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MUSKOGEE, OK, - The Shoshone-Paiute Tribes of Nevada have joined the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma in a 7 million dollar, class action law suit. The suit was filed in U.S. District Court in Muskogee, on Friday, March 5, 1999.

The class action suit, representing about 300 tribes, alledges that the Indian Health Service (IHS) has underpaid the tribes, by refusing to pay administrative costs in full for tribally run medical programs.

A spokesperson said that by refusing to honor the federal contracts and mandates, to pay tribal administrative costs in full, they are undermining the ability of the tribes to operate federal health-care programs.

The chairman of the Shoshone-Paiute Tribe, James Paiva, said that the tribe's ability to provide care was "crippled" in 1995 when the government failed to pay the administrative costs. Paiva said that no maintenance could be done and the health programs had to shut down because the IHS did not pay the administrative costs.

There is one sentence in a related appropriations act, adopted last fall by congress, that allegedly removes the ability of any tribe to collect unpaid costs, included in any contracts made from 1994 through 1998. The IHS reportedly has at least 304 contracts with different tribal health care providers.