“No one is gonna commit to our communities as much as we will.”

Basketball brings the Lakota, Nakota, and Dakota together. So does the work of taking care of their own. The Great Plains Tribal Leaders Health Board, serving all 18 Tribes in the Great Plains region, recognized that the federal Indian Health Service system was not meeting the needs of their communities. Around 2010, Tribes began the conversation about 638, the section of ISDEAA that allows Tribes to assume operation of their own programs.

What followed was a transformation. The Oyate Health Center grew from three behavioral health providers to seventeen. The Tribes purchased a new building to expand care before the main clinic was even finished. They added equine therapy, talking circles, yoga, sweat lodges, and brought in spiritual leaders to guide the work. Wait times dropped, services expanded, and grant funding flowed in ways IHS could not have pursued.

Featuring Jerilyn Church, President and CEO of the Great Plains Tribal Leaders Health Board, along with Tribal leaders Bryan Brewer, Richard Boyd, and Brandon Ecoffey.

📺 Companion story: “Connecting With Our Youth: Oyate Health Center” follows the youth mentorship program built within this clinic.