When I started my career in civil engineering nine years ago, I was a full-time construction inspector for our clients who were various First Nations in Ontario. I was an inspector at three subdivisions (installing water mains, sanitary mains, and roads), a water treatment plant, a lift station, and part-time fill-in at a wastewater treatment plant upgrade. I even helped install some of these infrastructure on my own rez on Manitoulin Island. In every community I worked, I found this bitter community attitude towards upgrades. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to deduce that it stems from a long history of deadly broken promises. I found it difficult to maintain a meta-perspective and not take it personally (I was pretty young). I earned a certain amount of credibility in my own community because my family has garnered a lot of respect on my rez but it was harder in some others. But, community meetings were hard. The level of distrust was almost comical if it wasn't so depressing.

On a side note, that really was the best job I've ever had. I sometimes wish I hadn't fallen so in love with the S.F. Bay Area.

I like that this article includes a nod to the self-determination that the people of the community used to get this health center. I'm tired of being tragic.

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A Rising but Doubted Dream on a Reservation
By DAN BARRY
Published: July 12, 2009
EAGLE BUTTE, S.D.


...The Corps of Engineers built a health center to serve this grassy sprawl of distant towns and often-rutted roads, but as the only one of any size on the reservation, the center could not keep up with the growing population. The tribe began working on a plan for a better, larger operation that would also make it eligible for more money to improve services.

It clearly had the need, with higher rates of births and deaths, including infant deaths, than the region’s non-Indian population. The birthing unit had been closed because of quality-of-care concerns, the bathrooms could not accommodate wheelchairs, and recruiting efforts often died as soon as, say, a nurse from out of town saw the drab efficiency apartments set aside for the staff.

And there was the familiar matter of location, location. When tribal members require anything more than modest medical attention, they must be taken by ambulance or plane to hospitals far from the reservation — in Rapid City, S.D., or maybe Bismarck, N.D., both about 180 miles away....

read the whole thing here