About Us
The leadership and staff of the Nashville Area are dedicated to protecting and elevating the health status of the American Indian people we serve, by consistently providing an efficient collaborative system of medically appropriate, preventive, therapeutic, consultative and educational activities. This system, which advocates and enhances self-determination, is tailored to the unique cultures and diverse needs of our customers, and is delivered through qualified health care administrators and service providers.
In 1970, tribal leaders from the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, Seminole Tribe of Florida and the Miccosukee Tribe of Florida advocated for a higher level of service and Indian Health Service (IHS) presence in the southeastern United States, in closer proximity to their respective reservations and tribal members. The answer to this request came with the establishment of a Program Office, located in Sarasota, Florida. The new Program Office provided the tribes in the southeast region with staff solely dedicated to their needs and services. As more tribes across the south and into the northeast began to gain federal recognition, the IHS recognized the need for an increase in staff and service levels. In 1975, the Program Office was relocated to Nashville, Tennessee and officially established as the Nashville Area Office.
Today, the Nashville Area Indian Health Service serves 36 tribes or nations with fourteen Title I (contracted) Tribally Administered programs, nine Title V (compacted) Tribally Administered programs, three IHS Federal Direct Care Service Unit programs, three Purchased/Referred Care operations, three Urban Indian Health programs, and one Youth Regional Treatment Center. These tribes and nations are dispersed across fifteen states, although the Nashville Area also assists patients in a total of twenty-four states in the eastern, southeastern and mid-United States.
Due to our geographic diversity, the Nashville Area health programs rely on a combination of long-distance communication and on-site meetings, conferences, site visits, trainings and tribal consultation sessions to share information with one another.
Area Tribes, Nations & Partners
- Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas
- Mi’kmaq Nation
- Catawba Indian Nation of South Carolina
- Cayuga Nation of Indians
- Chickahominy Indian Tribe
- Chitimacha Tribe of Louisiana
- Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana
- Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians
- Eastern Chickahominy Tribe of Virginia
- Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians
- Jena Band of Choctaw Indians
- Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation
- Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe
- Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida
- Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians
- Mohegan Tribe of Connecticut
- Monacan Indian Nation
- Nansemond Indian Tribal Association
- Narragansett Indian Tribe
- Oneida Indian Nation of New York
- Onondaga Nation of New York
- Pamunkey Indian Tribe
- Passamaquoddy Tribe Indian Township
- Passamaquoddy Tribe Pleasant Point
- Penobscot Indian Nation
- Poarch Band of Creek Indians
- Rappahannock Tribe
- Seminole Tribe of Florida
- Seneca Nation of Indians
- Shinnecock Indian Nation
- St. Regis Mohawk Tribe
- Tonawanda Seneca Nation
- Tunica-Biloxi of Louisiana
- Tuscarora Nation
- United South & Eastern Tribes
- Upper Mattaponi Indian Tribe
- Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head Aquinnah
Description of Indian Health Service Budget Categories
- Description of Budget Categories [PDF - 68KB]
