Tribal sovereignty is the right of an independent authority to govern tribal members. In regards to dental care, this is the right to train, license, and employ professionals. Right now this system is not working. Native Americans are faced with oral ailments at a ridiculously disproportionate rate compared to other ethnic or cultural groups, and have limited access to adequate care. Due to the lobbying of the American …show more content…
David A. Nash, a professor of Pediatric Dentistry at the University of Kentucky, and Ron J. Nagel, a winner of Myron Allukian Jr. Lifetime Achievement Award for Outstanding Contributions in Community Dental Programs, conducted a study on the disparities in oral health between Native American children and the general population. They found that there are only 85 American Indian and Alaskan Native dentists, 1 for every 35,000 American Indian/Alaskan Native individuals. 70 of them are employed by a tribe or the Indian Health Service, which is a federal health program for Alaskan Natives and Native Americans (Nash et …show more content…
Canada has a program for assisting Native peoples with limited access in its northern provinces. If DHATs don’t make significant changes to the oral health of Native Americans in the mainland United States, tribal sovereignty in regards to dental care should be violated to ensure the welfare of tribal members.
There also needs to be an increase in funding for the Indian Health Service (IHS), who is responsible for providing health services to tribes. In an interview with the Huffington Post, the head of the IHS, Yvette Roubideaux, called for change and improvement. stated that they have done the best they could, for the limited funding and resources that they have (Giago). With more funding, the dental issues the native community faces can be alleviated.
Throughout US History, Native Americans have been robbed the rights that they deserve. As a result, in modern times, Native Americans continue to be at a disadvantage. We now