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Don Gronning
Open to everyone in community
USK — For months, people going to the Camas Center for Community Wellness have watched the construction of a new building alongside the center.
Last month the Kalispel Tribe opened their new clinic, which has much more space than the old clinic, says Dr. Clay Kersting, the clinic’s director of medical services.
“ We’ve tripled our space, so it really improved things,” Kersting says.
The new clinic building features nine exam rooms and two procedure rooms, along with several dental exam rooms and a physical therapy space.
For some time now, the tribe has sent a carrier to a pharmacy in Chewelah for prescriptions. The tribe is in the process of getting a pharmacist for the drivethrough pharmacy on site. That won’t happen until October, says Kersting.
“We couldn’t even apply for it until after the facility was built,” Kersting says of the federal process.
The building has plenty of natural light. There is also an outdoor physical therapy space.
A chiropractor and acupuncturist will join the staff that includes a physician and a nurse practitioner and dentist.
The clinic can see about 30 medical patients a day, Kersting says, and about 15 physical therapy patients, along with dental, massage and chiropractic patients.
Like the Camas Center, the clinic welcomes all patients, whether tribal members or not.
The Kalispel Tribe has been committed to not only the tribe but to the larger community, says Afton Servas, public relations coordinator for the tribe. Servas led The Miner and others on a tour of several tribal projects, including the clinic.
At one time, the Kalispel Tribe was documented to have about 2,000 people, Servas says, occupying about 4 million acres that stretched into Montana and included what is now Priest Lake and Sandpoint.
As with many Native American tribes, disease took its toll as the people came into contact with Europeans.
“We had several pandemics, like back-to-back-toback, and when that happened, we lost about half of our tribal membership each time,” Servas says. “And so, by the turn of the 20th century we were at about 100 members.”
She said there were three main ways tribes could become recognized by the United States government. They could sign a treaty, be recognized by executive order or by an act of Congress. The Kalispels were recognized by executive order, Servas says. That was in 1914, when President Woodrow Wilson signed the executive order that gave the tribe federal recognition.
By 1965, the tribe was still a small one, with only a couple homes with running water on the reservation. There was only one phone with a party line.
“ I don’t know if any of you are that old, but if you would pick up the phone and Grandma up the road was on the phone, you had to wait for her to get off the phone because that was the party line,” says Ray Pierre III, a tribal member and former tribal council member who also guided the tour.
Fast forward to today, when the Kalispel Tribe of Indians is one of the largest employers of the Inland Empire. It owns and operates many businesses, including Northern Quest Resort and Casino in Airway Heights.
It was one of the first casinos in Washington to be able to operate off the reservation, which is about 10 miles long and 1 mile wide, just under 19 square miles, most of it in a flood plain. It is located near Cusick, north of Newport.
When Northern Quest Casino opened in 2000, there were about 250 tribal members. Since then, the tribe has about doubled in size, with about half its members under 20 years of age.
With the opening of the Camas Clinic, the tribe has expanded its role in the wider community. Kersting says he’s proud to be involved.
“I’m not just a doctor,” he says. “I’m part of the community.”
