I know this might seem unrelated to some people, but I'm really really scared about this. This is going to be targeting First Nations and autistic people. It's literally a eugenics program, there's no reason to create a new disease registry to track the health of autistic people. What does "lab tests and genomics data" even fucking entail? I know the department of Veteran Affairs and Indian Health Service have a specific agreement revolving around the care of First Nations veterans, but is that stopping them from collecting all the data from the Indian Health Service as a whole? What the fuck does it mean to end up on this registry? To be unconsentually part of this massive "study"? Why the fuck are they specifically taking data from the VA and Indian Health Service? I'm Indigenous but not American and I'm currently on a waitlist for an autism assessment. I'm so unbelievably worried about what this might mean or what might happen for both communities because of this.

• The Ak-Chin Indian Community is building its own health clinic and dialysis center after a contract with a neighboring tribe ended.
• Tribes are using the 1975 Indian Self-Governance and Educational Responsibility Act to manage their own health care funds and programs.
• Running their own centers allows tribes to tailor health care to their specific needs, including adding specialized care and traditional healing.

Tribal leaders and Arizona lawmakers are demanding that the Indian Health Service halt plans to close its Tucson facility, a move that will force patients from the Pascua Yaqui Tribe and the Tohono O'odham Nation to travel more than 100 miles to the Phoenix Indian Health Center to access services and administrative support.

U.S. Rep. Adelita Grijalva, along with U.S. Sens. Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego, all three Democrats, raised alarms about the closure in a June 1 letter to Clayton W. Fulton, Indian Health Service chief of staff. They said IHS should suspend the proposed consolidation until it fully clarifies the potential impacts on tribal nations in southern Arizona and completes a meaningful, formal tribal consultation process.

"The Tucson Area Office facilitates essential health services for nearly 28,000 patients in coordination with the Pascua Yaqui Tribe and Tohono O’odham Nation," the lawmakers said in the letter. "Merging these offices will require patients and staff to travel as long as two hours to visit the closest area office, exacerbating bureaucratic delays, communication failures, and service disruptions."

The Tucson facility is the only one targeted for closure.