In a recent legislative hearing to help shape the state health department’s budget, tribal leaders traveled from across Montana to tell lawmakers they wanted to reinstate a tribal relations manager position that proponents say once provided valuable communication with the state Department of Public Health and Human Services.
Lesa Evers, an enrolled citizen of the Blackfeet Tribe, was the last to hold the position and retired in 2023. The position, which provided a high-ranking link between the department and tribal governments, has since been left vacant by the department and was eventually removed entirely.
Anna Whiting Sorrell spoke strongly about the loss of the position. She has a doctorate in Indigenous and rural health and an extensive background of working for the state, the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes and federal government. Whiting Sorrell was previously the director of DPHHS under the administration of former Democratic Gov. Brian Schweitzer.
State Rep. Mike Fox, a member of the American Indian Caucus and Democrat from Fort Belknap, was on the health-focused legislative committee that heard the testimony and asked about the tribal relations manager position to get a clearer understanding of its importance.
Whiting Sorrell voiced her disapproval with the removal of the position.
“What I learned in that time was that if you’re not sitting at the table, your voice is not heard,” Sorrell said. “What the tribal relations director position did at DPHHS, that was under the direct supervision of the director, was keep our voice at the table every day for every issue.”
After the session was over, many individuals openly discussed the position, how they felt government-to-government relationships were during Evers’ time and how it had changed for the worse after she retired and the position was terminated.
During his time as Confederated Salish and Kootenai tribal health director, Joe Durglo worked closely with Evers and developed an intimate understanding of the communication Evers provided for tribes.
“She had a formal process that she used to go out and meet with the tribes directly. That was her formal process. She also shared her contact information, so if I ran into a problem … or had questions about specific things within the department, we could reach out to her directly,” Durglo said. “So, she helped solve problems, she recognized the formal relationship between the state governments and the tribal governments. So she was very aware of that. She had a process where she presented information and representatives of that department to the tribes, formally in the government-to-government relationship.”
After Evers left, Durglo added that it’s been difficult to identify a person within the department to help solve problems and navigate the organization.
When asked about how a similar position should be designed, Durglo said it is important to work closely with the department director.
“Tribes need to have a voice at that table, and that needs to be a tribal voice, not a state agency rep, speaking for us,” he said. “We just need a voice in those decisions, in those conversations, and I guess vice versa, if the state or that department has questions from the tribe, she was also that liaison. She helped navigate, she understood tribes enough to help navigate that conversation going the other way. So it was a two-way pact.”
Many want to see the position reinstated. Ted Russette, an enrolled citizen of the Cree Tribe and vice chair on the Chippewa Cree of Rocky Boy Executive Branch, said tribes have been left in the dark since Evers’ retirement.
“There was no cohesiveness after she left,” Russette said. “Everything dropped, because she used to keep us, the tribes, informed about what was happening and what was coming down the pipe. After she left, nothing.”
Russette said he eventually got frustrated enough trying to get answers about health care issues that he came directly to the state Capitol in Helena for answers.
“Finally, we just got to come up here and talked to the governor. Then he gets kind of mad at us. But what do you do?” he said.
Mike Comes At Night, a recently elected member of the Blackfeet Tribal Council, never interacted with Evers while she was in her position, but still said he wanted to improve government-to-government relations.
“There needs to be communication between the tribe and state. A position similar to Lesa’s would be a chance for that,” Comes At Night said.
Maria Roundstone, an enrolled citizen of Northern Cheyenne, drove more than six hours through hazardous conditions to represent her tribe at the Capitol. She works for the tribe’s Revenue Department, which handles coding and billing with medicaid.
Roundstone had communicated with Evers in the past and found her to be an integral part of keeping relations intact during Evers’ time at DPHHS. Roundstone’s office now faces a lack of communication from the department and people suffer because of it, she said.
“Reestablishing this position is instrumental to keeping tribes informed,” Roundstone said.
Many people who described just how influential Evers and her position were emphasized that understanding how she created the communication pipelines needed for government-to-government relations will be paramount to any position DPHHS may reinstate.
During her tenure, Evers said in an interview, she consistently went to each of Montana’s reservations to get contacts from every tribe and also took individuals from the state health department to the reservations to create relationships between all parties.
It was important to her to maintain open and honest lines of communication, even when the news may not have been favorable to tribes.
“I saw tribal governments as partners in our work, communicating with them, keeping them informed about the position that the department had on things which sometimes wasn’t favorable to them. You know, being honest, there was a lot of things that I did,” Evers recalled. “I did tribal tours every spring and fall, I went out and I met with every single tribal government in their chambers. Met with health facilities, the health CEOs, executive directors, and I took staff with me. I would take the Medicaid director. I’ve taken previous directors, deputy directors, other leadership in the agency, to have that experience out in Indian Country, to sit in tribal chambers and have this formal conversation all the way to Fort Peck, or over to Browning, or wherever it might be. But we did this trip every spring and every fall.”
Evers’ office was two doors down from the director’s and she credits working in such close proximity to the success she was able to have.
The funding is still available for a position of similar status. In an interview, Republican state Sen. Dennis Lenz, of Billings, said he wasn’t sure why the position went away and where those responsibilities now lie.
“Have some of those functions been dispersed throughout the department? I mean did the actual function get dispersed? I can’t speak to why [the department director] would have done that. That is kind of unusual,” Lenz said.
All members of the Montana American Indian Caucus signed onto a letter voicing their displeasure with the removal of the position and advocating for it to be reinstated once again in the department.
A representative from the Department of Public Health and Human Services declined to be interviewed for this story.
This story is co-published by Montana Free Press and ICT, a news partnership that covers the Montana American Indian Caucus during the state’s 2025 legislative session.
