Nora Mabie
Missoulian

In a letter addressed to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and in a resolution passed by the Blackfeet Tribal Business Council, the Blackfeet Nation called for the removal of national and local Indian Health Service leaders.

Tribal leadership alleged that Indian Health Service leaders avoided and disrespected the tribe and failed to support the tribe in improving health outcomes.

Specifically, the letter and resolution call for the removal of IHS Director Roselyn Tso, Billings Area Director Bryce Redgrave and Deputy Director Tanya Wofford, saying they “are tone deaf to the needs of the people” and “Blackfeet leadership has lost all confidence” in them.

Representatives from IHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

What happened?

In June, Director Tso was supposed to visit the Blackfeet Reservation but canceled her trip when the tribe said, “Your visit would be hollow.” Rep. Marvin Weatherwax, D-Browning, at the time, criticized Tso’s planned visit, calling it “a poverty tour.”

Tribal leaders said they turned down Tso’s visit because IHS did not follow through on an alleged commitment made in 2019 to fund a wellness center in an effort to mitigate harm caused by a previous IHS pediatrician.

Former IHS pediatrician Stanley Patrick Weber was convicted of sexually abusing boys in the 1990s on the Blackfeet Reservation.

Recent action

In the Nov. 15 letter to Department of Health and Human Services leadership, tribal leaders again expressed disappointment in Tso for allegedly not following through on this commitment to resources.

“How is it that the Blackfeet Tribe can suffer the loss of tribal members through suicide, drug addiction and incarceration as a direct result of (Weber’s) actions and IHS can escape a commitment to build a youth center for the Blackfeet Tribe?” Blackfeet Chairman Iliff “Scott” Kipp asked in the letter.

On Nov. 2, according to the chairman’s letter, Councilman Lyle Rutherford was contacted by IHS to schedule “a last-minute” meeting with tribal leadership. The meeting was scheduled for Nov. 5 at the Bozeman airport, which tribal leaders felt was an inappropriate setting.

“The Blackfeet Tribe is a sovereign nation, and its leaders are elected by the people,” Kipp wrote in the Nov. 15 letter.

“It is our belief that meetings with congressmen and senators are scheduled well in advance and not at airports, as there is a mutual respect for the offices for which each person holds. The Blackfeet do not appreciate the disrespectful approach of IHS to discuss critical health issues.”

This isn’t the first meeting with IHS that Blackfeet leaders have deemed disappointing. Last February, Councilman Rutherford traveled from Browning to Maryland to meet with IHS officials. When he arrived, he said he was told that the meeting “had a hard stop in 30 minutes.”

“They really don’t care about us,” Rutherford told Lee Montana newspapers in June.

This article was first published in the Missoulian.