Supporters marched from the clinic along State Street to the Wallace F. Bennett Federal Building in downtown Salt Lake City and staged a rally. Salt Lake City police estimated the crowd at about 500.
"The community has come forward to say, 'Don't mess with our health care,' '' said Dena Ned, the center's executive director. "It's a community center. It's a cultural center. It's access to health care and mental health care and food."
The center's $1.1 million annual federal funding is in jeopardy.
Under President Bush's 2007 budget, funding to the nation's 34 urban Indian health clinics would be canceled. In Utah, that would mean the Walk-In Center's $1.5 million budget would be slashed by roughly 90 percent, leaving in question how it would operate.
Statewide, there are 33,388 American Indians, about 1.4 percent of the population. About 45 percent live along the Wasatch Front.
Established in the 1970s, the Walk-In Center is now located in an old union hall near Salt Lake City's Franklin Covey baseball stadium. The center serves 7,000 people a year, mostly uninsured, urban Indians living at or below the federal poverty level.
A staff of 22 works with community health clinics to provide free or discounted dental and medical care, including immunizations and prenatal checkups. Other programs focus on disease prevention and working with at-risk youth.
Eleanor Iron Lightning, one of the organizers of the protest, said the services are desperately needed to give urban Indians a chance to prosper in cities.
"If these things are cut off, we'll have to go back to the reservations with our tails between our legs," she said, adding that most reservations have poor economies, housing and job opportunities.
Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson rallied the crowd with a passionate speech slamming the Bush administration.
"The U.S. government has a shameful history of breaking treaties with Native Americans," he said.
If Congress approves the cuts, Anderson said, American Indians' health will suffer because many are uninsured and don't know where else to go for help.
Already, the rate of diabetes and asthma for American Indians in Utah is twice that of the rest of the population, according to the Utah Department of Health. They have the highest poverty rate, at 17.4 percent, and report high rates of binge drinking, obesity, coronary artery disease and arthritis.
The president's proposal is expected to be considered by the Senate Appropriations Committee this summer.
Spokesmen for Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, who sits on the committee, and Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, told the crowd that both men are against stripping the funding.
But some attendees weren't appeased. "Where is Bennett? Where is Hatch? At Club Med?" one man yelled. Another man kept saying, "Impeach Bush!"
chamilton@sltrib.com
