Post by Okwes on Apr 1, 2007 22:07:31 GMT -5
American Indian Health & Services Asks: "Are You Native American Enough?"
A court case that began January 17 could determine once and for all the fate of American Indian Health & Services (AIHS), which is the third incarnation of a clinic first established in the 1970s to serve Native Americans in Santa Barbara. The case, brought by four former administrators who claim they were fired because they were not Native American, threatens the survival of the clinic, which provides medical care not only to Native Americans but to everybody from uninsured workers to Medi-Cal beneficiaries. Serious as it is, however, the lawsuit is merely one aspect of the upheaval the clinic has been undergoing for more than a year. By now, the board of directors accused of setting the policy to replace non-Native-American employees has itself been replaced for not being Native American enough.
Most of those former boardmembers are Coastal Band Chumash, a group whose claim to Chumash identity has been a topic of hot dispute. Not only the boardmembers but also the clinic�s Coastal Band Chumash patients � who number in the hundreds � were disqualified from receiving free care as Native Americans. From the Coastal Band�s point of view, one of the bitter ironies is that their members were named as intended beneficiaries when the applications were made to establish the original dental clinic on Milpas Street and both of its successors � Urban Indian Health on mid State Street and this one, AIHS, which has been operating since 1996 in a sprawling complex of offices in the Modoc Shopping Center. The Coastal Band played an active role in founding and perpetuating the Santa Barbara clinic, which is one of only eight in the state, two of which recently became referral services.
There is no question the clinic has had its share of problems, twice folding due to financial difficulties and recently going through a series of executive directors in rapid succession. When Al Granados, the current executive director, was hired two years ago, the clinic�s board of directors thought they had struck gold. Granados had retired to Santa Ynez a couple years previously and was beginning to get restless when he heard that AIHS badly needed an executive director. He had spend a quarter century serving as an administrative officer with Indian Health Services (IHS), which monitors Native American clinics and hospitals on and off reservations, and with that organization�s parent bureaucracy, the Department of Health and Human Services. His skill and knowledge outshone those of any of the former executive directors. He had even served hands-on at other clinics. A Vietnam War-era Air Force captain, he exuded competence and authority. And as the son of a Washoe
mother whose experiences as a young domestic worker in Oakland illustrated the value of services catering to urban Native Americans, his commitment seemed heartfelt.
Click to read the rest of the article, use your back button to return to this page:
<http://www.independent.com/news/2007/01/authentic_ethnicity_in_questio.html>
Material appearing here is distributed without profit or monitory gain to those
who have expressed an interest in receiving the material for research and
educational purposes. This is in accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. section 107.
www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html
A court case that began January 17 could determine once and for all the fate of American Indian Health & Services (AIHS), which is the third incarnation of a clinic first established in the 1970s to serve Native Americans in Santa Barbara. The case, brought by four former administrators who claim they were fired because they were not Native American, threatens the survival of the clinic, which provides medical care not only to Native Americans but to everybody from uninsured workers to Medi-Cal beneficiaries. Serious as it is, however, the lawsuit is merely one aspect of the upheaval the clinic has been undergoing for more than a year. By now, the board of directors accused of setting the policy to replace non-Native-American employees has itself been replaced for not being Native American enough.
Most of those former boardmembers are Coastal Band Chumash, a group whose claim to Chumash identity has been a topic of hot dispute. Not only the boardmembers but also the clinic�s Coastal Band Chumash patients � who number in the hundreds � were disqualified from receiving free care as Native Americans. From the Coastal Band�s point of view, one of the bitter ironies is that their members were named as intended beneficiaries when the applications were made to establish the original dental clinic on Milpas Street and both of its successors � Urban Indian Health on mid State Street and this one, AIHS, which has been operating since 1996 in a sprawling complex of offices in the Modoc Shopping Center. The Coastal Band played an active role in founding and perpetuating the Santa Barbara clinic, which is one of only eight in the state, two of which recently became referral services.
There is no question the clinic has had its share of problems, twice folding due to financial difficulties and recently going through a series of executive directors in rapid succession. When Al Granados, the current executive director, was hired two years ago, the clinic�s board of directors thought they had struck gold. Granados had retired to Santa Ynez a couple years previously and was beginning to get restless when he heard that AIHS badly needed an executive director. He had spend a quarter century serving as an administrative officer with Indian Health Services (IHS), which monitors Native American clinics and hospitals on and off reservations, and with that organization�s parent bureaucracy, the Department of Health and Human Services. His skill and knowledge outshone those of any of the former executive directors. He had even served hands-on at other clinics. A Vietnam War-era Air Force captain, he exuded competence and authority. And as the son of a Washoe
mother whose experiences as a young domestic worker in Oakland illustrated the value of services catering to urban Native Americans, his commitment seemed heartfelt.
Click to read the rest of the article, use your back button to return to this page:
<http://www.independent.com/news/2007/01/authentic_ethnicity_in_questio.html>
Material appearing here is distributed without profit or monitory gain to those
who have expressed an interest in receiving the material for research and
educational purposes. This is in accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. section 107.
www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html