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In George Bearpaw's family, engaging in military duty has been the mark of a patriot for generations. The former U.S. Army Special Forces member fought in the Vietnam War. His late father, Thomas Bearpaw, served in the Army during World War II. His two brothers and a sister also enlisted in the Army.

"My family's military history goes back to the Civil War," said Bearpaw, a Cherokee from eastern Oklahoma now living in Tucson.

"We grew up with my dad being very patriotic," said Bearpaw, acting director for Indian Health Service in the Tucson area.

"It's true of a lot of Native American families. They're pretty proud of their history of service."

Such military contributions make American Indians eligible for the same benefits available to other veterans. But while they readily enlist in the military, Bearpaw noted, many American Indians fail to take advantage of available health care and educational, employment and housing-related services.

The Southern Arizona Gathering of American Indian Vets on Saturday aims to reach out to the population through a specially tailored program that includes free health screenings and wellness education. The first-ever daylong event will be held at the Southern Arizona VA Health Care System on South Sixth Avenue.

In his post, Bearpaw said he sometimes comes across fellow veterans seeking basic medical care at the San Xavier Clinic on the Tohono O'odham Nation.

"They're just hesitant to work with the VA system," he said of American Indian veterans.

The reasons for their apprehension can be as complex as the motivators that compel American Indians to join the military in disproportionate numbers despite the U.S. government's checkered history with the group.

"They have the highest rate of combat also," said Yvonne Garcia, a nurse advocate for American Indians at the VA hospital. "Many serve in either the Marines or the Army, and when they go back home, especially on the reservations, a lot of times they'll just kind of hide out."

Cultural beliefs are a major factor for the veterans' reluctance to seek services, said Garcia, who is part Mandan. Her tribe is from North Dakota.

"If you come from a traditional background, where you think that all illness starts with the spirit, and you come into a Western medicine model and people are trying to make you do things in a different way, then you feel like you're not listened to," the nurse said.

The VA system in Tucson offers culturally sensitive services such as a talking circle, which draws from an indigenous practice of sharing and supporting each other in a group setting, said Garcia, who travels to area reservations frequently.

"I don't know that you can ever do enough to get information out to people, especially when you have such a rural population," she said, adding that many American Indians who live in the city also tend to feel disconnected from mainstream medicine.

The VA hospital and Indian Health Service, a federal program for American Indians and Alaska Natives, are working to complement the various services delivered to veterans, Garcia said.

Debi Nalwood, a program analyst for Indian Health Service, said making health care available to American Indian veterans can be challenging.

"It's a different population in how you reach out to them," she said. It takes "a lot of visibility and talking to them, and building trust."

While veterans and other tribal members receive routine care under Indian Health Service programs, Nalwood said that eligible veterans could benefit from the VA system's specialized services.

Commander Rafael Madrid, of the American Legion Yoem Post 125, said some veterans who are members of the Pascua Yaqui Tribe simply prefer to turn to health care offered on the reservation rather than those provided off-reservation.

"A lot of people just don't come out, especially the elders," said Madrid, who at 17 left South Tucson to join the U.S. Marines as a way to improve his life. Like Bearpaw, he fought in Vietnam.

"There's a lot more outreach now than back then," Madrid said of veterans' services.

Bearpaw said he knows from personal experience that the VA system has improved since its indifference turned him off at 21, when he sought help to deal with the mental scars of his year in combat. It was 1971 when the young veteran went away to heal on his own.

"Native culture has its own system of healing," he said. "Veterans for the most part identify with the family to work out their problems — but it may not be enough. That is when behavioral health needs to come into play."