Urban Indian Health Institute

In 2003, nearly 100,000 American Indians and Alaska Natives age 20 years or older who received care from the Indian Health Service (IHS) had been diagnosed with diabetes. If left untreated, diabetes can lead to serious complications including heart disease, blindness, and kidney failure. But, the onset of diabetes can be prevented or delayed through a few, small lifestyle changes.
April is National Minority Health Month, which aims to eliminate health disparities and improve the health status of minority populations. The National Diabetes Education Program (NDEP) offers copyright free resources specifically tailored to American Indians and Alaska Natives, such as the We Have the Power to Prevent Diabetes tip sheet to encourage them to reduce their risk for the disease.

NDEP encourages you to help promote diabetes prevention to American Indians and Alaska Natives by placing the We Have the Power to Prevent Diabetes tip sheet on your website or use it to write a story. Download Power to Prevent or contact Darise Deal at (202) 842-3600 x 229 or ddeal@hagersharp.com for more information.

The month of April is UW-Eau Claire’s celebration of American Indian history.
To raise awareness and understanding of this culture, several organizations on campus are hosting events open to the campus and Eau Claire communities, said Odawa White, retention coordinator for the Office of Multicultural Affairs and adviser to the Native American Student Association.
Language, spirituality, poetry and the much-debated topic of American Indian logos and mascots will be the topics up for discussion at the various events.

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Appearing before the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs on March 8 and the Natural Resources Committee in the House of Representatives on March 14, constitutional scholar Edward Lazarus testified that Congress can reauthorize the Indian Health Care Improvement Act without defying the U.S. Constitution. Lazarus’ appearances were linked to a Department of Justice white paper released last year, following the November elections. Though its byzantine progress from Justice to Senate Republicans has only now been unraveled, the red flags it raised about the bill’s constitutionality ruined the bill’s chances for passage then and threaten its acceptance even now. National Indian leaders and congressional members alike have expressed a growing outrage over resistance to the bill within the Bush administration and on Capitol Hill. Specifically, the white paper expressed doubts that Congress has authority, under the Constitution, to provide health care for ”Indians” and ”Urban Indians,” and raised the question of whether support for traditional healing practices contributes to a government ”establishment of religion,” forbidden by the so-called ”establishment clause of the Constitution.”

Lazarus, a Los Angeles-based partner in the firm of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer and Feld, largely dismissed the DOJ’s concerns, ”given the wide latitude Congress has always enjoyed when legislating on behalf of Indian peoples.” Congress, he added, ”need not hesitate to pass the proposed legislation because it is narrowly tailored to the compelling governmental interest - recognized by Congress since the early days of the Republic - to provide for the health of the indigenous peoples that this nation dispossessed as it expanded across the continent.” As long as the legislation is ”rationally tied to the fulfillment of Congress’ obligations” to Indians, Lazarus testified, it is likely to survive the strict judicial scrutiny warned of in the DOJ white paper.

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