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- By Elyse Wild and Kaili Berg
Culturally Centered Healing in Hoopa Valley
The K’ima:w Medical Center in the Hoopa Valley was awarded $6.2 million from the Department of Health and Human Services to develop a community wellness and prevention program centered around traditional healing and practices. That includes sweat lodges, food preservation, and harvesting, among other things. According to a press release, the funding will also go toward a step-up facility to expand on the current center’s outpatient behavioral health and medication-assisted treatment programs.
Water Emergency
On May 27, 2025, the Spirit Lake Tribal Council issued a public notice alerting residents to elevated manganese levels detected in the water system managed by SL Water Resources. The contamination affects all residents within the Spirit Lake Reservation boundaries in Fort Totten, North Dakota. Starting May 28, 2025, the tribe began distributing bottled water to residents in need. The distribution system allocates one case of water per two household members, with residents required to complete a request form that will be made available through tribal channels. Distribution will continue until June 11.
House Passes Reconciliation Bill, Including AI/AN Protections For Tribal Medicaid
On May 22, 2025, the U.S. House of Representatives narrowly passed H.R. 1, the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act”, a major budget reconciliation bill that includes key protections for American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) health access.
A major victory for Native advocates, the bill exempts AI/AN individuals from Medicaid work requirements, ensuring continued access to care through the Indian health system without risking loss of coverage.
It also preserves cost-sharing exemptions for IHS-eligible patients and responds to the federal trust and treaty obligations to tribal nations.
The legislation, however, reduces retroactive Medicaid and CHIP coverage from three months to just one, which could limit backdated help for low-income individuals.
Another critical provision is a moratorium on CMS’s minimum nurse staffing rule for long-term care facilities. Native leaders warned the staffing mandate could lead to facility closures in Indian Country, threatening elder care and community integrity.
The bill also takes aim at pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) by banning spread pricing in Medicaid, which will help Tribal and IHS providers receive fair reimbursements and ensure access to medications.
The bill passed 215–214 after weeks of negotiations and now moves to the Senate, where it is expected to face challenges. The National Indian Health Board (NIHB) vows to continue pushing for tribal health protections as the reconciliation process unfolds.
Native Nursing Students Graduate
For the first time ever, four Native American students graduated from the Minneapolis College nursing program. According to the American Nurse Journal, Native Americans, including Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders, made up less than 1% of nurses in the United States in 2022. Read more here.
Native leaders raise concerns over potential HHS cuts impacting tribal health programs
Native American leaders in Montana are voicing concerns over proposed budget cuts to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which could significantly impact tribal health programs.
The plan was announced in late March by the U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy aims to reduce HHS staff from 82,000 to 62,000 full-time employees.
While the Indian Health Service (IHS) remains unaffected, non-IHS programs that support Indigenous communities are at risk.
On May 9, the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs sent a letter to Secretary Kennedy, expressing that the reorganization could jeopardize essential programs addressing chronic disease prevention and substance abuse support in tribal communities.
Senator Lisa Murkowski emphasized during a May 14 oversight meeting that these programs often provide the only access to basic support for the most vulnerable individuals in Native communities.
Lucy Simpson, executive director of the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center in Lame Deer, Montana, testified at the Senate hearing, highlighting the importance of programs funded through the Family Violence and Prevention Services Act (FVPSA).
She stated that FVPSA funding is often the only lifeline preventing Native survivors from falling through the cracks.
Southwest Native Americans Face High Rates for Some Cancers
Native American communities in the Southwest are diagnosed with gallbladder cancer at a rate 400% higher than white people living in the region. That’s according to an analysis of CDC data by the cancer treatment center City of Hope Phoenix. Other cancers Native Americans have at disproportionate rates include stomach cancer, bile duct cancer, kidney cancer, and myeloma.
Several factors contribute to these disparities, including limited access to healthcare services, historical trauma leading to reduced care utilization, and a lack of research focused on the Native American populations.
Senate Committee Holds Hearing on Native Health, Social Services
On May 14, 2025, the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, led by Chair Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Vice Chair Senator Brian Schatz (D-HI), conducted a hearing titled “Delivering Essential Public Health and Social Services to Native Americans.”
The session focused on examining critical programs within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that are vital to Native communities but fall outside the Indian Health Service (IHS).
Senator Schatz highlighted concerns over recent administrative actions, including staff layoffs, office closures, funding freezes, and proposed budget cuts, which he argued could undermine the quality of care and strain an already fragile healthcare system.
Senator Murkowski stressed the importance of non-IHS programs, such as public health initiatives and social services, which often provide the only consistent access to basic support for vulnerable members of Native communities.
Good Reads
Last month, Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert. F. Kennedy Jr. called ultra-processed food a “genocide against Native Americans,” in testimony before the House Appropriations Committee. In an article published last week, ProPublica explores how this message is in contrast to the Trump administration actions, including slashing a billion-dollar USDA program that included support for 90 tribal communities to sources healthy foods from local farms and ranchers.
In 2018, at the Alaska Federation of Natives annual convention in Anchorage, Charlene Aqpik Apok (Iñupiaq) read out loud from a handwritten list of the names of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Peoples (MMIP) from across the state. It was the first time Alaska’s rampant MMIP issue had been quantified. Today, Apok leads Data for Indigenous Justice, a nonprofit that stewards data around Alaska’s MMIP to drive change in the systems that allow the crisis to flourish.
Apok talked to Native News Online about data sovereignty, decentralizing power through advocacy, and how she takes care of herself amid the emotional toll of her work.
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