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Commission on Indian Affairs stresses tribal partnerships, Genoa school burial search and Doctor Susan hospital restoration
Summary
Executive Director Judy Gaiashkibosh described the commission's partnerships, a planned search for the Genoa Indian Industrial School cemetery, scholarship funding, and support for the renovation and planned opening of Doctor Susan LaFlesche Picotte Hospital in summer 2025.
Judy Gaiashkibosh, executive director of the Nebraska Commission on Indian Affairs, described a broad set of projects and partnerships the commission supports, including scholarship awards, cultural programs, and two high-profile preservation and health-care efforts.
Gaiashkibosh told the Appropriations Committee that the commission has a 14-member board of Indian commissioners, a staff of three and partnerships across state agencies and philanthropic organizations. She highlighted a planned archaeological search in April for the cemetery associated with the Genoa Indian Industrial School, noting that at least 85 to 100 children died while the school operated and that the commission is working with the Nebraska State Historical Society and the state archaeologist to locate burial sites.
She also described the multi-year effort to restore the Doctor Susan LaFlesche Picotte Hospital, an early 20th-century facility on the Omaha Reservation, and credited private fundraising, USDA grants and other donors for more than $1 million in restoration fundraising to date. Elizabeth Lovejoy Brown, director of the Doctor Susan LaFlesche Picotte Center, testified that the site plans to open in June with urgent care, mental-health and substance-use services, youth programming, a cultural center and a small-business arts cooperative.
Gaiashkibosh listed program partners and letters of support from 18 organizations, cited scholarship funds in a tribal license-plate account (about $104,000) and described a range of recent work including Standing Bear recognition events and a prize for courage. She said the commission is willing to forego a grant-writer position in the current tight budget year but continues to support tribal grant-writing and capacity-building work.
Testimony from community members and partners, including Greg Wright and other volunteer board members, described the Chief Standing Bear Prize for Courage and other projects that relied on the commission's organizational support. No committee vote was recorded at the hearing.
