Prairie Band Chair Elected Co-chair of HHS Tribal Advisory Committee

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Chairman Steve Ortiz

Native Brief: WASHINGTON - Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation Chairman Steve Ortiz was elected Tuesday as co-chairman of the US Health and Human Services Secretary's Tribal Advisory Committee in Washington. Ortiz will co-chair the committee along with Ken Lucero, a tribal council representative from the Pueblo of Zia, who has been the chair of the committee since it first formed in December, 2010.

The purpose of the Secretary's Tribal Advisory Committee is to exchange information and to provide advice and recommendations between the Health and Human Services and Indian tribal governments in a government to government capacity. The committee operates under Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius who is in Obama’s cabinet and a former governor of Kansas.

The Secretary's Tribal Advisory Committee is composed of tribal leaders from the twelve US Indian Health Service regions and five at-large representatives and two alternate at-large representatives. Ortiz represents the Oklahoma region that includes Oklahoma, Kansas and Texas and has been actively involved in Indian Health Service issues and concerns.

The Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation is based in Mayetta, Kansas.

In addition, at the national level Ortiz sits on the Department of Interior Bureau of Indian Affairs Tribal Consultation Committee, and on the Local Government Advisory Committee, made up of tribal leaders who advise Lisa Jackson, the federal administrator for the Environmental Protection Administration. In Kansas, Ortiz is on Governor Sam Brownback's Economic Development Council. At the tribal level, Ortiz has been the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation chairman since July 2010 and a member of the Tribal Council periodically for several years.

posted January 18, 2011 6:00 am est