In December, the Seattle City Council voted to make a difference in the lives of our city’s urban Indians. Specifically, the council voted to allow the Seattle Indian Health Board to purchase and rehabilitate Leschi Center, where the board has operated a full-service health and wellness clinic for 25 years. This is an opportunity for the Health Board to better serve the 40,000 urban Indians who live in King County. For many, it is the primary source of health care. But it is only the beginning. The health disparities between urban Indians and the general population are little-known outside the Native American community. They are shocking. In Washington state, American Indian and Alaska Native infants are nearly twice as likely to die as other infants. American Indians and Alaska Natives generally face higher and earlier mortality rates for chronic conditions, such as diabetes and heart disease. Health disparities are greater because of multiple socio-economic indicators: Urban Indians in cities like Seattle have some of the highest poverty rates and lowest rates of employment and education. There are also disparities in federal funding. The federal government funds the Indian Health Service, which in turn supports the Seattle Indian Health Board. Urban Indians receive just 1 percent of all federal dollars set aside for Indian health — even though 71 percent of American Indians and Alaska Natives live in metropolitan areas.Get the Story:
Polly Olsen: Providing for the health of urban American Indians (The Seattle Times 1/25)
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