GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (KREX) — Officials say many Native Americans on the Western Slope don’t have the same access to healthcare and other resources that other communities do. But one Mesa County woman is working to change that.
“A lot of people think Native Americans are still in a book with a headdress on. We’re here, you know, they don’t realize we’re still here.” Monique Terpstra Sturgeon is the executive director of the Western Slope Native American Resource Center. “I would like my tribal members and my people to have a chance at something besides just what’s on the reservation. We were here first, and we should be able to go anywhere and have every resource anybody else has a chance at accessing,” she says.
Terpstra tells WesternSlopeNow she founded the center in June 2022 after losing her job during the pandemic and picking up a temporary position with Rocky Mountain Health Plans. “I pick up calls from Native Americans – my tribe, other tribes – and there [were] no resources outside of the tribes.” She says the center is providing every resource it can. “We are actually advocating for different resources like healthcare, Medicaid, SNAP, housing. Housing is a big issue.”
But Terpstra didn’t do this alone – a $200,000 grant from Rocky Mountain Health was a huge help. “It wouldn’t have started without Rocky,” Terpstra emphasized. Patrick Gordon, CEO of Rocky Mountain Health Plans, tells WesternSlopeNow bridging the gap in care for marginalized members of the community is part of the company’s long-standing mission – but they can’t do that without trust. “Trust is really essential. And that means that instead of expecting people to find our services and advocate for themselves, expecting them to simply trust that we can deliver, we need to bring those services to them. And that’s what the West Slope Native American Resource Center is about,” Gordon explained.
Terpstra tells WesternSlopeNow they’ve been meeting clients where they’re at – either traveling to them or conducting virtual meetings – because the center doesn’t have a central location yet, but she hopes to establish one in Grand Junction. “I would like something here that had, you know, temporary housing for people that were experiencing domestic violence, something with daycare, job opportunities, skill training, things like that.”
She also says she hopes to introduce resources like a sweat lodge and culturally sensitive substance abuse programs. Gordon tells WesternSlopeNow Rocky Mountain Health will continue supporting the resource center, but the work to support marginalized communities won’t end there.
Connecting Native Americans with resources
By JACE DICOLA Jace.DiCola@gjsentinel.com | Apr 23, 2024 Updated Apr 24, 2024
The Western Slope Native American Resource Center recently organized the first-ever Grand Mesa Pow-Wow at Colorado Mesa University on Saturday where Native American dancers dress in traditional regalia. Larry Robinson/The Daily Sentinel
Monique Terpstra saw the disconnect between Tribal communities and outside health services; she knew they deserved better.
To bridge the gap, Terpstra founded the Western Slope Native American Resource Center (WSNARC) in the summer of 2022.
“Being on a reservation, all we have is Indian Health Service,” WSNARC Executive Director Monique Terpstra said. “It’s like a public health service; they’re very low budget, and we don’t have a lot of specialists.”
WSNARC is multifaceted, centered around connecting Tribal members and Native Americans with critical resources and health services while also empowering the Native American sense of identity. Recently, WSNARC facilitated the first Grand Mesa Pow-Wow, a Native American gathering that consists of drumming, singing and dancing.
Outside of these cultural events, WSNARC offers coordination of care through peer navigators, who connect clients with resources they might not have been aware of or able to access. Terpstra said these navigators are unique in that they will accompany clients along the entire process, even attending doctor’s appointments with clients if requested.
WSNARC is multifaceted, centered around connecting Tribal members and Native Americans with critical resources and health services while also empowering the Native American sense of identity. Recently, WSNARC facilitated the first Grand Mesa Pow-Wow, a Native American gathering that consists of drumming, singing and dancing.
Outside of these cultural events, WSNARC offers coordination of care through peer navigators, who connect clients with resources they might not have been aware of or able to access. Terpstra said these navigators are unique in that they will accompany clients along the entire process, even attending doctor’s appointments with clients if requested.
