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Photo: The Fallon Tribal Health Center’s mobile clinic parked at the Lovelock Paiute Tribe’s health fair in Lovelock, Nev., on May 16, 2025. (Kaleb Roedel / Mountain West News Bureau)
Some tribal nations are among the most remote communities in the country – and the rural healthcare shortage has hit them especially hard.
The Mountain West News Bureau’s Kaleb Roedel reports that one tribe in Nevada has found a solution: a doctor’s office on wheels.
It’s a clear morning in Lovelock, Nev., a small desert town about 90 miles northeast of Reno. It’s also home to the Lovelock Paiute Tribe, which has a 20-acre reservation on the edge of town.
At a tree-shaded park, where the tribe is hosting its annual health fair, there is live music, jewelry vendors, information booths, and food trucks.
There’s also a vehicle that looks like a large blue-and-white motorhome idling on the edge of the park.
But inside are two patient rooms and a center lab with a blood draw station. It’s a mobile health clinic brought here by the Fallon Paiute-Shoshone Tribe – located about an hour away.
Gabriel Bourne just stepped out of the vehicle.
“Having access to this, I was able to get some shots I needed – that I should’ve probably had a long time ago but didn’t get.”
Time and travel are the biggest barriers, he says.
Bourne (Fallon Paiute-Shoshone member) lives in Lovelock, so seeing a physician in Fallon is a two-hour round trip.
So when Bourne, who hadn’t been to the doctor in more than a year, realized he was steps away from a mobile clinic, he took full advantage.
“I’m able to get my eye appointment, which I’ve needed glasses for a while, along with some cancer screening setups, and follow up with the doctor to see labs and everything else.”
Accessing quality health care has long been an issue for tribal nations, especially in rural areas.
The federal Indian Health Service has less than 100 hospitals and medical clinics nationwide, all to serve about 2.8 million American Indians and Alaska Natives.
And most facilities suffer chronic staffing shortages.
Some of the highest vacancy rates have been felt by the Navajo Nation, Albuquerque, N.M., Phoenix, Ariz., and Billings, Mont.
Jon Pishion is the director of the Fallon Tribal Health Center, which runs the mobile clinic here at the fair. He says the lack of access was amplified five years ago during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“A lot of healthcare facilities were being shut down. And with all the services being closed, we needed something to go out to the communities.”
(Courtesy Yurok Tribe / Facebook)
The Yurok Tribe in rural northern California is catching up to the digital age.
Like many tribal communities that are located in remote regions, the Yurok Nation has gone without high-speed broadband internet, but that is changing.
Christina Aanestad reports.
“Where I grew up there wasn’t any power and phone lines. No connectivity at all.”
Shannon Hulbert is board president of Yurok Telecommunications (YTEL), the first-time provider of broadband internet on the Yurok reservation and surrounding communities in northern California’s redwood region.
She says the multi-million-dollar project will create more than 200 jobs and make a world of difference.
“This creates a reason for people to move back to the reservation, because they have that ability to connectivity to have jobs anywhere. They can work remotely from the reservation and still be part of their reservation activities and communities. Students will have access to online collaboration tools that everybody else is using.”
A Census Bureau report last year found Native American communities lag behind the rest of the nation in broadband connectivity.
Ninety percent of US households have access, compared to 70% of Native communities.
Hulbert says it’s largely because Native American reservations are remote in rural areas, where there remains a digital divide.
The YTEL broadband project was made possible through federal and state grants.
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