Tagged With "American Indian Health"
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Native voice helped create the Boy Scouts, Charles Eastman ‘Ohiyesa’ (indiancountrytoday)
When researching the history and origin of the Boy Scouts, the story that likely comes to the surface is regarding Ernest Thompson Seton, an author, and artist that taught young men the ways of Native Americans. Seton started the Woodcraft Indians, and would eventually go on to create the Boy Scouts with the assistance, input, and guidance from author Daniel Carter Beard and British military officer Robert Baden-Powell. Seton, Beard, and Baden-Powell began to garner more support from New...
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Navajo Nation residents face coronavirus without running water (msn.com)
Navajo Tribal Utility Authority (NTUA) is the largest tribal multi-utility provider in the U.S. It operates 11 external watering stations for residents to haul water, charging $5 for up to 1,000 gallons. But for those who have to purchase water elsewhere or rely on bottled water, it can cost $1.50 a gallon. A study looking at water issues in Navajo Nation, funded in part by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, found Navajo households without running water paid 71 times...
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No more ‘cowboys and Indians’: Newsom wants Californians to learn Native American history (Sacramento BEE)
By Hannah Wiley, Sacramento Bee, September 27, 2019 Gov. Gavin Newsom at an annual celebration of Native American culture said he wanted greater “truth telling” of California’s indigenous history and a stronger acknowledgment of the state’s genocide of native people. The governor opened his remarks at the 52nd annual Native American Day in Sacramento by describing California’s first governor, Peter Hardeman Burnett , authorizing a “war of extermination” against the state’s indigenous...
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Łóó' Hashkéii Awéé (Indian Country Today)
Creators of the popular video "Baby Shark," whose "doo doo doo" song was played at the World Series in October and has been a viral hit with toddlers around the world, have released a Navajo version of the tune. "Łóó' Hashkéii Awéé," which loosely means Navajo Baby Shark, is the 20th language version of Baby Shark, SmartStudy marketing manager Kevin Yoon said in an email. The project was launched after Navajo Nation Museum director Manuelito Wheeler reached out to SmartStudy in September...
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Opportunity: NIHB is Seeking Indigenous Knowledge through Key Informant Interviews (by 9/13)
Sep 3, 2019 Source: National Indian Health Board To assist Tribal Nations in building systems of support for Tribal children, the National Indian Health Board (NIHB) is working in partnership with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on a new initiative . The purpose of this project is to increase the capacity of rural and non-urban Tribal communities for identifying and addressing elevated blood lead levels in Tribal children through interviews with Tribal representatives.
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Over 55 congresspeople push to include tribal funding in next COVID-19 relief package (KRCR News)
By Megan Bender, May 6, 2020, 7 KRCR News WASHINGTON D.C. — U.S. Senators Kamala D. Harris (D-CA), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Tom Udall (D-NM) and Representatives Raul Ruiz (D-CA) and Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) on Tuesday led 55 of their colleagues in sending a letter to Senate leadership in a push to include include additional funding for Indian Health Service, Tribal Health Programs and Urban Indian Health Organizations to recover from significant COVID-19 related losses in revenue, a press...
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Panel speaks about traumas in Native American communities [BismarkTribune.com]
At a hearing on trauma among Native Americans on Wednesday, tribal leaders asked North Dakota's senators to consider the potential traumatic consequences of building an oil pipeline. "We can still achieve economic development. We can still achieve national security," Standing Rock Sioux Chairman Dave Archambault II said in tearful testimony. "But don't do it off Indians anymore. We pay the cost, and this is the cost: historical trauma." Archambault was speaking to Sens. Heidi Heitkamp,...
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Protecting the Earth, Protecting Ourselves: Stories from Native America (nonprofitquarterly.org)
Throughout the United States, Native communities are actively working to combat environmental racism and climate change. These Native leaders are working to elevate indigenous knowledge and practices as it relates to Native lands and natural resources. 1. Environmental justice is not a new idea in Native communities. It is important to acknowledge that Native communities have long had a different relationship with the environment compared to individuals from Western society. Although there...
