Health policy makes Indians sick - Treaty Six chiefs

Page R2

The federal government has gone too far in shrugging off its responsibility for Aboriginal health care. And the chiefs of the Confederacy of Treaty Six First Nations are sick of it.

The Confederacy held a press conference Aug. 12 to discuss the chiefs' main complaint with the current state of affairs in health care. That complaint centres around Alberta premier Ralph Klein's new cost-conscious health care scheme known as the Regional Health Authorities Act.

Since the regional health system was established, First Nations have become concerned about the lack of service the communities are getting.

Under Klein's renovated health care plan there are 12 regional health boards in the Treaty Six area and not one Native person has been appointed to the boards, said Chief Eric Large of Saddle Lake First Nation.

The boards are made up of non-Native people who have no understanding of what a treaty is, or what Treaty Six is, or what the medicine chest clause of Treaty Six is and they are there for their own vested interest, he said. The medicine chest clause called for the federal government to provide the same medical care and attention to the people that the tribes' medicine person would have provided.

From the province's viewpoint, it has no concern with treaties. The position of Alberta's Department of Health is that the province has no legal obligation to First Nations people. Health services are provided, only on the basis of policy, reads a letter from Diane Marleau, Minister of Health.

To add further fuel to the fire, the federal Crown has yet to intervene on behalf of treaty people, which is clearly a violation of the Crown's fiduciary and treaty obligations, reads a position paper on the issue.

The Confederacy of Treaty Six insists that's not good enough.

The lack of consultation with treaty First Nations during the drafting and adoption of the R.H.A.A. is a direct reflection of the lack of respect by the current provincial administration for our distinct and special status as treaty First Nations people," the paper reads.

"We are not prepared to go under provincial control as far as the delivery of health services is concerned," said Large. "Gradually we are being coerced into being part of the process of devolution, or may I say, assimilation into the non-Native culture and system."

This is something Large wants no part of.

How has this health care system affected Native people? Chief Wilson Bearhead of the Paul First Nation, located west of Edmonton, said a woman from his community was taken to a local hospital in Stony Plain when she was ready to give birth. When it became apparent the woman would be served better by a larger hospital in Edmonton, the hospital refused to transfer her because of the cost of ambulance service.

"It appears to me that instead of going forward, we are going backward," Bearhead said.

The people's only recourse is to push for a system of health care that will be directly controlled by and accountable to Native people, he said.