[Senate Hearing 118-530]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
S. Hrg. 118-530
S. 2783, S. 3406, S. 3857 AND S. 4365
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HEARING
before the
COMMITTEE ON INDIAN AFFAIRS
UNITED STATES SENATE
ONE HUNDRED EIGHTEENTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
__________
JULY 10, 2024
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Indian Affairs
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
57-859 PDF WASHINGTON : 2025
COMMITTEE ON INDIAN AFFAIRS
BRIAN SCHATZ, Hawaii, Chairman
LISA MURKOWSKI, Alaska, Vice Chairman
MARIA CANTWELL, Washington JOHN HOEVEN, North Dakota
JON TESTER, Montana STEVE DAINES, Montana
CATHERINE CORTEZ MASTO, Nevada MARKWAYNE MULLIN, Oklahoma
TINA SMITH, Minnesota MIKE ROUNDS, South Dakota
BEN RAY LUJAN, New Mexico
Jennifer Romero, Majority Staff Director and Chief Counsel
Amber Ebarb, Minority Staff Director
C O N T E N T S
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Page
Hearing held on July 10, 2024.................................... 1
Statement of Senator Lujan....................................... 3
Statement of Senator Murkowski................................... 2
Statement of Senator Padilla..................................... 4
Statement of Senator Schatz...................................... 1
Witnesses
Cypress, Hon. Talbert, Chairman, Miccosukee Tribe of Indians..... 12
Prepared statement........................................... 13
Egorin, Hon. Melanie Anne, Ph.D., Assistant Secretary, U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services........................ 5
Prepared statement........................................... 7
Freihage, Jason, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Management, Indian
Affairs, U.S. Department of the Interior....................... 9
Prepared statement........................................... 11
Lefferts, Brian, Director of Public Health, Yukon Kuskokwim
Health Corporation............................................. 20
Prepared statement........................................... 22
Pinto, Hon. Erica, Chairwoman, Jamul Indian Village of California 15
Prepared statement........................................... 16
Appendix
Brannan, Richard, CEO, Wind River Family and Community Healthcare
Systems, prepared statement.................................... 29
Crosby, James W., M.S., Ph.D., CBCC-KA, CDBC Research Associate
Canine Brain Project, prepared statement....................... 30
James, Hon. Vince, Chairman, Health Education and Human Services
Committee, 25th Navajo Nation Council, prepared statement...... 30
Letters submitted for the record
May, Kevin James, Chair, Jamul-Dulzura Community Planning Group,
prepared statement............................................. 31
Nygren, Dr. Buu, President, Navajo Nation, prepared statement.... 33
Response to written questions submitted by Hon. Brian Schatz to
Hon. Melanie Anne Egorin....................................... 45
Romero, Hon. Fred L., Governor, Pueblo of Taos, prepared
statement...................................................... 34
Tomhave, Brandy, JD, Interim Executive Director, Native America
Humane Society, prepared statement............................. 36
VanKavage, Sr., Ledy, Legislative Attorney, Best Friends Animal
Society, prepared statement.................................... 38
Watson, Dr. Michael, Administrator, Animal and Plant Health
Inspection Service, prepared statement......................... 38
S. 2783, S. 3406, S. 3857 AND S. 4365
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WEDNESDAY, JULY 10, 2024
U.S. Senate,
Committee on Indian Affairs,
Washington, DC.
The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 2:52 p.m. in room
628, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Brian Schatz,
Chairman of the Committee, presiding.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. BRIAN SCHATZ,
U.S. SENATOR FROM HAWAII
The Chairman. Good afternoon. Thanks for waiting. Sorry for
being late. We had a vote that started a bit late.
During today's legislative hearing, we will consider four
bills: S. 2783, Miccosukee Reserved Area Amendments Act; S.
3406, Technical Corrections to the Northwestern New Mexico
Rural Water Projects Act, Taos Pueblo Indian Water Rights
Settlement Act, and Aamodt Litigation Settlement Act; S. 3857,
Jamul Indian Village Land Transfer Act; and S. 4365, Veterinary
Services to Improve Public Health in Rural Communities Act.
S. 2783 was introduced by Senators Rubio and Scott. The
bill would amend the Miccosukee Reserved Area to include a
tribal residential area known as Osceola Camp into the
Miccosukee Reserved Area, and authorize $14 million for
activities to protect the camp from flooding.
S. 3406 was introduced by Senators Lujan and Heinrich. This
bill would authorize approximately $18.5 million in back
interest payments into three Indian water rights settlement
trust funds benefiting the Navajo Nation, Nambe Pueblo,
Pojoaque Pueblo, San Ildefonso Pueblo, and Tesuque Pueblo, and
Taos Pueblo pursuant to their ratified rights settlements.
S. 3857 was introduced by Senators Padilla and Butler. This
bill would transfer into trust status approximately 172 acres
currently owned in fee simple status by the Jamul Tribe,
clarify the applicability of Federal law and regulation to
those lands and prohibit gaming activities under the Indian
Gaming Regulatory Act on those lands.
S. 4365 was introduced by Vice Chair Murkowski. This bill
would authorize the Indian Health Service to support public
health veterinary services to prevent and control rabies and
other zoonotic disease transmission in IHS service areas. You
can tell my staff wrote this, because I would never have
written the word zoonotic.
[Laughter.]
The Chairman. Before I turn to the Vice Chair for her
opening statement, I would like to extend my appreciation and
welcome to our witnesses for joining us today. I look forward
to your testimony and our discussion.
Vice Chair Murkowski?
STATEMENT OF HON. LISA MURKOWSKI,
U.S. SENATOR FROM ALASKA
Senator Murkowski. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate
today's hearing. You have given a good run-down on the other
bills on the agenda, but I want to speak to S. 4365, which is
our Veterinary Services to Improve Public Health in Rural
Communities. It would authorize the Indian Health Srvice to
offer public health veterinary services, including spay and
neuter services, to tribes to help reduce the number of stray
dogs in Native communities.
The over-population of stray and abandoned dogs in Indian
Country is a significant public health and safety issue. More
than 250,000 reservation dogs, as they are often called, roam
the Navajo Nation alone.
I have introduced S. 4365 because Alaska Native children
experience the highest incidences of hospitalization from dog
attacks than any other group in the Nation, and we need to deal
with it. According to IHS data, an average of 4,800 tribal
members are hospitalized or receive outpatient care for dog
bites each year. Some studies indicate that tribal areas
experience a death rate from dog attacks that is 35 times
higher than the rest of the Nation. Most of these cases are
either in Alaska or on the Navajo Nation.
Even a non-fatal dog bite comes with serious emotional,
economic, and public health costs. Dog bites can of course
transmit rabies, parasites and other zoonotic diseases. I am
with you on the zoonotic diseases; I think we get rabies,
right, parasites. But they transmit diseases to humans and
unvaccinated animals. Medical treatments can be terrifying for
children and elders, often involving significant time away from
home and a series of painful rabies shots.
Under current law, the IHS lacks sufficient legal authority
to carry out veterinary services directly or in partnership
with the tribe under a 638 self-governance agreement. We know
that, because at least two tribal organizations in Alaska tried
to add veterinary services to their multi-year funding
agreements. They were denied by IHS.
So my bill would address this gap in health services by
amending the Indian Health Care Improvement Act to state
clearly that public health veterinary services are an
authorized service of the IHS. That way, these services can be
included in a tribe's funding agreement under ISDEA.
The bill would also allow the IHS to assign veterinarians
commissioned by Public Health Service Commissioned Corps to IHS
service areas where rabies are endemic. Note there is no
requirement that IHS assign such officers. It only authorizes
it as yet another tool in the tool box when we absolutely need
it.
Dogs have significant historic and cultural ties in Alaska
Native communities. Individuals and families depend on their
dogs, and when that relationship becomes distressing or
disturbing for any reason, like a rabid dog in a village
requiring all of the dogs in the village to be euthanized, it
can be a source of great trauma. So we have to get some help
here.
My office worked with a number of tribal members and
organizations in drafting this. I would like to recognize one
person in particular for his efforts, and that is Donald
Charlie. Don is a former musher and a tribal leader of the
Nenana Native Village. He pushed for passage of three
resolutions by the Alaska Federation of Natives, calling
attention to the lack of veterinary care in Native communities.
Don's leadership on this issue helped us produce a bill
that is supported by organizations like the Alaska Federation
of Natives, Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, as well as
the American Veterinary Medical Association.
This is a commonsense piece of legislation that ensures the
Federal Government lives up to its trust obligations while
providing a humane, non-lethal option for animal population
control.
I am looking forward to hearing from our witnesses today on
not only my bill, but the others before the Committee.
The Chairman. Thank you, Vice Chair Murkowski.
Are there any other members who would like to make an
opening statement? Senator Lujan.
STATEMENT OF HON. BEN RAY LUJAN,
U.S. SENATOR FROM NEW MEXICO
Senator Lujan. Thank you, Chairman Schatz, Vice Chair
Murkowski, for your thoughtfulness and for bringing us to this
hearing today.
I am especially appreciative that this hearing includes my
legislation, the Technical Corrections to the Northwestern New
Mexico Rural Water Projects Act, the Taos Pueblo Indian Water
Rights Settlement Act, and the Aamodt Litigation Settlement
Act.
Between 2009 and 2010, Congress enacted several water
rights settlements, which included the Northwestern New Mexico
Rural Water Projects Act, Taos Pueblo Indian Water Rights
Settlement Act, and the Aamodt Litigation Settlement Act,
benefitting six tribes. These settlements are part of the
Federal Government's trust responsibility to providing water to
tribes and to pueblos.
While the enactment of the settlements is vital to ensure
that the Navajo Nation, Taos Pueblo, the Pueblos of Nambe,
Tesuque, Pojoaque and San Ildefonso have access to water, the
enacted settlements included an unconventional prohibition
preventing the Department of Interior from investing the trust
funds from the settlements before specific dates. This
prohibition on investment resulted in tribes and pueblos
missing out on interest earnings that other settlements enjoy.
This legislation presented before the Committee will
authorize $18.4 million for the three water settlement trust
funds to collect interest that they are owed from their enacted
settlements to create much-needed water infrastructure. This
will help us fulfill our trust responsibility and promote water
security for tribes and pueblos, as well as non-tribal users,
in New Mexico.
I appreciate the willingness of the Department of the
Interior in working with me and my office to address
prohibitions impacting the settlements from being able to fully
see the potential of the funds. I look forward to hearing from
our witnesses today and working with the Chair and Vice Chair
on moving this legislation forward in order to bring these
much-needed resources quickly to the communities who most need
them.
Thank you for the time. I yield back.
The Chairman. Thank you, Senator Lujan.
I will now turn to our witnesses. We would like to
introduce the Honorable Melanie Anne Egorin, Assistant
Secretary for Legislation at Health and Human Services; Mr.
Jason Freihage, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Management at
the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs at the
Department of Interior; the Honorable Talbert Cypress,
Chairman, Miccosukee Tribe of Indians in Miami, Florida.
Senator Padilla, would you like to introduce your witness?
STATEMENT OF HON. ALEX PADILLA,
U.S. SENATOR FROM CALIFORNIA
Senator Padilla. Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you, Vice
Chair Murkowski, for the hearing today.
I am honored to introduce Erica Pinto, the Chairwoman of
Jamul Indian Village in California, who will be testifying
today, albeit remotely. I also welcome the several members of
the tribal council who are in the audience.
Ms. Pinto proudly serves as the first woman elected as
chair of Jamul since 2015. She has been involved with the
tribal council for over 23 years, having first become a council
member at the age of 21.
Her leadership extends well beyond the tribe, however. Ms.
Pinto also serves on tribal advisory committees for the
Departments of Health and Human Services and the Interior,
where she advises Federal agencies on intra-governmental
responsibilities and obligations.
She has consistently led on efforts to improve tribal
health care and to bring additional focus to the missing and
murdered indigenous peoples crisis.
As chairwoman, Ms. Pinto has led the tribes to significant
economic progress on their path to self-reliance. She grew up
with her three brothers on the Jamul Indian Village and
reservations, where she witnessed firsthand the hardships her
people faced. Her mother was also very active in tribal
government for several decades, so her leadership and
commitment to serve the tribe comes as no surprise.
S. 3857, the legislation before this Committee today, would
place approximately 172 acres of land into trust for the
benefit of the tribe. After years of sacrifice and their
efforts to achieve self-determination, the Jamul Indian Village
deserves a true homeland to preserve their sacred history and
bring together their community for generations to come.
It has been an honor to work alongside the chairwoman and
the entire tribe on this, as we week not just to permanently
safeguard their home but maintain their rich history and
traditions for future generations. I want to thank Chairwoman
Pinto for her leadership and for her testimony today.
Mr. Chair, before I close, I would just like to make a
brief comment to Deputy Secretary Freihage. I want to thank you
for your testimony today and the BIA's support for this
legislation. We have been in touch with the Bureau also on
several tribal gaming applications submitted by tribes in
California.
I would like to formally request a BIA ``in-person
consultation'' with the impacted tribal governments who have
weighed in on these applications but have been unable to meet
with leadership at the Bureau or the Department, here in
Washington, in person, to address their concerns. It is
imperative that the department meet with these tribes and live
up to their tribal consultation commitments.
With that, thank you again, Mr. Chairman, for this hearing.
The Chairman. Thank you, Senator Padilla.
Vice Chair Murkowski?
Senator Murkowski. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I would like to introduce a witness that is joining us
virtually, from Alaska. Brian Lefferts is a Commander in the
U.S. Public Health Service Commission Corps. He currently
serves as the Director of Public Health at the Yukon Kuskokwim
Health Corporation in Bethel, Alaska. This is a tribal non-
profit health care organization serving 58 communities in
southwest Alaska.
Commander Lefferts has spent 18 years with YKHC, serving
several positions, working on a wide array of public health
issues, including disease investigation, population health
management, nutrition, and environmental health. I am looking
forward to his testimony on S. 4365, and his insights into the
real-world impact of animal overpopulation and the risks of
rabies within our rural communities.
The Chairman. Thank you, Vice Chair.
We will now proceed to our testimony. We would like
everybody to confine their remarks to five minutes or less, and
we will start with the Honorable Melanie Anne Egorin. Please
proceed with your testimony.
STATEMENT OF HON. MELANIE ANNE EGORIN, Ph.D.,
ASSISTANT SECRETARY, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN
SERVICES
Ms. Egorin. Good afternoon, Chairman Schatz, Vice Chair
Murkowski, and members of the Committee. Thank you for the
opportunity to provide testimony on an important legislative
proposal before your Committee, and for your continued support
for the Department and the Indian Health Service in its efforts
to health and well-being of American Indians and Alaska
Natives.
I am Melanie Anne Egorin, the Assistant Secretary for
Legislation at the Department of Health and Human Services. It
is my pleasure to join the Committee again, as we work together
to combat the public health challenges in tribal communities.
The Department and IHS agree that the increase in injuries
and zoonotic disease spread by animals in Indian Country
represents a significant public health issue for tribal members
in these rural communities. In recent years, free-roaming
domestic animals have contributed to rabies outbreaks on tribal
lands, human deaths due to zoonotic diseases, and severe injury
and deaths due to mauling.
The Department is working as a whole through diverse
offices and mission areas to address the public health concerns
related to zoonotic diseases, including but not limited to
rabies. The IHS already coordinates with and assists tribes
with animal population control efforts to the extent
practicable but within its authorities.
Additionally, the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention and the Commissioned Corps of the United States
Public Health Service help to lead the department's efforts on
the national surveillance of and education about rabies and
other zoonotic diseases.
While it recognizes the importance of this emergent threat
in Indian Country, the IHS has to balance its limited resources
to deliver direct services to its defined population while
combating a number of unique public health challenges facing
Indian Country. The Biden Harris Administration has advocated
for additional resources to combat these growing threats in
Indian Country and is committed to fighting to reduce health
disparities impacting tribal members.
The IHS has examined first-hand and heard directly from
tribes, especially those in northern Alaska, about the real
public health risk from the high rates of dog bite injuries in
tribal communities. Over the past five years, there have been
over 200 patients hospitalized from dog bite injuries or
attacks and an additional 24,000 who received ambulatory
services at IHS clinics. The Navajo, Alaska, Great Plains, and
Phoenix Areas have had the highest numbers of bite-related
hospitalizations over the last five years. We know that tribes
are desperate for assistance in addressing the problems at its
source.
The IHS authorizing statute does not currently convey
authority to carry out veterinary services. As IHS does not
have this authority, there is no authority for a tribal health
program to add veterinary services to its ISDEA agreement.
Within their authority, the IHS, CDC and USPHS collaborate in
careful coordination with other tribal, Federal, State, county
and external partners to reduce the risk of zoonotic disease
spread in Indian Country.
The IHS Division of Environmental Health Services staff
work on surveillance, training and capacity building, and have
been involved for decades with novel vector borne and zoonotic
diseases in Indian Country. It also coordinates with outside
partners to facilitate the delivery of spay, neuter, and rabies
clinics for domestic dogs and cats and has worked with Federal
partners like USDA on zoonotic disease prevention and risk
factor reduction projects.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant
Inspection Service has collaborated with the IHS Division of
Environmental Health Services at the local level as needed on
zoonotic disease prevention or risk factor reduction projects.
The CDC has conducted several surveillance evaluations to
characterize the risk of rabies in tribal lands in several
high-risk communities in the southwest United States. Rabies
testing and reporting rates are up to 15 times lower compared
to their non-tribal adjacent communities, in part because
tribal communities do not have their own rabies laboratories.
The highest risk for rabies reintroduction lies in tribal lands
where free-roaming dog populations remain a major public health
issue. For example, as the Vice Chair noted, the Navajo Nation
is home to approximately 250,000 free-roaming dogs with many
remaining unvaccinated against rabies.
The Veterinary Services for Improved Public Health in Rural
Communities Act would work to combat this public health crisis.
The department shares the goals of the drafters to combat
zoonotic disease spreading in IHS areas and ensure that tribal
members throughout Indian Country are protected with robust
public health outbreak prevention. Like the bill's drafters,
the department and IHS are looking to improve the response to
zoonotic related disease and improve the safety of tribal
communities.
That being said, the bill in its current form does not
include any additional resources for the department to stand up
a new program without compromising its efforts to provide
direct care, address other longstanding inequities or combat
other emergent public health challenges in Indian Country.
We look forward to continuing to work with Congress on
improving the health of tribal populations, including the
issues related to this bill. As always, HHS welcomes the
opportunity to provide technical assistance as requested by the
Committee and its members.
