KAREN:  So you were saying that as the administrator, you know, people came to you with problems or, you know, some of their personal issues or whatever.  How did you solve those? 

ROY:  We would do our best to communicate with the village leadership with the region.  We would do our best to make sure that -- or try to make sure that the health aide was treated fairly. 

That -- we would -- Bob Singyke did a lot of that communication and worked with the health boards to get that across to the health boards.  And I personally had to call some village councils from time to time, presidents, and say we have got some -- some serious problems out there.  And you've got to take some different action. 

And it all worked out.  There wasn't many times I did that.  A lot of it came through -- the health boards came through the great -- at the time, the motivation of the Indian Health Service was to begin turning more and more of the policy decision-making over to Native people and contracting out to Native people, and -- and it stuck -- to its credit, the Indian Health Service stuck to those policies. 

And more and more, if something wasn't working, you know who to call.  You know, you could just call the corporation or you could -- and it would get taken care of.  Most of the time.  Yeah. 

But, you know, to say there were a lot of problems out there would be an overstatement.  There were problems, but -- but they were solvable and we did solve them, and I think through a lot of good will, things got done.  It worked out. 

And so in all corners now, in the university, the health aides are saluted as really a very high -- a very, very highly successful program and the individuals are -- are highly regarded as outstanding members of their community, very important members of their community, and I think things are much better now. 

Health corporations have largely organized, re-organized out there, the whole supervision and ethic of health delivery out there.  And the vision, I think, has been realized.  Native people running their own health care services. 

KAREN:  And you see a difference in how the health corporations are doing it versus when it was under Indian Health Service? 

ROY:  Yeah.  There's -- there's something of a difference, though there has been no compromise in -- in fact, in -- in the quality of care. 

KAREN:  Does --

ROY:  But perhaps a little more money is spent on administration than Indian Health did.  They were more sparse in that area, spartan.  Maybe too spartan, you know, in a way. 

KAREN:  I need to check the time here.  I forgot to check it. 

ROY:  So there's lots of people to congratulate here.  Indian Health Service, the Native corporations, the health aides.  It all worked out, you know.  It worked out beautifully, I thought.  I think. 

KAREN:  That's good.