A veterans' outreach program is in the works for the Turtle Mountain Reservation.

It would be a joint effort of the Veterans Administration Center in Fargo and the Indian Health Services. Organizers toured the Fargo facility Monday and discussed plans for the Turtle Mountain program in Belcourt.

The center aims to increase access for veterans on the reservation. The goal is to have staff from the Fargo VA center travel to Belcourt. According to the Fargo VA Medical Center, American Indians have the greatest per capita service rate of any Americans and statistically underutilize the Veterans Administration.

It also would meet the cultural needs of the veterans and tribal members by providing access to spiritual leaders and a sweat lodge. The Fargo VA Medical Center has the only VA-run sweat lodge.

It's a small, domed structure made of willow saplings anchored in the ground in a circle, Sen. Richard Marcellais, D-Belcourt, said by e-mail.

"The sweat lodge ceremony is for renewal of life," he wrote. "In the ceremony people seek help from the spirit world (spirits ancestors) and community with each other and their relatives (human and animal)."

Marcellais is a Vietnam War veteran and he worked for the Veterans Administration. He is involved in the planning of the outreach program in Belcourt. He toured the Fargo facility Monday.

He met with Rosalyn Cole, the associate director of the Fargo VAMedical Center, Robert P. McDivitt, medical center director; Paula Conrad, veterans service center manager and program directors and outreach coordinators involved in the organization of the outreach program.

(Reach reporter Sara Kincaid at 250-8251 or sara.kincaid@;bismarcktribune.com.)