Thank you again for this opportunity to testify. I am happy
to answer your questions.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Egorin follows:]
Prepared Statement of Hon. Melanie Anne Egorin, Ph.D., Assistant
Secretary, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Good afternoon Chair Schatz, Vice Chair Murkowski, and Members of
the Committee. Thank you for the opportunity to provide testimony on an
important legislative proposal before your Committee, and for your
continued support of the Indian Health Service (IHS) and efforts from
the Department of Health and Human Services to improve the health and
well-being of American Indians and Alaska Natives (AI/AN). Your
consideration today of S. 4365, the Veterinary Services to Improve
Public Health in Rural Communities Act underscores that commitment to
improving the quality of life in Indian Country.
I am Melanie Anne Egorin, the Assistant Secretary for Legislation
(ASL) at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS or
Department). My office serves as the primary link between the
Department and Congress. The Office of the ASL provides technical
assistance on legislation to Members of Congress and their staff,
facilitates informational briefings relating to Department programs to
support policy development by Congress, and supports implementation of
legislation passed by Congress. It is a pleasure to join the Committee
again, as we work together to combat the public health challenges in
tribal communities.
Background
The Department and the IHS agree that the increase of injuries and
zoonotic disease spread by domesticated and wild animals in Indian
Country represents a significant public health issue for tribal members
in these rural communities. There are an estimated 70 million stray
dogs and cats in the U.S., Tribal Lands, and territories, which
contribute to traumatic events and injuries, zoonotic disease spread,
and road traffic accidents. In recent years, free-roaming domestic
animals have contributed to rabies outbreaks on Tribal lands, human
deaths due to zoonotic diseases, and severe injury and death due to
mauling.
The Department is working as a whole through diverse offices and
mission areas to address the public health concerns related to zoonotic
diseases, including rabies. The IHS already coordinates with and
assists tribes with animal population control efforts to the extent
practicable within its authorities. Additionally, the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Commissioned Corps of the
United States Public Health Service (USPHS) help to lead Department
efforts on the national surveillance of and education about rabies and
other zoonotic diseases.
The IHS operates its mission, in partnership with AI/AN tribal
communities, through a network of over 600 federal and tribal health
facilities and 41 Urban Indian Organizations that are located across 37
states and provide health care services to approximately 2.87 million
AI/AN people annually.
As you may know, appropriated funds to the IHS are used to provide
health care to IHS-eligible AI/ANs--the IHS' defined service
population. The Department and the IHS have worked hard to prioritize
resources provided by Congress to ensure that patients have access to
accessible--and affordable--quality care. The IHS works hard every day
to ensure that limited resources are used wisely to ensure the greatest
impact on its defined service population--from direct care services to
sanitation and facilities construction, and health care facilities
construction.
While it recognizes the importance of this emerging threat to
Indian Country, the IHS has to balance its limited resources to deliver
direct services to its defined population while combating a number of
unique public health issues facing Indian Country, including the
fentanyl and opioid crisis, the maternal mortality crisis, domestic and
interpersonal violence, and high diabetes rates--to name a few. The
Biden Harris Administration has advocated for additional resources to
combat these growing threats in Indian Country and is committed to
fighting to reduce health disparities impacting tribal members.
IHS Health Issues Related to Rabies Incidents in Rural Communities
The IHS has examined first-hand and heard directly from tribes
about the real public health risk from the high rates of dog bite
injuries in AI/AN communities. Over the past five years, there have
been over 200 patients hospitalized from dog bite injuries or attacks
at IHS clinics. The Navajo and Alaska Areas have had the highest number
of bites requiring hospitalizations. During that same period, there
were over 24,000 patients receiving ambulatory care from dog bites. The
Navajo, Alaska, Great Plains, and Phoenix Areas have had the highest
numbers of bite-related hospitalizations over the last 5 years.
The IHS has also heard from tribes--especially from those in
Northern Alaska--who are desperate for assistance addressing the
problem at its source. A multitude of challenges have created a perfect
storm for risk of injury and disease spread from animals in especially
rural areas. AI/ANs living on reservations often have little to no
access to veterinary care. Gaps exist in the availability of free
rabies vaccines to rural pets, resulting in a higher risk of rabies
exposure in humans and animals. The lack of regular parasite control
for pets in these areas has led to an increased risk of exposure to
transmissible parasites to human beings. There is also a lack of access
to veterinary spay-neuter surgery to reduce unplanned litters, which
has led to an overpopulation of strays and abandoned dogs--thus
increasing exposure to disease, parasite infestation, and dog bites.
The Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act (ISDEAA)
only authorizes contracts for certain programs prescribed by Congress.
As the Committee knows, the IHS' foundational purpose is to provide
health care for AI/ANs. IHS' authorizing statutes do not currently
convey authority to carry out veterinary services. As IHS does not have
the authority, there is no authority for a tribal health program to add
the activity to its ISDEAA agreement.
HHS Public Health Surveillance, Education, and Partnerships
Within their authorities, the IHS, the CDC, and USPHS collaborate
in careful coordination with other tribal, federal, state, county, and
external partners to reduce the risk of zoonotic disease spread in
Indian Country. The IHS Division of Environmental Health Services staff
work on surveillance, training, and capacity building, and have been
involved for decades with novel vector borne and zoonotic diseases not
previously identified in Indian Country. This Division has implemented
Hantavirus and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever prevention strategies,
conducted arbovirus surveillance and risk reduction strategies, and
assisted tribal communities in the development of and adoption of lay
vaccinator programs for rabies virus. It has also coordinated with
outside partners to facilitate the delivery of spay, neuter, and rabies
clinics for domestic dogs and cats. The U.S. Department of
Agriculture's Animal and Plant Inspection Service has collaborated with
the IHS Division of Environmental Health Services at the local level as
needed on zoonotic disease prevention or risk factor reduction
projects.
The CDC collects data on domestic human rabies cases and conducts
near real-time animal rabies surveillance in 54 jurisdictions,
including Alaska, through the National Rabies Surveillance System. No
Tribal communities have their own rabies laboratories and therefore
they rely on relevant state laboratories for all testing. This may
present a barrier to sample collection, testing, and reporting, which
further obscures the burden of rabies in these communities. The CDC has
conducted several surveillance evaluations to characterize rabies risks
in Tribal Lands. In several high-risk Tribal communities in the
southwestern U.S., rabies testing and reporting rates are up to 15-
times lower compared to their adjacent non-Tribal communities.
An evaluation of the risk of rabies re-introduction into the U.S.
found that the highest risk is in Tribal Lands where free roaming dog
populations remain a major public health issue. It was found that the
Navajo Nation is home to approximately 250,000 free roaming dogs, with
many remaining unvaccinated against rabies. Rabies risk mapping
performed by CDC, which considers road connectivity, urbanicity, and
human-to-unvaccinated dog ratios found that up to 185,000 unvaccinated
dogs likely reside in areas that could support and sustain dog-to-dog
transmission of rabies. This highlights the realistic potential for
reintroduction of dog-mediated rabies or spillover from local rabies
reservoir wildlife in the Navajo Nation. These findings likely reflect
similar vulnerabilities in other Tribal Lands across the United States.
S. 4365, Veterinary Services to Improve Public Health in Rural
Communities Act
The Veterinary Services to Improve Public Health in Rural
Communities Act would amend the Indian Health Care Improvement Act to
combat zoonotic disease outbreaks and advance public health
preparedness for Native communities, Alaska Native villages, or Indian
reservations, including by providing spay and neuter services and
vaccinations for animals.
S. 4365 would authorize the Secretary to expend funds for public
health veterinary services to prevent and control zoonotic disease
infection and transmission in IHS Service areas where the risk for
disease occurrence in humans and wildlife is endemic. The bill would
also enable the Secretary to deploy veterinary public health officers
from USPHS to IHS Service areas to combat, prevent and control zoonotic
disease infection and transmission in IHS Service areas where the risk
is endemic.
The proposed legislation also mandates the Secretary and IHS to
coordinate with the Director of the CDC, and the Secretary of
Agriculture. Further, the bill would require the Secretary of HHS to
submit to certain Committees in Congress on a biennial basis, a report
on the use of funds, the assignment and deployment of veterinary public
health officers from the USPHS, data related to the monitoring and
disease surveillance of zoonotic diseases, and related services
provided under the proposed legislation. Finally, S. 4365 would amend
the Prepare for and Respond to Existing Viruses, Emerging New Threats,
and Pandemics Act, to include the Director of the IHS, in the ``One
Health framework.''
Controlling the pet population would decrease the incidence of dog
bites, which have caused an increase of injuries and deaths on Tribal
Lands. This bill would potentially limit the incidence and spread of
zoonotic diseases and also allow people to walk safely in their
communities. The Department shares the same goal as the drafters--to
combat zoonotic disease spreading in IHS Service areas and ensure that
tribal members throughout Indian Country are protected with robust
public health outbreak prevention. Like the bill's drafters, the
Department and IHS are looking to improve response to any zoonotic
related disease and improve safety in tribal communities.
That being said, the bill, in its current form, does not include
any additional resources for the Department to stand up a new program
without compromising its efforts to provide direct care or combat other
emergent public health challenges in Indian Country. The legislation
could include language to authorize such sums that may be necessary to
provide these services in Indian Country and the Appropriations
Committees could then be able to decide whether to fund these new
activities.
We look forward to continuing our work with Congress on improving
the health of AI/AN populations including the issues related to this
bill. As always, HHS welcomes the opportunity to provide technical
assistance as requested by the Committee or its members.
Thank you again for the opportunity to testify today, and I am
happy to answer any questions the Committee may have.
The Chairman. Thank you very much.
Mr. Freihage, please proceed with your testimony.
STATEMENT OF JASON FREIHAGE, DEPUTY ASSISTANT
SECRETARY OF MANAGEMENT, INDIAN AFFAIRS, U.S.
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Mr. Freihage. Good afternoon, Chairman Schatz, Vice
Chairman Murkowski, and members of the Committee. My name is
Jason Freihage. I am the Deputy Assistant Secretary for
Management in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Indian
Affairs at the Department of the Interior. Thank you for the
opportunity to present testimony on S. 2783, Miccosukee
Reserved Area Amendments Act, S. 3406, Technical Corrections to
the Northwestern New Mexico Rural Water Projects Act, Taos
Pueblo Indian Water Rights Settlement Act, and Aamodt
Litigation Settlement Act, and S. 3857, Jamul Indian Village
Land Transfer Act. The department supports S. 2783, S. 3406,
and S. 3857.
S. 2783 would amend the Miccosukee Reserved Area Act by
expanding the Miccosukee Reserved Area to include Osceola Camp,
which is within the boundaries of Everglades National Park. The
National Park Services currently authorizes management of the
Camp through a Special Use Permit.
S. 2873 would guarantee the permanence and protection of
the Camp and eliminate the need for recurring permit approval.
The bill would also authorize appropriations, not more than a
total of $14 million, to safeguard Camp structures from
flooding events. The department supports S. 2783.
S. 3406 would amend the Omnibus Public Land Management Act
of 2009 and the Claims Resolution Act of 2010 to authorize
funding for the Navajo Nation Water Resources Development Trust
Fund, the Taos Pueblo Water Development Fund, and Aamodt
Settlement Pueblos Fund, amounts that would have accrued if the
department had the authority to invest those funds upon
appropriation.
Four Indian water rights settlements, the Taos Pueblo
Indian Water Rights Settlement Act, the Aamodt Litigation
Settlement Act, and the Duck Valley Settlement and the Crow
Tribe Water Rights Settlement Act of 2010 contain provisions
that authorize an investment of monies into settlement trust
fund accounts after their enforceability date.
The enforceability date is effective when the Secretary
finds that all conditions for the full effectiveness and
enforceability of the settlement occurred and is published in
the Federal Register. But the Northwestern New Mexico Rural
Water Projects Act, or Navajo Settlement, also allowed an
investment of monies into the Navajo Nation's resource
development trust fund only upon a specified date certain 10
years after the enactment date. These provisions prohibited the
department from investing trust fund monies before the
enforceability date or a date certain.
But the department mistakenly invested trust fund monies
when they were appropriated and before the enforceability date.
When the department discovered its error, the department's
solicitor's office determined that the amounts earned prior to
the date that the funds were authorized to be invested
conflicted with the Anti-Deficiency Act, and those funds must
be returned to the Treasury. Soon after, the department then
returned all interest monies accrued prior to the authorized
date back to Treasury.
The provisions contained in the five water settlements that
prohibit the investment until the enforceability date or a date
certain is reached are not common in Indian water rights
settlements. The department supports S. 3406, to put those
water settlements on par with other Indian water rights
settlements.
S. 3857 would place approximately 172.1 acres of land
located in San Diego, California, into trust for the benefit of
the Jamul Indian Village. The bill makes the land that are
owned in fee by the tribe part of the reservation for the Jamul
Indian Village and includes a prohibition against Class II and
Class III gaming under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act.
The parcels to be transferred into trust are Daisy Drive,
which is the main access road into the tribe's existing trust
land, a parcel that contains a culturally significant church
and cemetery and two parcels that the tribe plans to use for
housing development, a clinic and an administration building.
The department supports S. 3857. The restoration of tribal
homelands continues to be a priority for the department and
Biden Administration.
Chairman Schatz, Vice Chair Murkowski, and members of the
Committee, thank you for the opportunity to provide the
department's views.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Freihage follows:]
Prepared Statement of Jason Freihage, Deputy Assistant Secretary of
Management, Indian Affairs, U.S. Department of the Interior
Good afternoon, Chairman Schatz, Vice Chairman Murkowski, and
members of the Committee. My name is Jason Freihage, and I am the
Deputy Assistant Secretary of Management for Indian Affairs at the
Department of the Interior (Department). Thank you for the opportunity
to present testimony on S. 2783, ``Miccosukee Reserved Area Amendments
Act,'' S. 3406, ``Technical Corrections to the Northwestern New Mexico
Rural Water Projects Act, Taos Pueblo Indian Water Rights Settlement
Act, and Aamodt Litigation Settlement Act,'' and S. 3857, ``Jamul
Indian Village Land Transfer Act.''
S. 2783, Miccosukee Reserved Area Amendments Act
S. 2783 would amend the Miccosukee Reserved Area Act by authorizing
expansion of the Miccosukee Reserved Area to include Osceola Camp
(Camp), which is situated within the boundary of Everglades National
Park. The bill would uphold the sovereignty of the Miccosukee Tribe of
Indians and ensure the Camp remains within the landscape of Everglades
National Park in perpetuity. The NPS currently authorizes management of
the Camp through a Special Use Permit; this bill would ensure
permanence and protection of the Camp and eliminate the need for
recurring permit approval. Additionally, the bill would authorize
appropriations of such sums as necessary, but not more than a total of
$14,000,000, to safeguard structures within the Camp from flooding
events.
The Department supports S. 2783.
S. 3406, Technical Corrections to the Northwestern New Mexico Rural
Water Projects Act, Taos Pueblo Indian Water Rights Settlement
Act, and Aamodt Litigation Settlement Act
S. 3406 would amend the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009
and the Claims Resolution Act of 2010 to authorize funding for deposit
into the Navajo Nation Water Resources Development Trust Fund, the Taos
Pueblo Water Development Fund, and the Aamodt Settlement Pueblos' Fund
equivalent to the amounts that would have accrued to the trust funds if
the Department had the authority to invest the funds upon
appropriation.
In the 111th Congress, four Indian water rights settlements (the
Taos Pueblo Indian Water Rights Settlement Act, Pub. L. No. 111-291;
the Aamodt Litigation Settlement Act, Pub. L. No. 111-291; the Duck
Valley settlement, Pub. L. No. 111-11; and the Crow Tribe Water Rights
Settlement Act of 2010, Pub. L. No. 111-291) included provisions
authorizing an investment of monies into the settlement trust funds
after the enforceability date. The enforceability date is effective
when the Secretary finds that all conditions for the full effectiveness
and enforceability of the settlement had occurred and publishes that
finding in the Federal Register. The Northwestern New Mexico Rural
Water Projects Act, Pub. L. No. 111-11, (Navajo Settlement), also
allowed for the investment of monies into the Navajo Nation Resources
Development Trust Fund, only upon a specified date certain ten years
after the enactment date.
These provisions prohibited the Department from investing trust
fund monies before the enforceability date or a date certain. However,
the Department mistakenly started investing trust fund monies when they
were appropriated, which was before the enforceability date. When the
Department discovered this error, the Department's Solicitor's Office
determined that the interest amounts earned prior to the date that the
funds were authorized to be invested were contrary to the
Antideficiency Act and, in accordance with 31 U.S.C. 3302, must be
returned to Treasury. The Department then returned all interest monies
accrued prior to the authorized date back to Treasury.
The issue that S. 3406 addresses is a provision in certain Indian
water rights settlements that prohibited investment until the
enforceability date was reached. This provision is not common in Indian
water rights settlements. Similar provisions appeared in other
settlements enacted in 2009-2010, including the Crow Tribe Water Rights
Settlement Act of 2010; the Taos Pueblo Indian Water Rights Settlement
Act; the Aamodt Litigation Settlement Act; and the Navajo- Gallup Water
Supply Project and Navajo Nation Water Rights. In each of these
settlements, funds were inadvertently invested and returned to
Treasury. The Department supported similar legislation to resolve this
issue, and thus supports S. 3406 to correct this issue for the
Northwestern New Mexico Rural Water Projects Act, the Taos Pueblo
Indian Water Rights Settlement Act, and the Aamodt Litigation
Settlement Act.
S. 3857, Jamul Indian Village Land Transfer Act
S. 3857 would place approximately 172.1 acres of land located in
San Diego, California, and owned in fee by the Jamul Indian Village
into trust for the benefit of the Jamul Indian Village. The bill makes
the lands part of the reservation for the Jamul Indian Village and
includes a prohibition against class II and class III gaming under the
Indian Gaming Regulatory Act.
The parcels to be transferred into trust are comprised of: a parcel
with Daisy Drive, which is the main access road into the Jamul Indian
Village's existing trust land; a parcel that contains a culturally
significant church and cemetery; and two parcels that the Jamul Indian
Village plans to use for housing development, a clinic, and an
administration building.
The Department supports S. 3857. The restoration of Tribal
homelands is a priority for the Department and Biden Administration.
The Chairman. Thank you very much.
We will now recognize the Honorable Talbert Cypress,
Chairman of the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians in Miami, Florida.
