auditor says the Muscogee Creek
Nation will not receive any more
federal health care funds until it can
show that $3.7 million given to the
tribe since 1986 was spent properly.
Steven Fast Wolf, senior contract
officer for Indian Health Services of
the U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services, said Friday the
$3.7 million given to the tribe
apparently was deposited into an
account that didn't have to be
audited.
The Tulsa Tribune obtained a copy
of the audit, which said the $864,000
has not been spent in the tribe's
hospital or clinics.
"We're looking at a very serious
issue here," Fast Wolf told the
newspaper. "That's coming out of
your taxes and my taxes. There has
to be responsibility and
accountability."
Fast Wolf said that the review
shows that the health services
money was taken from the general
fund this year and placed in an
equity account. He said the
$864,000 then was withdrawn from
that account and invested, which he
said was a violation of federal
statutes.
Creek Principal Chief Claude Cox
and the tribe's executive director,
Gary Breshears, could not be
reached by telephone for comment.
Fast Wolf said he assumed the
$3.7 million still is in the bank, and
that the tribe will not get any more
federal health care funds until it can
show the money was used properly.
Fast Wolf told the Creek National
Council last week that $4.3 million
in funds were not accounted for. He
revised that amount to $3.7 million
on Wednesday after tribal financial
officers showed that about $590,000
had been spent on health care.
The audit indicates that the tribe
established a special bank account
with Citizens Bank of Okmulgee in
December 1985 for all Indian Health
Services money, as required by
federal law.
In January, an agreement with the
bank to maintain the account was
renewed, the audit says.
But the bank followed the policy
of a May 1986 agreement signed by
Creek Finance Officer David Bryant
and bank Vice Chairman Bruce
Mabrey, according to the audit.
That policy allowed the bank to
withdraw health-services money and
place it in the tribe's general-fund
accounts-payable account, the audit
states.
Fast Wolf said money in the
general-fund account can be
invested, but money in the
health-care account cannot be
invested legally.
The audit said Mabrey confirmed
with an IHS audit team that "once
IHS funds were deposited into the
general-fund accounts-payable
account, they cease to be auditable"
Fast Wolf said.
"That is to say that there is no way
of documenting what happened to
the IHS contract funds once they are
deposited into this account," Fast
Wolf said.
Mabrey "had a legal reponsibility
and a legal liability" to see that the
money was placed into the
health-care account, Fast Wolf said.
Mabrey could not be reached for
comment.
The audit refers to three federal
regulations and four federal laws
allegedly broken by the tribe,
including U.S. treasury laws and
U.S. bank laws.
Documentary examines
fetal alcohol syndrome
By Mark Boswell
Contributor
A recently completed video
documentary examines the lives of
young parents coping with the
devastating effects of fetal alcohol
syndrome.
The Leech Lake Reservation
Business Committee, Department
of Health Division has been
awarded a grant from the March of
Dimes Birth Defects Foundation
for the purpose of printing
promotional packets that will
accompany the documentary.
Fetal alcohol syndrome affects
the unborn fetus by causing nerve
and muscle damage, retarded
growth and development, and even
genetic mutation.
Despite the lack of research
studies or statistics on fetal alcohol
syndrome in Indian populations, it
is estimated that up to one third of
all Native American children born
in the Minneapolis/ St. Paul metro
area have fetal alcohol syndrome.
According to Erma Vizenor, past
administrator of the Pine Point
Experimental School, a similar
percentage of children show signs
of fetal alcohol syndrome in rural
communities as well.
No statistics on the condition as it
exists among Indian populations
have been gathered on any large
demographic scale.
The documentary examines the
real life issues of teenage
pregnancy, battering and the effects
of alcohol and drug use on the
unborn fetus. According to Lynn
Thunem, of the Indian Health
Service in Cass Lake, "the story is
told by the people who lived it."
By using video documentation
the creators of the project have
painted a stark but vivid picture as
viewers are drawn into the
participants' lives by the candid
stories that weaave all the topics
together.
Thunem stated, "the film
functions as a tool for teaching
prevention as well as for teaching
issues related to pregnancy,
childbirth, and parenting."
"The costs of this problem are
enormous," stated Vizenor, "it is
time overdue to admit the problem
and to do something about it before
a large part of our Indian gene pool
is destroyed or threatened by
alcohol abuse."
Vizenor, who plans on writing
her doctoral dissertation on fetal
alcohol syndrome and it's effects
on Indian education believes that
the problem will not go away on its
own. "Indian people need
advocates and policymakers to
impact effectively on the chemical
abuse problems that are destroying
our children and their future."
The documentary is expected to
be released in mid-January and will
be made available nation-wide. The
tentative title is The Circle of Life
and is available at cost through
Shirley Lillemo at the Bemidji Area
Indian Health Service, 751-7701,
ext. 215.
The documentary was funded by
a grant from the Blandin
Foundation of Grand Rapids,
Bemidji Area Indian Health Service
and the Health Education Division;
and March of Dimes, Northland
Chapter.
