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Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle speaks during the Democratic National Convention in Denver. Daschle has accepted President-elect Barack Obama's offer to be Secretary of Health and Human Services, Democratic officials say.Associated Press photo by Charles Dharapak

Daschle's Chance to 'Prove It'

By Kevin Abourezk

As a young man in college, I had an older Native friend, a mentor for whom I had the deepest respect, who often would tell me: "Prove it."

Whether I was telling him about a college leadership position I had gained or a job I had been offered, my friend's response was always the same.

It doesn't matter what laurels others bestow upon you. It doesn't matter what you say or what you promise.

It only matters what you do.

That's why when I learned this week president-elect Barack Obama had offered the post of Secretary of Health and Human Services to former South Dakota Sen. Tom Daschle, two words came to my mind: "Prove it."

To be sure, Daschle's nomination is being hailed in all corners of Indian Country.

Take National Congress of American Indians President Joe Garcia, for example:

"Sen. Daschle was a strong advocate for Native Americans as the Senate Majority Leader and has always advocated strongly for Native people as a representative from South Dakota. We look forward to working with him to bring the Indian Health Service into the 21st century and address the profound health disparities in tribal communities."

Even my mother who lives on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota couldn't hide her elation when I spoke to her Wednesday night.

Obama's nomination of Daschle, she said, gave her hope, hope that the voluminous problems facing Indian health care might finally, finally be addressed.

I didn't have the heart to share with her my reservations about the news.

I couldn't find a way to say to her we'll be lucky if Daschle ever finds time as he goes about trying to completely revamp this country's shattered health care system to tackle a problem as persistent and immense as Indian health care.

I didn't know how to say that since he lost re-election to the Senate in November 2002 Daschle has said hardly a word about Indian health care.

That wasn't always the case. While a senator and seeking re-election, Daschle often spoke about Indian health care in reaching out to his state's Native voters, who were so critical to his political career.

Take, for example, this passage from Daschle's Senate Web site:

"While fully funding Indian health care as an entitlement for all eligible users of the Indian Health Service (IHS) is a dream I would like to see fully realized, addressing the immediate crisis - in particular, providing full funding for clinical services for the current IHS user population - is my first priority. Although both treaty and statute ‘guarantee' Indians access to health care, Congress has grossly underfunded the Indian Health Service for decades, so much so that patients are routinely denied care that most of us would take for granted and, in many cases, consider essential."

According to NCAI Executive Director Jacqueline Johnson Pata, Daschle knows how important Indian Health Services is and is a longtime supporter of the Indian Health Care Improvement Act (IHCIA). His Native policies became key aspects of Obama's own Native policy platform, Johnson Pata said in an interview this week.

And she's hopeful the former Senate majority leader will carry out his former promises to improve Indian health care, promises that included elevating the IHS director to assistant secretary status.

"He cares about Indian health," Johnson Pata said. "I just think he's going to be good wherever he is."

I can only hope she's right.

With the IHCIA hung up in Congress and Indian Country facing a health care crisis of epidemic proportions, Indian health care has never needed a champion like it does now.

In the coming months and years, Native people waiting endlessly for life-and-death treatment in IHS hospital waiting rooms are likely to have one word on their lips: Daschle.

I'll have two: Prove it.

Kevin Abourezk's "Red Clout" columns are available for syndication. Please contact reznet to purchase republishing rights.

Kevin Abourezk, Rosebud Lakota, is a reporter and editor at the Lincoln (Neb.) Journal Star. He writes reznet's "Red Clout" political blog and teaches reporting at the Freedom Forum's American Indian Journalism Institute. Abourezk was awarded a Casey Medal for Meritorious Journalism in 2006.

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