Javascript is required to use this website.

Health center’s director denies clinic harmed patients by over-prescribing opioids

Alert Top Story Watchdog

Health center’s director denies clinic harmed patients by over-prescribing opioids

TED McDERMOTT,
Jun 5, 2026
Jun 5, 2026 Updated 3 hrs ago
0
10 min to read

Prefer us on Google

BROWNING, Mont. – Jennifer St. Goddard had one mission.

Blackfeet Reservation — A map of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation located in northwestern Montana.
ANNE CRUIKSHANK

Jennifer St. Goddard 11 — Jennifer St. Goddard, administrator of Southern Piegan Health Center until recently, said allegations that SPHC was harming people were “unjust,” “unwarranted” and “unsubstantiated.”
TED McDERMOTT,

Blackfeet doctor accuses clinic of harming patients with tens of thousands of pain pills

Blackfeet doctor accuses clinic of harming patients with tens of thousands of pain pills

Dr. Mary DesRosier’s whole life has been built on “medicine, Blackfeet, helping and healing.”

Jennifer St. Goddard 3 — Jennifer St. Goddard, administrator of Southern Piegan Health Center until recently, unlocks a door at the clinic in Browning, which was undergoing a remodel in April.
TED McDERMOTT,

Critics say tribal clinic flooded Blackfeet Nation with opioids

Critics say tribal clinic flooded Blackfeet Nation with opioids

Some believe a tribal clinic with a pain-management program was fueling harm by flooding the Blackfeet Nation with opioids. Supporters saw it as a haven for suffering patients.

Jennifer St. Goddard 2 — Jennifer St. Goddard, administrator of Southern Piegan Health Center until recently, pushed back on claims that patients had been harmed as a result of SPHC’s practices or “that we were a pill mill.”
TED McDERMOTT,

SPHC 1 — Concerns about the prescribing practices at the Southern Piegan Health Center, a tribally operated clinic, have roiled the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in northwest Montana.
TED McDERMOTT,

Bison from the Blackfeet Buffalo Program — Bison from the Blackfeet Buffalo Program graze on their winter range along the Two Medicine River. The tribe has about 700 bison in the herd, and this year they harvested about 20 to distribute across the community.
THOM BRIDGE, Independent Record

Ted McDermott has been a reporter and editor at newspapers in Missoula, Butte and Spokane. His reporting has earned numerous journalism awards, including the A-Mark Prize for Investigative Reporting and first place for Coverage of Indigenous Communities by a non-Native reporter from the Indigenous Media Awards.