RLTC resolution votes
down hospital contract
By William J. Lawrence
Publisher
Pursuant to a Freedom of
Information Act request submitted
to the Indian Health Service, the
Ojibwe News was able to obtain a
copy of Red Lake Tribal Council
Resolution No. 223-89, which
voted to discontinue indefinely all
contract negotiations under Public
Law 93-638, for tribal operations
of the Red Lake Hospital.
The News has determined that
this resolution represents the only
resolution passed by the RLTC in
the nearly 32 years of Council
Chairman Roger Jourdain's tenure
that does not contain his signature.
It is also the only apparent
resolution that voted down a
program that Jourdain supported.
The News carried the entire story
in it's Oct. 4, 1989 issue and has
reproduced the document on page 5
of this week's issue.
bail them out, and that they had to
work the problem out themselves.
Most disturbing to informed
sources is the current consideration
by Area Office Management of the
possible utilization of mandatory or
cost of living funds to cover the
anticpated over-obligation of $1.25
million of fiscal year 1990 funds.
Use of the cost of living funds
would result in area tribes receiving
about a 4 percent reduction in FY
1990 operating funds.
It appears certain that unless the
management problems at IHS are
addressed quickly and the misuses
of health care funds by tribal
contractors are corrected, this year's
health care services for Indian
people will be adversely affected.
According to a source who wishes
to remain anonymous, the problem
is systemic and can be traced mainly
to the management of Dr. Rhoades
and the crew he had running IHS the
past eight years.
That same source pointed out that
a good example is the open-the-
cupboard and always-on-a-charter-
flight style of former Bemidji Area
Director Alan Allery-
Another source commented that
the during the Rhoades/Allery tenure
at IHS some tribes were allowed to
utilize their contract health care
funds as employment agencies
instead of for health care services.
In addition, tribal critics of the
present administration of Red Lake
Health Care program complain that
the excessive administration and
operation costs for the hospital and
Jourdain/Perpich extended Care
facility consume too high a
percentage of available health care
funds to justify their size.
It was also learned that the Red
Lake IHS Hospital has been
operated in the red for the past three
years.
L
aic;e
of the   ArtisT-tinabe
Fifty Cents
Founded in 1988
Volume 2 Issue 11
December 20,1989
1
1 Copyright, the Ojibwe News, 1989
A Bi-Monthly Publication
Bemidji, Minnesota 56601
Jourdain addresses Senate Select
Committee Investigation at Banquet
Roger Jourdain at Monday night*s Red Lake Tribal Council Christmas Banquet
By Mark Boswell
Contributor
The Red Lake Tribal Council
held their annual Christmas Dinner
and awards banquet Monday night
at the Bemidji Holiday Inn and
Convention Center. Hosted by Joe
Aitken, Director of Minnesota
Indian State Scholarship office in
Bemidji, the banquet was
addressed by Lowell "Ted" Gillett,
president of Bemidji State
University; Roger Jourdain,
Chairman of the Red Lake
Reservation; and William "Pat"
Ragsdale, tribal representative for
the Cherokee Tribe.
Jourdain emphasized his
friendship and loyalty to Gillett,
who has been integral to the
establishment and maintenance of
Indian programs at BSU. Gillett is
expected to retire in June of 1990.
Awards and were given in honor
of Red Lake tribal employees
numerous gifts were given in
recognition of the service and hard
work that those individuals have
performed for the tribe and the
Bureau of Indian Affairs.
Ragsdale, who was representing
Cherokee Tribal Chairman Wilma
Mankiller, presented Jourdain and
published report of the Senate Select
Committee on Indian Affairs.
"This is the time that American
Indian tribes are going to have to
take over," said Jourdain. "It's been
long overdue because they have
taken over all of our resources, the
proceeds of our resources, and have
mismanaged them," stated Jourdain.
"Tliis is the time that American Indian
tribes are going to have to take over."
  jRc>ger JTom-rfam
the people of Red Lake a plaque in
recognition of the friendship and
goodwill that the two nations have
established.
The plaque presented at the
ceremony contained an executive
proclaimation of the Cherokee tribe.
This pact of solidarity between the
leadership of the two nations, comes
partly in reaction to the recently
"They have banrupted and
pauperized the American Indian."
Jourdain praised the recent
opening of channels between the
Cherokee leadership and his own
administration, and saw the banquet
as a means of demonstrating this
good will between the tribes.
''So we could get our minds
together to have a common approach
Photo by Mark Boswell
to some of these problems,"
explained Jourdain. He referred to
the two year study by the
Special Committee that found a
great deal of corruption and
bureaucratic mismanagement that
Chaired by Senator Dennis
DeConcini the report "found fraud,
corruption and mismanagement
pervading the institutions that are
supposed to serve America Indians."
Jourdain disagrees with the
handling of the investigation. He
believes that the methods that the
Senate investigation committee
took ignored tribal leadership
throughout the country; despite the
intent of the document, which was
to uncover corruption within tribal
leadership and the federal
bureaucracy.
"DeConcini refused to have the
tribal leaders as a panel on this
Banquet /see page 2