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Statement Of Dawn Lough
Environmental Protection Agency
Aging Initiative Public Listening Session
Iowa City, Iowa
April 15, 2003
Thank you for letting me be a speaker here. My name is Dawn Lough. I am a descendent and member of the Sac and Fox Tribe of the Mississippi/ Meskwaki of Pima, Iowa. I have come here to speak for the hopeless and very sick of Pima County, Iowa, which includes both Native American Indians and non-Indians, especially non-Indians who have married into our tribe and who have been afflicted with the horrible incidences of cancer. I tried to research this because I have a Master's Degree in Library Science, and I asked my fellow librarians to help me. We tried to access the death rates of native Americans, particularly in Iowa, and particularly in Pima County, Iowa through statistical abstracts, which come from the Census Bureau. We were unsuccessful. I accessed the National Cancer Institute via its SEER database, which is surveillance, epidemiology and end results review. Unfortunately, I discovered nothing but that Alaska native people have their own cancer registry. I commend the state of Iowa and the Department of Natural Resources. All you have to do is access the Iowa Code and see the heavy legislation that protects the environmental interests of Iowa. I spoke with Dr. Mitchell, who is a member of our tribe, and who heads the Gallup Indian Public Health Service, in Gallup, New Mexico. Being a concerned Native American, she mentioned archival records of USA Today newspapers of 1996. In stating that Pima County, Iowa was being impacted by excessive radio-active fallout residue, which was the result of bomb testing by the United States military during the 1940s and >50s in Nevada. She, herself, has suffered cancer, as I have. I am an ovarian cancer survivor. I am here as an elderly senior citizen, a Meskwaki person . Many of our senior citizens are raising their children because their sons and daughters have died from terrible forms of cancer. It is horrendous. As we approach a tribal government, their interests are more in gaming, making money, but not the health interests of their tribal members. Not being a rich, casino Indian, I have no recourse but to come to you and plead for the Environmental Protection Agency to please look out for the interests of Indian country. I mention the DeCoster's commercial hog farm corporation, which was run out of Iowa in 1999 for horrible environmental law violations. They quickly relocated to the Rosebud Indian Reservation, Rosebud, South Dakota. Now that tribe has to deal with contamination in their land, air, creeks, streams, ditches. Indian country is being afflicted by companies such as DeCoster's, and commercial agribusiness corporations. The common Indian is not heard by the tribal government. We have no place to go. Many of my people are dying. Please be aware that cancer cuts across all ages, socio-economic levels, and gender. It does not discriminate in attacking its victims. Please take pity upon small, Native American tribes, such as mine, which have less than 1,000 members, because we face great indifference in our struggle to survive. This is a very serious health issue. I thank you for your time.