AGENCY VILLAGE, S.D. ? State legislators took a firsthand look at how the Sisseton-Wahpeton Sioux Tribe has developed industry on its small reservation near Lake Traverse in northeastern South Dakota.
The state Tribal Relations Committee held the third of five scheduled meetings here Aug. 27 in its efforts to examine an assortment of issues including economic development, redistricting and racial profiling.
The 10-member committee, which includes four tribal members from different tribes, toured Dakota Western Corp., a plastics factory and one of three casinos owned by the Sisseton-Wahpeton Tribe.
Glenn Wilson, president of the Long Hollow Community, a small community north of Agency Village, told the committee the tribe wants to relocate a repair shop west of the Dakota Connection convenience Store and Casino. It is one of the community projects funded through a portion of casino revenue granted each of the tribe’s communities based on population.
Wilson said the move would allow the tribal project to bring in more revenue because of an improved location. The small shop is miles away from Interstate 29 and too far for motorists seeking emergency repairs to drive.
The group also examined the issues of long-term health care and physician licensing.
Sara Decoteau, health coordinator for the Sisseton-Wahpeton Sioux Tribe, had asked the committee for help in assisting tribal efforts to allow Indian Health Care physicians to practice in other facilities including a nursing home across the road from an IHS facility in Sisseton.
However, the state’s Board of Examiners and Osteopaths have suggested such a move would be illegal since the state requires physicians practicing in South Dakota to be licensed.
The Indian Health Service defines rules for practitioners differently, not requiring them to hold a state license to practice while taking care of IHS patients.
Decoteau briefed legislators on the progress of a U.S. Senate bill which would allow tribes to establish nursing home facilities while working around moratoriums on nursing home beds imposed by some states including South Dakota.
The bill, along with amendments to the Indian Health Care Improvement Act, are stalled. They await cost estimates for new facilities and expenses of the amendments, she said.
Decoteau noted while the House has requested $86.5 million for new buildings and new programs nationally, it would allocate $1.5 million instead of the $2.3 million the Senate requested to build a new hospital on the reservation.
Meanwhile, the president’s proposal cuts the budget for new hospital facilities to $37.5 million leaving the proposal for a new outpatient facility at Sisseton with no funding. The only health centers funded under the president’s proposal are hospitals at Fort Defiance, Arizona, and Winnebago, Nebraska.
Decoteau said the modifications of the health act are not promising. ‘We think the act is a monolith, too big.’
Further, she said, doctors continue to leave IHS facilities in droves, making it difficult for recently built hospitals to render care.
Because of the inability to recruit physicians, Decoteau said she is considering a recent recommendation at a state Board of Examiners and Osteopaths meeting to launch a pilot program that would allow the IHS physician at Sisseton to take care of nursing home patients and practice in other facilities where tribal members go. The program would be confined to Sisseton instead all IHS facilities.
Committee Chairman Sen. Jim Putnum of Armour asked Rep. Tom Van Norman to hand deliver a letter to the congressional delegation expressing the disappointment of state officials in
The committee will hold at least one more meeting on racial profiling. Two days may be set aside for the meeting in Pierre in October.
Sen. Ron Volesky said he plans to reintroduce a bill in the Legislature creating a state tribal economic development commission which would include tribal members from each reservation on the board.