Our Story
Our Native American Healthcare Facility: Uniting Our Community
For many decades, when the elders of our Nation needed skilled nursing care, long-term assisted living, or similar services, they had to leave the Nation and go to nearby cities like Tucson. Although they received basic healthcare services elsewhere, the care they received was not specific to the O’odham Himdag. As a result, the quality of life suffered. The Tohono O’odham Nursing Care Authority (TONCA) was founded to address this problem. Our mission is to bring our elders back home—and keep them home—on our traditional lands.
Explore the History of TONCA
The Tohono O’odham Nursing Care Authority was founded thanks to the determination and compassion of Archie Hendricks Sr., who was Tohono O’odham and a member of the Chukut Kuk District. He was raised on the Tohono O’odham Nation in the San Miguel community. Throughout his childhood, Archie’s parents Richard and Josephine instilled traditional values and a servant leadership mindset in him, and he was raised to believe that we are all on this Earth to serve others. He was the first O’odham to study Agriculture at the University of Arizona.
After spending his career in service to others, Archie continued to serve the Nation after his retirement. He saw how elders had to leave the Nation when they needed skilled nursing care, and he saw how it adversely affected our elders to live out their days in a place without traditional ceremonies, foods, and language. At the age of 86, Archie Hendricks Sr. was appointed as one of the founding committee member of the Tohono O’odham Nursing Care Authority. Our first facility, the Archie Hendricks, Sr. Skilled Nursing Facility opened its doors to provide culturally sensitive care to our People. At Archie Hendricks, our elders can access evidence-based healthcare infused with our traditional values and O’odham Himdag.
Today, the Archie Hendricks Sr. Skilled Nursing Facility provides short-term skilled nursing care, long-term nursing care, along with respite care and hospice care to our People. About a decade after opening our first facility, TONCA opened our elder assisted living residence right next door to provide long-term care to our elders in a comfortable and friendly home-like setting.
We Safeguard Our Residents’ Dignity and Quality of Life
The Tohono O’odham Nursing Care Authority is devoted to empowering residents of our community to enjoy a higher quality of life, remain connected with family and friends, and to have a dignified retirement at home on our ancestral lands surrounded by Tohono O’odham culture and comforted by our shared values. We aim to be a leader not only in providing exceptionally compassionate elder care at our Native American healthcare facility, but also to educate elders, families, and the larger community.
Furthermore, as the only elder care center on the Nation, TONCA contributes greatly to the overall economy, health, and preservation of culture of the Tohono O’odham Nation:
- The third-party payments to cover the costs of resident stays is infused into the Tohono O’odham Nation which would’ve gone to off-reservation/non-tribal SNFs and ALRs.
- Elders do not have to leave the Nation for care and can continue to participate in the culture.
- Families do not have to travel off reservation to visit their family members.
- TONCA provides jobs, wages, benefits, and housing to Tohono O’odham Nation members (71% of TONCA workforce).
- TONCA is serviced by tribal utility companies and local vendors thereby keeping business on the Nation.
We stand for O’odham-centered care within the home-like environment of our Native American healthcare facility.
