Luana Reyes

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Luana Reyes (c. 1933^[1] – 5 November 2001^[1]) was an American Indian health care administrator. As executive director of the Seattle Indian Health Board 1972–1982, she grew that institution from a staff of five to nearly 200 and made it a model for urban Indian institutions; subsequently, she worked for the federal Indian Health Services, eventually becoming deputy director of that 14,000-person institution.^[1][1]

On October 10, 2001, shortly before her death of aplastic anemia, she received the Presidential Rank Meritorious Award.^[1]

Life

Reyes' mother, born Mary Christian, was Sin Aikst (now known as Lakes tribe, one of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation); her father, Julian Reyes, was Filipino, but had largely assimilated to an Indian way of life. Her mother's father, Alex Christian, was known as Pic Ah Kelowna, "White Grizzly Bear"; his great uncle (brother of his maternal grandmother) was Chief James Bernard, a Sin Aikst leader in the early 20th century.^[1]

Reyes' early childhood was spent largely on the Colville Indian Reservation in Washington. In 1935–1937, during the period of construction of the Grand Coulee Dam, her parents had moved to the Coulee and started a Chinese restaurant even though "[n]either of them could prepare Chinese food except for simple dishes such as pork fried rice, egg foo-yung, and chop suey". They soon acquired an ethnically Chinese partner and cook, Harry Wong; Wong bought them out of the restaurant in 1937.^[1] Her parents separated in 1939 and subsequently divorced;^[1] her mother would later work again for Wong in Tacoma, Washington, and eventually marry him.^[1]

From 1940 to 1942, Reyes and her older brother Lawney were students at the Chemawa Indian School five miles north of Salem, Oregon^[1] After graduating from Okanogan High School (Okanogan, Washington) in 1951, she moved to Tacoma, Washington, living with her mother, working in a department store and for Harry Wong's restaurant.^[1] She worked over the next twenty years in the private sector in San Francisco, Hawaii, and Seattle before succeeding her younger brother, activist Bernie Whitebear, as executive director of the Seattle Indian Health Board, which, over the next decade she transformed from a tiny organization with a staff of five ^[1] into "a comprehensive community health care center with a multimillion-dollar budget and over 190 full-time health professionals and support staff."^[1] During this time, she helped to found the American Indian Health Care Association, now known as the National Council on Urban Indian Health.^[1] Subsequently, after a brief stint as executive director of the Puyallup Nation Health Authority community health program,^[1] she worked at the headquarters of the federal Indian Health Services (Rockville, Maryland), eventually becoming director of headquarters operations and deputy director of that 14,000-person institution.^[1][1][1]

She had one child, a daughter, Kecia, born in 1985.^[1]

Reyes' brother Bernie Whitebear (1937–2000) was a prominent activist, a founder not only of the Seattle Indian Health Board (SIHB), but of the United Indians of All Tribes Foundation, and the Daybreak Star Cultural Center; her older brother Lawney Reyes is a sculptor, designer, curator, and memoirist.^[1]

There is now a Luana Reyes Leadership Award named in her honor.^[1]

Notes

References

• Lawney L. Reyes, White Grizzly Bear's Legacy: Learning to be Indian, University of Washington Press, 2002. ISBN 0-295-98202-0.
• "A Tribute to Luana L. Reyes", The National Indian Health Board Presents Its 19th Annual Consumer Conference] (Microsoft Word document) Accessed online 11 March 2007.