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REMARKS BY: TOMMY G. THOMPSON,SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES PLACE: National Congress of American Indians, Spokane, Washington DATE: November 20, 2001
Greetings and thank you, Joe Garcia, for that very warm welcome. Congratulations to you on becoming vice-president elect.
Chairman Tex Hall, you also have my congratulations and best wishes as the new president-elect of the NCAI. I look forward to working with you closely in the years ahead.
I would also like to, if my friend Tony Knowles is still in the auditorium there, to say hello to Tony, congratulate him on the award and wish him nothing but the best. He's a very good friend, a good governor, and it's very nice to be on the same program, even though we're thousands of miles apart.
Let me also give my regards to the NCAI executive committee and tribal delegates.
If any of you have not yet have a chance, I hope you take this opportunity to say hello to the HHS people in attendance - Dr. Michael Trujillo of the Indian Health Service, Clarence Carter of the Administration for Children and Families, and Gena Tyner-Dawson from my executive office.
Your discussions are important to us, and very important personally to me, and I wanted to make sure we had some of our best people with you there in Washington.
I was also pleased to learn that the congress is being held in Spokane, because it lets me mention a nearby project we're very proud of at HHS.
Last August, the Indian Health Service joined with the Spokane Tribe of Indians to dedicate a new ambulatory primary health care addition to the David C. Wynecoop Memorial Clinic in Wellpinit, Washington.
About 3,000 people in northeastern Washington now have consistent access to modern health care at this new clinic.
This was a collaborative project with the tribe - one of many similar projects that we've undertaken around the country - and it reflects the Bush administration's commitment to expanding access to quality health care for all Americans.
It is also fitting that your annual meeting is being held in November, which President Bush recently declared as National American Indian Heritage Month. In his formal declaration, he paid tribute to the many contributions that Americans Indians and Alaska Natives have made to our country.
The President took note of one very important part of that contribution, a tradition that is vitally important to us now as a nation.
I'm speaking of military service, the acts of patriotism that I saw displayed so many times as governor of the great state of Wisconsin, working with the 11 tribes in my state, 11 wonderful tribes I've had the opportunity to interact with thousands of times.
On a per capita basis, more American Indians and Alaska Natives have served in the military than any other group of U.S. citizens. About half of all tribal leaders have been in the armed forces.
So today, as we fight a war against terrorism, thousands of American Indians and Alaska Natives are in uniform, displaying bravery, making sacrifices, defending their homes, their families and our entire nation.
Tribes also have shown tremendous support for Health and Human Services as we responded to the attacks. When the terrorists crashed their hijacked planes - murdering thousands - I immediately activated the Commissioned Corps of Public Health Service, sending its members to provide emergency medical care in New York and at the Pentagon.
About 40 percent of the Commissioned Corps works professionally for the Indian Health Service, in tribal- and HIS-administered hospitals and clinics. We found temporary replacements for the personnel, but the departure still created some disruptions.
Yet the tribes have understood this important call to duty, and have stood side-by-side with HHS emergency staff during these difficult days. I thank you for your support.
Of course, tribes all across the country responded directly to the attack, with prayers, blood drives, millions of dollars in donations and assistance in the rescue and recovery efforts.
In New York, the Mashantucket Pequot deployed their high-speed ferries to help with evacuations. Mohawk ironworkers on nearby construction sites witnessed first-hand the attack at the world trade center, skyscrapers the Mohawks from Canada and the United States had helped build.
They quickly put their skills and labor to work at Ground Zero, and have continued their heroic service since.
As a nation, we are unifying, returning to the fundamental principles that make us Americans, no matter where we live, no matter what our heritage.
President Bush put it this way in a recent address to the nation, and I quote, "The enormity of this tragedy has caused many Americans to focus on the things that have not changed - the things that matter most in life: our faith, our love for family and friends, our commitment to our country."
In this administration - and at Health and Human Services - our commitment to the country means a commitment to all Americans.
I have made it a priority at HHS to reach out to underserved populations, including American Indians and Alaska Natives. I have also made it a priority to listen.
Let me provide some examples.
When I spoke with you for the first time at the NCAI banquet last February - soon after I became secretary - I made a clear statement of my intention to work with you as partners, as I did as governor of Wisconsin, on a government-to-government basis.
One of early steps we took was inviting President Masten and tribal leaders to my office in April, where we discussed many issues of importance to all of you. At that meeting, I committed to continue the tribal consultation process, including the annual department-wide tribal budget consultation session.
In August, I traveled to anchorage and enjoyed the opportunity to learn more about Alaska Native issues in a meeting with the Denali Commission.
