New Hospital to Start Serving Native Americans On January 17, a
newly built Indian Health Service (IHS) hospital began taking
patients from the 9,300 Native Americans residing in the
counties of Dewey, Haakon, Meade, Potter, Sully, and Ziebach in
South Dakota. The Cheyenne River Health Center, located in the
north-central part of the state, was constructed using $84.5
million in Recovery funds from the Department of Health and
Human Services (HHS). The 138,000-square-foot facility replaces
the former Eagle Butte IHS Hospital, which had become too small
to serve the needs of the community. IHS describes the new
hospital as “a modern, technologically advanced facility with
enough space and staff to provide an expanded level of health
care services specifically designed to meet the needs of the
Cheyenne River population.” The Recovery Act provided a total
$500 million through HHS/IHS for: - Construction of priority
health care facilities - Maintenance and improvement of
buildings - Undertaking water and wastewat