Judy Goforth Parker, PhD, RN

“ In the Balanced Budget Act of 1997, Congress established the Special Diabetes Program for Indians to provide prevention and treatment services to addresss the growing problem of diabetes in American Indian and Alaska Natives (AI/ANs)” (December 2004, Interim Report to Congress, Special Diabetes Program for Indians, IHS Nationa Diabetes Program). With the beginning of the Special Diabetes Program for Indians (SDPI) a committee was formed by Dr. Michael Trujillo that would later be called the Tribal Leaders Diabetes Committee (TLDC).

 I was given the opportunity to join the TLDC in 1998 as a representative for the Oklahoma, Texas and Kansas IHS area. Since that time, the role of the TLDC as progressed to the point that it is now a chartered committee. In the federal government, having a charter does have some status in that you are considered to be somewhat more permanent. As a committee, the TLDC meets quarterly. We work on issues pertenant to Indian country and the epidemic of diabetes.

 The TLDC, along with many other partners such as the American Diabetes Association, Centers for Disease Control, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, Naitonal Indian Health Board, and many others have worked for the continued funding of the SDPI which would have ended in 2008. I am happy to report that we have secured one more year of funding for the SDPI, but that means that the fight for funding will continue. In the current environment and times that we live, it is difficult to secure funding in Washington D.C.

Please view the slide show with some pictures of TLDC members and our activities. In addition, please view the web site for the National Indian Health Board (http://www.nihb.org/). They have done an outstanding job in helping Indian country. I will write more about the TLDC in future articles. As always, I love hearing from you. Blogs are great, but they are really only great if you have plenty of visitors and imput.  

It is time to wish you all a Happy New Year. I extend to you my wishes as well as prayers for a prosperous and good year. Hopefully, you have given careful consideration to the past year. My Pastor where I attend church always reflects, from about Christmas to New Years, about what he has done in the past year and what he wants to do in the year to come.  Though many have suggested this to me, either through the influence of Pastor Rodgers or the process of aging, I now do the same. As I shared in the Chickasaw Times, my plans for 2008 include valuing life.

 I am including in this New Years greeting pictures of my white german shephard, Noel. This picture is of me trying to get Noel to cooperate. As you know, in the Chickasaw Nation, we treasure the legend of the big white dog, believed to have protected our people in the distant past. Noel would probably not be a good protector. She chases her tail and is extremely frightened of lightening. This deep fear is evidenced by a portion of my back door being gone due to Noel chewing and scratching it off during thunder and lightening storms.  For a more thorough rendition of the legend, please refer to the legend as told by the late Reverend Jess Humes as told Robert Kingsberry.  For the full story,refer to the web site: http://www.chickasaw.net/site06/heritage/250_1603.htm.

Once again, I wish you a Happy New Year. If you are Chickasaw and have a white dog, send me a picture by email (judy.parker@chickasaw.net) and I will put togethter a slide show of our treasured white dogs.

I look forward to hearing from you. Judy