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Reading Native family stories 'like mine' (Indian Country Today)
HarperCollins launches Heartdrum to better portray Native characters and stories HarperCollins Children’s Books recently tapped Smith to lead Heartdrum, a new imprint set to launch in early 2021 emphasizing contemporary Native characters and genre fiction. She’ll work with editor Rosemary Brosnan to publish a variety of picture books, chapter books and young adult titles from Native authors. Tribal presses and small publishers have focused on Native children’s books in the past, but Smith...
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RFA: two funding categories available [Tribal Epi Centers]
By: Tribal Epi Centers 8/29/29 TEC Blog REQUEST FOR APPLICATIONS The National Indian Health Board (NIHB) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are pleased to announce the second cycle of funding for Strong Systems, Stronger Communities (SSSC) for Tribes. The intended outcomes of SSSC are: Increased performance improvement practice Increased innovation in response to system integration challenges, and Progress toward national public health standards. Applications due Friday,...
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San Diego Marks 250 Years—And Millennia of Kumeyaay History (timesofsandiego.com)
San Diego officially celebrated it’s 250th birthday Tuesday while also recognizing millennia of Kumeyaay Indian history before the European arrival. O n the hill where Father Junipero Serra blessed the first Spanish mission in California, the Kumeyaay flag was raised alongside those of the United States, Spain and Mexico. “We are establishing the fact that our Kumeyaay friends and neighbors are part of our past and our future,” said Mayor Kevin Faulconer. Faulconer was joined by Tijuana...
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She Hoped to Shine a Light on Maternal Mortality Among Native Americans. Instead, She Became a Statistic of It. [nbcnews.com]
By Elizabeth Chuck and Haimy Assefa, NBC News, February 8, 2020 The twins were scheduled to be delivered on Aug. 21, 2019, and Stephanie Snook was nervous. Her pregnancy had not been planned. Snook was born with a heart condition; after her first two children, she had been told getting pregnant again could put too much stress on her heart. Nonetheless, Snook, 37, a warehouse clerk in food services at the Seattle Mariners’ ballpark, trusted she was in good hands. [ Please click here to read...
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Sick River: Can These California Tribes Beat Heroin and History? [nytimes.com]
WEITCHPEC, Calif. — For thousands of years, the Klamath River has been a source of nourishment for the Northern California tribes that live on its banks. Its fish fed dozens of Indian villages along its winding path, and its waters cleansed their spirits, as promised in their creation stories. But now a crisis of opioid addiction is gripping this remote region. At the same time, the Klamath’s once-abundant salmon runs have declined to historic lows, the culmination of 100 years of...
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Starting on the Nez Perce Reservation, Jo Ann Kauffman built a national consulting firm [Seattle Times]
When Jo Ann Kauffman applied for one of her first business loans, a lender told her, “You have zero net worth.” She was living on trust land on the Nez Perce Reservation, which she couldn’t use for collateral. Her vehicle had 300,000 miles, so she couldn’t pledge it against a loan, either. “I felt about this big,” said the president and founder of Kauffman & Associates in Spokane. Despite early challenges with financing, Kauffman went on to build an American Indian- and woman-owned...
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State Attorney General announces free, prior and informed consent policy with Washington tribes (Indian Country Today)
Once, there was no easy recourse for tribes when governments or corporations engaged in one-sided, or unilateral, actions that negatively affected them. But on May 10, a major milestone in the fight for Native sovereignty was reached when Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson announced a new state policy regarding Washington’s federally-recognized tribes. “Effective immediately,” Ferguson said, “my office is adopting a consultation and consent policy regarding Washington’s 29...
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States Move to Add Native American History to Curriculum (usnews.com)
MINNEAPOLIS—ON THE heels of the National Indian Education Association's conference held in Minneapolis earlier this fall and just in time for Native American Heritage Month , the nearby Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community announced a $5 million philanthropic campaign to fund resources, curriculum, and training on Native American heritage for teachers and administrators across Minnesota , according to the Star Tribune . "We're hoping we can move the needle in the narrative in Minnesota and...
