Roger Jeffers (Sisseton Sioux), a 50-year-old bladder cancer survivor, says that he was the victim of racial discrimination while seeking treatment for post-chemotherapy-related health complications at HealthPartners St. Paul Clinic this fall.
“Nobody was taking that I was there and I had bladder cancer. They treated me as if I came in off the street and I was some guy looking for pills,” said Jeffers of HealthPartners staff.
The issue began when Jeffers got neuropathy, a nerve-damage disorder which causes pain and numbness in hands and feet. He requested refills of his Percocet prescription to manage the neuropathy pain from his primary care physician, Dr. Shehbana Mahmood.
“She did give me some pain medication, but nothing ever happened with my feet, nothing changed, so I went back to see her. That’s when she started thinking that I was there for one reason [drugs] and that’s all,” said Jeffers.
At that point, Jeffers says that Dr. Mahmood verbally instructed him to take twice the amount of Percocet he was currently taking to manage his pain. However, this was not communicated to other HealthPartners staff or documented, so Jeffers was unable to refill his prescription, and encountered increased suspicion from pharmacists and nurses at the clinic. Jeffers alleges that Dr. Mahmood’s personal nurse told him that they could tell he was an addict and instructed him to find health care somewhere else, despite the fact that Jeffers has no history of alcohol or drug abuse.

This month, Bluedog will be one of four bands competing in the final round of Battle of the Blues Bands on April 7th (4:30-7:30 pm) at Famous Dave’s BBQ and Blues Uptown in Minneapolis. Bluedog was one of sixteen bands originally competing to open for national act Tommy Castro and the Painkillers at their June 8 concert at Famous Dave’s in Minneapolis.
The Minneapolis-based band has also been nominated for Group of the Year and Best Rock Recording of the Year for their most recent album, Just Living The Blues, in this year’s Native American Music Awards (NAMAs). This marks the seventh NAMA nomination the group has received since 2005 when they recorded their debut album, From All Directions. Bluedog was voted Group of the Year in the 2010 NAMAs.
Eric (Ponca), Chair and Associate Professor of American Indian Studies at Augsburg College, and Joni Buffalohead (Dakota), Director of Operations at the Minnesota Indian Women’s Resource Center, co-founded Bluedog in 2001. They wanted an artistic outlet so Joni could sing and Eric could write his own music on the guitar.
“I was playing in another band and wanted to go in a different direction other than just playing other people’s music,” said Eric. “And I wanted to work with Joni singing, so those were some of the motivating factors.”
Along with Eric on lead guitar and Joni performing lead vocals, the band is comprised of the couple’s daughter, Alexandra Buffalohead (Dakota), on backing vocals, keyboard, and organ; Tom Suess, a childhood friend of Eric’s, on bass and backing vocals; Bob Simons (Dakota/Assiniboine) on drums; and Chuck Davis (Lakota), who sits in occasionally as part of the group on percussion. All but two members of the group are relatives, giving the band a close-knit stage presence.
“We’re a family band, and there’s not that many Indian bands playing blues rock music originals,” said Joni. “I like to educate people – they might not know anything about Indian people behind the music, so it’s a way to record history.”
Many of Bluedog’s songs are inspired by the historical and present-day struggles of Native American people.

Advocates for Indian women in Minnesota are hailing a decision by Congress to reauthorize and expand the Violence Against Women Act.
For years, the law has supported domestic violence prevention programs aimed at curbing abuse and sexual assault. It also has funded shelters and training for law enforcement. But until now, the law didn’t cover many cases involving American Indian women.
The law signed by President Obama in March will make it possible for tribes to prosecute certain, common domestic abuse cases, said Sarah Deer, a former Justice Department Attorney turned William Mitchell law professor invited by the White House for the signing ceremony in Washington.

People came from the Four Directions to gather at the historic village of Wounded Knee, on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, on the forty year anniversary of Wounded Knee 1973. Wounded Knee veterans and many non Indian supporters arrived for three days of activities to honor those who participated in Wounded Knee in 1973, and to honor the 250 Indian people who were massacred in 1890 by the US Calvary and are buried in a mass grave at Wounded Knee.

A group of walkers led by Native women are carrying a copper pail of water from the headwaters of the Mississippi in Minnesota to where the river empties into the Gulf of Mexico in Louisiana. The walkers and supporters left Lake Itasca State Park on March 1 and are walking every day until they reach the Gulf near New Orleans around April 29.