Dana Ferguson

Democrats and Republicans on the House Committee on Energy and Commerce have asked the leader of the Indian Health Service to address two investigations that highlighted serious lapses in the agency’s care for Native Americans.

Dozens of patients have died needlessly due to errors made in Indian Health Service hospitals in South Dakota alone.

The Argus Leader reviewed hundreds of pages of federal hospital inspection records and legal filings as part of a monthslong investigation into the facilities. And reporters met with dozens of tribal members on visits to the Rosebud and Pine Ridge Indian Reservations.

The move to push tribes onto reservations came with health consequences. Traditional diets were harder to access, which meant people couldn’t hunt or gather traditional foods or ingredients for medicines.