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A MEMORIAL

URGING THE UNITED STATES CONGRESS TO INCREASE FUNDING FOR THE

INDIAN HEALTH SERVICE IN ORDER TO PROVIDE THE HEALTH SERVICES

TO WHICH NATIVE AMERICANS ARE ENTITLED BY TREATY.

WHEREAS, a shortfall of millions of dollars in the

federal Indian health service budget over recent years has

already resulted in a severe cutback in health care services

to the more than one hundred eighty thousand Native Americans

living in New Mexico; and

WHEREAS, requests for emergency appropriations from the

United States congress to the Indian health service have been

deferred due to the high cost of supporting the war in Iraq;

and

WHEREAS, delays in obtaining health care will discourage

Native Americans from seeking treatment in a timely manner and

may have a significant adverse effect on their state of

health; and

WHEREAS, cutbacks in Indian health services have

affected other health care providers and facilities, as

deserving patients no longer being served by the Indian health

service seek services elsewhere; and

WHEREAS, the country's trust obligation to fund services

for Native Americans deprived of their lands and traditional

ways and to provide access to adequate health care for Native

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Americans is founded in treaty, statute, constitution and

ethics; and

WHEREAS, the Indian health service, prior to funding

cuts, spent an estimated one thousand nine hundred twenty

dollars ($1,920) per patient, which is less than half the

amount spent for veterans, for federal prisoners or for

medicare recipients; and

WHEREAS, New Mexico ranks second in the country in the

percentage of the population that is Native American;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF

REPRESENTATIVES OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO that the New Mexico

congressional delegation be requested to urge the United

States congress to adequately fund the Indian health service

to ensure that Native Americans in New Mexico receive the

health care to which they are entitled by treaty; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be

transmitted to the governor, the secretary of health, the

secretary of Indian affairs, the president of the Navajo

Nation, the speaker of the Navajo Nation council, the

president of the Mescalero Apache Tribe, the president of the

Jicarilla Apache Nation, the governors of the nineteen Indian

pueblos in New Mexico; the members of the New Mexico

congressional delegation, the federal secretary of health and

human services and the director of the federal Indian health

service.