Skip to main content

The timeline can be navigated with the “Scroll Left” and “Scroll Right” buttons or by dragging the pointer to a date on the timeline waveform (located at the bottom of the screen on the desktop version and on the left of the screen on mobile). To filter by a particular topic and see a smaller section of the data, make a selection on the dropdown “Filters” menu or click “Search” to do a keyword search. Hover over the abbreviated filter tags in the blue boxes to see the complete name of the filter, or click a filter to display all the data with this tag. If you want to take a deeper dive into a specific topic by viewing a narrative essay page and a curated timeline, click on “Stories.”

Read More
IHS logo with a caduceus medical symbol overlaid with a feather in the center.
Indian Health Service logo, 1955.

Federal Transfer Act moves "Indian" health responsibility to Indian Health Service.

1954

INDG
MED
PH
Indian Health Service logo, 1955.

Prior to this, treaty agreements concerning Native healthcare were implemented by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, a non-health-specific body. In 1954, the Indian Health Service is created within the U.S. Public Health Service to assume responsibility for Native health. The Department of Interior remains responsible for healthcare infrastructure including building new hospitals in Indigenous communities, but it largely refuses to do so, leading to severe shortages of medical care in these communities.