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Strengthening our Native Communities: How Understanding Adverse Childhood Experiences Can Help (Association of American Indian Physicians)
Native communities face many challenges. Too often the strengths of families are strained by these challenges, and finding effective ways to support our families can be difficult. Our communities often find themselves dealing with the results of family and community disruption, (alcohol or drug abuse, unintended pregnancies, dropping out of school, etc) and are challenged to address the core issues. ACE scores are significantly higher in indigenous American communities than in the broader...
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Supporting Tribal Public Health Capacity in Coronavirus Preparedness and Response (non-competitive grant) CDC’s Office of Tribal Affairs and Strategic Alliances
Description: To support tribal public health emergency response to COVID-19, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is announcing a new, non-competitive grant CDC-RFA-OT20- 2004 Supporting Tribal Public Health Capacity in Coronavirus Preparedness and Response. To carry out public health emergency response activities in response to COVID-19, CDC is awarding at least $40,000,000 of initial funding to federally recognized tribes and tribal organizations that contract or compact...
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Teen pregnancy prevention program for Native American youth expands to Minnesota [caih.jhu.edu]
By Center for American Indian Health - Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, June 4, 2019. Nationally, teen pregnancy rates have declined by 67% since peaking in 1991. Yet significant disparities remain. Native American teens have the highest teen birth rate of any U.S. group and 4 in 10 Native American women begin childbearing in adolescence. Working closely with tribal partners, the Center for American Indian Health (Center) developed Respecting the Circle of Life, a...
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Thanksgiving Mourning (tolerance.org)
Much of the Thanksgiving story focuses on a peaceful, cross-cultural exchange between the "Pilgrims and Indians." While it's true that the Wampanoag and the planters shared in a harvest celebration, within fifty years, the Wampanoag would no longer be a free people. For some Native Americans, Thanksgiving is no cause for celebration, but rather serves as a reminder of colonization's devastating impact on Indigenous peoples. In this activity, students will explore the perspectives of two...
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This Indigenous YouTuber is Spotlighting Her Culture, From Beaded Eyebrows to Regalia-Inspired Tutorials (Inside Edition)
By Johanna Lie, February, 24, 2020, YouTubers are known for creating interesting and fun videos containing tutorials on beauty, ASMR and commentary, all to grow their channels and communities, but for Chelsey Moon of Michigan, the stakes are higher. Moon is Ojibwe, with roots in the Bay Mills Indian Community, and is committed to spotlighting indigenous culture on her channel. “I’m doing this for people who don’t know about us and are interested, but also for indigenous people who want to...
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Tribal Behavioral Health Grant Program (SAMHSA)
Click HERE to learn more. Description The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), Centers for Mental Health Services (CMHS) and Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP), are accepting applications for the fiscal year (FY) 2020 Tribal Behavioral Health Grant Program (Short Title: Native Connections). The purpose of this program is to prevent suicide and substance misuse, reduce the impact of trauma, and promote mental health among American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN)...
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Trump administration forms presidential task force for protecting Native children in IHS [Indian Country Today]
Presidential Task Force created in response to a predatory pediatrician that had assaulted Native American children for years while employed at Indian Health Service On Tuesday, President Donald Trump announced the formation of the Presidential Task Force on Protecting Native American Children in the Indian Health Service System. A senior administration official hosted a White House conference call, and released statements to the media which outlined that President Trump has “charged the...
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Two New Grant Opportunities for Youth Development and Diversion Services
In 2019, more than $40 million will become available to fund community-based, culturally rooted, trauma-informed services for youth in California as alternatives to arrest and incarceration. Thousands of California youth are arrested every year for low-level offenses. Youth who are arrested or incarcerated for low-level offenses are less likely to graduate high school, more likely to suffer negative health-outcomes, and more likely to have later contact with the justice system.
