MVSKOKE RESERVATION – The Indian Health Service (IHS) has a water, sewage, and sanitation construction service that will be useful to citizens of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. According to the IHS, the service is part of the effort to “raise the health status of American Indian and Alaska Native people to the highest possible level.” The program provides safe water, waste water, and solid waste sewage services.
This service, which is under the control of the Division of Sanitation Facilities Construction, provides these services on both residential and communal property, and is available for all American Indian and Alaskan Native citizens.
The service of installing water and sewage facilities is only one of the services that DSFC provides. According to the DSFC’s website, their services also include maintaining lists of what improvements need to be made to sanitation facilities in Indigenous communities, and providing Operations and Management (O&M) training to help those communities maintain their sanitation facilities.
DSFC also advocates for Indigenous people on environmental issues, and provides both technical assistance and financial assistance to Indigenous tribes during public health emergencies.
The DSFC runs construction projects in all 48 continental U.S. states, as well as Alaska, and projects are split into 12 zones in accordance with the Indian Health Service’s 12 offices, with various cities operating as the hubs for their respective regions.
Cities and their zones include:
- Oklahoma City, Okla. – covering Oklahoma, Kansas, and part of southwest Texas
- Tucson, Ariz. – covering Tucson, Nogales, and the surrounding area in southern Arizona
- St. Michaels, Ariz. – covering the Navajo Nation Reservation
- Phoenix, Ariz. – covering Nevada and the remainder of Arizona and Utah
- Albuquerque, N.M. – covering Colorado and the remainder of New Mexico
- Portland, Ore. – covering Washington, Oregon, and Idaho
- Billings, Mont.- covering Montana and Wyoming
- Bemidji, Minn. – covering Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan
- Sacramento, Calif. – covering all of California
- Aberdeen, S.D.- covering North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Iowa
- Anchorage, Ala. – covering all of Alaska
- Nashville, Tenn. – covering the remainder of the continental U.S.
For more information on the DSFC and the services they provide, visit the DSFC’s hub website at https://dsfc-ihs-gis.hub.arcgis.com/, or visit the IHS’s website at https://www.ihs.gov/dsfc/.
