LITTLE BOSTON – The Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe received a grant of $99,979 in August from the U.S. Indian Health Service, to aid the Tribe in assuming all or part of IHS services and improving its health management capability.
Port Gamble S’Klallam was one of 16 Native American governments or Native health organizations to receive a grant. Others in Washington: Colville Confederated Tribes, $150,000; and Quileute Tribe, $99,734.
Tribes have the right to assume responsibility for providing health care to their citizens and to operate and manage health care programs or services previously provided by IHS, subject to certain requirements, as authorized by the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act.
“The Tribal management grants, along with IHS technical assistance, are critical resources to achieving these shared goals” of Tribal self-governance and providing quality health care to Native American and Alaska Native patients, IHS Principal Deputy Director Mary L. Smith said in an announcement of the grant.
“Today, over two-thirds of our annual funds go directly to the Tribes that have elected self-determination and self-governance, where they continue to provide access to quality health care for their communities.”
More than two-thirds of the total annual IHS funding for Native American and Alaska Native health is now administered by Tribes, primarily through the authority provided to them under the Indian Self Determination and Education Assistance Act. Under the principles of self-determination, Tribes have the option to receive their health care directly from IHS or by carrying out their own health care programs as authorized by the assistant act, or any combination thereof.
By law, IHS carries out its responsibility to facilitate the transfer and support the achievement of Tribal health goals and objectives. The IHS Office of Direct Service and Contracting Tribes provides information, technical assistance, and policy coordination in support of self-determination.
The IHS, an agency in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, provides health services for approximately 2.2 million Native Americans and Alaska Natives.
