Indian Health Service Awards $24.5 Million to Enhance Access to Essential Public Health Services

Today, the Indian Health Service announced the award of $24.5 million in grants to 23 tribes, tribal organizations, and urban Indian organizations as part of a competitive grant program to develop and improve access to public health services over the next three years. The grant program is comprised of two initiatives to enhance public health.

One initiative is the Native Public Health Resilience Program that seeks to expand public health services by supporting tribes, tribal organizations, and urban Indian organizations in implementing core public health functions, services, and activities, and to further develop and improve their public health management capabilities.

The other initiative is the Native Public Health Resilience Planning Program that is designed to assist tribes, tribal organizations, and urban Indian organizations to establish goals and performance measures, assess their current management capacity, and determine if developing a public health program is practicable.

“At the Indian Health Service, we recognize that tribal leaders and members are in the best position to understand the public health needs and priorities of their communities,” said IHS Director Roselyn Tso. “These grants will support our core strategic goal of ensuring that comprehensive, culturally appropriate personal and public health services are available and accessible to the American Indian and Alaska Native communities that we serve.”

The annual funding distribution under the Native Public Health Resilience Program is:

Grant Recipient	City	State	Amount
Bemidji Area
American Indian Health and Family Services of SE MI, Inc.	Detroit	MI	$400,000
Forest County Potawatomi Community	Crandon	WI	$400,000
Ho-Chunk Nation	Black River Falls	WI	$400,000
Billings Area
Blackfeet Tribe	Browning	MT	$397,640
Northern Arapaho Tribe	Fort Washakie	WY	$338,223
California Area
Toiyabe Indian Health Project	Bishop	CA	$306,237
Tule River Public Health Authority	Porterville	CA	$400,000
Great Plains Area
Great Plains Tribal Leaders Health Board	Rapid City	SD	$400,000
Ponca Tribe of Nebraska	Niobrara	NE	$400,000
Rosebud Sioux Tribe	Rosebud	SD	$400,000
Winnebago Comprehensive Healthcare System	Winnebago	NE	$400,000
Oklahoma City Area
Cherokee Nation	Tahlequah	OK	$400,000
Chickasaw Nation	Ada	OK	$400,000
Choctaw Nation	Durant	OK	$237,000
Osage Nation Si-Si A-Pe-Txa	Pawhuska	OK	$400,000
Southern Plains Tribal Health Board Foundation	Oklahoma City	OK	$400,000
Texas Native Health	Dallas	TX	$400,000
Portland Area
Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community of Oregon	Grand Ronde	OR	$400,000
Swinomish Indian Tribal Community	La Conner	WA	$443,451
Yellowhawk Tribal Health Center	Pendleton	OR	$342,156

The annual funding distribution under the Native Public Health Resilience Planning Program is:

Grant Recipient	City	State	Amount
Nashville Area
Catawba Indian Nation	Rock Hill	SC	$200,000
Oklahoma City Area
Muscogee (Creek) Nation	Okmulgee	OK	$200,000
Northeastern Tribal Health System	Miami	OK	$122,448

As part of the IHS mission, the grant program seeks to build on and strengthen community resilience by supporting wider access to the 10 Essential Public Health Services in Indian Country, a framework designed to offer all people a fair and just opportunity to achieve optimal health and well-being.

The framework of the EPHS has served as a guide to the public health field since 1994 and describes the public health activities that all communities should undertake. The IHS is awarding these competitive grants to assist applicants in enhancing EPHS implementation within established public health programs serving tribal communities.

The Division of Epidemiology and Disease Prevention provides and supports applied public health and epidemiologic services to further the overall IHS mission. Through the provision of direct services and key partnerships, our collective work strives to improve overall awareness, understanding, and mitigation of priority health conditions negatively impacting tribal populations. The American Rescue Plan Act appropriated funding to IHS for purposes that include enhancing public health capacity.

The IHS, an agency in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, provides a comprehensive health service delivery system for approximately 2.8 million American Indians and Alaska Natives who belong to 574 federally recognized tribes in 37 states. Follow the agency via social media on Facebook, X, and LinkedIn.