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U.S. Department of Education begins investigation into discrimination against Native students in Montana’s Wolf Point School District (newsmaven.io)
After years of documented instances of anti-Native racism — including the use of racial slurs and harmful stereotypes by white administrators, faculty, and staff — in a school where 94 percent of Native students are below proficiency in reading, compared to 49 percent of white students, the U.S. Department of Education is starting an investigation into discrimination against Native students in Montana’s Wolf Point School District. Investigators with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office...
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UCLA Created A New Job Specifically To Recruit More Native American Students [laist.com]
It may not seem like a lot compared with centuries of genocide, displacement from their land and separation of their families, but some Southern California Native Americans say they appreciate how local public universities are moving to recruit more American Indian students and faculty and generally improve relations. UCLA is the most recent campus to reach out to Native Americans. Last fall, Chancellor Gene Block created the position of Special Advisor to the Chancellor on Native American...
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UCSF sends doctor and nurses to largest Native American reservation, hard-hit by coronavirus [sfchronicle.com]
By Mallory Moench, San Francisco Chronicle, April 22, 2020 UCSF sent 21 health care workers - seven doctors and 14 nurses - Wednesday to treat patients in the Navajo Nation hard-hit by the coronavirus. UCSF-trained doctors working on the largest Native American reservation in the U.S. asked San Francisco colleagues for help as the outbreak strains the health care system. Navajo Nation, where around 175,000 people live spread over 27,500 square miles in New Mexico and Arizona, has recorded...
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'Understanding Trauma': Program Shows Doctors the Biases Indigenous Women Experience [cbc.ca]
By Daniela Germano, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, October 1, 2019 An online training program is aiming to educate health-care professionals about biases Indigenous women may experience as highlighted by allegations of recent coerced sterilizations. Dr. Naana Jumah, an obstetrician-gynecologist at the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre and assistant professor at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine, said the idea for the program came in 2011 when she was doing her residency.
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Re: Uninsured Native Americans Often Lack Needed Prenatal Care [ocregister.com]
From the article: State grants also will help, at least for Native American women in need of prenatal care. Fresno, Humboldt, Placer and Shasta counties each received a grant of $267,250 through fiscal year 2019-20 to provide prenatal care to Native American communities.
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Beyond Paper Tigers Conference LIVE webinar June 24-25
CRI is proud to announce its 5th annual BPT Conference is going virtual. The theme this year is Resilience through Diversity: The power of trauma-informed DEI practices. BPT is a medium to share and learn from communities around the world. Over two days you will have the option of attending: 6 live presentations, 2 keynotes, 15 pre-recorded on-demand presentations, and on-demand screenings of 'Paper Tigers', 'Resilience' and the premiere of the documentary 'Visceral' with live Q&A...
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Covering the effect of the coronavirus on Native Americans [healthjournalism.org]
From Association of Health Care Journalists, June 10, 2020 For an in-depth look at how to report on the effect the novel coronavirus is having on Native Americans, AHCJ will host a webcast with Donald Warne, M.D., M.P.H., the director of the Indians Into Medicine program and director of the master of public health program in the School of Medicine and Health Sciences at the University of North Dakota. A member of the Oglala Lakota tribe from Pine Ridge, S.D., Warne will explain how the virus...
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COVID-19 Materials Developed for Tribal Use What tribal members need to know about coronavirus [caih.jhu.edu]
From Center for American Indian Health, Johns Hopkins University, June 2020 Johns Hopkins Center for American Indian Health is producing materials related to COVID-19 for tribes to distribute. [ Please click here to access resources .]
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My adoptive parents tried to erase my Indigenous identity. They failed. [cbc.ca]
By Kim Wheeler,CBC.CA Radio, The Doc Project, June 18, 2020 My name is Kim Wheeler but some know me as Kim Ziervogel. Others will remember me as Kim Bell, and to a small group of people I will always be Ruby Linda Bruyere. But the name game doesn't stop there. Why would someone have so many different names? Are they all aliases? Are they hiding from their past? From the law? In my case, it's none of these. I'm a Sixties Scoop survivor and those names were given to me through birth, adoption...
