By Claire Carlson for The Daily Yonder.
Broadcast version by Eric Tegethoff for Oregon News Service for the Public News Service/Daily Yonder Collaboration

A new public health clinic on the Grand Ronde reservation in rural Polk and Yamhill counties, Oregon, promises to address healthcare gaps and advance tribal sovereignty for the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde. The clinic, which opened May 17, 2024, will offer preventative services like vaccines, dental care, and nutrition classes to bolster the overall wellbeing of tribal members.

Officials working for the tribe say the new clinic will help the community take care of its own. "We're making sure that we can look after our own members and not be waiting on somebody else to provide some kind of help or service or something," said Ryan Webb, the engineering and planning manager for the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, at a press tour of the new building on May 6.

The clinic will add to an already robust hospital system that offers basic and specialty care to the community, which means tribal members don't have to travel far distances (a minimum of 50 miles round trip to the nearest city) to access the majority of their healthcare needs.

Tribal members said this kind of self-reliance is nonnegotiable because of a long history of mistreatment by the federal government.

In 1857, the government forcibly removed the Tillamook people - a diverse group of Native Americans who lived up and down the Oregon coast in 29 distinct bands each with their own language - from their homelands and onto the original Grand Ronde reservation, creating the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde. Over 300 Native Americans were forced to walk more than 200 miles to get to the reservation, a journey that's remembered by tribal members as Grand Ronde's "Trail of Tears." Once they reached the reservation, services like healthcare and education were promised to be provided by the federal government, but tribal members say these promises were not kept.

Then, in 1954, Congress passed the Western Oregon Termination Act that ended federal recognition of 60 tribes in western Oregon, the largest number of tribes to be terminated under any single federal law. This meant that the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, along with tribes like the Coos, Coquille, Siletz, Siuslaw, and Lower Umpqua, lost every treaty right they had with the federal government.

"Everything was taken," said Cheryle Kennedy, chairwoman of the Grand Ronde tribal council and former tribal health director. "There wasn't compensation or anything. It was, 'no, you're no longer Indian, no more identity. You can't receive any Indian service and all of your land is gone.'" It was the government's way of assimilating Native Americans into mainstream American culture.

The government was no longer required to offer any of the programs or resources extended to federally recognized tribes. Any property held by the tribes was taken by the government, which proved to be economically devastating, especially to the Klamath Tribes in southern Oregon who possessed valuable timberlands.

Eventually, after nearly three decades of lobbying, some Oregon tribes regained federal recognition, including the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde in 1983. Their current reservation is roughly 11,500 acres in size.

The tribe has been working to rebuild their nation since receiving federal recognition for the second time, and a thriving healthcare system has been central to this effort. The first health clinic in Grand Ronde was built in 1997, and the tribe has been expanding ever since.

Currently, tribal members can receive optometry, pharmacy, behavioral health, cardiology, opioid treatment, and naturopathy services on the reservation. Kelly Rowe, the tribe's current health director, is working to bring endocrinology, rheumatology, and nephrology services to Grand Ronde. All enrolled Grand Ronde tribal members can get free health services from the hospital.

"The whole thought behind the big clinic was to bring everything here to Grand Ronde so people could get it without having to travel," Rowe said.

The newly-built public health clinic expands the hospital's preventative health services by providing a permanent location for vaccine administration (a need the Covid-19 pandemic highlighted), dental care, and nutrition classes. It also features an outdoor fish pit where tribal members can learn how to prepare traditional meals.

The clinic was built with support from Energy Trust, a nonprofit that works with utilities, community organizations, government agencies and others to bring the benefits of energy efficiency and renewable energy to more people in Oregon, according to an Energy Trust spokesperson.

Energy Trust pointed the tribe to sustainability grants to pay for the solar panels that cover the building's roof, which the tribe said will enable them to be even more self-reliant in the face of natural disaster. If their electricity goes out, the new building will still be able to power itself, keeping vaccines that require refrigeration cool.

Along with the technical support from Energy Trust, the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde paid for the project using Covid-19 federal relief funds and tribal money.

"I think that [shows] the tribe's investment in healthcare for its people, because they're very committed to making sure that they're providing healthcare and providing as much as possible for the membership," Rowe said.


Claire Carlson wrote this article for The Daily Yonder.


