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May 2, 2006 - Bush administration has proposed eliminating funds for Indian clinics
By Sam Howe Verhovek, Times Staff Writer
Bush's proposal could doom facilities that treat Native Americans living in cities. Defenders see a culture clash.
HELENA, Mont. Karen Jester went to a local emergency room several years ago with complications from diabetes. When the doctor asked what the trouble was, she began by saying she had heard her late grandfather talking to her that day.
"They thought I was crazy, of course," recalled Jester, 46, an Assiniboine Indian. "They said: 'We think you're depressed. Here are some pills.' "
Jester recalled the incident as a cultural clash: To her, it was natural to invoke the spirit of an elder in describing her condition. It is just the sort of thing she feels comfortable expressing at the Leo Pocha Clinic, a federally financed Indian health clinic, where Jester comes regularly to manage her illness.
The clinic is one of five such facilities in Montana and 34 across the nation intended to serve about 70% of American Indians who live in urban areas, not on a tribal reservation.
But in a budget-cutting proposal that has set off protests and indignation among Indians from Los Angeles to New York and several smaller cities in between, the Bush administration has proposed eliminating funds for these clinics, which served about 106,000 Indians last year.Read more.