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Yurok Tribal Council appoints public health officer (Times Standard)
By The Times-Standard, June 23, 2020. From a Yurok Tribal Council release: The Yurok Tribal Council recently appointed Angie Brown as the COVID-19 Incident Command Team’s Public Health Officer. Brown brings more than 25 years of local, Public Health experience to the Incident Command Team. She will be overseeing the Yurok Public Health Task Force, which is responsible for developing and implementing plans to prevent the spread of COVID-19 on the Yurok Reservation. The veteran healthcare...
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Hoopa school, tribe taking new approach to treating trauma (Times Standard)
By Will Houston, May 4, 2018, Eureka Times-Standard. Though separated by about 2,400 miles, the communities and tribal nations in northeastern Humboldt County and Menominee County in Wisconsin share many similarities. They both are located in rural counties that have timber and fishing-based economies; they have similar populations; and they also share a history of trauma and the detrimental physical and mental health effects that come along with it. From these similarities, Hoopa resident...
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Family Therapy is now a Medi-Cal Benefit
Medi-Cal has just published new policy making family therapy a covered benefit for children and adults with mental health disorders and for children who are at risk for mental health disorders. This will be especially relevant for children with ACEs. Under the guidance of the California Department of Health Care Services, the Medi-Cal fee-for-service program aims to provide health care services to about 13 million Medi-Cal beneficiaries. The Medi-Cal fee-for-service program adjudicates both...
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A Historical Trauma-Informed Approach to COVID-19
Fact Sheet from the Urban Indian Health Institute shares ways to support communities experiencing multiple trauma during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. How can organizations... Be more transparent about COVID-19? Emotionally support the people they serve through telehealth services? Support staff in caring for themselves and their communities? Support communities in handling their emotions? Work together to heal their communities? To download the fact sheet and/or view other COVID-19...
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The effects of COVID-19 on the mental health of Indigenous communities (Medical News Today)
By Ana Sandoiu, July 6, 2020, Medical News Today. In the United States, the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting Indigenous communities to a disproportionate degree. In this Special Feature, we bring into focus some of the mental health effects and challenges that Indigenous people face as a result of the pandemic. Since the pandemic started, it has become increasingly clear that COVID-19 affects certain communities to a disproportionate degree. Race , biological sex , age , and socioeconomic...
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My First Loss to COVID-19; Remembering an Indigenous Elder with Love
Alongside two elders and a colleague, we arrived at the Centre for Addiction & Mental Health in Toronto, Canada. Our intention was to facilitate the first Canadian/American collaboration to heal Historical Trauma. I vacillated between feeling immensely excited and powerfully emotional; what an honor to be a black woman surrounded by First Nation relatives on Native land. Our first great work was to enter the sacred ceremonial space for prayer and cleansing. As a tribal African woman, I...
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WELLNESS & RECOVERY PROGRAM (Partnership Healthplan of California)
New benefits as of July 2020 Partnership is working to ensure that our members get effective and appropriate behavioral health care services ( mental health and substance use treatment services ) in all 14 counties we serve. Expansion of Substance Use Disorder (SUD) Services PHC’s 14 counties have long supported SUD treatment services through the Drug Medi-Cal program. Now, these services are greatly expanded in seven of our counties through our new Wellness and Recovery Program. Wellness...
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National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month Blog Series (NIH)
July 22, 2020 American Indian/Alaska Native Mental Health: Our Voices, Traditions and Values to Strengthen our Collective Wellness Victoria M. O’Keefe, Ph.D. (Cherokee/Seminole Nations of Oklahoma) Mathuram Santosham Endowed Chair in Native American Health, Assistant Professor, Licensed Clinical Psychologist Associate Director, Center for American Indian Health Department of International Health, Social & Behavioral Interventions Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health My late...
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Centering Structural Inequities in Conversations on Mental Health Among People of Color (NIH)
July 15, 2020 Margarita Alegría, Ph.D. Chief, Disparities Research Unit, Department of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Mongan Institute Professor, Departments of Medicine & Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School There has been tremendous attention brought to mental health as part of the coronavirus pandemic. The good news is that there is now almost universal recognition that when our mental health is precarious, costs are immeasurable. What has become more apparent is how this...
