The Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation of North Dakota can finally break ground on a long-overdue hospital.

The Fiscal Year 2009 Omnibus Appropriations Act provides $17 million for the Elbowoods Memorial Health Center. Work on the facility will start later this year.

"We're ecstatic," project manager Jim Foote told The Minot Daily News.

The tribe lost its first hospital to the creation of the Garrison Dam in the 1950s. The federal government never replaced the facility, leading the tribe to lobby Congress for a new one.

Get the Story:
Tribes move ahead with new health-care center (The Minot Daily News 3/17)

FY 2009 Omnibus Appropriations Act:
H.R.1105 | Text and Explanatory Statement | More Details

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