Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay today announced the transfer of a 45-bed Indian hospital at Hayward, Wisconsin, to a local nonprofit corporation for future operations and maintenance.
The hospital was turned over to the Hayward Memorial Area Hospital Association. It will continue to provide services primarily for members of the Lac Courte Oreilles tribe, and will also serve non-Indians of the area. The hospital will be operated under a policy of equality of treatment and non-segregation.
Under contracts negotiated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, other Indians in the area will receive service at local hospitals closer to their reservations than the Hayward Hospital. The Lac du Flambeau Indians will receive treatment at Moccasin or Rhinelander, Wisconsin; the Bad River Indians at Ashland, and the Red Cliff band of Chippewas at Bayfield.
The Hayward Hospital, operated for many years by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, is the first to be transferred to local ownership and supervision under authority of Public Law 291 of the 82nd Congress, approved April 3, 1952.
The move is part of the Indian Bureau’s program of transferring its service responsibilities to State and local agencies. The transfer was discussed with the Indians involved and approved in resolutions adopted by their tribal councils.