STATEMENT OF HON. TALBERT CYPRESS, CHAIRMAN, MICCOSUKEE TRIBE
OF INDIANS
Mr. Cypress. Good afternoon, Chair Schatz and Vice Chair
Murkowski and members of the Committee. Thank you for the
opportunity to appear virtually before you today.
I am Talbert Cypress, Chairman of the Miccosukee Tribe of
Indians of Florida, a federally recognized tribe located in the
Greater Everglades in South Florida. The views expressed herein
are those of the Miccosukee Tribe.
I appreciate the opportunity to discuss S. 2783, the
Miccosukee Reserved Area Amendments Act, which would expand the
current boundaries of the Miccosukee Reserved Area to include
the Osceola Camp. Thank you also to Senator Scott and Senator
Rubio for sponsoring this legislation.
We strongly support S. 2783, which would ensure appropriate
governance for the Osceola Camp and authorize funding to
elevate structures in the Camp to protect it from artificially
engineered floodwaters from the Central Everglades Planning
Project.
The Miccosukee Tribe was federally recognized in 1962, and
after that recognition, our villages within Everglades National
Park were managed with a Special Use Permit granted by the
National Park Service from 1964 to 1998. In 1998, Congress
passed the Miccosukee Reserved Area Act. The concept for this
Act was to provide a legal framework under which members of the
tribe could live permanently and govern their own affairs in
villages set aside for the tribe's use within the Park.
The Miccosukee Reserved Area Act of 1998 has been a
resounding success for the tribe and for Everglades National
Park, our residential community has been protected and the
right to self-government facilitated. The national park, its
waters and visitor access have been well protected.
However, there remains one Special Use Permit within
Everglades National Park which still facilitates the occupancy
of an outlying village. This is my father's village, called the
Osceola Camp, after descendants of the war leader Osceola who
was executed after being captured under a flag of truce during
the Second Seminole War.
My ancestors have lived in the Osceola Camp for
generations, but the Camp continues to be subject to Special
Use Permit renewal by Everglades National Park. The bill under
consideration today would finally complete the protection of
the tribal communities remaining within Everglades National
Park.
I truly appreciate the opportunity to address this
Committee. Thank you for your support.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Cypress follows:]
Prepared Statement of Hon. Talbert Cypress, Chairman, Miccosukee Tribe
of Indians
Good morning, Chair Schatz, Vice Chair Murkowski, and members of
the Committee, thank you for the opportunity to appear before you
today. I am Talbert H. Cypress, Chairman of the Miccosukee Tribe of
Indians of Florida, a federally-recognized tribe located in the Greater
Everglades in South Florida. The views expressed herein are those of
the Miccosukee Tribe, a sovereign tribe recognized pursuant to the
Indian Reorganization Act of 1934. I appreciate the opportunity to
discuss S. 2783, the Miccosukee Reserved Area Amendments Act, which
would expand the current boundaries of the Miccosukee Reserved Area (or
``MRA'') to include the Osceola Camp. Thank you also to Senators Rubio
and Scott for sponsoring this legislation. If enacted, S. 2783 would
make amendments to the Miccosukee Reserved Area Act of 1998,
legislation that set aside inhabited Tribal lands within Everglades
National Park for the benefit of the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of
Florida and our constituents. We strongly support S. 2783, which would
ensure appropriate governance for the Osceola Camp and authorize
funding to elevate structures in the camp to protect it from artificial
engineered floodwaters from a Congressionally authorized project, the
Central Everglades Planning Project.
Expansion
The current boundaries of the Miccosukee Reserved Area were
delineated by the Miccosukee Reserved Area Act of 1998, Public Law 105-
313. This Act brought under Tribal jurisdiction a stretch of land on
the northern edge of Everglades National Park which has been inhabited
by the Tribe for generations since the original villages and designated
state reservation of 99,000 acres within Everglades National Park were
evicted as a result of the creation of the Park and subsequent
wilderness-style management. Following the Tribe's 1962 federal
recognition, the villages which were established within this strip of
land within the borders of the Park were managed as a Special Use
Permit of the national park from 1964 until 1998.
In 1998, Congress passed the Miccosukee Reserved Area Act,
predicated on the finding that ``[t]he interests of both the Miccosukee
Tribe and the United States would be enhanced by a further delineation
of the rights and obligations of each with respect to the Special Use
Permit Area and to the Park as a whole.'' Public Law 105-313, 2. An
important goal of this 1998 legislation was to ``replace the special
use permit with a legal framework under which the Tribe can live
permanently and govern the Tribe's own affairs in a modern community
within the Park.'' Id. at 3. The Act further provided that ``the
Tribe shall govern its own affairs and otherwise make laws and apply
those laws in the MRA as though the MRA were a Federal Indian
reservation.'' Id. at 5(a)(3).
This same Act provided for the protection of Everglades National
Park alongside the rights of the Tribe within the Miccosukee Reserved
Area. Section 6 of the Act provides, among other environmentally
protective measures, that the Tribe shall be responsible for
``compliance with all applicable laws'' and ``shall prevent and abate
degradation of the quality of surface or groundwater that is released
into other parts of the Park,'' and ``shall not impede public access to
those areas of the Park outside the boundaries of the MRA,'' and that
no gaming shall be permitted to be conducted on the MRA.
The Miccosukee Reserved Area Act of 1998 has, by all accounts, been
a resounding success for the Tribe and for Everglades National Park.
Our residential community has been protected and our effective self-
government therein has been facilitated. The National Park, its waters,
and its visitor access have been well protected and Tribal impacts kept
within the borders of the Miccosukee Reserved Area. However, there
remains one Special Use Permit within Everglades National Park which
still facilitates the occupancy of an outlying village that is
approximately six (6) miles down US-41 (the Tamiami Trail) from the
Miccosukee Reserved Area.
This is my father's village, called the Osceola Camp, after
descendants of the war leader Osceola who was executed after being
captured under a flag of truce by General Thomas Jessup in 1837 during
the Second Seminole War. My ancestors have lived in the Osceola Camp
for generations, but within its borders our existence continues to be
subject to Special Use Permit renewal by Everglades National Park. The
proposed Miccosukee Reserved Area Amendments Act introduced here, S.
2783, would finally complete the protection of the Tribal communities
remaining within Everglades National Park. The area proposed to be
included into the MRA consists of the tree island on which the Osceola
Camp is located and a fire break extending out from the island which
will protect the Tribal community and facilitate continued Everglades
National Park prescribed burns.
The incorporation of these thirty (30) acres into the MRA will
create a much more consistent legal framework for Tribal residents and
law enforcement personnel living and working along the northern border
of Everglades National Park. Once the Osceola Camp becomes a part of
the MRA, residents can be included demographically as residents of
Tribal lands and can more effectively avail themselves of Tribal
emergency and infrastructure services funded by the Tribal government.
Elevation
While we strongly support S. 2783's expansion of the Miccosukee
Reserved Area, the second component of this bill is equally, if not
more, important. Our homelands have been significantly impacted and
altered by drainage authorized by Congress in 1948 as the Central and
Southern Florida Project. Our northern homelands have been flooded and
polluted, while our southern homelands have been dehydrated. The
Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan authorized by Congress in
2000 includes the Central Everglades Planning Project, itself
authorized in 2016. This project, when completed, will restore the
natural flow to a three mile stretch of the Everglades, where a portion
of the Levee 29 will be removed north of a bridge which has been built
to span the stretch.
However, the Osceola Camp is right in the flow way of the water
which will be released when the levee is degraded. The authorization of
appropriation included within this bill, of $14,000,000 (fourteen
million dollars), will provide funding for the work already begun by
the National Park Service and Florida Department of Transportation to
elevate the camp and its traditional structures above the new
floodplain height, in tandem with the Tamiami Trail Next Steps Project
which is elevating the roadway to protect it from the rising water
levels. As the village is on the border of the US-41 (Tamiami Trail)
roadway, this approach is efficient and harmonized with the existing
authorized projects. However, without this funding and the engineering
support that comes with it, the Tribe will again bear the brunt of the
environmental impacts from the manipulation of the ecosystem that we
live within, and the village will be under substantial and untenable
risk of frequent flooding.
This is one of the only remaining Tribal tree islands inhabited by
a substantial residential community. My parents and grandparents'
generation lived on many more tree islands throughout the Greater
Everglades. When the Army Corps of Engineers began the dredging and
channelization of the Everglades in the 1940s, our elders remember
federal officials promising that, should floodwaters over top our
traditional tree islands, they would be elevated at the federal
government's expense. They were not. To date, we have lost more than 60
percent of the land mass of the tree islands within the Miccosukee
Water Conservation Area 3-A. Our people mourn this loss, and we call on
Congress to not repeat this history as further manipulations of the
ecosystem move forward. The projects are positive ones which repair the
harms of past drainage, dredging, and channelization, but the Tribe
must ensure that this time, our residential communities are protected
from floods.
Conclusion
In conclusion, S. 2738 would elevate the village at Osceola Camp,
and transition the Osceola Camp from the Special Use Permit model to
inclusion within the Miccosukee Reserved Area. We strongly support S.
2738 because this legislation will enable the United States to fulfill
its trust obligation to the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida by
simultaneously protecting this Tribal village from flood impacts and
ensuring its perpetual Indigenous self-governance.
I truly appreciate the opportunity to address this Committee and
thank you for the support you have shown to tribes and our sovereignty.
I look forward to any questions you may have.
Shonabisha (Thank you).
The Chairman. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We really appreciate
it.
We will now recognize the Honorable Erica Pinto, the
Chairwoman of the Jamul Indian Village of California. Welcome.
STATEMENT OF HON. ERICA PINTO, CHAIRWOMAN, JAMUL INDIAN VILLAGE
OF CALIFORNIA
Ms. Pinto. Thank you, Chairman Schatz, Vice Chair
Murkowski, and distinguished members of the Committee. My name
is Erica Pinto, and I have the honor to serve as Chairwoman of
the Jamul Indian Village of California. My mother is Carlene
Chamberlain, and my father is Jessie Pinto, Sr. I would like to
acknowledge our team in the room, the Jamul Council, also Kerry
and Craig, and all the Jamul tribal members who are watching. I
thank all those who came before us.
Thank you for the opportunity to testify on S. 3857, the
Jamul Indian Village Land Transfer Act. I have submitted
written testimony that discusses my tribe's history, our
perseverance, and our need for additional trust lands.
I plan to focus my remarks this afternoon on our vital need
for trust lands to ensure access to our reservation, to protect
our cemetery and church, and to return my people to our
ancestral homeland. My ancestors were a band of Kumeyaay
Indians known as the Jamul Band, where people have continuously
resided on a portion of our aboriginal territory in southern
California since long before the arrival of the Spanish. For
generations, we were without an officially declared land base
until the Catholic diocese received a grant of our ancestral
cemetery for the purpose of an Indian graveyard. The cemetery
is the final resting place for nearly all of our relatives and
ancestors dating back to the 1800s.
The diocese later built a small church on the land in the
early 1900s and allowed us to reside together, remain close to
each other, near our ancestors, and practice our culture and
traditions. Our commitment to remain there despite the poor
living conditions and attempts to move us speaks to our love,
dedication, and connection to the cemetery and the surrounding
lands.
In the 1970s, the Secretary of the Interior initially took
4.6 acres into trust to establish our reservation. Until the
early 1980s, the people lacked basic utilities like running
water and electricity. Living conditions for our people were
deplorable. One shallow well supplied contaminated drinking
water for our members. Our housing was primarily small shacks
made up of scrap materials and dilapidated trailers.
We did without basic amenities in order to remain on our
ancestral lands near our cemetery, to protect our way of life.
The Department of Interior last exercised its authority to
accept land into trust for our tribe in 1982, when it approved
a 1.3 acre fee-to-trust transfer.
Over time, our ancestral lands have diminished from over
640 acres to only six acres, which now comprises our entire
land base, one of the smallest reservations in the Nation.
Since the tribe's lands were accepted into trust, we have done
our very best to maximize the use of our land.
In 2005, we made the extremely difficult decision to move
off the reservation with the dream of a better life of becoming
self-sufficient and not relying on the Federal Government. We
wanted to be able to provide much-needed services to our
members.
However, the relocation from our ancestral lands resulted
in a significant loss of culture, language, community, and even
life since we have been unable to reside together and care for
one another.
S. 3857 accepts these parcels of land into trust for the
tribe's benefit. The land is located within our ancestral
territory in rural San Diego County. Since this bill prohibits
gaming, it is important for this Committee to know that the
tribe cannot use these lands for gaming purposes once accepted
into trust.
The bill protects access to our reservation, preserves our
ancestral cemetery and church, protects our sacred sites, and
it allows us to bring our people home once and for all. In
addition to tribal housing, we plan to build a health care
facility, a tribal administration building, a cultural center,
a park, a police station, and a commercial kitchen to serve our
members traditional foods.
Bringing back our members together and providing them with
access to our cultural sites, access to our traditional foods,
and improve services and resources is not only something our
people have longed for; it is vital to ensure our continued
existence, to exercise self-determination and most importantly,
exercise our tribal sovereignty.
Thank you again to the Committee for holding this hearing
and for your consideration of S. 3857, the Jamul Indian Village
Land Transfer Act. On behalf of my tribe, I would like to thank
Senators Padilla and Butler for their sponsorship of this
legislation and for their hard work and commitment to Indian
Country.
With that, I am happy to answer any questions the Committee
may have. Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Pinto follows:]
Prepared Statement of Hon. Erica Pinto, Chairwoman, Jamul Indian
Village of California
Chairman Schatz and distinguished Members of the Senate Committee
on Indian Affairs, my name is Erica M. Pinto, and I have the honor to
serve as Chairwoman of the Jamul Indian Village of California (the
``Tribe or ``JIV''). Thank you for the opportunity to provide testimony
on S. 3857, the Jamul Indian Village Land Transfer Act, and thank you
to Senator Padilla, as the bill's sponsor, and Senator Butler, as co-
sponsor, for their dedication to represent the interests of the Native
American tribes in the State of California, and in particular for their
notable efforts on S. 3857.
History of the Jamul Indian Village
JIV's 6-acre Reservation, one of the smallest in the United States,
is located in a rural area east of downtown San Diego, California. The
Tribe's ancestors were a band of Kumeyaay (Mission-Diegueno) Indians
known as the Jamul Band, who historically occupied their village
territory in the Jamul Valley northwest of the San Ysidro Mountains.
The Jamul Band were known as Mission Indians of California because at
one point, they were under the jurisdiction of Spanish missionaries who
established missions throughout Southern California for the purpose of
converting and ``reducing'' the aboriginal population and using them as
laborers to facilitate Spanish settlement of the area. Historically
speaking, the Jamul Band is a part of the group of Indians who referred
to themselves as Kumeyaay people, but were also known politically as
the Diegueno people because they were under the jurisdiction of the San
Diego Mission de Alcala during Spanish control of the region. Spanish
records as early as 1776 reference an Indian settlement at Jamul.
Members of the Jamul Band have continuously resided on a portion of
their aboriginal territory since before the arrival of the Spanish
until present day, which included land within the Tribe's present-day
Reservation.
Despite the Jamul Band's legal claim to occupy lands in the Jamul
Valley, after the United States government acquired California under
the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, the United States agreed to recognize
land grants of Mexican citizens who decided to remain in California.
One such land grant was the Jamul Rancho within the Jamul Valley, which
was part of the Jamul Band's ancestral lands. Thereafter, members of
the Jamul Band occupying lands located within Jamul Rancho were
considered by white settlers to be ``squatters,'' and were at risk of
being displaced from their lands.
In 1891, Congress passed the Mission Indian Relief Act, creating a
Commission that came to be known as the ``Smiley Commission,'' with the
mandate to survey and select reservation lands for each band or village
of Mission Indians residing within California. Two of the three
commissioners were not present in California to fulfill the Act's
mandate, and thus did not participate in the survey and selection
process. A single commissioner oversaw the survey and selection of
Indian reservations under the Act. Reports from this commissioner make
clear that he did not visit any areas south of what is now Interstate
8, and the closest he came to Jamul Rancho was 22 miles east at Campo.
The Smiley Commission created under the Mission Indian Relief Act
did not accomplish its legislative mandate to both select a reservation
for each band or village, and to include the land and villages that had
been in the actual occupation and possession of each band or village of
Mission Indians. The Jamul Band was omitted from the Smiley
Commission's work, and evidence shows that the commissioners intended
for members of small bands of Indians to move onto other ``catch-all''
reservations that had been established with what was deemed sufficient
capacity to accommodate additional Mission Indians. Although the Smiley
Commission thought that the closest reservations would provide for
small bands scattered throughout San Diego County, this assumption did
not account for cultural norms among these bands to avoid entry onto
another band's lands without a specific invitation from that band, or
the Jamul Band's determination to protect its own culture and way of
life.
Therefore, despite the commissioners' intent to provide the Jamul
Band with a home at a nearby reservation, members of the Jamul Band did
not move. Rather, the situation for the Jamul Band remained largely
unchanged, with its members living in abject poverty on its ancestral
lands but without an officially declared land base, until the Coronado
Beach Company granted the land holding the Jamul Band's ancestral
cemetery to the Catholic Diocese ``for the purpose of an Indian
graveyard and approach thereto.'' The cemetery is the resting place for
nearly all of the Tribe's ancestors, dating back to the 1800s. The
Jamul Band's ties to this ancestral cemetery and surrounding lands
explains their resoluteness to remain there. The Diocese later built a
small church for the Jamul Band in the early 1900s, and provided a
modicum of legal protection for a portion of its Indian village. The
cemetery, which is almost at full capacity, and church remain a vital
part of the Tribe's culture and traditions, and are part of the lands
that are the subject of S. 3857.
Following failures of the Superintendents of the Office of Indian
Affairs in Southern California to effectively engage with scattered
Indians beyond reservations that had been created for larger Mission
Indian bands prior to and in conjunction with the Mission Indian Relief
Act, the federal government appointed a special agent in 1908 whose
jurisdiction was over the landless Indians of Southern California, in
order to investigate conditions and ``secure title'' for ``landless
Indians'' like members of the Jamul Band, who did not then reside on a
federal reservation, and whose land tenure was uncertain and at risk of
encroachment by settlers.
The need for action by the federal government was summarized by
Special Agent C.E. Kelsey in a letter to the Commissioner of Indian
Affairs, stating, ``There are no necessities in California equal to
those of the robbed, starving, helpless people for whom [monies for
support and civilization of California Indians] are appropriated.''