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CORRECTIONS: Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson was not at the 3rd annual taskforce summit. An earlier version incorrectly stated he had attended. In addition, the story now mentions that the American Indian Health Commission organized the summit. (11:12 a.m. PST, June 30, 2025)

Native Americans in Washington state face opioid and fentanyl overdose rates four times the national average and leaders are calling for more investment in treatment centers and transitional housing to address the problem.

While nationally fentanyl overdoses have declined, Native American fatalities have surged since the pandemic.

Rep. Debra Lekanoff, D-Bellingham, is part of the State Tribal Opioid-Fentanyl Taskforce. She serves Whatcom County, where overdose-related fatalities are the highest in the state.

"I can't tell you the number of times that the Native American communities of Lummi Nation and of the Nooksack Tribe have stood next to their graves being in such sadness from the loss of their grandmothers, their mothers, their children," Lekanoff recounted.

During the taskforce's third annual summit, organized by the American Indian Health Commission, tribal leaders and state agencies met for three days and heard from community members in recovery from opioid use disorder.

Last year, Lekanoff noted, the task force partnered with tribal governments and invested in substance abuse treatment facilities based on a successful model created by the Swinomish.

"The model that Swinomish created 12 years ago has now been incorporated into over 20 tribally owned substance abuse disorder facilities that are healing all Washingtonians," Lekanoff explained.

Lekanoff added in the next couple of years the task force will focus on transitional housing for those recovering from substance abuse. She stressed it is a nonpartisan issue and it will take everyone working together to make change.

"It is going to take us recognizing that we're one people, we're one family, we're one community in Washington state," Lekanoff emphasized.


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American Indian and Alaska Native communities in Colorado continue to face significant gaps in health care access, quality and outcomes, according to a new analysis of the Colorado All Payer Claims Database.

While the communities face higher rates of many chronic conditions, they are also not getting important preventive care.

David Wright, data manager at the Denver Indian Center, said fear remains a primary barrier, pointing to decades of mistreatment, including the forced sterilization of women and federal policies forcing medicine men and other spiritual leaders into mental asylums up until 1978.

"Native people, for a long time, have been used to advance medical research without their consent," Wright pointed out. "And so there's a large mistrust within the native communities against the medical profession."

Between 2018 and 2024, American Indian and Alaska Native people were diagnosed with kidney disease, autoimmune, nervous, metabolic and endocrine disorders such as diabetes at rates far above their white peers. Wright noted the analysis, produced in partnership with the Center for Improving Value in Health Care, will be used to create a culturally tailored education program for health providers.

Without additional training, Wright pointed out health professionals are likely to continue to assume chronic conditions are due to an individual's dietary choices. Many do not understand for more than 100 years, tribes had to rely on government rations, typically high in carbohydrates and salt, to get enough calories.

"Because of the forced relocation and the reservation systems, and relying on heavily carbohydrate related rations," Wright added.

Poverty, lack of affordable housing and the breakdown of family systems also disproportionately affect health outcomes. Wright argued better health will require treating the whole person, not just specific medical conditions. When people are out of balance in any one area, he stressed there are ripple effects.

"If we're not able to provide stable housing -- which is not only of mental and emotional and physical importance -- but it also will affect the outcomes and the teachings and the role modeling you need for your children and your family structures," Wright emphasized.


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Ho-Chunk has kicked off its summer internship program in Nebraska after sifting through 600 applicants.

It is opening pathways to higher education and leadership positions within the Winnebago Tribe in Nebraska. The Ho-Chunk Incorporated internship program will mentor nearly two dozen students this summer, 14 of whom are members of the Winnebago Tribe.

Aaron LaPointe, CEO of Ho-Chunk Capital, started as an intern and said the program is an opportunity for interns to learn a business from the ground up - and he has personal experience.

"I was studying agriculture, and the CEO here at Ho-Chunk was like, 'What? We have a tribal member studying agriculture? He's got to run this farm,'" LaPointe recounted.

LaPointe started by running the farm and ascended to head Ho-Chunk Capital, an investment arm of the corporation. He took on several other roles on his way up the ladder, too. The internship program is highly competitive. From hundreds of applicants, only 24 were accepted.

In addition to learning skills they need to be successful in business, LaPointe said, interns also gain the confidence to do their jobs.

"Our interns aren't just sitting in a cubicle off to the side filing," he explained. "They're in the board meetings, they're in the executive board meetings and strategizing business, and we really make it a well-rounded experience."

The internship program runs until Aug. 1.