Since the recognition of reservations, inadequate healthcare has plagued Native Americans. Indian health services, initially under the authority of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, had proven to be an uphill battle. In the 1940s the federal government began a new policy of termination, the end of the unique relationship between Indian tribes and the United States. This policy included the transfer of Indian health care away from BIA and placed it in the hands of Public Health Services. This was a major step designed to improve and expand services to Native Americans, as well as aid in the recruitment and retention of qualified doctors, nurses, and other medical personnel on the reservations.

In the early years of reservations, the health care providers were almost exclusively non-Indian. This presented its own challenges, though it would begin to shift shortly after the move to Public Health Services. Among the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa, Dr. Lionel Demontigny was not only one of the first to earn a medical degree, but the one of the first American Indian physicians to serve in the Indian Health Service as a Commissioned Officer. He would blaze a trail for Native Americans. Over the next few decades, more and more tribal citizens were working in the medical field, in roles such as administrators, nurses, and physicians. Today, most of the staff with Indian Health Services at the Quentin Burdick Health Care Facility on the Turtle Mountain Reservation are enrolled tribal citizens, a fact that once seemed impossible but is now a source of pride for many.