Although the federal government was charged with securing title for
landless Indians who had not been afforded their rightful lands under
the Mission Indian Relief Act, the federal government's de facto policy
eventually became to prioritize those Indians and Indian bands who were
homeless, aggressive with respect to their land rights, or in
significant conflict with non-Indians who claimed a right to Indian-
occupied land. As the Jamul Band was a relatively small band living on
aboriginal lands located within the boundaries of privately held land
at that time, the Jamul Band was largely ignored. This constituted yet
another failure on the part of the federal government to provide land
for the Jamul Indians who had steadfastly remained on their ancestral
land.
Establishment of the JIV Reservation
As a testament to the Tribe's determination, the Jamul Band's
Indian Village was the only nonreservation village that survived up
through the 1970s when the Secretary of the Interior took into trust
the initial 4.66 acres of the Tribe's Reservation--land that had been
occupied by members of the Jamul Band since before the Spanish Mission
era, from time immemorial. Until the early 1980s, the Tribe's lands
lacked basic utilities like running water and electricity. One shallow
well at the low point of the cemetery property supplied drinking water
of dubious quality for Tribal members. Members of the Jamul Band did
without these modern amenities in order to remain on their lands, near
their ancestral cemetery, as a way to protect their culture and way of
life. Although their culture survived, living conditions for the Jamul
Band were dire, and they severely lacked economic resources to improve
their standard of living.
Present-day members of the Tribe are descended from the Jamul Band,
and the Tribe's lands have been diminished over time from more than 640
acres to a small 6-acre sliver of land alongside the ancestral cemetery
and church. The Tribe was formally organized under the Indian
Reorganization Act (``IRA'') in 1981, when the Jamul Indians determined
that they would pursue organization as a half-blood community under
Section 19 of the IRA. Having established its 4.66-acre Reservation,
the Jamul Indians held an election in May of 1981, and ratified a
Constitution that formally established the Jamul Indian Village. The
Department of the Interior (``Department'') approved the Tribe's
Constitution two months later, and the Secretary of the Interior then
included the Tribe in the next list of federally recognized tribes
published in the Federal Register. The Department last exercised its
authority to accept land into trust for the Tribe in 1982, when it
approved a 1.372-acre fee-to-trust transfer under a grant deed naming
the Jamul Indian Village as beneficiary.
Therefore, two parcels--collectively 6.032 acres--comprise the
Tribe's entire trust land base, one of the smallest in the United
States. We are thankful that the federal government recognizes that
helping tribes to reacquire lands--and the placement of those lands
into trust--is key to tribes' future prosperity and is essential to
maintain culturally significant areas that are central to tribal
identity, religion, and beliefs.
S. 3857 and the Tribe's Needs for Additional Trust Lands
As mentioned above, Tribal members endured dire economic conditions
for over a century, in order to stay near their ancestors' resting
place and to keep their culture strong. Since the Tribe's lands were
accepted into trust, the Tribe has done its very best to maximize use
of its limited trust acreage. It eventually became clear to Tribal
members that, in order to improve living conditions for future
generations, sacrifices would need to be made. Beginning in 2005, the
Tribe's members voluntarily moved off of the Tribe's 6-acre
Reservation, as a sacrifice to ensure that the Tribe would become self-
sufficient and less reliant on the federal government. Since this time,
the Tribe's small Reservation has been fully and completely developed
by the Tribe's economic endeavors, which include a gaming facility.
This has helped the Tribe to realize its goals of self-sufficiency and
limited reliance on federal resources.
Despite this improvement in the Tribe's economic conditions, Tribal
members' sacrifice to move off-Reservation has resulted in the adverse
consequence of significant loss of the Tribe's culture, language, and
community, since its members have not been able to reside together on
Tribal lands.
In short, the Tribe desperately needs additional trust lands so
that it may preserve and protect its cultural sites, and develop
housing for its members, a health clinic, a grocery store, Tribal
administrative offices, law enforcement, educational services, and
other community resources in service of the Tribe's members.
Additional trust lands are essential to the Tribe's efforts to
restore its ancestral land base, to ensure that its most culturally
sacred sites are safeguarded, to bring its members, who are now
dispersed throughout San Diego County and beyond, home to reside on
Tribal trust lands, and to provide essential services to its people.
Development of trust lands is an important piece of the Tribe's overall
plan for restoration and protection of its culture. The Tribe believes
that bringing its members back together, and providing those members
with access to their cultural sites and to improved services and
resources, is vital to ensure the Tribe's continued exercise of self-
determination.
S. 3857 therefore accepts four parcels of land, totaling
approximately 172.1 acres located in rural San Diego County,
California, into trust for the benefit of the Jamul Indian Village of
California. The Tribe purchased and holds fee simple title to these
lands.
Fee-to-Trust Parcels
The first of these four parcels totals 161.23 acres of land held in
fee by the Tribe. This land is located proximate to the Tribe's
Reservation, and is within the Tribe's ancestral territory. The Tribe
hopes to use this property to develop housing for Tribal members, and
for Tribal administrative offices, a health clinic, child-care center,
educational services to Tribal members, a community center, law
enforcement offices and other community resources in service of Tribal
members. Placement of this land into trust will support the Tribe's
efforts in cultural and community restoration, and will bring Tribal
members home to a place they can occupy together.
Parcel 2 totals approximately 6 acres, is owned in fee by the
Tribe, and lies nearly 1,000 feet north of the Tribe's current
Reservation within the Tribe's ancestral territory. Placement of this
property into trust would help the Tribe to realize its goal to provide
essential services and community resources to Tribal members, which
also extends the Tribe's cultural preservation by ensuring the health
and welfare of members of the Tribe for generations to come.
The third parcel is the 4.030-acre parcel referred to by the Tribe
as the Daisy Drive property. This property is contiguous to the Tribe's
Reservation. Daisy Drive runs through this property and provides the
only physical access to the Tribe's Reservation, and to the Tribe's
church and ancestral cemetery. Placement of this property into trust
will preserve the Tribal community's ability to access the Tribe's
Reservation, and will preserve Tribal members' ability to access
cultural landmarks, all via Daisy Drive.
The fourth and final parcel listed in S. 3857 is the Tribe's
historical church and ancestral cemetery property. This parcel totals
0.84 acres and is contiguous to the Tribe's Reservation. This parcel
holds the Tribe's historical church and ancestral cemetery where the
Tribe's ancestors are laid to rest, and is part of the ancestral lands
that the Tribe has called home since prehistoric times. The Tribe
continues to use this property for cultural ceremonies and it remains
an essential part of the Tribe's history. Placement of the church and
cemetery property into trust ensures the preservation and protection of
this culturally significant property for future generations of Tribal
members. It should be noted that the cemetery is nearly at capacity, so
the Tribe is working on finalizing a land swap with the state and
federal wildlife agencies and would request an amendment during markup
to place that land into trust upon completion of the land swap. If
completed the land swap would add a little over an acre directly behind
the current cemetery site. The land would provide space for the
expansion of the ancestral cemetery and the land to be given to the
Fish and Wildlife Service in exchange is of superior environmental
quality and location. The Tribe looks forward to completing that action
late this year or early next.
Lastly, it should be noted that the Tribe will not use any of these
parcels for gaming purposes, as S. 3857 entirely prohibits gaming on
these parcels once they are taken into trust. The Tribe will use this
land solely for the purposes described above, in an effort to protect
the cultural identity, resources and history of the Tribe.
Conclusion
JIV is excited by the opportunities that placement of these parcels
into trust present, but restoration and protection of ancestral lands
by trust status remains most important. The Tribe has immensely
improved conditions for its people since its formal federal recognition
in 1981. I have dedicated my life to service of the Jamul Indian
Village, and I am exceedingly proud of how far we have come, but it
remains the Tribe's primary goal to restore ancestral lands and secure
protections for our culturally significant places. By passage of S.
3857, the federal government would be helping the Tribe to honor its
ancestors and their sacrifices in order to remain and prosper in the
place that we have always called home.
Thank you again to this Committee for holding this hearing and for
your consideration of S. 3857, and to Senators Padilla and Butler for
their work on behalf of the Jamul Indian Village and all of Indian
country. I am happy to answer any questions that you may have.
The Chairman. Thank you very much.
Now we will recognize our final witness, Mr. Brian
Lefferts, the Director of Public Health at the Yukon Kuskokwim
Health Corporation in Bethel, Alaska.
STATEMENT OF BRIAN LEFFERTS, DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC HEALTH, YUKON
KUSKOKWIM HEALTH CORPORATION
Mr. Lefferts. Good afternoon. My name is Commander Brian
Lefferts with the U.S. Public Health Service and I am here
today on behalf of the Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corporation,
YKHC, where I have worked for the past 18 years. Thank you for
the opportunity to testify today.
YKHC is a tribal health organization of 58 federally
recognized Alaska Native tribes which was formed to administer
a comprehensive health care delivery system for the communities
of the YK region in Southwest Alaska. For more than 30 years,
we have provided health care services to the people of the
region under a Self-Governance Compact with the Indian Health
Service under Title V of the Indian Self-Determination Act.
YKHC serves a remote, isolated service area approximately
the size of the State of Oregon. This region is the traditional
home to Alaska's indigenous Yup'ik, Cup'ik, and Athabascan
people, and is not connected to the road system. As of the 2010
Census, 89 percent of the residents are Alaska Native, and
around half of the population speaks the Yup'ik or Cup'ik
language at home.
YKHC provides a variety of community, social, and
population health services to the approximately 30,000
residents in the region. Our health system includes 41 village
clinics, five subregional clinics, a regional hospital, and
other regional services and programs.
The Alaska Native people in this region suffer dramatic
health disparities compared to communities on the road system.
Approximately a third of the homes in the region lack indoor
plumbing, and we experience the highest household crowding
rates in the United States. The life expectancy of people in
this region is 69 years, 10 years less than the US average.
This decreased life expectancy is driven by elevated cancer
incidence, increased prevalence of chronic heart, lung, and
liver diseases; high rates of infectious diseases; and high
levels of intentional and unintentional injuries, including dog
bites.
The Veterinary Services to Improve Public Health in Rural
Communities Act, which seeks to modify the Indian Health Care
Improvement Act to include veterinary care, is vital to the
health and well-being of Alaska Native communities. Indigenous
people have a unique relationship with the land and animals.
For thousands of years, this relationship was critical for
survival, and it has become the basis of many cultural
traditions and their identity as a people.
This is especially true in the Yukon-Kuskokwim region where
subsistence diets still account for a majority of the foods
consumed, and individual and community health are linked to the
health of wildlife in the region.
Changes to the types of disease and illnesses affecting
animals in the region is creating new threats to humans that
were not historically a concern. For example, we have seen an
emergency of brucellosis in caribou and walrus populations and
distemper outbreaks in seal populations. These animals provide
a critical food source for our communities.
There has also been a recent detection of Highly Pathogenic
Avian Influenza in wild birds, and there is evidence that these
have jumped to some wild mammals in Alaska. As far back as
2005, YKHC has worked with Fish and Wildlife and tribes in the
region to provide High Path Avian Influenza surveillance and
monitoring and hunter education as a part of a ``be prepared,
not scared'' campaign to help ensure our people can continue to
participate in subsistence in a safe and healthy way.
These are only a couple of examples that show why having a
dedicated YKHC staff to investigate zoonotic illness outbreaks
and communicate health risks is critical to protecting human
health in the region. Rabies is the most pressing of these
zoonotic illnesses in the region and poses a significant threat
to human health. Rabies is transmitted through bites or contact
with infected animals. It is considered enzootic through
northern and western Alaska where it is always present among
fox in the area. Occasionally we have cases where humans are
attacked by a rabid fox or wolf.
But the greatest risk to humans comes from dogs who have
been bitten by an infected fox. The risk of being bitten by a
dog in rural Alaska is higher than in other areas, due to the
prevalence of rabies and the large number of stray and unwanted
pups that occur in areas without sufficient spay and neuter
services.
YKHC's environmental health services team works with local
health aides and medical providers to identify cases of animal
bite. In a typical year, there are over 100 dog bite
investigations to ensure rabies transmission does not occur,
and to determine if post exposure prophylaxis is necessary,
which is recommended in about 20 percent of the cases. Not only
are bites a risk for rabies, but the attack themselves can lead
to serious adverse health outcomes or death. We believe this
legislation will reduce the incidence of preventable injuries
and illnesses among the people in the region.
In 2008, a joint strategic framework meeting involving the
American Medical Association, the American Veterinary Medical
Association and other major health groups coined the term One
Health that was adopted to refer to the interdependence of
human, animal, and environmental health. This modern holistic
approach aligns with longstanding indigenous understanding that
our connectedness to the land and animals are essential to
improving not only physical health but also mental, behavioral,
emotional, cultural, and spiritual well-being.
This legislation will support the One Health vision and
improve health outcomes for our communities by enhancing our
ability to address zoonotic diseases and by recognizing
veterinary services are a critical function to improve the
health status of Alaska Natives. We are excited about this
legislative effort and believe it will significantly enhance
our ability to ensure the well-being of our people in a
culturally relevant way.
Quyana for the opportunity and honor to provide testimony
today.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Lefferts follows:]
Prepared Statement of Brian Lefferts, Director of Public Health, Yukon
Kuskokwim Health Corporation
My name is Commander Brian Lefferts with the U.S. Public Health
Service and I am here today on behalf of the Yukon-Kuskokwim Health
Corporation (YKHC) where I have worked for the past 18 years. Thank you
for the opportunity to testify on the Veterinary Services to Improve
Public Health in Rural Communities Act.
YKHC is a tribal health organization of 58 federally-recognized
Alaska Native tribes which was formed to administer a comprehensive
health care delivery system for the communities of the Yukon-Kuskokwim
region in Southwest Alaska. For more than thirty years, we have
provided health care services to the people of the region under a Self-
Governance Compact with the Indian Health Service under Title V of the
Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act.
YKHC serves a remote, isolated service area approximately the size
of the State of Oregon. This region is the traditional home to Alaska's
indigenous Yup'ik, Cup'ik, and Athabascan people, and is not connected
to the road system. As of the 2010 Census, 89 percent of the residents
are Alaska Native, around half of the population speaks the Yup'ik or
Cup'ik language at home.
YKHC provides a wide variety of community, social, and population
health services to the approximately 30,000 residents of the region.
Our health system includes 41 village clinics, 5 subregional clinics, a
regional hospital, skilled nursing facility and other regional services
and programs.
The Alaska Native people in this region suffer dramatic health
disparities compared to communities on the road system. Approximatly,
\1/3\ of the homes in the region lack indoor plumbing, and we
experience the highest household crowing rates in the United States.
The life expectancy of people in this region is 69 years--10 years less
than the U.S. average. This decreased life expectancy is driven by
elevated cancer incidence, increased prevalence of chronic heart, lung,
and liver diseases; high rates of infectious diseases; and high levels
of intentional and unintentional injuries, including dog bites.
The Veterinary Services to Improve Public Health in Rural
Communities Act, which seeks to modify the Indian Health Care
Improvement Act to include veterinary care, is vital to the health and
well-being of Alaska Native communities. Indigenous people have a
unique relationship with the land and animals. For thousands of years,
this relationship was critical for survival, and it has become the
basis of many cultural traditions and their identity as a people. This
is especially true in the Yukon-Kuskokwim region where subsistence
diets still account for a majority of the foods consumed, and
individual and community health are linked to the health of wildlife in
the region.
I. Enabling dedicated YKHC staff to investigate zoonotic illness
outbreaks and communicate health risks is critical to
protecting human health in our region.
Changes to the types of diseases and illnesses affecting the
animals in the region is creating new threats to humans that were not
historically a concern. For example, we have seen the emergence of
brucellosis in caribou and walrus populations and distemper outbreaks
in seal populations. These animals provide a critical food source for
our communities.
There have also been recent detection of Highly Pathogenic Avian
Influenza (HPAI) H5N1 in wild birds, and there is evidence that these
have jumped to some wild mammals in Alaska. As far back as 2005, YKHC
has worked with USFWS and tribes in the region to provide HPAI
surveillance and monitoring and hunter education as a part of a ``be
prepared, not scared campaign,'' to help ensure our people can continue
to participate in subsistence in a safe and healthy way.
These are only two examples which show that having dedicated YKHC
staff to investigate zoonotic illness outbreaks and communicate health
risks is critical to protecting human health in our region.
II. This Legislation will enable YKHC to help address the most pressing
zoonotic illness in the region.
Rabies is the most pressing of zoonotic illness in the region and
it poses a significant threat to public health. Rabies is transmitted
through bites or contact with infected animals. It is considered
enzootic throughout northern and western Alaska where it is always
present among fox in the area. Occasionally, we have cases where humans
are attacks by rabid fox or wolf, but the greatest risk to humans comes
from dogs who have been bitten by an affected fox. The risk of being
bitten by a dog in rural Alaska is higher than other areas due to the
prevalence of rabies and the large number of stray and unwanted pets
that occur in areas without sufficient spay and neuter services.
YKHC's environmental health services team works with local health
aides and medical providers to identify cases of animal bite. In a
typical year, there are over 100 dog bite investigations to ensure
rabies transmission does not occur, and to determine if post exposure
prophylaxis is necessary, which is recommended in approximately 20
percent of cases. Not only are bites a risk for rabies, but the attack
themselves can lead to serious adverse health outcomes or death. We
believe this legislation will reduce the incidence of preventable
injuries and illnesses among the people of our region.
III. Veterinary Care is Health Care
In 2008, at a joint strategic framework meeting involving the
American Medical Association, the American Veterinary Medical
Association and other major health groups, the term ``One health'' was
adopted to refer to the interdependence of human, animal, and
environmental health. This modern holistic approach aligns with
longstanding indigenous understanding that our connectedness to the
land and animals are essential to improving not only physical health
but also mental, behavioral, emotional, cultural, and spiritual well-
being.
This legislation will support the One Health vision and improve
health outcomes for our communities by enhancing our ability to address
zoonotic diseases and by recognizing veterinary services are a critical
function to improve the health status of Alaska Natives. We are excited
about this legislative effort and believe it will significantly enhance
our ability to ensure the well-being of our people in a culturally
relevant way.
Quyana for the opportunity and honor to provide testimony today.
The Chairman. Thanks to all our witnesses.
I want to start with Assistant Secretary Egorin. The
Committee submitted questions for the record for hearings we
held last December, which was an oversight hearing, and then in
February, which was a legislative hearing. What is the status
for receiving responses to these questions for the record?
Ms. Egorin. Senator, we are in the final stages of
clearance of the questions for the record. As we noted with
your staff yesterday, we hope to have them by the end of the
month. I do recognize that this is a delayed timeline, and have
personally asked to make sure they are expedited.
