History and background.

The Resource Center wishes to remind the reader that all Native Americans are the deserving recipients of the recognized 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty (2). This treaty-clearly states that inhabitants of the Indian Reservations in South Dakota, North Dakota, Nebraska and Iowa, are to receive free health care provided by the U.S. Government as a concession for lands taken for the indefinite term of the Treaty. In this spirit, health care for members of those Native American Nations is a legal right, not a privilege.

In the forced exchange of the majority of ancestral lands, health care costs have already been anticipated by the U.S. Federal Government through Treaty requirements. Originally directed by the Office of Indian Affairs, health care came under the auspices of the Department of Health and Human Services in 1954. The "1954 Transfer Act," PL 83-568 (3), provided that "all functions, responsibilities, authorities and duties...relating to the maintenance and operation of hospital and health facilities for Indians, and the conservation of Indian ...