As a proud member of the Oglala Lakota Nation from the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in southwestern South Dakota, Drew Hicks grew up with limited access to basic health care, let alone the luxury of scheduling an appointment with a dermatologist or another medical specialist.
A portion of Badlands National Park is located near the Hicks family ranch in Pine Ridge, S.D.
The area – once home to the Lakota war leader Crazy Horse– encompasses nearly 47,000 residents scattered over about 2.2 million acres, larger than the size of Rhode Island, with land marked by rolling mixed grass prairie, sandhills, and badlands. Some of the Oglala Lakota people live in substandard housing and lack regular access to food, running water, and refrigeration, not to mention cell phone and Internet service. "It's sparse," said Mr. Hicks, the son of Tribal ranchers who now is a 3rd-year medical student at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science in Rochester, Minn., and has an early interest in pursuing dermatology. "There is a lot of territory and not a lot of health care serving the population." From the Hicks home, the nearest place to receive health care is a family medicine practice in Martin, S.D. – about a 15-minute drive on gravel roads in the best of conditions, but in poor weather, it can be difficult, he said. "So, there are environmental challenges besides the limited number of health care providers."
