Upper Skagit Tribe

Upper Skagit Tribe
Upper Skagit Tribal Health Facility
2284 Community Plaza
Sedro Woolley WA 98284
Fax: 360-856-3537

About the Clinic

Location
The Clinic is located at 2284 Community Plaza in Sedro, Washington. The NWSUHB is a non-profit organization established in the early 1980's. The Health Board contracts for sanitarian services under a P.L. 93-638, Title I consortium agreement.

Services/Programs/Hospitals
The Tribe provides limited primary care services in a 4,500 SF medical clinic built in 1995. Health programs are funded through a P.L. 93-638, Title I contract with the IHS. With its base funding the Tribe operates a Family Services Program that employs a full-time physician's assistant, a public health nurse one day per week, two full-time CHRs, and one full-time alcohol counselor. Specialty services include WIC and ECEAP. Through a contract with the Lummi Nation, Upper Skagit purchases the on-site services of a nutritionist one day a week, a mental health counselor two days a week, and medical doctor one day per month. One full-time position is funded and the sanitarian provides services one day a week at Upper Skagit. Services include supervision of contaminated waste handling, food handling permits, health inspections of tribal facilities, water quality and sewage management, vector control and solid waste disposal, among other duties as assigned by the tribal health department. The Tribe's Contract Health Service Delivery Area (CHSDA) is Skagit County. The Tribe's Contract Health Services program is funded and administered by the Swinomish Tribes through a consortium agreement.

Patients
Patients who have no other medical coverage travel to the Lummi Tribal Health Center for direct care services that are not provided at the Upper Skagit Health Center. The clinic bills Medicaid, Medicare and other third-party payers. The Health Center had 1,510 primary care visits and 118 other patient visits for a total of 1,628 patient visits for FY 1996. The Upper Skagit Tribe is part of the Northwest Washington Service Unit Health Board (NWSUHB) that also includes Lummi, Nooksack and Swinomish. The enrolled tribal population is 504 and the Indian population living on or near the reservation is 457. The active health clinic user population is 382. The leading causes of death are heart disease, malignant neoplasm, cerebrovascular disease, motor vehicle accidents and digestive diseases. There were 411 Active users in 2002.

About the Tribe

History
The Upper Skagit Reservation covers an 84-acre parcel of land east of Sedro Woolley in Skagit County. An additional 15 acres of non-developed commercial land is located along Interstate 5 near the town of Alger. The reservation is located in the Cascade foothills. The Upper Skagit Tribe is governed by a seven member Tribal Council elected in accordance with the Tribal Constitution and by-laws approved by the Secretary of the Interior in 1974. Council members serve for staggered three-year terms.

About the Area

Geography
City: Sedro Woolley, population 6,290. Elevation 55. County: Skagit, population 69,500. Native American 1,484, 32% of nonwhite, 2% of total population. 1,735 square miles. County extends inland to the Cascades from Rosario Strait at Anacortes and Mt. Vernon. County's assessed value averages $2,463 an acre.. Average temperatures 41-60. Principal industries: Wood products, petroleum and coal processing, food processing, agriculture.

Climate
Rainfall (Mt. Vernon): 32.2 inches

Other Information

Members
504 enrolled members.

Other Offices and Programs
A new economic development office. They have an economic development plan.

Total Tribal Employees
Approximately 30 to FTE, depending on seasonal fluctuations of fire crew. 5 contract employees.

Housing
Information on tribal housing is not available.

Upper Skagit Tribe

An original signatory of the Treaty of Point Elliott, the Upper Skagit people are descended from a tribe with ten separate villages on the Upper Skagit and Sauk Rivers in Washington state. Our ancestors eventually consolidated, but a separate reservation was not originally established, and some tribal members had to reside on other reservations, primarily Swinomish. Our Tribe received formal federal recognition in early 1970s, with land put into trust for the tribe in 1984.

The Tribe provides limited primary care services in a 4,500 SF medical clinic built in 1995. Health programs are funded through the IHS. The user population in 1998 was 408. The Tribe operates the following programs:

• Family Services Program, including outpatient primary care, public health nursing, community health representatives, substance abuse counseling, nutrition, and mental health
• Patients may also receive direct medical care services at the Lummi Tribal Health Centers
• Northwest Washington Service Unit Health Board (NWSUHB) member
• Part-time sanitarian services, including supervision of contaminated waste handling, food handling permits, health inspections of tribal facilities, water quality and sewage management, vector control and solid waste disposal

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Contact Information:
Upper Skagit Tribal Health
25959 Community Plaza Way
Sedro Woolley, WA 98284

Upper Skagit Tribe

History
Headmen of the Upper Skagit Tribe were among the signatories to the Point Elliott Treaty of 1855. The government said the Upper Skagit were not one group, there were villages that made up the Upper Skagit. Surveyors from the Northern Pacific Railroad crossed Upper Skagit land in 1870. Then came the white settlers. The Upper Skagit people were angered when the white settlers crossed on their lands that held their dead. The Upper Skagit people suffered from diseases from white contact.

Government
The tribe operates under bylaws and constitution that was adopted on December 4, 1936. The tribe is governed by the seven-member Upper Skagit Tribal Council. In January of 1951 the tribe filed a claim for the consideration for the lands ceded to the United States was unconscionably low. On September 23, 1968 a final judgment ordered for the tribe to be awarded $385,471.42.