ON THE REZ: A LOOK AT THE NEW RED CLIFF HEALTH CARE CENTER

NEW RESERVATION HEALTH CENTER...

...ENTRANCE...

...REAR OF BUILDING, WITH SOLAR PANELS ON ROOF

Tuesday, 8:00 AM.  34 degrees F, wind NNE, very strong.  The sky is overcast with high clouds and the sun is again AWOL.  The humidity is down some to 81%, and the barometer has dropped to 29.87".  The only good thing to say about the weather is that it is not snowing at present.
   The Red Cliff Reservation's new health clinic looks as though it is in the finishing stages of construction.  This is a large facility, 38,00 square feet in size, three times the size of the present health center, and certainly looks more like a full scale hospital than a clinic.  It will have doctors, registered nurses, a dentist, mental health professionals and many other specialists.  It will serve all area residents, as does the present facility.
   The new facility is financed by several federal agencies, the Shakopee Sioux Indian tribe of South Dakota, which also has a majority interest in the Legendary Waters Casino, and the Red Cliff band of Lake Superior Chippewa (Ojibwe).  The tribe has a web site, and more information is available from the Ashland Daily Press article of May 24, 2013.
   The Ashland hospital is thirty miles from the Rez, and the Bayfield Peninsula region could use a closer trauma center;  if it can handle helicopter flights to Duluth it would be a boon to the the communities of Bayfield, Cornucopia, Herbster and rural townships, as well as Red Cliff.  I don't know if emergency services are part of the plan of operations.  I certainly hope so.