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This Blog includes news and announcements pertaining to the Urban Indian community across the nation.
On November 5, 2019, NCUIH was honored and recognized at the 2019 United South and Eastern Tribes, Inc./USET Sovereignty Protection Fund Annual Meeting. NCUIH received this award for the longstanding partnership with USET and the USET SPF. At the event, USET and USET SPF celebrated 50 years of growth and success as an organization. Meredith Raimondi, Senior Manager of Communications and Events, accepted the award on behalf of NCUIH.
The Senate has voted to keep funding the government and the President is expected to sign the bill before the deadline tonight. Following the lead of House who passed legislation on Tuesday, (H.R. 3055), the Senate passed the bill that will keep the government open until December 20, 2019. The stopgap measure is similar to the last Continuing Resolution in that it includes many health programs and the urban Indian health line item. Notably, the Continuing Resolution extends the Special Diabetes Program (SDPI) for Indians – which will push back SDPI’s expiration to December 20th and give Congress another month to consider a longer-term re-authorization. The bill also extends funding for Community Health Centers and the National Health Service Corps.
On November 19, 2019, the Subcommittee for Indigenous Peoples of the United States held an Oversight Hearing Reviewing the Broken Promises Report: Examining the Chronic Federal Funding Shortfalls in Indian Country. NCUIH Executive Director Francys Crevier, JD (Algonquin) testified before the Subcommittee and made several recommendations in response to the U.S. Civil Rights Commission “Broken Promises” Report.
Here's a recap of the #NativeHealth Twitter chat on November 13, 2019 with OMH and IHS.
Today, the United State Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit issued an order directing a challenge to the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) to be reheard en banc. A three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit had ruled ICWA Constitutional in August, finding it was not a race-based statute that would violate the Equal Protection Clause. The States of Texas, Louisiana, Indiana, and several adoptive parents had urged the Court to rehear the August decision, asserting similar arguments to the original briefing and that tribal membership is determined on an “overwhelmingly racial nature.” The federal government filed a brief in response earlier this week, arguing that the plaintiffs “miss the fundamental point . . . [namely,] tribes have authority to set their own membership criteria, which may be based in part on biology or descent[.]” The Cherokee Nation, Oneida Nation, Quinault Indian Nation, Morongo Band of Mission Indians, and Navajo Nation (Intervenor) filed an opposition to the petitions for rehearing en banc last month, as did the federal government. Today’s order does not necessarily mean that the Fifth Circuit will find ICWA unconstitutional, but does vacate its earlier decision and add another round of briefing to the case – which is scheduled for December and January. The Court seeks to hear oral argument during the week of January 20.
The Senate passed its first fiscal 2020 spending package on Thursday, as lawmakers have only a few weeks left to prevent a government shutdown. This approximately $332 billion package, cleared the full Senate by a final vote of 84-9, and included spending bills for the departments of Interior, Agriculture-FDA, Commerce-Justice-Science, and Transportation-HUD.
Members of NCUIH’s National Inaugural Youth Council (YC) and the 2019 YC participated in the Annual National American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) Hope for Life (Suicide Prevention Awareness) Day, and also completed their National Indigi-Wellness Champion Campaign on September 30th. NCUIH Youth Council with support from the United Indian Tribal Youth Inc. (UNITY), the Center for Native American Youth (CNAY), and National Urban Indian Organizations (UIOs) led social media marketing efforts (from July 2019 to September 9th, 2019).
