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• "They are getting better about letting people know about different things that are going on," Knippling said.
• People who do not attend the meetings held by the consulting firm can submit written comments by email to SDcomments(at)wildlifemgt.org or by mail to Wildlife Management Institute, 1440 Upper Bermudian Road, Gardners, PA, 17324.
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Quirk in health law will affect few in Dakotas
CHET BROKAW,Associated Press
• PIERRE, S.D. (AP) -- A quirk in the federal health care law that could force tens of thousands of people who identify as Native American to start paying for insurance or pay a fine isn't expected to affect many people in the Dakotas.
• American Indians who are enrolled members of federally recognized tribes are exempt from the Affordable Care Act's requirement that people carry health insurance or pay a minimum $695 annual fine once it's fully phased in. Officials say that applies to most Native Americans in North Dakota and South Dakota who get free health care through the Indian Health Service, a branch of the Department of Health and Human Services.
• Those who identify as Native American but who aren't enrolled members of such tribes would have to buy insurance or pay the fine, even if they have been receiving and continue to qualify for free or subsidized health care through the IHS.
• The number of Native Americans in North Dakota who are not enrolled tribal members is "very small," said Scott Davis, executive director of the North Dakota Indian Affairs Commission. He is a member of the Standing Rock Lakota Hunkpapa and Turtle Mountain Chippewa.
• According to the 2010 U.S. Census, 42,996 people in North Dakota and 82,073 people in South Dakota identified themselves as American Indian or Alaska Native. Those figures roughly match enrollment numbers reported by tribes in both states.
• J.R. LaPlante, state secretary of Tribal Relations in South Dakota, said no one appears to track the number of Americans Indians who are not enrolled in a tribe, but officials generally believe the number of non-enrolled Native Americans is small in South Dakota.
• "I think that's the general assumption that the majority of people that would self-identify as Native American are indeed members of a federally recognized tribe. I think that's probably a general assumption, but it's hard to say for sure," said LaPlante, a member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe.
• The Indian Health Service provides free health care to enrolled members of (Continued on page 20)
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