STATEMENT OF ALEXANDER LEWIS, SR. Mr. Chairman, Members of the Committee, Ladies and Gentlemen: I am Alexander Lewis Sr., Governor of the Gila River Indian The photograph I have given each of you shows what the Indian And could you guess by looking at this picture that this facility is rated by the Indian Health Service at 45 points on a scale where 0 represents a NEW facility and 560 represents a wigwam without plumbing? Our need for a hospital has long been known to this committee and to the Indian Health Service. In fact, in 1974 our priority in the Phoenix Area was Number Two and $60,000.00 was spent to develop the Master Plan. But nothing further happened. Two years later our priority shifted to Number One but our $60,000.00 Master Plan continued to sit on the shelf gathering dust. Over the years, Gila River's ranking in the Phoenix Area priorities has shifted like desert sands in a high wind. We have never been involved in--nor informed about--the process used in setting these construction priorities. In fact, we consider ourselves quite fortunate even to find out what our current priority is and when it shifted. All of this changing of policies, procedures, rules and philosophy puts us at a distinct disadvantage and creates innumerable problems for our health planners, our service delivery personnel and our people. Let me give you a good example: In Fiscal Year 1978 Gila River had the highest priority in the Phoenix Area--with construction of our hospital "on line" for 1981. Given this information we set about developing our Tribal Specific Health Plan--the document that is intended to prove to someone, somewhere, that Indians are in charge of their own health planning. No sooner had we completed our plan--all predicated on the assumption we would have a new hospital in 1981--and IHS came up with a complicated statistical formula plus a heavily weighted subjective rating scale to determine who has the greatest need for a new facility. Once again the sand shifted-Gila River moved from Priority One to Priority Ten. Not only does this most recent maneuver blow holes in our health plan; it also raises a great many questions about who is doing what to whom--and why. The first part of the IHS rating scale is defensible for it is based upon available records of usage-but the other two parts of the rating are based entirely upon subjective judgements about a facility's safety factors, its structural integrity, its mechanical and electrical systems, its personnel support systems, etc. The maximum score any facility can earn on usage is 150--but it can earn as many as 560 points on the subjective ratings. As a result, it is entirely possible for a barely inadequate facility with very low patient usage to receive a higher priority than a high-use facility which has a barely adequate physical plant. If Gila River's hospital rated the highest priority for replacement in Fiscal Year 1978--what made it suddenly so adequate in Fiscal Year 1979 that it rated close to the score a new facility would receive under the current rating system? Perspective is an interesting thing, Mr. Chairman. IHS sees our facility as satisfactory; yet the Joint Commission on Hospital Accreditation found $40,000.00 worth of repairable construction deficiencies and a number of unresolvable space deficiencies when they denied us accreditation in 1978. And many of our people--those who can find transportation--have yet another perspective. They choose to bypass the Sacaton Hospital and go to Phoenix Indian Medical Center for general services for they--like you--tend to equate the quality of medical care with the physical surroundings in which services are delivered. As a result, physician morale at the Service Unit suffers; the Phoenix Indian Medical Center is performing general hospital services when it should be directing its efforts to catastrophic and complicated cases, and people are traveling long distances in order to obtain services in a decent facility. We have been told that PL 93-638--the Indian Self-Determination Act--was passed by the Congress to guarantee us the right to determine our own future and the direction we would move to realize it. But somewhere sight of that intent has been lost. Countless bureaucrats have taken the law and manipulated it to their own purposes until those of us for whom it was passed are left to wonder if the word "Indian" really appears in its title. And we are also left to wonder and to guess just what the Indian Health Service has in mind for us. Are we to do our own health planning--or are we playing games? Are we to have decent facilities for our sick--or is all this talk about a hospital merely a means of buying time until we are shifted over to some form of contract health care? We have the need--and the right--to know. If IHS cannot get its act together and deal fairly with us in a consistent manner then I suggest that the Congress mandate a clarification of what is now a totally confusing situation. I only have one more comment to make: Before I could write this speech and deliver it Thank you for your patience. DUCKWATER SHOSHONE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL STATEMENT OF JERRY MILLETT, CHAIRMAN, DUCKWATER SHOSHONE TRIBE, ON BEHALF OF DOUGLAS E. GEORGE, CHAIRMAN, DUCKWATER SHOSHONE SCHOOL BOARD ACCOMPANIED BY MICHAEL DEASY, GRANT AND CONTRACTS MANAGER, DUCKWATER SHOSHONE SCHOOL BOARD Senator STEVENS. Douglas George, and your group from the Duckwater Shoshone School Board of Nevada, please. Mr. MILLETT. