Utah's Native American tribes got together last week to work on joint solutions to issues such as health care disparities and educational achievement gaps. They also discussed ways to spur economic development.

Representatives of Utah's tribes met in Cedar City for a two-day Native American Summit, called by Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.

This year marked the second annual summit aimed at addressing issues shared by all Utah's tribes. The groups' committees have some lofty goals, such as increasing the participation of Native Americans in higher education by 10 percent a year, said Palmer DePaulis, executive director of the Department of Community and Culture.

"They are experiencing pretty significant dropout rates," DePaulis said. "It's a huge issue getting kids to go on to higher education ... they may drop out of high school to work construction, where they can make money, or the oil fields."

On health care, access to Medicaid and Medicare was among key issues, said Melissa Zito, Indian health liaison and health policy consultant for the Department of Health.

The issue arose after Congress passed a requirement last year that proof of citizenship and identity are necessary to access the federally-funded health care programs. Proving identity can be problematic for some Native Americans because a tribal identification can no longer be used on its own as proof of identity.

"Where it impacts the tribes, is a lot of people were born in rural and frontier areas," Zito said. "They don't have birth certificates."

So, some people have to get affidavits to prove their origin. And even for those who do have birth certificates, access may be difficult, she said, because some tribal guidelines say birth certificates must be requested in person, something that can be problematic for those who don't live near their birthplace.

DePaulis said the meeting was a continuation of a dialogue started last year, at a similar annual meeting.

"They all appreciate the communication piece. Now they're looking for action," DePaulis said. "We're there to help them."

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E-mail: dbulkeley@desnews.com