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Bear River Band of Rohnerville Rancheria receives funding for affordable housing project (Redwood News)
By KIEM TV, July 27, 2020. LOLETA, Calif. (KIEM) — The Bear River Band of the Rohnerville Rancheria receives over $2 million in funding that will go towards a new affordable housing project. The funding comes from the Housing and Urban Development and Indian Housing Block Competitive Grants and comes out to a total of $2,234,619. The money will pay for the construction of 4 four-plex multifamily low-moderate income housing structures with a total of 16 rental units for tribal family members.
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Food insecurity amid COVID-19 prompts Native Americans to return to their roots [cronkitenews.azpbs.org]
By Katelyn Reinhart, Cronkite News Arizona PBS, August 3, 2020 From a traditional hogan in a remote area on the Utah-Arizona line, Cynthia Wilson spent much of her spring sourcing drought-resistant seeds, packing them in small manila envelopes and labeling them to ship to families across the Four Corners. Seeds for corn – white, blue and yellow. For squash. For melons. For many of the foods that long sustained her Navajo ancestors, before their land was carved into a reservation and the...
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Coping with Stress During the COVID-19 Pandemic: One-Pager
Coping with Stress During the COVID-19 Pandemic: One-Pager
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CALIFORNIA ACES ACADEMY (CAA), funded by ACEs Aware, is providing free online training to Medi-Cal providers and others [avahealth.org]
From CALIFORNIA ACES ACADEMY, Academy on Violence & Abuse, August, 2020 CALIFORNIA ACES ACADEMY (CAA) , funded by ACEs Aware , is providing free online training to Medi-Cal providers and others featuring: · Practical strategies for integrating trauma-informed health care into your team’s practice that improves patients’ well being and the productivity of your practice. · Meet colleagues with experience and success providing trauma-informed health care in their practices. · Learn from...
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Ann Penn-Charles casts a wide net to reduce generational trauma in Washington State coastal tribes
You could say that Ann Penn-Charles, a native of La Push, Washington, was a natural resilience builder even before there was an ACE Study. La Push is a Native American reservation on the western edge of Olympic National Park, where the Quileute Nation ancestors of “Miss Ann”, as she is known, have lived for generations. Although she faced hardships growing up on the reservation, including having her first child when she was a junior in high school, she was able to graduate with the support...
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California ACEs Academy Event: The Repressed Role of Adverse Childhood Experiences in Adult Well-Being, Disease and Social Functioning: Turning Gold into Lead
Thursday, September 3, 2020 12:00pm - 1:00pm PDT | presented by Dr. Vincent J. Felitti *Priority will be given to Medi-Cal providers* The ACE Study reveals how typically unrecognized adverse childhood experiences are not only common, but causally underlie a number of the most common causes of adult social malfunction, biomedical disease, and premature death. Moreover, it enables one to see that the Public Health Problem is often an individual’s attempted Solution to childhood experiences...
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NIHB Launches Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES) Hub
The National Indian Health Board, in collaboration with CDC, has launched a new resource hub! Many Tribal individuals, families, and communities have been impacted by childhood experiences causing physical and mental health adversities throughout the lifespan. However, with understanding and effort, individuals and communities can confront Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES) for positive health outcomes. This information hub, launched by the National Indian Health Board includes a "resource...
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CALIFORNIA ACES ACADEMY: Parental ACEs and Pediatrics: Transforming Well Care [avahealth.org]
CALIFORNIA ACES ACADEMY (CAA) , funded by ACEs Aware, is providing free online training to Medi-Cal providers and others featuring: Practical strategies for integrating trauma-informed health care into your team’s practice that improves patients’ well being and the productivity of your practice. Meet colleagues with experience and success providing trauma-informed health care in their practices. Learn from national and local experts. Talk to other professionals from your region in small...