Ground broken for new Fort Indian Hospital

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There have been many community celebrations across Saskatchewan to mark the sod-turning of a new hospital, but few ever proceeded like the ceremonies to mark the construction of the new Fort Qu?Appelle Indian Hospital.

Following a morning of prayers and blessing from Elders from area First Nations, the first of many shovels full of dirt to be moved for the new Fort Qu?Appelle Indian Hospital left the ground recently.

Cloudy skies and chilly weather failed to chill the spirits of about 80 people in a tent on Fort Qu?Appelle?s southeast side that Thursday morning as federal, provincial, Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations and File Hills Qu?Appelle Tribal Council officials oversaw the ceremonial sod-turning for the new hospital.

The new health care facility will be more than a new hospital, speakers during the ceremony told the crowd. It will be a symbol of how the Qu?Appelle Valley?s First Nations and non-Aboriginal peoples can work together for meeting mutual needs, and a symbol of an important promise made in Treaty 4 ? the provision of health care for treaty Indians.

?When Treaty 4 was signed here (in September 1874) our chiefs had the foresight to know that they would require facilities, services and people to meet their important needs such as health care,? said Touchwood Tribal Council representative Bill Strongarm. ?Their spirit and presence is here with us today.?

The new hospital will replace the current Fort Qu?Appelle Indian Hospital, which was constructed in the 1930s and extensively renovated in the 1950s.

While the spirit of the past may have been at the ceremony, tribal council representative president Ron Crowe said the new facility will be built with an eye to the future.

?We are building this facility not for ourselves but for our children and their children to come,? said Crowe, who also chairs the Fort Qu?Appelle Indian Hospital Holding Company, that operates the present hospital and will own the new hospital once it is constructed.

?The new facility is symbolic of our determination to control the delivery of our own health care, and our treaty right to medical care, as well as the partnership with our non-Aboriginal brothers and sisters to provide health care.?

Provincial Health Minister Pat Atkinson told the crowd that the new facility will be ?a place of healing and compassion.?

She also said the province will lobby, with the tribal council and the FSIN, for money to operate a diabetes centre of excellence at the new hospital.

?First Nations and Metis people have more per capita cases of diabetes than the national average,? she said in an interview after the ceremony. ?A centre of excellence is needed for programs and equipment that will aid in preventing and controlling that condition.?

Diabetes is a disease in which the body fails to make enough insulin to break down sugars in digested food. There is no known cure for the disease but it is currently treated by a combination of diet, exercise, and in some cases insulin injections.

For reasons that medical science still doesn?t know, diabetes affects First Nations and Metis peoples at a proportionally greater rate than non-Aboriginal people. First Nations people are three times more likely to contract diabetes than non-Aboriginal people.

According to statistics supplied by the Touchwood Qu?Appelle Health District, 50 of every 1,000 residents ? one in 20 ? suffer from diabetes. The neighboring Pipestone Health District has 43 people with diabetes for every 1,000 residents. The provincial average is 37 diabetics for every 1,000 people.

About 45,000 Saskatchewan residents have diabetes. The disease provides long-term complications for those affected, including kidney failure, heart disease, stroke and blindness.

The most recent statistics on diabetes prevalence amongst Aboriginal peoples, provided in February by the health district, suggest one out of every 10 Aboriginal people over the age of 15 will cntract diabetes.

The risk of contracting the disease will increase as the person gets older. About 23 per cent of Aboriginal people over the age of 65, according to those statistics, are likely to come down with the disease.

In their speeches, Fort Qu?Appelle town councillor Ted Chickowski and Touchwood Qu?Appelle Health District chairman Tom Braithwaite also praised the project.

?The people of Fort Qu?Appelle are really excited about getting this new hospital,? said Chickowski.

In a sunrise ceremony, Elders and spiritual leaders from local First Nations held prayers to bless the new project. This reflects First Nations? belief that spiritual and physical health are at one with the body, said FSIN third vice-chief Louis Cyr, a former chief of the Pasqua First Nation.

Much of the money for the new Fort Qu?Appelle Indian Hospital will come from a $10 million grant the federal government has made in previous years to the province. That grant was to pay for capital expenses towards health care facilities for First Nations people.

This will make the Fort Qu?Appelle Indian Hospital unique among health care facilities in the province, where most are built, paid in large part, and operated by Saskatchewan Health and local health districts.

Construction on the new facility is expected to begin in the spring of 2001. The new facility should be open by 2002.

Under the agreement made between the federal and provincial governments and the tribal council to fund the new facility, the new hospital must open its doors by Oct. 31, 2003.