Top Story
Supreme Court rejects FMC; Shoshone-Bannock Tribes prevail
By LORI ANN EDMO
Sho-Ban News
FORT HALL — The Shoshone-Bannock Tribes prevailed in its case against the FMC Corporation after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to review the case on Monday.
That means the 2019 Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision stands ruling the Tribes have regulatory and adjudicatory jurisdiction over FMC to impose the annual $1.5 million permit fee for storage of waste on the Fort Hall Indian Reservation.
The Ninth Circuit panel affirmed the district court’s judgment enforcing a Shoshone-Bannock Tribal Court of Appeals decision that ruled the FMC Corporation must pay an annual use permit fee for storage of hazardous waste on fee lands within the Fort Hall Indian Reservation as required under a consent decree settling a prior lawsuit brought against FMC by the Environmental Protection Agency under the Resource Conservation Recovery Act. (cont.)
In other news...
By ROSELYNN YAZZIE
Sho-Ban News
FORT HALL — The Tribal Health and Human Services (THHS) recently purchased a Mobile Medical Unit, which will soon be available to serve the community for COVID testing and vaccinations.
The vehicle cost $240,000 and was purchased with grants from Indian Health Service and the Center for Disease Control’s funding for mitigating COVID. They applied for it back in June with much of the input from the providers and nursing staff.
“The idea came about because having a bunch of people in the clinic all at once is difficult to manage because it’s not big enough and having a centralized secondary location is beneficial to give the patients the care they need where they need it,” explained Sunny Stone, Diabetes Manager and QI Coordinator. (cont.)
By RANDY’L TETON
EOC Public Information Officer
FORT HALL — Our numbers are in for this week whereas the active cases have increased in the last week and are steadily increasing.
Please keep in mind the numbers fluctuate daily based upon the COVID-19 screenings taken place on the Reservation. A flyer of the January 2021 testing dates/locations has been posted on the Tribes Facebook page and in the Sho-Ban newspaper. The Tribes are asking for those Tribal members that reside off the reservation and are (cont.)
From the FORT HALL INDIAN HEALTH SERVICE
FORT HALL — The hope is that the ongoing vaccinations efforts in our community is the beginning of the end of this world wide pandemic.
The response has been very favorable towards receiving the vaccine in hopes of protecting ourselves, our families, our community and our culture. Our local health programs are dedicated to helping everyone who wants to receive the vaccine can get it as soon as possible.
Weekly allotments of the COVID-19 vaccine, received by Fort Hall, vary depending on the number of vaccine doses that are allocated to the Portland Area Indian Health Service for distribution to the clinics. To date, 530 first, or prime, doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccines have been administered by the Fort Hall health delivery systems. (cont.)
