MEDICAL HISTORY up and we cut it, thresh it, grind it, and then we make the flour into biscuits. So it is with the white man’s laws.”1 The Indian agents impressed on the tribes their need to assimilate to white ways, and so most people turned by the next generation to American doctors for their health care. Tribal members in the 20th century comment that they were really left on their own for medical care. Today, “reservation medicine” is often quite different from that available off-reservation. Most Indian medical centers are managed by the tribes and under federal Indian Health Service (IHS) guidelines. Tribes now supplement IHS funding with health insurance they purchase from casino profits. Tribal peoples suffer from a variety of maladies that are the result of generations of poor and depressed lifestyles, of the transgenerational stresses of losing land, population, and culture. This includes the more recent history of termination (1954), a Congressional action which eliminated the Grand Ronde Tribe for 29 years and caused losses of culture, community consciousness and extreme poverty. The Grand Ronde tribe was restored in 1983, so that the tribe could manage the recovery of its own society and culture from generations of losses. For more information, please contact: David G. Lewis, PhD Adjunct Professor, OSU Oregon Heritage Commission (Chair) Chinook, Santiam Kalapuya, Yoncalla, Takelma dgl.coyotez@gmail.com 1. A. B. Meacham letter of January 6, 1872 to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, reporting proceedings of a convention of the Indian Delegation held at the Methodist Church in Salem Oregon. 32 Medicine in Oregon www.theOMA.org
OMA Winter 2015 Magazine
To see the actual publication please follow the link above