I first started at the Bemidji (Minn.) Pioneer as an intern in the summer of 1996. That would begin six years as a news reporter, sports reporter and copy editor for a small, six-day-per-week daily newspaper in northern Minnesota. I wrote a large range of stories from multiple beats, to features to sports, my favorite being the coverage of the Red Lake Reservation High School basketball team named the Warriors. Here is a collection of my stories from my time at the Pioneer.
May 11, 1997
By Devlyn Brooks
Staff Writer
Before the arrival of Europeans to the North American continent, it is estimated there was a population of at least 10 million American Indians. Today, the Indian population -- ravaged by exposure to European diseases and ecological changes -- numbers about 2 million.
In response to the high mortality rates of Indians, and because of the responsibility of the U.S. government to take care of Indians established by more than 350 treaties signed between 1784 and the late 1800s, a limited health program to care for their population was established late in the 19th century.
However, not until a 1928 report identifying the high health risks American Indians faced was released, was there a concerted effort to establish a public health system to serve Indians.
That service, known today as the Indian Health Service, has had an arduous, 100-year existence -- often facing the daunting task of providing health care for an ambiguous population of American Indians, some of whom live on reservations and others who do not.
For instance, in the IHS area office headquartered in Bemidji -- an area comprised of Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan, and which serves about 70,000 Indians -- alone, the number of full-time employed personnel has been cut from 108 to 42 in two years.
Early on, when the care of Indians was placed in the hands of the military, the Bureau of Indian Affairs was created. The relationship between the military and American Indians continued until 1894 when the BIA was transferred to the Department of the Interior.
At that time, the physician services provided by the military were increased by the creation of a corps of civilian employees. By 1900, the Indian Medical Services employed 83 physicians and 25 nurses. Dental services were added in 1913.
In 1920, the U.S. Public Health Service detailed a senior officer to the BIA to provide advice on health matters, and by 1926, PHS medical officers were detailed to Indian health programs.
In 1954, the responsibility of Indian health care was firmly established under the Indian Health Service, a subunit of the Public Health Service, which was a division of the Department of Health Education and Welfare. That department is now known as the Department of Health and Human Services.
Its initial priorities were to assemble a competent health staff, to establish adequate medical facilities for reservations, to treat the seriously ill Indians with extensive curative treatment and to develop a preventive program to reduce excessive illness and early deaths of Indians.
Today, IHS operates 43 hospitals -- ranging from 11 to 170 beds, operates or provides support for 158 IHS or tribally operated health centers and cares for the general health of 2 million Indians and native Alaskans.
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