Indians Fear Losing Health Clinics

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http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/INDIAN_CLINICS?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=US

When Jennifer Carter moved from her reservation to Pierre, S.D., a few years ago, she went from seeing Indians like her every day to barely seeing any. But the first time she visited the South Dakota Urban Indian Health clinic, she knew she had found her place.

There, she met Indians just like her, people she could relate to and who made her feel comfortable. They were from various tribes. They no longer, or never did, live on a reservation.

"When you all get together, it's like home," said Carter, a single mother of four who used to live on the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation in Eagle Butte. "It makes me feel like home."

To urban Indians, that connection to their culture often means as much as the medicine they are prescribed.

But now that relationship is threatened by President Bush's 2007 budget proposal to zero out the $33 million allocation for urban Indian health clinics. At least 17 of the 34 clinics across the country may have to close their doors, while the rest would be forced to cut services.