Shakopee, Minnesota - The Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community announces two grants which will help improve health care on South Dakota Indian reservations. A $54,000 grant will help the Oglala Sioux Tribe purchase a handicap accessible vehicle for transporting diabetic and wheelchair bound patients to medical appointments. A $15,000 grant will go to the Yankton Sioux Tribe to purchase five blood volume measurement units for the dialysis center at the local Indian Health Service hospital in Wagner, South Dakota.

For the Oglala Sioux Tribe, the van purchase will help the transportation services program become self-sufficient because of an anticipated increase in potential reimbursements due to its purchase and use. Community health representatives and ambulances currently transport these patients in their own personal vehicles and in ambulances which cannot always safely accommodate those in wheelchairs.

“We are striving for sustainability in the area of third party billing for our transportation services. However, with restrictions from Medicare and Medicaid our reimbursement rates would increase if we have an accessible handicap vehicle. Our primary concern is safety obligations to our clients along with insurance liabilities. A handicap accessible vehicle will be greatly appreciated by our drivers along with the handicap challenged community members that we serve,” wrote Anne Eagle Bull, Assistant Director OST Health Administration in the request.

A $15,000 grant will go to the Yankton Sioux Tribe to purchase five blood volume measurement units for the dialysis center at the local Indian Health Service hospital in Wagner, South Dakota. These units are used to gather data on the effects of dialysis treatment or the actions of the patient on the blood volume. In 2003 the SMSC donated $150,000 to fund equipment and operation of the Wagner Dialysis Unit housed at the same Indian Health Service. The unit was scheduled for closure due to federal budget cuts, but with the SMSC donation, dialysis patients were able to continue their treatments locally. Without the SMSC donation, the patients would have had to travel more than two hours roundtrip several times a week for dialysis. In fiscal year 2004 the SMSC gave them a $100,000 grant for a diabetes integrated prevention and management program.

Both the Oglala Sioux Tribe and the Yankton Sioux Tribes are members of the Great Sioux Nation which consists of seven campfires or Council Fires, which includes the Mdewakanton, Wahpekute, Wahpeton, Sisseton, Yankton, Yanktonais, and Teton bands of Sioux. The Oglala Sioux Band is one of the seven distinct and sovereign bands of the Teton group. The Oglala Sioux Tribe has approximately 41,000 tribal members of whom about one-half reside on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, a territory that covers over 4,700 square miles. The Yankton Sioux Tribe is comprised of the Yankton and Yanktonais Bands of the Great Sioux Nation’s Seven Council Fires. Of a membership of more than 11,000, about 3,500 live on or near the reservation of more than 40,000 acres in Charles Mix County.

For more information on the Oglala Sioux Tribe, go to http://home.comcast.net/~zebrec/index.html or www.state.sd.us/oia/oglala.asp. For more information about the Yankton Sioux Tribe, go to www.state.sd.us/oia/yankton.asp.

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