Ponca Tribe rolls out mobile clinic, plans for $100 million health center in Ralston

The Ponca Tribe of Nebraska’s new mobile unit features a portrait of Chief Standing Bear. The mobile clinic, which includes a dental bay and a medical office, is part of an expansion of health services by the tribe.

The Ponca Tribe of Nebraska on Monday debuted a new mobile clinic and updated plans for a $100 million tribal administration and health center on the site of the former Infogroup headquarters campus near Ralston.

The administration and health center, which will include healing gardens and a ceremonial sweat lodge, is a joint project with the federal Indian Health Services. The agency, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is responsible for providing medical care and public health services to members of federally recognized Native American tribes and Alaska Native people.

IHS Director Roselyn Tso, who attended a briefing and tour of the tribe’s Fred LeRoy Health and Wellness Center in South Omaha, praised the tribe’s innovations.

“They’ve got some really good examples we can share across Indian Country,” Tso said.

Janelle Ali-Dinar, CEO of Ponca Health Services and interim CEO for tribal affairs, said the tribe already has moved its administrative offices from the 18,000-square-foot Fred LeRoy Center at 26th and J Streets to the site south of Park Drive between 84th Street and Ralston High School’s football field. The tribe purchased the property in 2014.

The tribe hopes to break ground on the 125,000-square-foot health center late this summer and open within two years, she said. Money from the Indian Health Services would be used primarily to hire health care workers. Plans call for a staff comprised of more than 300 health care workers, including primary care providers, nurses, dentists and behavioral health specialists. In all, they will represent 25 specialties.

The remainder of the project would be funded by the tribe and through loans and bonds, Ali-Dinar said.

Because the tribe’s health centers serve enrolled members of any federally recognized tribe, the expansion will serve more than just the Ponca. The tribe’s health centers provided care to members of 170 of the nation’s 574 federally recognized tribes in 2021-22, she said. The tribe also operates a clinic in Norfolk, Nebraska, and opened another in Lincoln about a year ago.

The new mobile clinic, which features medical and dental clinics and also will offer some behavioral health and diagnostic services, will allow the tribe to take its health mission on the road and connect those clinics, Ali-Dinar said. It was funded through American Rescue Plan Act money.

“We are only as healthy as our least healthy patient,” she said.

The mobile unit, which features a portrait of Chief Standing Bear, will travel to Norfolk for the tribe’s Annual Healthy Living Walk/Run and Powwow on April 22. It will then roll on to Niobrara, home site of the Ponca, as well as to Sioux City, Iowa, and Lincoln. The famed Ponca chief became known as a civil rights leader after he won an 1879 court case that helped cement human rights for Native Americans.

Dr. Karen Bober, chief dental officer, demonstrates a space-saving handheld dental X-ray device, which is among the technologies featured in the Ponca Tribe’s new mobile clinic.

Dr. Karen Bober, chief dental officer, said the mobile unit is geared toward providing preventative dental services, but likely will handle some emergencies as well. She demonstrated a handheld X-ray device, which will replace the large arm with an attached device that’s familiar to most people.

“Even though it’s a mobile unit, it’s got state-of-the-art equipment,” she said.

Ali-Dinar said the tribe soon will launch its first elder health transfer van, which will provide rides to appointments for older members, and a mobile pantry that will offer dry goods, fresh produce, personal care products and some behavioral health services. In the future, the Ponca hope to launch a mobile mammography unit.

Candace Schmidt, the tribe’s chairwoman, said the expansion of health services “means everything.” All of the other services the tribe offers follow after them because members need to be healthy to work and to care for their families.

“Without our health ... nothing else really matters,” she said.

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