Objectives: This article provides strategies for health care delivery for the Oglala Lakota on the Pine Ridge reservation of South Dakota.
Methods: Both authors relied on their field experience as well as health care literature for constructing this article. Stella Iron Cloud is a member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe.
Conclusions: It is important to attend to the internal heterogeneity of Oglala culture, differences across Native American groups, as well as changes over time. There is a consistent importance in acknowledging the importance of family, creating good relationships built on reciprocity in effective healthcare delivery, and respecting the close interrelationship between spirituality and healing and individual self-determination. One must also address with sensitivity many factors which cause poor health on the reservation.