News on Native American Issues

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius acknowledged on Tuesday that government health care for American Indians has been a "historic failure" for more than a century and pledged to launch an extended effort to improve it. Sebelius told The Associated Press that she will begin a multiyear effort to better the troubled Indian Health Service and will challenge Congress to make the back-burner issue a priority. Part of that strategy would be to recruit more ...

President Barack Obama will have an American Indian adviser in the White House to counsel him on tribal issues, a new post he promised while campaigning on Indian reservations last year. Obama on Monday appointed Kimberly Teehee as a senior policy adviser for Native American affairs, saying she will provide "a direct interface at the highest level" of his administration and will ensure a voice for American Indians as policy decisions are made. Teehee is a member of the Cherokee ...

EDITOR'S NOTE — An occasional look at government promises and how well they are kept. BY MARY CLARE JALONICK Associated Press Writer CROW AGENCY, Mont. (AP) — Ta'Shon Rain Little Light, a happy little girl who loved to dance and dress up in traditional American Indian clothes, had stopped eating and walking. She complained constantly to her mother that her stomach hurt. When Stephanie Little Light took her daughter to the Indian Health Service clinic in this wind-swept and remote corner of Montana, they told her the 5-year-old was depressed ...

Ta'Shon Rain Little Light, a happy little girl who loved to dance and dress up in traditional American Indian clothes, had stopped eating and walking. She complained constantly to her mother that her stomach hurt. When Stephanie Little Light took her daughter to the Indian Health Service clinic in this wind-swept and remote corner of Montana, they told her the 5-year-old was depressed. Ta'Shon's pain rapidly worsened and she visited the clinic ...