Dressed in her finest regalia, the young fancy dancer twirled. Her feet, clad in pumpkin orange moccasins kept time, as her beadwork glistened in the sun, as her fringed shawl pom-pommed about her.

Her performance came toward the end of SpiritWalk 2007, a June 2 event that drew over 200 participants to Seattle Center in an effort to raise funds to support healthy lifestyles for Alaska Natives and American Indians. Sponsored by the Seattle Indian Health Board (SIHB), the cultural event, in its 13th year, was designed to spotlight Indians and Natives living in urban environs.

A young fancy dancer peforms as part of SpiritWalk 2007. Sponsored by the Seattle Indian Health Board, the event raised $25,000 to promote health within urban Indian and Native Alaskan communities. Photo by Elliot Stoller

SIHB Associate Director Rebecca Corpuz says that it’s easy for most urban dwellers to lose sight of why the services the organization’s divisions provide — encompassing medical and dental, mental health, and chemical dependency services such as the Thunderbird Treatment Center — are so vital. “A lot of time,” Corpuz says, “people don’t understand what the need is for the program in a city.”

The Seattle-based Urban Indian Health Institute reports that urban Indians experience higher death rates from accidents (38 percent higher) and diabetes (54 percent higher than the rates for all races combined).

Locally, the situation is just as troubling. A 2003 report from the state’s Center for Health Statistics found that, for all races in King County, the infant mortality rate per 1,000 live births was 5.1. For American Indians and Alaska Natives, the rate was 14.9 deaths per 1,000 live births.

But if actions are any guide, one person who fails to comprehend the dire need is President Bush. In his budget for 2008, he proposed cutting all federal funding—some $33 million—for the nation’s Urban Indian Health Program, which provides SIHB with about half of its operating budget.

Corpuz contends that Native and Indian people don’t usually visit non-Indian health centers, due to concerns about discrimination, perceived or real. Seeing another Native face offering you assistance, she says, can make the critical difference in health care, which she views as broad and expansive. “It’s not just your medical care,” says Corouz. “It’s your home life, your economic life.”

Last year, Bush also tried to take a hatchet to the Urban Indian Health Program. But in February, the Democratic-controlled Congress restored funding that provides care to an estimated 150,000 urban Indians each year. Corpuz says she hopes Congress will offer a repeat performance for the upcoming fiscal budget.

“Nobody knows what’s happening,” says Corpuz, “but we’re cautiously optimistic.”

Her optimism for the future, on at least one level, is being borne out. On May 23, the House Appropriations Subcommittee on the Interior voted to give the program $34 million — a million dollars more — than Bush is seeking to cut for 2008. Chaired by Congressman Norm Dicks (D-Bremerton), the subcommittee’s approval is the first of numerous steps to be taken by the House, steps that will have to be mirrored in the Senate with passage of its own bill.

But trying to eradicate funding for urban Indian health is merely symptomatic of a larger issue, says Geoffrey Roth, executive director of the National Council of Urban Indian Health. “I think there’s a broad distrust towards Indian people [in the administration],” he says.

Roth sees the administration’s distrust epitomized by cuts proposed to other programs that directly affect Native populations, including funding for the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Johnson-O’Malley Act, which provides money for the educational needs of Native youth.

SpiritWalk 2007 raised over $25,000 for programs not covered by federal funds. Even still, Corpuz says there’s much more to be done to bolster the health of urban Natives and Indians. Having the federal government value Indians and Alaska Natives, and support them financially, she believes, is the cure-all that will ultimately make a difference.

“How do you take [Native health] up a notch without focusing on it?” Corpuz asks. “You can’t.”

More information about the Seattle Indian Health Board can be found at www.sihb.org, or by calling (206) 324-9360.