And I told the individuals at that meeting that next August, I'm bringing members of my headquarters staff, and we're going to spend a week in Alaska traveling throughout the country, meeting with Native tribes, discussing medical and health care issues, and how we can develop stronger and better partnerships.
Also last August, I also visited the Sault Saint Marie Tribe in Michigan, the Lac Du Flambeau Tribe and Red Cliff Band of Chippewa in Wisconsin. And at the Red Cliff reservation, also the Chippewa tribe from Minnesota came over, and also the Bad River and La Courte Oreille. And, in South Dakota, I visited the Oglala Sioux Tribe in South Dakota.
Each of these stops included personal meetings with tribal leaders and professional staff, a tour of facilities - especially health-care facilities - and sessions with members of the community to learn more about their concerns.
Several things struck me, including the many challenges tribes face in providing health care. But I was especially impressed by the compassion, the caring, I saw at each of the facilities I visited. It was truly a tribute to the leadership and the values of the Native American community.
We are also seeking tribal input on welfare reform, which is up for reauthorization in congress next year. HHS needs input from the tribes on what sort of changes would help promote employment, self- sufficiency, and strong families.
So I asked Assistant Secretary Wade Horn to host a national listening session on tribal-specific issues. The San Francisco session was very productive.
I know you have discussed some of these same issues in Spokane, and I fully expect the tribes to be active participants in the debate over any new TANF legislation.
We can improve our role in the tribal consultation process, especially by finding ways to work with you on an interagency basis.
We are one department, and can streamline internal coordination and communication to become more effective in addressing tribal issues.
And we will listen to you. To accomplish our goals of improving the health of all Americans, we must remember to keep different cultural approaches in mind.
A good example is the Native American Caregiver Support Program, a new program we set up this year to improve care for American Indian elders. Families provide much of this care, and this program will offer them information, respite care, counseling, training and other services to help them meet the real-life challenges of care-giving.
In September, we awarded $5 million worth of grants to 110 tribal organizations to support this care. I am eager to hear about the implementation of this program, and would encourage those of you whose tribes are participating to give us feedback.
We are also mindful of the unique health problems faced by various population groups within the United States, including American Indians and Alaska Natives.
November is not only national American Indian Heritage Month, it's also National Diabetes Awareness Month. As you well know, diabetes inflicts terrible damage to the Native American community, and it was a major topic of discussion during my visits to the tribes last August.
At Pine Ridge, I toured the dialysis center and learned there were at least 2,200 enrolled members under treatment for diabetes. Ladies and gentlemen, that is very sad.
But we can change things, make real progress, in our fight against diabetes by stressing preventive health - an issue I am passionate about for all Americans.
And there is great news in this area. One of our initiatives at HHS is the diabetes prevention program, to find new and better ways to prevent and conquer this disease.
Last August the program completed a major research study on how lifestyle changes and drug treatments can forestall the onset of diabetes. We made sure to include American Indians as a major part of the study group.
We discovered that with just a reasonable amount of exercise and changes in diet, you can reduce a person's risk of developing type 2 diabetes by nearly 60 percent.
Just think: By losing 10 or 15 pounds, cutting down on fat intake, and by exercising half an hour a day, people at risk of getting diabetes can significantly reduce their odds. We need to get this news out, and we are. Several HHS agencies sponsor the national diabetes education program, which conducts awareness and education activities for people with diabetes and their families.
The program makes a special effort to address the needs of the ethnic groups that are hardest hit by diabetes, including American Indians and Alaska Natives. We are also targeting grant money to this area.
I mentioned Pine Ridge - we awarded the tribe $1.1 million grant from the Special Diabetes Grant Program for Indians. All in all, this program gave a total of $70 million to tribal organizations in fiscal year 2001. And we are devoting significant resources to combating the terrible damage caused by alcohol and drug abuse throughout the American Indian community. In October, I was pleased to award $42 million in grants to communities and local government to increase the availability of alcohol and drug abuse treatment services.
Our preventive health efforts must focus on this abuse, which leaves so many lives broken, so many dreams destroyed.
And I give all of you great credit for recognizing this problem and putting so much energy and commitment into fighting it. The growth of tradition-based counseling and treatment programs is a sign of that commitment.
It was a Salish author and storyteller, Christine Quintasket, who offered us wisdom that applies to your efforts here and back home among your people. Christine lived along the Columbia River and was the first American-Indian woman to write and publish a novel. She once said, "Everything on the earth has a purpose, every disease an herb to cure it, and every person a mission. This is the Indian theory of existence."
As leaders, your mission must surely be to improve the lives of the Indian people. And my mission is to help you achieve that goal, through a positive, responsive partnership.
Thank you so very much for letting me speak with you today, and in that spirit of responsiveness, let me draw to a close here and take some questions.