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am the tribal chairman of the Duckwater Shoshone Tribe and a member of the school board. I am sorry that Mr. George and Mr. Nelson are not here. They were unexpectedly called home. We are here to discuss the Duckwater Shoshone Elementary School. We need your assistance in the continuing success of our school. We specifically need your assistance in two areas. First, we need $156,524 for basic operational support. To show the success, we have the chart showing student progress which is contained in our testimony. This chart is based on the California achievement test, showing that since the 1975-76 school year, the students have progressed 1.5 years in reading, 1.8 years in math. Our second request, Mr. Chairman, is an appropriation of $280,000 for the renovation of the Duckwater Shoshone Elementary School. The tribe is fully aware and in full support of the Duckwater Shoshone School Board's efforts. I will now turn the time over to Mr. Deasy. Senator STEVENS. Thank you very much. Mr. DEASY. Mr. Chairman, regarding the request of the $280,000 appropriation for the renovation of the school, this committee has supported the Duckwater request for the last 2 years. However, the Duckwater renovation request has not been supported in the House. We hope the committee's continued support for it will be evidenced this year. The school does not meet health, safety education standards as set out by the Bureau. We have gone through the Bureau at various times to attempt to have assistance in renovating the school. We have gone to various other Federal programs. Moneys are not forthcoming, and assistance has not been forthcoming. In 1974, the Phoenix area office of the BIA signed an agreement with us which we passed out as part of our testimony, where they would assist bringing the school into compliance with minimum standards. To date, the Bureau has failed to live up to its agreement. The existing facility is structurally sound, and we wish to renovate, make some additions to it, bring it into health and safety and into compliance with the minimum standards. At this point, Mr. Chairman, if possible I would like to address the basic support problem, also. This morning we met with Mr. Earl Barlow of the BIA. At that point, we were informed that the Bureau may decide to use a formula funding for contract schools in this fiscal year. The budget justification which has been presented to this Congress contained an estimated amount of $100,000 for the Duckwater school. We have historically been cut very short on proposed formula fundings by the Bureau. We are extremely apprehensive of any attempt at formula fundings. We have not been consulted and at this point we are extremely mistrustful. We cannot address the subject of the proposed formula funding until it comes out at some time in May, at the earliest. Senator STEVENS. I understand that, and we will have to all want for that. Regarding support in the committee for your school, I remember discussing that before. Have you made a request this year to the House? Mr. DEASY. Yes. Senator STEVENS. You have testified over there? Mr. DEASY. Yes. The same request was presented to the House this year. This year we also presented a copy of the agreement signed in 1974 between the Duckwater Shoshone Tribe and the BIA. Senator STEVENS. I think that the BIA ought not to sign those agreements unless it intends to ask for the money to carry them out. That is the difficulty. Mr. DEASY. To our knowledge, the BIA has never requested the money. Senator STEVENS. Yes, we have some similar situations up where I came from. We will do our best to continue the support of that, and we will take a look at your request for operational support. Mr. MILLETT. Thank you very much. Mr. DEASY. Thank you. Senator STEVENS. Thank you. [The statement follows:] STATEMENT OF THE DUCKWATER SHOSHONE SCHOOL BOARD Mr. Chairman and members of the Committee. Thank you for affording us the opportunity to be here today. My name is Douglas George. I am a member of the Duckwater Shoshone Tribe and the Chairman of the Duckwater Shoshone School Board. Appearing with me are Mr. Jerry Millett, Chairman of the Duckwater Tribal Council and a member of the Duckwater Shoshone School Board; Mr. Robert Nelson, our Project Director and Mr. Michael Deasy, the Board's grants and contracts manager. The Tribal Council and the Chairman are in full support of our efforts. We need We are here to discuss the Duckwater Shoshone Elementary School. your assistance in the continuing success of our school. We specifically need assistance in two areas: 1. Basic Operational Support in the amount of $156,524. 2. An appropriation of $280,000 in FY '80 for the renovation of The Duckwater Shoshone Elementary School started in 1973 as a demonstration project under Title IV, Part B of the Indian Education Act. We have demonstrated that a tribally controlled, community based education program can be a success. When our children started attending the Duckwater Shoshone Elementary School most were not only far below grade level but close to functionally illiterate. The Duckwater Shoshone Elementary School has turned this deplorable fact around. In every year of operation our children have steadily advanced toward grade level. We have emphasized the development of basic skills in the reading, mathematics and language arts areas. Growth has been measured by the California Achievement Test, a recognized, standard testing instrument. In order to continue this successful trend, we anticipate an operating cost in school year 1979-80 of $156,524. We request this Committee to include $156,524 in the FY 1980 budget of the Bureau of Indian Affairs for the basic operation of the Duckwater Shoshone Elementary School. In At this point we understand an allotment formula is being devised for the funding of contract schools. Our past experience with formula funding leads us to be extremely apprehensive about the results of the present efforts. previous formula efforts you have been presented by the Bureau with basic support figures which are insufficient to continue the operation of the school. In 1977 the Bureau requested $28,500 for the operation of the Duckwater Shoshone Elementary School. In 1978 the Bureau, by formula, determined the Duckwater 60-400 0 - 80-6 |