The Chairman. Is there somebody we should be talking to to
emphasize that it is pretty difficult to do oversight if it
takes nine months to get an answer to a question?
Ms. Egorin. Senator, I am the right person to express that,
and as I said to my team and to many of your colleagues, please
feel free to reach out to me if you are not getting a response.
Please feel free to highlight this. I will shake trees and
pound fists to move things along.
The Chairman. Okay. What happened?
Ms. Egorin. There is a clearance process and your Committee
is one of multiple with questions for the record that must go
through a process of drafting and clearance. We are a small and
mighty team. And it is really just a process of working through
this, along with the other functions that the Assistant
Secretary for Legislation's Office is responsible for.
The Chairman. Okay. I don't want to steal my Vice Chair's
thunder on the veterinary services thing, but I want to get
some clarity here. It seems like you are saying two things
about veterinary services. In the beginning of your testimony
you seemed to say essentially that there is a balance to be
struck in terms of the deployment of resources. Am I getting
that part right?
Ms. Egorin. There is a balance to be struck.
The Chairman. And the second thing is like you need an
authorization. So I am trying to figure out whether you are
permitted to provide these services but you just don't have the
money, so you want an authorization and an appropriation? is
this a legal question? Or is it just a, we can't do everything
and we are having to triage this thing?
Those really are two different questions.
Ms. Egorin. They are two different questions. As I said,
the department supports the intent of this legislation. The
challenge is, right now we do not have the legal authority to
provide veterinary services. Therefore, for tribes to keep
their ISDEA agreements, we cannot authorize those services.
But at the same time, IHS has very limited resources. So to
add this to the list of services would then put pressure on
other areas.
The Chairman. Okay, so you say you have a legal impediment
and a fiscal one?
Ms. Egorin. Yes.
The Chairman. Okay, got it. And could IHS offer these
services through 638?
Ms. Egorin. No. Right now we are prohibited from offering
these services.
The Chairman. Okay.
Chairwoman Pinto, besides much-needed housing for your
tribal members, what other activities does the tribe plan on
the land to be placed into trust and why is it so important to
place that land into trust?
Ms. Pinto. Thank you for the question, Chair Schatz. It is
important for us because we have been without a community for
the last 20-plus years. We plan on bringing, in addition to the
homes, much-needed homes, we have a commercial space there
where we can bring a grocery store, retail space, a museum, a
tribal police station. I am really looking forward to a
commercial kitchen, because without our indigenous foods, our
traditional foods, it is hard to be a healthy person and get
into these healthy habits. It's so easy to go to McDonald's.
So we plan on bringing those kinds of amenities for the
members, but also for the community at large in Jamul.
The Chairman. Thank you very much.
Chairman Talbert, can you describe how the Park Service's
ecosystem restoration work being done in the Everglades has
impacted the Camp?
Mr. Talbert. Sure. Right now, what's going on is they are
raising the Tamiami Trail. They are bridging it so that water
can flow through more consistently. And it will flow into the
southern Everglades. The Camp is situated right in the flow-
way. So the authorization of this bill would include funding to
help raise the structures in the Camp in order to protect the
people that live there, and also to help facilitate the
restoration.
The Chairman. Just so I am getting the context here, would
you characterize your relationship with the Park Service as
reasonably collaborative?
Mr. Talbert. Yes, they have been reasonably collaborative.
They meet with the members of the Camp there independently
without the tribal government's presence. But we also meet with
them together as well.
So it is a very strong effort in order to see this project
through.
The Chairman. Thank you.
Mr. Freihage, since they are not described in the bill,
what are the ``appropriate actions'' that the Secretary of
Interior can take to protect the Camp?
Mr. Freihage. As the chairman noted, because the water
levels will be raised, it is necessary to elevate the lands and
some of the structures so they are not flooded. The work would
also include reestablishing roadways and driveways to the Camp
in addition to replacing the utilities across the site.
The Chairman. Thank you.
Vice Chair Murkowski?
Senator Murkowski. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just want to
go back to you, Assistant Secretary Egorin. You have made clear
in response to the Chairman that currently, IHS does not have
the authorization. So you do not have the legal authority to
include the veterinary services, specifically spay and neuter
services, in an ISDEA contract or compact. That is correct?
Ms. Egorin. That is correct.
Senator Murkowski. So that is correct. So that is why, this
is the question. Is that why, then, IHS had previously denied
the request by both, well, there were two tribal health
organizations in Alaska, at YKHC and Maniilaq, when they sought
to add veterinary spay and neuter services to their self-
governance agreements, because they lacked the authority?
Ms. Egorin. Senator, that is correct.
Senator Murkowski. Okay. So this bill will fix that legal
authority, is that correct?
Ms. Egorin. That is correct.
Senator Murkowski. And then I get what you have said about
balancing limited resources. We understand that. But we also
know that you have to have the legal authority first. So that
is what we are trying to do here.
To what extent is IHS assisting tribes right now with spay
and neutering services? Are you doing anything at all?
Ms. Egorin. Thank you for that question, Senator. IHS just
really looks at this issue through the lens of public health.
And what they do right now with tribes is working through
community education, messaging and coordination, and providing
support for partners including tribes.
Senator Murkowski. So you are doing that. What is your
funding source for that public education then?
Ms. Egorin. That comes from, as part of our larger public
health messaging and public health work.
Senator Murkowski. Okay. All right. Based on your extensive
testimony, which I appreciate, it sounds like you would agree
that an authorization to IHS to support spay and neutering
under ISDEA agreements is going to help as we are dealing with
these dog populations that are real problems, whether it is in
Navajo Nation or in Alaska?
Ms. Egorin. Senator, this legislation would allow ISDEA
agreements to include these services, and if that is what a
tribe would like to include in an agreement, it will allow us
to work with them.
Senator Murkowski. So we can talk about the funding aspect
of it, but you have also raised another question, another
concern in recognizing that we don't have rabies testing that
is out in these areas. So whether it is northern Alaska or in
parts of Indian Country, to what extent is IHS actually
collecting data then on the dog bites and the rabies exposures?
You have listed, you said 24,000 ambulatory cases.
So you are obviously making some level of accounting. Where
are the gaps in that, and the One Health framework that
Commander Lefferts mentioned, to what extent is IHS working
with CDC interagency on an initiative that does this kind of
monitoring?
Ms. Egorin. Thank you for recognizing the work that the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention does. They are the
public health surveillance operation within HHS. They work
closely with IHS as well as with State and local partners to
monitor not just rabies but other public health concerns. It is
their data that showed that there was a 15 percent, or a 15
times lower testing rate in tribal communities than communities
around them.
They are working with tribal partners. There are
limitations within IHS and within the capacities of their
facilities. We continue to work with State, local and other
partners to make sure that we are doing surveillance the best
we can with the current parties.
Senator Murkowski. So let me ask, Commander Lefferts, when
we think about the impact of a dog bite, we think, okay, trauma
to the child, the family, it is scary. But when you are in a
rural community and you don't have the ability to do the
testing there, more often than not it is going to require a
trip either from the village to Bethel or a trip into
Anchorage. You may have hospitalization costs.
Can you speak to just really the cost, and I hate to try to
equate it to just dollars, but the Assistant Secretary here has
said we are balancing resources here. But if in fact you have
costs that could average, as I understand, around $20,000 per
person plus lost wages plus travel costs if folks have to fly,
then that is also a balancing factor if that individual is
being treated through IHS facilities.
Commander Lefferts, can you just speak to that aspect of
what rabies treatments in rural Alaska really means?
Mr. Lefferts. Thank you, Senator, for the question. Yes,
each time someone is bitten by a dog, somebody from the Office
of Environmental Health at YKHC works with people locally to
try to identify if that dog had been vaccinated previously and
if they can put it under quarantine. Oftentimes, we are unable
to locate the dog or we send it off for testing and it is
positive for rabies, in which case we will have to offer post-
exposure prophylactic treatment to anyone who had come into
contact with that.
Senator Murkowski. Can I interrupt you right there,
Commander? When you send this off for testing, how long does it
take to turn that around? I am assuming your testing lab is
Anchorage.
Mr. Lefferts. Yes, we send it to the virology lab in
Fairbanks. So it could take a couple of days to get the animal
there, and then they usually prioritize these tests and we can
have results within another day of receiving it or so.
Senator Murkowski. Okay. So you have the cost associated
with the actual testing, but the cost to the individual again
for treatment is not cheap.
Mr. Lefferts. So this is, yes, it is a series of treatments
as well, so we have to treat the individual, the first
treatment often comes with flying them into Bethel, which is,
as you mentioned, very expensive. The treatment itself is
several thousand dollars. Then it is a series of treatments
that has to be done after that. If there is no local health
clinic, that patient would then need to be flown back to Bethel
for multiple treatments.
This can be quite burdensome on the family. If it is a
child, they will need to have an adult accompany them on the
trip. That creates additional burdens on the family who has one
of the caregivers away from the community the whole time they
are accompanying the child to Bethel for treatment.
Senator Murkowski. Thank you. Mr. Chairman, I am out of
time.
The Chairman. Thank you very much to our testifiers. If
there are no more questions for our witnesses, members may also
submit follow-up written questions for the record. The hearing
record will remain open for two weeks, and I want to thank all
the witnesses for their time and their testimony.
This hearing is adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 3:43 p.m., the hearing was adjourned.]
A P P E N D I X
Prepared Statement of Richard Brannan, CEO, Wind River Family and
Community Healthcare Systems
Our Service Area is Ground Zero for Dog Bites in Wyoming
I appreciate this opportunity to share with this Committee the
perspective of a 638 tribal health care facility about the very real
public health emergency of dog bites for Native families. Wind River
Family and Community Health Care Systems (WRC) was established in 2016
to serve the Wind River Indian Reservation that is home to Wyoming's
two tribes--the Northern Arapaho Tribe (NAT) and the Eastern Shoshone
Tribe--and ground zero for 50 percent of all dog bites in the state of
Wyoming. We respectfully submit this testimony to share with Congress
the perspective of tribal medical personnel about the urgent need to
expand the authority of the Indian Health Service to include veterinary
health care.
Dog Bites Increased More Than 90 percent on the Wind River Reservation
Between 2017 and 2020
In 2020, we compiled a report for Dog Bites on the Wind River
Indian Reservation using data collected from multiple agencies,
including WRC, Sage West Hospital Emergency Room, Indian Health
Services in Fort Washakie, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs Wind River
Agency. The data revealed that in just three years the incidence of dog
bites increased 91 percent. At the time, we could not determine if the
increase was linked to an increase in dog attacks, an increase in
accessibility to services, an increase in reporting by the agencies or
a combination of all.
Last year, we reexamined the issue using data collected from our
organization alone. In the last three years, our organization has seen
a total of 183 patients for dog bites. There were a total of 232
injuries reported and a combined total of three hundred sixty-five 365
dog-bite related visits to the clinics. The nature of this injury is
unique in that it affects the entire population, regardless of age or
gender--the youngest patient seen in our clinics being one year of age
and the oldest patient being 81.
The rate of dog bites our patients suffer is significantly
disproportionate to surrounding communities and the state of Wyoming
overall. If state reports included the number of dog bites in the area,
the Wind River Indian Reservation would account for over 50 percent of
the total injuries reported in Wyoming during 2023.
The number of feral dogs roaming the community has grown throughout
the past several years correlating with increases in dog bite injuries
throughout the same time period.
Free Roaming Dogs Take a Toll on Physical and Mental Wellness
The local community has become increasingly wary of feral dogs. In
a recent wellness survey conducted by our team, respondents highlighted
presence and aggressive or feral dogs as a top reason for not partaking
in outdoor wellness activities due to fear for personal safety. And
with good reason.
Dog bites pose the risk of fractures, scarring, nerve and muscle
damage, and infection such as rabies and tetanus. Patients who suffer
from dog bite injuries are often bitten by stray or unaccounted for
dogs that may not have vaccinations. This vaccination uncertainty
contributes to more care needed by patients due to rabies shots being a
recommended addition to their injury treatment.
Our patients who suffer from dog bite injuries suffer physical
trauma, mental/emotional distress, in addition to feeling unsafe within
their community.
Dog Bites are Costly to Both Tribal Families and Tribal Health Care
Facilities
Dog bite injuries on the Wind River Reservation are not only
prevalent but costly. We estimate their total treatment cost to be more
than $28,000 for an average child and $46,000 for an average adult.
Such costs can deter local families from seeking proper care and force
local health care facilities like ours to redirect our limited health
care resources. Clinically speaking, dog bites are trauma injuries that
require immediate medical attention. The 183 dog bite patients we have
treated in the past three years cost our facility more than $5 million.
We cannot support taking IHS resources away from existing programs
to fund a new veterinary health program. But neither we nor our
patients can afford for the federal government to continue ignoring
this problem either. WRC supports the expansion of IHS authority to
include veterinary health care in order to protect our patients from
traumatic injury and our tribal health care system from financial harm.
IHS Authority Limits Our Capacity to Serve Our Community
As a 638 tribal health care facility, WRC cannot contract with the
IHS to provide services to limit the dog population or incidence of
zoonotic diseases on the Wind River Reservation because IHS currently
lacks the authority to approve such contracts. We are grateful for the
Senate Committee on Indian Affairs holding a hearing on this urgent
public health issue. We welcome Committee Members to visit us here on
the Wind River Reservation and see for themselves the challenges our
patients face navigating a community full of free roaming dogs due to
the lack of tribal veterinary care. We thank the Committee for striving
to create sustainable, long-term solutions and stand ready to be part
of t1e solution.
______
Prepared Statement of James W. Crosby, M.S., Ph.D., CBCC-KA, CDBC
Research Associate Canine Brain Project
Thank you, Chairperson Schatz, Vice Chairperson Murkowski, and
Members of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, for holding this
hearing on a critical matter of public health and safety, S. 4365.
I am an expert in dog behavior and particularly the details and
data behind human Dog Bite Related Fatalities. I have studied these
cases across the U.S., within the U.K., Australia, Ireland and Canada.
Free-roaming dogs in the desert Southwest in the U.S. are a clear
threat to public safety. I have reviewed a number of attacks that have
happened within the American Indigenous lands, including the Navajo
Nation. Typically, human fatalities in these areas are from roaming,
unmonitored and most likely reproductively intact domesticated dogs
that have returned to a nearly feral state. The most common victim in
this geographic area is a person alone, often walking for
transportation, in areas of the Indigenous Nations that lack even basic
animal control resources.
Currently the Navajo Nation and their Tribal Police are horribly
limited in the resources they have to address this problem. Charitable
organizations help, but it is critical that Federal resources be
deployed towards the issue of fatal attacks, veterinary services to
humanely reduce the dog population, and reducing public health risks
due to dog bites.
According to the AVMA, reproduc??vely intact males are involved in
70 to 76 percent of reported dog bite incidents. Unspayed females
attract groups of free-roaming intact male dogs, increasing the bite
risk to humans. Mother dogs are very protective of their puppies and
may bite those who try to handle the young.
I strongly urge you and the Committee to commit deeply important
and needed resources to this part of our Southwestern population to
increase safety, quality of life, and reduce what is an oft-
unrecognized threat.
______
Prepared Statement of Hon. Vince James, Chairman, Health Education and
Human Services Committee, 25th Navajo Nation Council
I am pleased to acknowledge the introduction of S. 4365, the
Veterinary Services to Improve Public Health in Rural Communities Act,
by U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski, Vice Chairman of the U.S. Senate
Committee on Indian Affairs. This significant piece of legislation aims
to prevent and control severe and life-threatening zoonotic diseases,
which are infections that spread between people and animals, in rural
and tribal communities.
The health and well-being of our Navajo people are of utmost
importance, and this bill represents a crucial step forward in ensuring
that our communities have the necessary resources to address zoonotic
diseases effectively. By providing enhanced veterinary services, we can
better protect our families and livestock, ultimately improving public
health outcomes across our Nation.
For the Navajo Nation, this legislation would bring substantial
benefits. Enhanced veterinary services would help safeguard our
livestock, which are a vital part of our culture, economy, and daily
sustenance. Improved control of zoonotic diseases would reduce health
risks and medical costs for our people, ensuring a healthier and more
resilient community. This initiative also aligns with our ongoing
efforts to enhance healthcare infrastructure and services across the
Navajo Nation.
I commend Senator Murkowski for her leadership and commitment to
addressing the unique challenges faced by rural and tribal communities.
We look forward to working collaboratively to support the passage of
this vital legislation and to furthering the health and safety of our
people.
Thank you.
______
Prepared Statement of Kevin James May, Chair, Jamul-Dulzura Community
Planning Group
Dear Chairman Schatz,
To introduce ourselves, we are the Jamul-Dulzura Community Planning
Group in the Unincorporated County of San Diego. We are publicly
elected to serve in the best interest of the community regarding land
matters. We are grateful to have another opportunity to participate in
the democratic process and share our perspective on the very unique
circumstances and context of the Jamul Indian Village (JIV) and Jamul
Casino in our planning area.
Since learning of the ``Jamul Indian Land Transfer Act'' Bill H.R.
6443 on December 5, 2023, we have written to our Congressman, Darrell
E. Issa, and to Chair Harriet Hageman of the Indian Affairs and Insular
Committee and cc'd a lengthy list including Senator Alex Padilla and US
President Joseph Biden. This letter sent on January 9, 2024, is
attached. We make the case against the ``Land Transfer Act'' as the
means to accomplish this land to trust acquisition. There exists a
Federally recognized process through the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA)
and the Department of the Interior (DOI) for handling land to trust
applications which will engage the local community and the County Board
of Supervisors in resolving land use issues, jurisdictional conflicts
and provide the planning and resources to ensure public safety as our
community expands with commercial entertainment venues by the Jamul
Casino.
In contrast, the Pala Mission Band of Indians Land Transfer Act
Bill H.R. 423, approved by the Senate on July 27, 2023, which saved the
721-acre Gregory Canyon from a landfill operation proposal in North San
Diego County, was opposed by everyone; local governments, conservation
groups and the Pala Tribe itself. This was a great outcome. The tribe
in effect saved the day by purchasing it. This Bill presented by
Representative Darrel E. Issa and sponsored by Senator Alex Padilla was
a grand win-win success story, although we have no doubt the DOI would
have streamlined this through the process. However, our situation is
very different, and this one method cannot be arbitrarily applied to
all cases.
