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Navajo Nation (Diné Bikéyah), USA: Setting

Thomas De Pree
In response to

On July 16th 1979, the largest by volume radioactive spill in US history took place in Church Rock (Kinłitsosinil), which is located in the southeastern “checkerboard area” of the Navajo Nation (Diné Bikéyah) and northwestern New Mexico. Due to a breach in the former United Nuclear Corporation’s uranium mill tailings dam, an estimated ninety-four (~94) million gallons of radioactive, toxic, and highly acidic effluent spilled into the Puerco River (Brugge et al. 2002; SRIC 2009).

The Church Rock Uranium Mill Tailings Spill marked the disastrous beginning of the end for the uranium mining industry in the Navajo Nation and New Mexico. Ironically, the spill occurred on the very same day as an event 34 years prior that marked the beginning of the uranium boom and the dawn of the atomic age: the Trinity Test of July 16th 1945, “the day the sun rose twice.” (Szasz 1984) Unlike the world’s first nuclear explosion in southern New Mexico, the Church Rock mill spill remains relatively underreported and has not yet registered at a national scale of collective memory.

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josh.correira
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Quoted from the front page of the website

"Our Mission ... to raise the physical, mental, social, and spiritual health of American Indians and Alaska Natives to the highest level.

Our Goal ... to assure that comprehensive, culturally acceptable personal and public health services are available and accessible to American Indian and Alaska Native people."

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tamar.rogoszinski
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The authors all work at University of California San Francisco. Their names are Vicanne Adams, Taslim Van Hattum, and Diana English. Adams works at USCF and was the former director and vice-chair in the department of anthropology, history, and social medicine. She focuses her research in Global Health, Asian Medical Systems, Social Theory, Critical Medical Anthropology, Sexuality and Gender, Safe Motherhood, Disaster Recovery, Tibet, Nepal, China and the US. She has been involved in various publications and has received numerous grants from the NIH. Van Hattum and English are also within the department for Anthropology, History, and Social Medicine. 

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josh.correira
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The membership consists of American natives who would like to receive the benefits of this organization. To be eligible to be a member you must be "an Indian and/or Alaskan Native" evidenced by several factors including being a part of a tribe, living on reservation land, or living in the household of a native. The employees consist of federal healthcare professionals commissioned by the United States Public Health Service and Civil Service federal employees.

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josh.correira
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The IHS mainly focuses on disaster prevention and preparedness with initiatives such as teaching children about illness prevention, teaching about safe drinking water and food safety, preventing the spread of disease, and preventing injuries. They also have a number of resources available to their members to connect with healthcare professionals. This seems to be a community awareness type approach that prevents the spread of disease by teaching the community. It resembles that of many healthcare systems and does not seem to suggest problems with other approaches.

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josh.correira
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Legislation including the Indian Healthcare Improvement Act and the Snyder Act are the bases on which the IHS was founded. The passing of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care act by President Obama is the cornerstone of the IHS, however no single event seems to shape the agency's way of approaching health.

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josh.correira
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In response to

The IHS is funded by Congress after being reviewed by The House, Senate, and Congressional committees annually. A budget is formulated by a division within the IHS for approval each year. This means that their way of thinking about disaster and health must be approved by Congress, since they are a Federal agency.