According to Terpstra, one of the most impactful services these navigators have connected clients with is non-emergency medical transportation. Helping Tribal members enroll in Medicaid enables them to access free transportation to and from medical appointments; Terpstra said this is critical because widespread poverty in reservations means that few Tribal members have reliable transportation.
The organization was founded with a $200,000 grant from Rocky Mountain Health Plans, an initiative RMHP’s Chief Executive Officer Patrick Gordon said is vital to bridging the gaps between indigenous healthcare and outside resources exacerbated by distrust.
“The resources we make available have to be trusted,” Gordon said. “Building trust, particularly with indigenous people who (historically) have not had reason to trust systems, is the best way for us to make a positive difference.”
“When WSNARC comes forward to connect people, they know the culture, they are trusted and they can make the connection in a way that we couldn’t on our own.”
Almost two years later, that intention is slowly becoming reality.
“Many people come in and out of (Tribal lands), promise one thing and don’t follow through with it, so we’re here to stay, and I think people are starting to realize,” Terpstra said.
HERE TO STAY
WSNARC beneficiary Jodilynn Watts is a resident of the Ute Mountain Reservation and one of the first to realize WSNARC’s commitment to closing the gap in indigenous health and wellness.
“At that time, I was having medical issues and my driver wasn’t able to bring me because they (had) other patients, so the transportation that Monique recommended would come down and pick me up,” Watts said.
While the transportation service is non-emergency, it certainly proved to be life-saving, as it enabled Watts to travel to the medical facility where she received a kidney transplant that WSNARC also assisted in coordinating.
The Ute Mountain Reservation is in Towaoc, just south of Cortez in Southwest Colorado.
Watts was so impressed with the help she got from WSNARC that she now volunteers some of her time and energy to share the resource and her story with other Tribal members.
According to Watts, her former career as a therapist in the community has helped her advocate for the program, especially among the elderly Tribal demographic that can be hesitant to talk to strangers and outsiders.
“I try to help with other clients and get (WSNARC) more clients; I talk to the elderly and try to make them understand that this program is good for them if they need help in any way,” Watts said. “Monique’s been there for me from day one, and she’s been very helpful.”
LOOKING TO THE FUTURE
Since WSNARC’s creation less than two years ago, the organization has served 165 different people, but there’s a lot more that Terpstra plans to accomplish.
One of Terpstra’s main focuses in expanding WSNARC is the Indigenous Wellbriety Program, a substance abuse recovery program tailored to Native American culture and traditions. Specifically, Terpstra said it encourages recovery through a framework based on the indigenous belief in natural order.
“(The program centers around) our coming from the earth and using your knowledge to be a part, to come back to the earth, to be back to where you are from,” Terpstra said. “That’s a big help in sobriety, knowing who you are and where you come from.”
Terpstra added that they are in the process of training WSNARC’s peer navigators in the Wellbriety program, after which they will offer the service online. She said the virtual aspect will ensure accessibility, but she hopes to add an in-person component after accomplishing another plan of hers: opening physical resource centers.
She hopes to open two physical centers for WSNARC, one in Grand Junction, and one in the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe’s capital, Towaoc. Having two physical locations would provide Native Americans from across the entire Western Slope more opportunity to build community and an easier way to access WSNARC and its resources.
One of these physical locations will eventually feature a sweat lodge, according to Terpstra, which will be a notable component in the Wellbriety program. Sweat lodges are a ceremonial venue that many Native American tribes use for prayer and purification.
These lodges vary in structure, but the process generally entails filling a sealed room with steam by pouring water on heated rocks; oftentimes a healer is an important part of the sweat lodge, as well as herbs like cedar and sage.
Terpstra said they are in talks with the Ute Mountain Tribal Council about a physical location in Towaoc with hopes of a decision in May. She added that they are looking at buildings in Grand Junction, but finding an affordable venue where they can eventually install a sweat lodge hasn’t been a quick process.
“My long-term goal is to have a place where we have a sweat lodge, transitional housing, a place for abused women to come to, skilled training, a daycare and educational services on top of the healthcare services,” Terpstra said. “I know it’s a big dream, but that’s my end goal, and we are working towards it.”