Series 3: Director of the Indian Health Service (IHS), 1967-1989

In 1968, the Division of Indian Health was renamed the Indian Health Service (I.H.S.). The following year, Emery Johnson was appointed Director of the I.H.S., the fourth in the bureau's history. This series consists of reports, correspondence, memoranda, procedural documents, meeting material, manuscripts, and printed matter from Johnson's tenure as director. It documents the activities of many specific medical centers, area offices, and health programs from all across the country as well as studies and decisions impacting the DIH and Indian population at large.

The material is divided into the following six sub-series: General, Policies and Procedures, Health Studies and Services, Reports, Meetings and Events, and Office of Research and Development. The General sub-series consists of I.H.S.-related correspondence, press releases, appointment books, and notes along with memoranda, reports, and testimonies on tribal matters and federal involvement with the I.H.S. The Policies and Procedures sub-series consists of procedural guidelines, manuals, and policy statements that applied to the I.H.S. in general as well as those written for specific programs and facilities; it also includes directories and general plans for the Public Health Service. Material in the Health Studies and Services sub-series documents specific Native American health studies and conditions, centers and facilities, contracts, and programs at the local or national level. By contrast, material in the Reports sub-series documents broader I.H.S.-activities and medical summations on the entire American Indian population; it includes outside recommendations, reports to congress, statistics, and task force reports. The Meetings and Events sub-series consists of planning material, agendas, minutes, reports, photographs, and correspondence related to meetings, conferences, and dedication events sponsored by the I.H.S. Finally, the Office of Research and Development sub-series contains papers and study reports produced by a particular I.H.S. office in Tucson, Arizona. Folders within each sub-series are arranged chronologically by date.