In the Report accompanying Bill H.R. 6443, Chair Westerman of the
House on Natural Resources gives a very brief background on the tribal
history with information qualified ``as according to the Tribe'' and
concludes the need for this legislation as the right remedy. We could
not disagree more. This Report is very incomplete. There is no mention
of the possible reasons for the internal conflicts between the Jamul
Indian Village (JIV) and the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) alluded to
in this Report that would impede land to trust applications. Our letter
delineates numerous problems with the JIV's choice of land parcels, but
one source of great concern for the BIA might be found in the history
of the casino developers. In 2018, the JIV defaulted on a 48- million-
dollar loan and other financial obligations totaling close to 77
million dollars.
Simultaneously, the developer Penn National Gaming was ousted as
manager of the Hollywood Casino yet still holds a 101acre parcel of
land that is contiguous to the 4-acre JIV. This should be a huge red
flag for this Committee. Afterwards, the JIV started buying up
noncontiguous parcels for land to trust acquisitions near the middle of
the town center.
This Land Transfer Act is not an alternative of last resort as
suggested in the Westerman Report. On May 5, 2021, the San Diego County
Board of Supervisors voted to lift a County wide blanket opposition to
``fee-to-trust'' applications, in place since 1994, and they laid the
framework for future ``fee-to-trust'' proposals. There is a path
forward here in San Diego County.
Working through the Federal process approach lives up to the
cooperative ``nation to nation ties'' ideal of the Proclamation of
Indigenous People. Our Community Planning Group welcomes the
opportunity to meet and discuss and answer any question you have. We
look forward to hearing from you.
Our Community Planning Group watched your Senate Hearing, and we
thank you for inviting us to participate and offer our comments.
We were especially grateful for your question to Chairwoman Pinto
regarding what other commercial projects she was planning. This cuts to
the heart of our biggest concern of rapidly expanding casino related
business enterprises that will continue to overburden aging
transportation road networks in our rural area without cooperative
agreements negotiated with our local government to plan for and share
the enormous costs for these infrastructure projects.
Casinos in Southern California with close proximity to coastal
communities thrive and become their own mini Las Vegas, like Viejas and
Sycuan, which evolved into luxury resort entertainment and shopping
destinations. As we mentioned in our letters, the Jamul Casino, already
a 228,000 square foot facility completed in 2016, is in its 2nd stage
build-out adding a 16-story hotel and expanded event and entertainment
center. Since the opening of the casino, Jamul has experienced
significant increases in Average Daily Trips (ADT) that peak on
Saturdays by an additional 13,000 ADT, as reported by the Jamul Indian
Village (JIV) in 2022. This causes major traffic congestion on SR-94, a
2-lane state rural highway which is the main travel route for our
community. Our roads are beyond capacity in our region of Jamul-
Dulzura. Furthermore, the entire geographic area is rated as a High or
Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone, and wildfire emergency evacuation
remains the biggest threat to our survival in the backcountry during
fire season.
We believe that Senator Padilla and Representative Issa are well
meaning in their efforts to assist in the cause to repatriate native
lands, but following the inception of the JIV in 1978, when the Daley
Family deeded 4.66 acres to a Trust for Native American families, the
Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) Pacific Region and Riverside District
Office have managed the entire history of applications and negotiations
to establish land and tribal status. To remove the BIA from their
traditional role without justification should be a red flag for this
committee.
In the late 1990's, casino developers began competing for gaming
rights. Harrah's Casino and Stations Casino were early competitors, but
both eventually failed. Then, Lakes Gaming Inc. tried and was
unsuccessful as well, but did purchase two contiguous parcels of 86 and
10 acres. Finally, in 2012 Penn National Gaming was able to create some
legitimacy for gaming, despite the earlier conflicts with the BIA, and
bought out Lakes Gaming's interest including the two parcels. In 2018,
two years after the completion of the ``Hollywood Casino'', the JIV
defaulted on massive loans arranged by Penn National Gaming, terminated
their contract, and reestablished themselves as the ``Jamul Casino''.
The two contiguous parcels were retained by Penn National Gaming.
Additionally, the cemetery, parcel #4, is burdened by a ``fraudulent
conveyance'' lawsuit against the Roman Catholic Diocese. We are
including a Map of the Jamul Area showing significant features,
identifying the parcels in play and giving context to the geographic
relationships.
A ``Land Transfer Act'' is an all or nothing strategy and is not an
appropriate vehicle in this situation. Once ratified, the BIA will be
removed of its traditional role in resolving jurisdictional and
internal conflicts, and all parties, (Local, County and State
Government representatives and agencies, and Natural Communities) will
be shut out of the possibility to negotiate anything.
1. For Off-Reservation issues of public safety: There will be
massive increases of traffic without funding for roads and
infrastructure improvements to accommodate emergency evacuation
planning.
2. For Off-Reservation conflicts with the long-term goals of
our subarea land-use plans: Without negotiations to protect the
most biologically diverse region in the continental United
States from an expanding gaming industry, we will fail in our
stated mission to ``remain rural'' and ``to preserve natural
resources for future generations.''
Unfortunately, both Senator Padilla with Bill S. 3857 and
Representative Issa with Bill H.R. 6443 have overlooked the
complexities of this community, our Planning Area, and the history of
legal entanglements of the JIV.
We have previously written extensive and detailed letters
explaining our situation and we welcome the opportunity to appear in an
online conference to answer any questions you may have. We are able to
supply documentation from 1978 onward to back up our claims including
from the BIA district office. We have been truthful and we stand by our
testimony. Thank you for listening to us.
*The following attachments have been retained in the Committee
files:
1) MAP of the Community of Jamul and vicinity: showing parcels,
conservation land use, and context of geography.
2) JDCPG Letter of November 14, 2022 to Chairwoman Erica M. Pinto.
Comments Re: Draft Tribal Environmental Impact Report (TEIR) for the
Jamul Casino Hotel and Event Center Project.
3) JDCPG Letter of January 7, 2024, to Harriet Hageman, Chair of
the Indian and Insular Affairs Subcommittee, concerning the Darrel E.
Issa Bill H.R. 6443
4) JDCPG Letter of May 13, 2024, to Brian Schatz, Chairman of the
US Senate Committee on Indian Affairs.
______
Prepared Statement of Dr. Buu Nygren, President, Navajo Nation
Ya'at'eeh, Chairman Schatz, Vice Chairwoman Murkowski and members
of the Committee. My name is Dr. Buu Nygren and I am the President of
the Navajo Nation. Thank you for the opportunity to submit written
testimony in support of the Technical Corrections to the Northwestern
New Mexico Rural Water Projects Act, Taos Pueblo Indian Water Rights
Settlement Act, and Aamodt Litigation Settlement Act, S. 3406. Thank
you also to Senator Lujan and Senator Heinrich for sponsoring this
legislation. The Navajo Nation strongly supports this bill, which would
fix problems with the trust fund language included in multiple Indian
water rights settlements enacted during the 2009 and 2010 time period,
including the three settlements addressed in S. 3406. The settlements
to be fixed by this legislation are the Navajo Nation settlement of
water rights in the San Juan River Basin in New Mexico, the Taos Pueblo
settlement, and the Aamodt settlement of the water rights of the
Pueblos of Nambe, Pojoaque, San Ildefonso and Tesuque.
The legislation makes a technical fix to Pub. L. No. 111-11, the
legislation that both authorized a settlement of the Navajo Nation's
water rights in the San Juan River Basin and created a Navajo Nation
Water Resources Development Trust Fund (Navajo Trust Fund or Trust
Fund). The technical fix is needed because a provision in Pub. L. No.
111-11 prohibited investment of the Navajo Trust Fund for ten years
following enactment of the legislation, until 2019. This provision
prohibiting investment for ten years is not typical in Indian water
rights settlements and resulted in the Navajo Nation being deprived of
millions of dollars of interest that otherwise should have accrued to
the Navajo Trust Fund. The $6.3 million that S. 3406 would authorize to
be appropriated to the Navajo Trust Fund represents the amount of money
that would have accrued in our Trust Fund if it had been properly
invested and allowed to remain in the Trust Fund prior to 2019. S. 3406
also includes provisions that make a similar fix to the trust funds for
two other New Mexico-based Indian water rights settlements originally
authorized in the Taos Pueblo Indian Water Rights Settlement Act, Pub.
L. No. 111-291 and the Aamodt Litigation Settlement Act, Pub. L. No.
111-291. These water rights settlements also had technical errors that
resulted in the lack of appropriate investment of settlement trust
funds.
The Navajo Trust Fund established under section 10702 of Pub. L.
111-11 can be used by the Navajo Nation both for construction of
necessary water facilities and for water conservation activities needed
for the Nation to utilize its water rights in the San Juan River Basin.
This Trust Fund has and will continue to provide vitally important
funding for the Nation to use in exercising the water rights recognized
in Pub. L. 111-11 by completing the construction of facilities that are
being built to fulfill the promises of the water rights settlement.
Indeed, this fix to the Trust Fund language is necessary to fulfill the
promise that the San Jan River Basin settlement represents to the
Navajo Nation.
Indian water settlements provide certainty concerning the
availability of water supplies for all parties. This is good policy and
good sense. Consistent with the federal trust responsibility, funding
these settlements is critical to ensuring the ability of settling
tribes to put their water to use. Enacting this bill is an important
step towards fulfilling the economic potential created by the water
rights settlements that Congress enacted for the Navajo Nation, the
Taos Pueblo, and the Pueblos covered by the Aamodt settlement. I
therefore respectfully urge the Committee to support swift passage of
this legislation.
Additional letter
Re: Letter of Support for S.4365--The Veterinary Services
to Improve Public Health in Rural Communities Act
Dear Senator Murkowski,
On behalf of the Navajo Nation (``Nation''), I am writing to
express support for S. 4365--the Veterinary Services to Improve Public
Health in Rural Communities Act. This vital piece of legislation
addresses a critical public health issue within the Navajo Nation and
other Indian Health Service (IHS) areas where rabies and animal attacks
are significant threats to our communities.
From 2001 to 2008, the rate of dog bites among Native children in
the Southwest Region was 70 percent higher than the national average.
Currently, the Navajo Nation is home to approximately 250,000 dogs. Our
Animal Control Program (NNAC) reports over 3,000 annual treatments for
animal attacks, predominantly affecting children and the elderly.
Additionally, between 2012 and 2016, there were 68 citations issued for
non-compliance with rabies vaccination requirements under our Rabies
Control Code.
Your bill focuses on providing veterinary public health services,
including spaying and neutering, vaccination, and surveillance, is
essential for reducing the risk of rabies and other zoonotic diseases.
These services will significantly benefit the Navajo Nation by helping
to control the dog population and prevent rabies outbreaks. The
proposed addition of Veterinary Public Health Officers from the
Commissioned Corps of the Public Health Service, coordinated by the
Secretary of Health and Human Services, will enhance our capability to
manage these public health risks effectively. I also appreciate the
requirement for tribal consultation to determine funding distribution
ensures that the unique needs of each tribe, including the Nation.
I would recommend that the bill also include provisions for spaying
and neutering feral dogs, as they constitute a significant portion of
our dog population and contribute to the public health challenges we
face. Additionally, leveraging the expertise and resources of the
Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service
(APHIS) could enhance the bill's effectiveness in managing zoonotic
diseases and supporting spay/neuter clinics.
We are grateful for your leadership in sponsoring this legislation
and your commitment to inproving public health in rural communities. I
look forward to supporting the implementation of this bill and
collaborating to ensure its success.
______
Prepared Statement of Hon. Fred L. Romero, Governor, Pueblo of Taos
Good afternoon Chairman Schatz, Vice Chairwoman Murkowski and
members of the Committee. My name is Fred Romero and I am the Governor
of Taos Pueblo.
I am here today to discuss S. 3406, the ``Technical Corrections to
the Northwestern New Mexico Rural Water Projects Act, Taos Pueblo
Indian Water Rights Settlement Act, and Aamodt Litigation Settlement
Act''. My testimony addresses Section 3, entitled ``Authorization of
Payment of Adjusted Interest on the Taos Pueblo Water Development
Fund,'' and Section 5(a) entitled ``Section 509 of the Claims
Resolution Act of 2010.''
1. Taos Pueblo
Taos Pueblo, Tau-Tah, the place of the Red Willows, is located in
North-Central New Mexico. Our people, Tauh tah Dainah, have lived in
the Taos Valley since time immemorial, and as the first users of the
Valley's water resources, constructed irrigation systems still in use
today.
We have over 2,700 enrolled members. Our land base is approximately
111,372 acres, including farmlands and range lands in the Taos Valley
and mountains with peaks reaching nearly 13,000 feet. Our Pueblo lands
include a culturally important and hydrologically unique wetland that
supports herbs, plants, clays, bison and other wildlife, and waterfowl
essential to our traditional and ceremonial way of life. This wetland
is known as the Taos Pueblo Buffalo Pasture.
Taos Pueblo is a National Historic Landmark and was designated a
World Heritage Site in recognition of our enduring living culture.
2. The Taos Pueblo Indian Water Rights Settlement Act, Title V of the
Claims Resolution Act of 2010 (P.L. 111-291)
In 2010, Congress enacted the Claims Resolution Act (P.L. 111-291),
including Title V, the Taos Pueblo Indian Water Rights Settlement Act
(``Settlement Act''). The Settlement Act recognized Taos Pueblo's
extensive water rights and authorized and approved the settlement
negotiated among Taos Pueblo and other parties to the adjudication of
the waters of the Taos Valley. The adjudication, entitled State of New
Mexico ex rel. State Engineer v. Abeyta and State of New Mexico ex rel
State Engineer v. Arrellano, was filed in the United States District
Court for the District of New Mexico in 1969. The adjudication includes
three tributaries of the Rio Grande in northern New Mexico, namely the
Rio Pueblo, Rio Lucero and Rio Hondo, or in our Tiwa language, the
Tuatah Bah-ah-nah, Bah bah til Bah ah nah, and Too-hoo Bah ah nah. Our
Blue Lake Wilderness Area is a major part of the watershed for the
streams in the adjudication.
The settlement was the product of decades of litigation and
negotiation. It ends centuries of disputes between the Pueblo and our
non-Indian neighbors. The Settlement Act authorized $36 million in
federal funding, with a State of New Mexico cost contribution in
addition to this amount, for a number of ``Mutual-Benefit Projects''
tailored to resolve complicated disputes over specific water issues.
Section 505(a) of the Settlement Act also established the Taos
Pueblo Water Development Fund to pay or reimburse costs incurred by the
the Pueblo for:
(1) acquiring water rights;
(2) planning, permitting, designing, engineering, constructing,
reconstructing, replacing, rehabilitating, operating, or
repairing water production, treatment or delivery
infrastructure, on-farm improvements, or wastewater
infrastructure;
(3) restoring, preserving and protecting the Buffalo Pasture,
including planning, permitting, designing, engineering,
constructing, operating, managing and replacing the Buffalo
Pasture Recharge Project;
(4) administering the Pueblo's water rights acquisition program
and water management and administration system; and
(5) watershed protection and enhancement, support of
agriculture, water-related Pueblo community welfare and
economic development, and costs related to the negotiation,
authorization, and implementation of the Settlement Agreement.
The Settlement Act authorized $50 million in a mandatory
appropriation to the Taos Pueblo Water Development Fund and authorized
appropriations of an additional $38 million, as adjusted by such
amounts as may be required due to increases since April 1, 2007, in
construction costs, as indicated by engineering cost indices.
The settlement became final and enforceable on October 7, 2016 when
the Secretary of the Interior published her finding in the Federal
Register that all conditions precedent to enforceability had been
fulfilled.
3. Pre-Enforcement Date Investment Prohibition
Typically, Federal Indian water rights settlement legislation
authorizes Tribal settlement funds to be invested during the period of
time from when the funds are deposited until they can be utilized on
the settlement enforcement date. Yet our Settlement Act, and other
affected Indian water rights settlement legislation enacted in 2009 and
2010, was unusual in that its directive to the Secretary to invest the
Taos Pueblo Water Development Fund specified ``upon the Enforcement
Date,'' instead of upon the deposit date. Section 505(c), Title V of
the Claims Resolution Act of 2010 (P.L. 111-291). The result was the
loss of millions of dollars in potential investment earning that could
otherwise have accrued during the nearly six years between enactment
and the Enforcement Date. But for the words ``upon the Enforcement
Date,'' those six years worth of investment earnings could have been
available for implementation of our settlement.
4. Sections 3 and 5(a) of S. 3406, ``Authorization of Payment of
Adjusted
Interest on the Taos Pueblo Water Development Fund''
Section 3 of S. 3406 provides a technical correction to recover
these lost investment earnings through an authorization to appropriate
$7,794,297.52 to the Taos Pueblo Water Development Fund. This technical
correction will facilitate implementation of the settlement and will
have substantial, tangible benefits to Taos Pueblo. The appropriations
authorized by the technical correction will be subject to the
authorized uses specified in Section 505(a) of the Settlement Act, such
as water rights management and administration, surface water irrigation
infrastructure improvements, and restoration of the Taos Pueblo Buffalo
Pasture wetland.
Section 5(a) of S. 3406 makes clear that nothing in the legislation
affects the previous satisfaction of the conditions precedent in
Section 509(f)(2) of the Settlement Act, or affects the validity of the
Secretarial finding published in the Federal Register on October 7,
2016, pursuant to Section 509(f)(1) of the Settlement Act, that such
conditions precedent were fully satisfied.
Taos Pueblo is in full support of this legislation. We believe the
Department of Interior supports Section 3 of S. 3406 based on our
conversations with them during the development of this bill and in
light of testimony for the Department of the Interior before the Senate
Committee on Indian Affairs in support of a similar technical amendment
for the Shoshone-Paiute Tribes' settlement legislation. In that
testimony, Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs Bryan Newland noted
that ``prohibiting investment until an enforceability date is reached
is not common in Indian water rights settlements,'' and ``as a matter
of equity, [the Department] would support similar legislation to
resolve this same issue in the four other Indian water rights
settlements approved by Congress in 2009 and 2010.'' Our Taos Pueblo
settlement is one of the settlements. \1\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ See S. Rept. 118-80--TECHNICAL CORRECTION TO THE SHOSHONE-
PAIUTE TRIBES OF THE DUCK VALLEY RESERVATION WATER RIGHTS SETTLEMENT
ACT OF 2023, S.Rept.118-80, 118th Cong. (2024), at 3, notes 7 and 8,
https://www.congress.gov/congressional-report/118th-congress/senate-
report/80/1.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
5. Conclusion
S. 3406 would correct an injustice in our original water settlement
legislation and would provide funding to help put our water rights to
use for the Taos Pueblo people. We ask that you support this technical
correction amendment and move the bill expeditiously.
