The New York Times
Originally published July 30, 2012
A federal health services psychologist who told superiors that an American Indian tribe was ignoring widespread child abuse on a North Dakota reservation has been reprimanded and reassigned, according to federal officials and documents.
The psychologist, Michael R. Tilus, director of behavioral health at the Spirit Lake Health Center on the Spirit Lake Indian reservation, describes himself as a whistle-blower. He wrote in an e-mail to state and federal health officials this spring about an “epidemic” of child abuse on Spirit Lake, which is in a remote area of northeastern North Dakota.
Among the recipients were officials with the Department of Health and Human Services and the Indian Health Service, which oversee most health care on Spirit Lake.
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Dr. Tilus wrote that instead of being punished, he deserved whistle-blower protection under the Food and Drug Administration Safety and Innovation Act of 2012, which was signed into law by President Obama this month. That law extends military whistle-blower safeguards to federal Public Health Service officers.