Thank you for the opportunity to testify. I'm happy to answer any
questions from the Committee.
______
Prepared Statement of Brandy Tomhave, JD, Interim Executive Director,
Native America Humane Society
Introduction
As the only organization in the United States dedicated to helping
families in Indian Country live healthfully and harmoniously with
domestic animals, the Native America Humane Society (NAHS) appreciates
this opportunity to submit testimony for the record of the
congressional hearing about the urgent need to expand the authority of
the Indian Health Service to include veterinary health care. For too
long, the federal government has failed to fulfill its trust
responsibility to provide the basic animal welfare services that are
integral to protecting human health and safety. Congressional action is
needed for tribal communities to access veterinary services.
Background
People and dogs should be able to remain healthy and live safely
with each other, but that is nearly impossible on most of the 326
federal Indian reservations where populations of stray and free roaming
dogs present a public health challenge beyond the imagination of most
Americans. For example, an estimated 250,000+ dogs roam free on the
Navajo Nation which has only one veterinarian, yet Navajo is considered
lucky because most tribes have no veterinarian at all. The inability of
Indian Health Service to provide veterinary care is why American
Indians are at greater risk of dog bites and exposure to zoonotic
diseases than all other Americans.
Dog Bites
Between 1991 and 1998 Indian Health Service (IHS) studied dog bite
related injuries on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota. \1\
Hospital emergency room logs identified 396 total animal bite cases, of
which 346 were dog bites. IHS calculated that rate of dog bite injury
as being 431 per 100,000, which is nearly three times the national
average of dog bites (129.3 per 100,000 ) that the Centers for Disease
Control (CDC) reported in 2001.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ Tina Russell, ``Man's Best Friend: Dog Bite Related Injuries on
the Rosebud Reservation 1991-1998,'' The IHS Care Provider, Volume 26,
Number 3, March 2001:33-41, https://www.ihs.gov/sites/provider/themes/
responsive2017/display_objects/documents/2000_2009/PROV0301.pdf.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Relatedly, researchers at CDC conducted a study to examine dog
bites among American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) children visiting
IHS and tribal health facilities between 2001 and 2008. \2\ CDC found
that the average annual dog bite hospitalization rate among Native
children in Alaska and the Southwest was about double the rate for
other children in the United States.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\2\ Bjork A; Holman RC; Callinan LC; Hennessy TW; Cheek, JE;
McQuiston JH, ``Dog Bite Injuries among American Indian and Alaska
Native Children,'' The Journal of Pediatrics, Volume 162,Issue 6
(2013): 1270-1275, https://www.jpeds.com/article/S0022-3476(12)01421-7/
abstract.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The CDC concluded, ``Dog bites represent a significant public
health threat in AI/AN children in the Alaska, the Southwest, and
Northern Plains West regions of the U.S. Enhanced animal management and
education efforts should reduce dog bite injuries and associated
problems with pets and stray dogs, such as emerging infectious
diseases.'' \3\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\3\ Ibid.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Unfortunately, there are no studies of the total number of dog bite
cases annually treated by facilities within the IHS system but some
snapshots from a couple of tribes provide clues about the scope of the
problem:
San Carlos Apache Tribe: The San Carlos Bylas Community
Health Center treats on average 50 dog bite injuries per year.
Navajo Nation: According to Navajo Nation Animal Management,
there are over 3,000 individuals treated each year at hospitals
and clinics for animal attacks and bites.
Northern Arapahoe and Eastern Shoshone Tribes: Over 250 dog
bite cases on the Wind River Reservation are seen each year at
tribal health care facilities, where just one dose of anti-
rabies vaccination costs about $2,400. Five doses are required,
costing the IHS service area for the Eastern Shoshone and
Northern Arapahoe $600,000 annually. \4\
\4\ Clair McFarland, ``Death Of Ethete Woman Revives Effort To Pass
Loose & Vicious Dog Ordinance On Reservation,'' April 22, 2022, Cowboy
State Daily, https://cowboystatedaily.com/2022/04/22/death-ofethete-
woman-revives-effort-to-pass-loose-vicious-dog-ordinance
-on-reservation/#:-:text=and%20vicious%20dogs.-
,The%20death%20of%20a%20woman%20in%
20Ethete%20on%2April%2010,supervisor%20of%20Northern%20Arapaho%20Housing.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Zoonotic Diseases
The interconnectedness of humans and animals includes the
transmission of illnesses called zoonotic diseases. Dogs can carry and
transmit several viral and bacterial diseases to humans through
infected saliva and breath, contaminated urine or feces and direct
contact. Though the risks of such infection are generally low
(especially among pet dogs) feral dogs are at particular risk of
becoming vectors for diseases. Feral dogs on Indian reservations pose
public health risks that IHS must be able to address to save human
lives.
Health and Human Services has understood this for at least the past
two decades. From 2002 to 2004, an eastern Arizona tribal community was
hit hard by Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever (RMSF), a zoonotic disease
spread by feral dogs infested by the common brown dog tick. In just two
years RMSF caused 15 hospitalizations and 2 deaths in that one tribal
community alone. A decade later, CDC reported that ``More than 300
cases of RMSF and 20 deaths have occurred on Arizona Indian
reservations between 2002 and 2014, illustrating the severity of the
epidemic.'' \5\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\5\ Harvard Health Publishing, Harvard Medical School, https://
www.health.harvard.edu/promotions/harvard-health-publications/get-
healthy-get-a-dog-the-health-benefits-of-canine-companionship.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Unfortunately, rabies is another zoonotic disease for which tribal
communities are especially at risk, particularly Alaska Native Villages
where rabies is endemic in certain wildlife that are threats to
domesticated dogs who have limited, if any, access to veterinary care.
In Northern and Southwest Alaska, between 2002 and 2011, the dog bite
rate was 8.5 and 7.0 respectively, compared to 3.1 per 100,000
nationally. Untreated exposure to the rabies virus is nearly always
deadly. \6\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\6\ Bjork A et al, Supra.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cost of Congress Doing Nothing
Dog bite costs within the IHS system are well known and
significant. In 2001, IHS reported that between 1991 and 1998 there
were 346 dog bite cases identified on the Rosebud Reservation at a cost
of about $21,000 each, or $7,266,000 total. \7\ Inflation alone has
roughly doubled the cost of medical care since then. In 2024 those same
346 dog bite cases would cost the IHS Rosebud Service Unit about
$43,000 each or $15 million total. Dog bite treatment diverts limited
IHS funding from much needed primary care.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\7\ Tina Russell, ``Man's Best Friend: Dog Bite Related Injuries on
the Rosebud Reservation 1991-1998,'' The IHS Care Provider, Volume 26,
Number 3, March 2001:33-41, https://www.ihs.gov/sites/provider/themes/
responsive2017/display_objects/documents/2000_2009/PROV0301.pdf.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dividend of Congress Doing Something
Native Americans currently comprise only 0.3 percent of
veterinarians in the United States. This is in part due to Native
children's lack of exposure to veterinarians. As the kids say, ``You
have to see it to be it.''
Dr. Mienna Ludka, DVM, a member of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of
Chippewa Indians and the 2023 graduating class of the Michigan State
University College of Veterinary Medicine says, ``I think a major
barrier for Native Americans joining our profession is the lack of
exposure to the veterinary profession in their communities. Most native
communities are in under-served rural areas, where poverty and
geographic isolation make regular veterinary care inaccessible. Due to
this, the younger generations growing up in our Native communities have
limited opportunities to interact with veterinarians who could
potentially serve as a role model for them to one day join the
profession.'' \8\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\8\ Michigan State University, College of Veterinary Medicine, Vet
School Tails, November 12, 2021, https://cvm.msu.edu/vetschool-tails/
community-voices-native-american-heritage-month.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Veterinary medicine at IHS facilities could forge pathways from
tribal schools to veterinary schools. Such pathways to other graduate
schools are already turning out tribal doctors, lawyers, nurses, social
workers and engineers whose impact on their tribal communities is
transformative.
Conclusion
The United States has long embraced its trust responsibility to
provide for the health and welfare of American Indian tribes and Alaska
Native Villages but has not yet addressed the dynamic relationship
between the health and safety and of people and dogs. The incidence of
dogs spreading fatal zoonotic diseases and mauling to death tribal
members should prompt Congress and the Executive Branch to recognize
that this is a public health emergency in Indian Country.
______
Prepared Statement of Ledy VanKavage, Sr. Legislative Attorney, Best
Friends Animal Society
Thank you, Chair Schatz, Vice Chair Murkowski, and Members of the
Committee, for holding a hearing on an important public health and
safety measure, S 4365. We appreciate Vice Chair Murkowski sponsoring
this long over-due legislation.
Best Friends Animal Society is a national non-profit located in
Kanab Utah. The Navajo Nation is our neighbor, and we collaborate with
Navajo leaders and animal control officers on trying to humanely reduce
the dog population. Most of our Best Friends Navajo Team members live
on the reservation and have witnessed hundreds of free roaming puppies
and dogs on the Nation. Although data regarding the number of free
roaming dogs on Navajo is lacking, the estimates that have been
reported are anywhere from 250,000 to 500,000 stray dogs.
Currently the Navajo Nation only has one veterinarian on staff, and
two full-time private veterinarians practicing on a reservation as
large as West Virginia. Our Best Friends Navajo Team works closely with
the Navajo Nation Animal Control officers to transport puppies and dogs
from animal control to rescue organizations. Best Friends also holds
and funds multiple spay/neuter events on the Nation, but it is simply a
drop in the bucket. Federal resources are desperately needed for
veterinary services to humanely reduce the dog population and decrease
the public health costs due to dog bites. Dr. Jim Crosby, an expert in
dog bites has stated that the most dog bite related fatalities occur in
the Southwest, where the Navajo Nation is located. This is not a
coincidence.
According to the AVMA, unneutered male dogs represent 90 percent of
dogs presented to veterinary behaviorists for dominance aggression, the
most commonly diagnosed type of aggression. Intact males are also
involved in 70 to 76 percent of reported dog bite incidents. Unspayed
females that attract packs of free-roaming male dogs, increase the bite
risk to people through exposure to many unfamiliar dogs. Mother dogs
are very protective of their puppies and may bite those who try to
handle the young.
Best Friends urges you to support this bill that gives the
necessary authorization to the Indian Health Service to carryout
veterinary services. This is a measure that is crucial to public
safety, and consistent with the One Health initiative. Thank you for
your consideration for safe and humane communities.
______
Prepared Statement of Dr. Michael Watson, Administrator, Animal and
Plant Health Inspection Service
Thank you for the opportunity to provide writen testimony to
discuss our rabies management program and S. 4365, the Veterinary
Services to Improve Public Health in Rural Communities Act.
Rabies is a serious disease of wildlife in the United States that
can have a significant impact on human and animal health. If left
untreated, it has a 100 percent fatality rate in humans and kills
almost 60,000 people around the world each year. Thankfully, compulsory
pet vaccination laws and mass vaccination campaigns have eliminated the
canine variant of rabies from wild and domestic animals in the United
States. However, there are several other variants in wildlife,
including raccoon rabies in the east and Arctic fox rabies in Alaska.
Since 1997, acting through its Wildlife Services program, the
Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) and its National
Rabies Management Program have led Federal efforts to control the virus
in wildlife, thereby protecting domestic animals and the public. APHIS
activities include:
Conducting enhanced rabies surveillance as a complement to
public health surveillance to beter understand where the
disease is, allowing us to beter focus our control and
elimination efforts.
Distribution of oral rabies vaccines to create a zone free
of disease and moving these rabies-free zones appropriately.
Conducting research to increase scientific knowledge and to
beter inform rabies management strategies.
Coordinating on effective strategies for rabies elimination
with all partners, collaborators, and stakeholders in the U.S.
and with partner agencies in Canada and Mexico.
The oral rabies vaccination program is the key to expanding U.S.
rabies-free zones. Each year, APHIS drops approximately 8 million oral
rabies vaccination baits in 13 eastern states, from Maine to Alabama,
creating a rabies-free zone that prevents the spread of raccoon rabies
further westward.
In urban and suburban areas, APHIS and cooperators distribute
vaccine bait by helicopter or vehicles. In rural areas, APHIS typically
distributes vaccine bait from a plane. When a raccoon bites into the
vaccine bait, the packet ruptures, allowing the vaccine to coat the
animal's mouth and throat. Animals that receive an adequate dose of the
vaccine develop antibodies against rabies. As the number of vaccinated
animals in a population increases, disease transmission decreases,
creating an ``immunity barrier'' to stop the further spread of rabies.
Although raccoon vaccination is our largest rabies prevention
effort, APHIS helped the Texas Department of State Health Services
successfully eliminate canine rabies in coyotes in 2004. Our efforts
using oral rabies vaccination also reduced the spread and eventually
eliminated a unique variant of the disease in gray foxes. In Arizona,
APHIS works on a variety of collaborative rabies research and
management projects focused on gray foxes, skunks, and bats, as well as
free-ranging dogs on tribal lands.
Alaska has a unique variant of rabies in Artic foxes. It has a
broad circumpolar distribution throughout North America, Europe, and
Asia. In Alaska, rabies outbreaks routinely occur during winter and the
number of red foxes with this variant has increased over the past
decade. This observation, along with modeling, suggests regional
warming trends may be associated with increased contact rates and
transmission between Arctic and red foxes. We currently do not have a
rabies vaccination program targeting Arctic foxes due in part to the
remote geographic area this variant encompasses. There are also
challenges with Arctic fox behavior, including their large home ranges,
distance they travel, and varying behavior in summer and winter.
But the bill before us today understands these challenges and would
accordingly direct APHIS to conduct a more in-depth study of the
viability of a wildlife rabies control program in Arctic regions. This
would allow us to work with our state, tribal, and other partners to
identify the potential barriers for a successful program and possible
mitigations for those impediments.
Ontario, Canada, successfully eliminated Arctic fox rabies in red
foxes in southern Ontario, but the situation in Alaska will be
different. Beter understanding the unique challenges of Alaska, the
different species involved and their ecology, will be important. In
Alaska, we would most likely need to use selective intervention with
oral rabies vaccine in and around remote communities. This will not
eliminate arctic fox rabies in red foxes or Arctic foxes, but instead
would likely be part of an integrated rabies prevention and control
strategy carried out in cooperation with the Indian Health Service and
other partners.
A few thoughts and concerns for consideration:
The study focuses on potential management strategies to
reduce the risk of transmission to Tribal members in Arctic
regions, which would only include the northernmost parts of the
state, and probably excluding fox populations in other areas of
the state.
The study targets fox species, but we know that the disease
is also transmited through domestic animals, such as unowned or
difficult to capture dogs. We have had success with orally
vaccinating dogs in other areas including free ranging dogs.
Implementation of similar strategies could strengthen rabies
prevention and control efforts in remote communities.
While we appreciate the study, it is very likely to identify
the need for a valuable program to protect the health and
safety of native Alaskans. However, without resources for a
program, it is highly unlikely that APHIS will be able to
implement a program that stands any chance of success. Further,
diverting resources from other regions could potentially erase
years of success with virus control and local elimination
elsewhere.
Under the sections authorizing the use of public health
officers, it may be helpful to include mention of USDA or APHIS
such that future control activities could be coordinated or
conducted with assistance from our Wildlife Services program.
Thank you again for the opportunity to discuss this important
program.
______
Intergovernmental Affairs
July 24, 2024
Senate Committee on Indian Affairs,
838 Hart Senate Office Building,
Washington, DC.
RE: ANTHC Support of Senate Bill 4365
To Whom It May Concern:
On behalf of the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium (ANTHC), I
write this letter in support of Senate Bill 4365, the Veterinary
Services to Improve Public Health in Rural Communities Act.
ANTHC is a statewide tribal health organization serving all 229
tribes and all Alaska Native and American Indian (AN/AI) people in
Alaska. ANTHC provides a wide range of statewide public health,
community health, environmental health, and other programs and services
for Alaska Native people and their communities. ANTHC and Southcentral
Foundation operate programs at the Alaska Native Medical Center, the
statewide tertiary care hospital for all AN/AI people in Alaska, under
the terms of Public Law 105-83.
Alaska Native communities do not have regular access to veterinary
care. This has led to a consistent threat to both human and animal
health and welfare. This lack of access was recognized by the Alaska
Federation of Natives in 2022 as an ``unmet public health crisis''. The
downstream impacts of this disparity is clearly exemplified by the fact
that Alaska Native children have the highest rate of hospitalization
for dog bites in the Indian Health Service system and are hospitalized
for dog bites at double the rate of children in the general US
population.
Dogs are a known risk for zoonotic illness transmission amongst
livestock, wildlife and humans. Zoonotic illness is any disease that
can spread between animals and humans. Rabies transmission between fox,
dogs and humans is a constant concern in the entire western and
northern regions of Alaska. As part of their compact with Alaska Native
Tribes, the Indian Health Service supports Environmental Health
programs at regional Tribal Health Organizations across our state. A
significant portion of the workload for these programs concerns rabies
prevention activities. This includes vaccinating companion animals
against rabies, conducting dog bite investigations and coordinating
with local and state officials in response to public health emergencies
resulting from rabies transmission between wild fox and local dog
populations. As red fox expands their range northward, the frequency of
these situations have increased and ``near miss'' public health
emergencies have become commonplace. These events often require
expensive and painful post exposure prophylaxis treatment for humans
and large scale culling of companion animals. Rabies is always fatal to
humans and this is not a theoretical risk. In 2023, 29.9 percent of the
67 foxes tested for rabies in the Norton Sound region were positive.
While Tribal Health Rabies Prevention Programs reduce some of the
risk associated with rabies transmission in rural Alaskan communities,
they cannot begin to address the root cause of the issue. Without
access to basic spay and neuter services, there is no humane or
effective way to control animal populations in rural Alaska. Because of
this, vaccination alone is not a sufficient method of rabies
prevention. Veterinary care became common in the lower 48 states as
healthcare practitioners began to understand that the health of
companion animal populations has a direct impact on the health of a
human population. The same is true in Alaska.
Senate Bill 4365 acknowledges this disparity in service and the
connection between human and animal health that is so well understood
by the communities that the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium
serves. Alaskan Native people share a profoundly deep and
interdependent relationship with dogs. The inability to access basic
veterinary care has implications beyond the physical, impacting the
emotional and spiritual health of Alaska Native people. The Tribal
Health System in Alaska has developed novel, effective and sustainable
solutions in order to address shortfalls in access to medical, dental
and behavioral healthcare in the past and with the ratification of
Senate Bill 4365, can similarly work towards remedying another unmet
public health need. This bill is an important step in achieving the
intent of the Indian Health Care Improvement Act.
Sincerely,
Monique R. Martin, Vice President
______
Bristol Bay Area Health Corporation
July 23, 2024
Senate Committee on Indian Affairs,
838 Hart Senate Office Building,
Washington, DC.
RE: ANTHC Support of Senate Bill 4365
To Whom It May Concern:
Bristol Bay Area Health Corporation (BBAHC) is a tribal health
organization representing 28 villages in Southwest Alaska. For fifty
years, we have provided comprehensive healthcare services to the people
of Bristol Bay.
As a healthcare organization that encompasses a One Health
framework, having the backing of the IHS as a co-coordinating agency in
the National One Health Framework would help to further our mission to
provide quality healthcare with competence, compassion and sensitivity
to our region. At the core of our values, the promotion of health and
prevention of disease cannot be fully carried out without the addition
of veterinary care as part of the IHS healthcare model.
Rabies is the most pressing and prevalent zoonotic disease we are
faced with in the region, and it creates a constant public health
threat to our population. It is enzootic among the fox population in
western and northern Alaska. There is an occasional threat to humans
directly through the wildlife population, but the biggest threat comes
from dogs that have been bitten by an infected fox.
Due to the current and historic lack of veterinary care, including
access to spay and neuter surgery, there is a large number of unwanted
and stray dogs. These are significant contributing factors to the
health disparities seen in Alaska Native children, who face the highest
rate of hospitalizations due to dog bites in the country.
Our Environmental Health department spends a significant portion of
time each year carrying out public health rabies prevention activities
through vaccination of pets and rabies investigation and response. In
2021, over a span of 5 months, our staff sent 8 animals to the State of
Alaska virology lab, where 6 of those tested positive for rabies,
including one unvaccinated, domestic dog involved in a bite incident.
Our prevention program helps to reduce the risk of rabies
transmission, but it is unable to treat the root cause of the problem,
which is a lack of basic veterinary care services in the region. The
only humane way to control the population of dogs and significantly
reduce the risk of rabies transmission is through stable and consistent
veterinary care.
When post exposure prophylaxis is warranted after a bite, it is
costly to the mental health and wellbeing of the patient and family
involved, and the cost oftime, travel and treatment can add up to 1Os
of thousands of dollars per incident.
Since time immemorial, Alaska Native People have shared an
unspeakable bond with dogs. Veterinary care is not just animal health
care, it also serves our human population's physical, mental, emotional
and spiritual health.
BBAHC recognizes that veterinary care is public health care. The
provisions of SB 4365 will help to bring critical healthcare services
that are virtually non-existent to rural Alaska. Thereby improving
basic public health services while also improving health equity and
decreasing disparities among Alaska's Indigenous population.
Quyana (Thank You),
Robert J. Clark, President/CEO
______
July 9, 2024
Senate Committee on Indian Affairs,
838 Hart Senate Office Building,
Washington, DC.
Dear Senator Murkowski and Indian Affairs Committee,
Thank you for your willingness to out forth the S. 4365, the
Veterinary Services to Improves Public Health in Rural Communities Act.
I am a veterinarian from North Carolina who fell in love with the
Native people of Alaska, Navajo, and Cherokee and lead trips with
veterinary students each year (twice a year to the Yup'ik villages in
Alaska) to help serve the veterinary needs in the villages. The task we
face is daunting. While there are many small groups of veterinary teams
that go into the villages and vaccinate dogs for rabies and provide
services for spaying/neutering, after 15 years, we have only put a dent
in the population. It isn't that the people don't want to have their
dogs cared for medically, they just do not have access to it. And
funding the trips into the villages can be very expensive. But, each
group does what they can to help serve these communities.
The result is that many Village Police Officers (VPO) have to shoot
any dogs that are not tied up to prevent bites within the villages.
Rabies is endemic in the area, carried mostly by the fox, which is then
spread quickly to the dogs, and thus the humans. Unfortunately, it is
usually the children that are bit. With little access to healthcare,
rabies causes deaths to the humans. The numbers of rabies cases in the
Alaskan Native villages is astounding. The VPO's do not like to shoot
the dogs, and many suffer mental illnesses from having to kill them.
Others leave their posts after a season because they do not want to be
a part of it. The children tell stories of their dogs being shot while
walking with them to school. Mentally and emotionally this is not a
sustainable solution.
My hope is that S. 4365 will pass and allow the Indian Health
Services to be able to provide this much needed service to the
communities more readily. The cost of the preventative care for the
dogs is significantly less than the treatments for the humans affected
by the dog bites and the metal rehabilitation of those in positions
requiring them to kill the stray dogs. Thank you for your time and for
helping find a cure to this terrible predicament.
Sincerely,
Dr. Page Wages, Veterinarian--Alaska and North Carolina
______
Alaska Native Rural Veterinary, Inc. (ANRV)
July 17, 2024
Senate Committee on Indian Affairs,
838 Hart Senate Office Building,
Washington, DC.
Dear Senator Murkowski and Indian Affairs Committee,
Thank you so much for introducing S. 4365. My name is Angie Fitch,
I am the executive director and founder of Alaska Native Rural
Veterinary, Inc. (ANRV)
Since our inception in 2011, ANRV has provided veterinary care to
over 90 villages, across several regions of rural Alaska. I am in favor
of this bill because it will work as a preventative measure, which has
its advantages over the consequence of not having it. It will be much
safer and more cost effective than the way things are now.
During our travels, I have learned that there are many layers to
the lack of veterinary care in rural tribal communities. Loose dogs
pack up and become aggressive, they bite, defecate in parks where
children play, carry parasites and spread diseases such as distemper
and rabies. Dogs are the known carrier of rabies from wildlife to
humans. They are also the transmitter of deadly tick disease to people,
which is now a growing concern in Alaska.
There is also a mental health correlation to the lack of veterinary
care. Witnessing suffering and death of pets or the shooting of
dangerous or rabid dogs, is mentally traumatizing to the entire
community, especially the children. And oftentimes the shooter, I am
told will have nightmares long after the incident takes place. One
village police officer told me that it wounds his soul to have to put
dogs down. People deserve better than this, and hopefully this bill is
just that.
Over the years of providing care in rural Alaska, ANRV has noticed
a direct correlation between controlling the numbers of stray dogs with
sterilizations and a reduction in dog bites to people. The communities
that we provide consistent veterinary care have visibly fewer to no
strays and less people are being bitten or injured by dogs.
The safest and most reasonable solution to this public health
disparity is accessible veterinary care, vaccinations and spay/neuter
service.
Prevention makes the most sense. It provides safer communities,
prevents costly medical care to people who are attacked or contract a
transmissional disease. It also greatly reduces the chance of
individuals having to go through rabies prophylaxis treatment due to
dog bites.
Thank you again, Sen Murkowski for introducing this bill that will
address this important issue, improve public health and the quality of
life for so many tribal communities.
Sincerely,
Angie Fitch, Executive Director/Founder
______
NORTHERN PUEBLOS TRIBUTARY WATER RIGHTS ASSOCIATION
7/9/2024
Hon. Brian Schatz, Chairman,
Senate Committee on Indian Affairs
838 Hart Senate Building
Washington, DC.
Re: Support of the Pueblo of Nambe, Pueblo of Pojoaque,
Pueblo de San Ildefonso and Pueblo of Tesuque for S. 3406
Dear Senator Schatz and members of the Senate Committee on Indian
Affairs:
The Pueblo of Nambe, the Pueblo of Pojoaque, the Pueblo de San
Ildefonso, and the Pueblo of Tesuque (collectively ``Pueblos''), as the
four members of the Northern Pueblos Tributary Water Rights
Association, write this letter in support of the bill sponsored and
introduced by Senator Lujan of the New Mexico delegation, S. 3406, to
restore interest on the Aamodt Settlement Pueblos' Fund established by
section 617(c)(l)(B) of the Aamodt Settlement Act, Pub. L. No. 111-291.
The Pueblos herein state their support for the bill.
Section 617(c)(l )(B) of the Aamodt Settlement Pueblos' Fund
authorized the appropriation of $37.5 million ``to assist the Pueblos
in paying the Pueblos' share of the cost of operating, maintaining, and
replacing the Pueblo Water Facilities and Regional Water System.'' The
Aamodt Settlement Act appropriated an additional $15 million for the
Pueblos, for a total of fund amount of $52.5 million. The authorized
funds are for the Pueblos only, for operation and maintenance expenses
related to the Pojoaque Basin Regional Water System, the critical
infrastructure necessary to effectuate the Aamodt settlement. Unlike
other Indian water rights settlements, the Aamodt Settlement Act did
not provide that the funds authorized in section 617 could be invested
between the authorization date and the settlement enforcement date,
which was September 15, 2017. As a result, the Pueblos' funds sat for a
period of 81 months, uninvested, without earning any interest.
S. 3406 will restore interest for that 81-month period so that the
Pueblos' settlement will be treated equally to other Indian water
rights settlements whose funds Congress allowed to be invested. The
Pueblos will, as a result of the bill, receive approximately $4.3
million which will be added to the operation, maintenance and
replacement fund shared by the Pueblos. The restored funds will bring
the Pueblos into parity with other Indian tribes who have settled their
water rights and invested the funds appropriated to them by Congress.
Given the expectation of increasing costs to the Pueblos relating to
operation, maintenance and replacement of the Regional Water System,
the addition of $4.3 million in forgone earned interest will be
critically important.
The Pueblos wish to express their appreciation for the Committee's
actions to ensure that the Pueblos are treated on equal footing with
other Indian tribes in this country. We thank you for undertaking this
important rectification of the Aamodt Settlement Act.
Sincerely,
Governor Nathaniel S. Porter; Governor Milton Herrera;
Governor Christopher Moquino; and Governor Jenelle Roybal
______
July 9, 2024
Senate Committee on Indian Affairs
838 Hart Senate Building
Washington, DC.
Thank you for the opportunity to comment on S. 4365, the Veterinary
Services to Improve Public Health in Rural Communities Act. This bill
will not only enhance public health in rural tribal communities across
the United States, but it will also save Indian Health Service a
tremendous amount of money. Just here in Alaska, we estimate that the
preventative veterinary services supported by this bill will be far
less expensive than post exposure prophylaxis treatments for rabies
alone. Many of our rural communities experience seven times the
national average for reported dog bites to humans. Dogs are the known
common transmitter of rabies from wildlife to people.
There are also a large mental and behavioral health implication
associated with dog culling and fear of outdoor activities, as a result
of dog overpopulation. At the present time, rural communities suffer
these public health challenges, and their only recourse is to
periodically shoot loose and dangerous dogs. This does not solve the
problem as the remaining dogs quickly reproduce and replace those
killed. This activity is also traumatizing to those who witness the
culling, especially children. Many village public safety and police
officers have reported that dog culling was the main reason for leaving
their job; several have required therapy to manage the effect of dog
culling on their mental health.
S. 4365 will support preventive veterinary public health care which
will address the problem at the root cause, through access to canine
sterilization and vaccination procedures. This is the safest and most
effective way to manage these issues. It is also less expensive than
what IHS currently spends on hospitalizations for dog bite injuries,
rabies post exposure prophylaxis treatment and the mental and
behavioral impacts of living with dog overpopulation.
Dogs have always been a central part of Indigenous culture in North
America. When an aspect of life that has, for millennia, been
beneficial becomes a threat it has terrible impacts on cultural,
mental, and behavioral health. This bill will provide a solution that
will return the relationship between people and dogs in rural
communities back to a mutually beneficial situation and save the health
care providing organizations associated with IHS millions of dollars by
improving public health and quality of life for the residents.
Sincerely,
Arleigh J. Reynolds, D.V.M., Ph.D., Director Emeritus, The
Center for One Health Research, The College of Indigenous
Studies, University of Alaska Fairbanks
Angie Fitch, Executive Director, AK Native Rural
Veterinary, Inc.
______
Alaska Medical Psychology
July 22, 2024
Senate Committee on Indian Affairs
838 Hart Senate Building
Washington, DC.
To Whom It May Concern:
I have been a clinical psychologist in Alaska for more than 40
years and I've been the director of four rural mental health centers.
I've consulted on psychological issues throughout the state and have
frequently testified about trauma and related psychological issues.
I am well aware that there has been a long-standing issue of stray
dogs in the villages, including problems with frequent dog bites and
rabies. I also am aware that someone has to take responsibility for
euthanizing these stray dogs when it becomes necessary to protect the
public. In my experience this is almost always psychologically
difficult and generates substantial trauma and grief for those who have
to perform the euthanization, as well as for those who witness it.
There is already far too much grief in the villages, and the
accumulation of grief is one of the factors behind the high rate of
suicides in the villages.
I particularly remember working with a client whose job was to
euthanize the animals and at the local animal shelter; she had
repetitive nightmares about her tongue being cut off and not being able
to speak. We came to realize that these nightmares had to do with
inability to speak about her feelings and grief about euthanizing the
animals. When she finally was able to verbalize this, she understood
that she had absolutely had to quit her job, that it was costing her
too much even though she needed the work.
It makes much more sense to have a program that neuters and spays
dogs to control these dangerous overpopulations, than to continue with
the current lack of support for such an important program related to
public health and quality of life.
Please contact me if further information is needed.
Stephen Parker, Ph,D., Clinical Psychologist
______
Jamul, CA
July 9, 2024
Dear Senate Indian Affairs Committee member,
I'm writing to you to voice my opinion concerning the bill H.R.
6443, S. 3857 that incorporates 172 acres in San Diego's East County
region into the Jamul Indian Village trust. As a resident of Jamul I
will be directly impacted by what Senator, Darryl Issa is calling
``economic development.'' It will bring increased traffic to an already
impacted fire zone area that only has access for evacuation on one
road. This is unacceptable and threatens the entire community of Jamul.
The Jamul Indian Village has already increased traffic exponentially by
building a casino and now a 16 story hotel on this same and only
thoroughfare. There have been increased traffic collisions on Highway
94E since the Jamul tribe received the initial 6 acre parcel into
trust. Please consider this, I encourage you to vote NO on H.R. 6643,
S. 3857 and keep Jamul rural.
Sincerely,
Tricia Stewart
______
Response to Written Questions Submitted by Hon. Brian Schatz to
Hon. Melanie Anne Egorin
Question 1. Your written testimony states that the Indian Health
Service (IHS) does not have the legal authority to offer veterinary
services directly, or to allow tribes to add these services to their
Indian Self Determination Education and Assistance Act (ISDEAA) self-
determination compacts or contracts. However, if IHS were able to offer
these services, does IHS have an estimate of the cost?
Answer. At this time, IHS does not have an estimate of the cost for
providing veterinary services if IHS were authorized to offer such
services. Currently, there is not enough information to inform the IHS
as to whether each of the twelve IHS Areas need such veterinary
services, or any number less than the twelve IHS Areas. However, the
IHS is willing to work with the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs'
staff, and the bill sponsor's staff to provide an estimate based on the
bill's intent. For example, is the intent to have veterinarian and
program staff for each of the twelve IHS Areas, or to have only
veterinarians and program staff in only those IHS Areas with a defined
and demonstrated need for veterinarian services as described in the
drafter's legislation, or to have only veterinarians and programs in
only those IHS Areas that have Tribes and Villages located in rural
areas? Again, IHS is willing to work with the Committee and staff on a
cost estimate based on the drafter's intent in the legislation.
Question 2. If Tribes with 638 contracts could add veterinary
services to their ISDEAA agreements, how many Tribes would be
interested in taking these services over?
Answer. The Indian Health Service was only recently made aware by
drafters of the legislation that several Tribes and Villages in the
Alaska Area expressed interest in adding, by contracting or compacting,
veterinary services to existing ISDEAA agreements. The IHS would need
to further research whether tribal consultation would be helpful in
evaluating the veterinary services need in all twelve IHS Areas.
Question 3. Your written testimony states that IHS, the Center for
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the Commissioned Corps of the
United States Public Health Service (USPHS) collaborate with Tribes and
other partners to reduce the risk of zoonotic disease transmission.
Does IHS currently work with the USPHS, or any other partners, to offer
any veterinary services, such as rabies clinics?
Answer. Currently, the IHS does not offer any veterinary services,
nor rabies clinics, in any of our IHS Areas. However, IHS routinely
collaborates with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
tribes, and other entities to reduce transmission of zoonotic diseases.
One example of this collaboration is that the IHS provides reports to
animal control, such as tribal and other government agencies, federal,
state, and county, about high-risk animal encounters such as dog-bites,
and where indicated, public health entities (tribal and other
government agencies, federal, state, county) regarding suspected or
confirmed cases of reportable zoonotic diseases. Such reports inform
decisions by those authorities to support prevention activities like
rabies vaccination efforts.
IHS utilizes the One Health approach to fulfill its
responsibilities for investigating outbreaks of zoonotic diseases and
coordinating with other federal and state agencies, partners, and
stakeholders across the public health, agriculture, wildlife, and
environmental sectors at the national and subnational levels.
IHS prioritizes zoonosis efforts through surveillance for vector-
borne diseases, such as plague, hantavirus, tularemia, tick-borne
relapsing fever, WNV, Lyme Disease, and other zoonoses, including
rabies. Surveillance tools--such as sentinel chicken flocks and
mosquito trapping--are maintained with state, county, and tribal
partners. The HHS IHS Division of Environmental Health Services
conducts indicator-based surveillance using the IHS Notifiable Disease
and External Cause of Injury system.
IHS has developed strong partnerships with U.S. Department of
Agriculture veterinarians, the U.S. Army, Tribal Indian Health Boards,
and NGOs, and collaborates on interventions, including fogging
operations, flights to identify standing water, dusting, lay rabies
vaccinator programs, and partnerships to reduce the free-roaming pet
population. For example, the Billings Area Indian Health Board
implemented a lay vaccinator program, influenza-like illness
surveillance, and Hantavirus outreach and education. On the Navajo
Nation, multiple NGOs are partnering with tribal and federal programs
and colleges and universities to provide a comprehensive approach to
address the stray animal population, including raising awareness and
knowledge about the risks associated with pet overpopulation and
reduced cost or free veterinary services which may reduce risk for
zoonotic disease and bite injuries.
Lastly, upon request from IHS, the USPHS is available to assist IHS
with veterinarian services. There is one USPHS veterinarian officer
currently assigned to IHS working in an administrative role at IHS
headquarters. In addition, there are over 1,200 USPHS officers working
across Federal IHS facilities and Tribal facilities, across multiple
disciplines.
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