Kris Rhodes
Appearances
Health Chatter
Indigenous Health
Thank you for that question. And I think just really expounding on the information that Raven just shared, it really comes down to... the historic losses experienced by American Indian people that isn't just from one period in history, going back to the federal policies that have harmed Native people that now result in what we see today as land acknowledgements, right?
Health Chatter
Indigenous Health
Where people are acknowledging the fact that we are often on stolen land. This is an example of historical trauma and it continues today with the systemic racism that we see in a variety of systems and that Native people experience every day in our daily lives and that experience of trauma
Health Chatter
Indigenous Health
really is resulting in these issues, these health issues that you talked about, you know, studies have shown the anxiety and affective disorders and substance dependence are correlated with these historical losses. And that intergenerational trauma continues and can really just exasperate life events and depression, anxiety, economic inequality, racism, poverty, and so many other factors.
Health Chatter
Indigenous Health
But I don't want to get lost in that. Because what we know is native people were the healthiest people on this planet. And I truly believe that we can be again. And what that's going to take is trusting our communities to know what's best for them. And so that's really the approach I'm taking as the director of the Office of American Indian Health at the Minnesota Department of Health.
Health Chatter
Indigenous Health
It's really trusting, listening to tribal governments, tribal health leaders about what is needed and what will turn this around. And what we're hearing is really around addressing the indigenous determinants of health, the access to high quality education, economic opportunities, food security,
Health Chatter
Indigenous Health
And really the reclamation of things like our traditional lands, our tribal languages, our cultural practices for healing access to our tribal foods and food systems. These are the, this is public health. This is what we're talking about. And these are what our community needs when it comes to turning around these horrific disparities that are present in our state.
Health Chatter
Indigenous Health
I think what you're doing by having this show as a topic on your podcast is absolutely important. Um, American Indian people have been erased from society in many ways. And so a lot of people aren't even aware that we exist again, those data reports come in where it's white, black and other.
Health Chatter
Indigenous Health
So constantly lifting up and asking those questions about where are our American Indian people in these conversations, making sure that American Indian at the table of these difficult conversations.
Health Chatter
Indigenous Health
Part of what is so exciting about what's happening right now in Minnesota with having an office of American Indian Health for the first time and being one of the leaders across the country for establishing such an office that really engages my charge, even as a state employee, is coming as an American Indian woman first, and knowing that connecting with the community is of utmost importance.
Health Chatter
Indigenous Health
And a lot of the work Raven and I do within MDH and across our partners, and I consider you all our partners, is really just having the conversations that that make our community visible and make it real. A lot of times we are romanticized in these pictures of what native people
Health Chatter
Indigenous Health
should be or were in the movies or something that isn't real or on the other end we only see the disparities and in fact our communities are amazing and vibrant and our languages our food our lands are just there's a lot of pride in our communities and there's a lot of joy and
Health Chatter
Indigenous Health
um and uh we've had to have a lot of resilience to get to that point and so again it's about being good partners and not continuing to erase us to actually lifting it up lifting our community up and making it visible that's how we get to solutions and you know i i was thinking that um
Health Chatter
Indigenous Health
There definitely are programs throughout medical schools and nursing schools across the United States. There's a really strong one here at the University of Minnesota, the Center for American Indian Minority Health, led by Dr. Mary Owen. And that is wonderful. It's a wonderful resource.
Health Chatter
Indigenous Health
And at the same time, why are we having to have this education only at the point that they get to medical school? This is a conversation again, like addressing this visibility issue is something that needs to be addressed in the K through 12 program, like early on. Like, so we all have that information and, um,
Health Chatter
Indigenous Health
we don't have to spend all this time to educate people at these right before they're gonna provide service.
Health Chatter
Indigenous Health
You there? Yes, I thought this was a timely point to jump in to mention that if anyone was interested in really digging into the data on the issues that you mentioned, on the HRSA website, hrsa.gov, well, datahrsa.gov, you can go to the UDS, which is the Health Center Program Uniform Data System, and you can click on
Health Chatter
Indigenous Health
and drop down to Minnesota and it'll pull up all of the FQHCs or community clinics in Minnesota, Native American Community Clinic being one of them. And you can view the data from our clinic and the issues that are affecting our clinic specifically. You can also go to other community health centers in all of Minnesota or all across the country.
Health Chatter
Indigenous Health
But this has been one of my favorite resources to use when making informed decisions and trying to give background to people on why we do what we do. If you click into the data, just something you mentioned, COVID. In 2019, so the year prior to COVID, we had a total of 4,474 patients enrolled at NAC. In 2020, that dropped down to 3,654 patients at NAC. So even just talking about
Health Chatter
Indigenous Health
People who are coming to receive health care pre and post COVID, we're talking about a near 1,000 patient difference, and that's only at NAC. So if you're ever really interested, I know I'm a big numbers person. I know there's a lot of other people out there that are a big numbers person.
Health Chatter
Indigenous Health
This resource is really, really cool to seriously dig into some of the serious barriers and social issues that are affecting this community.
Health Chatter
Indigenous Health
Thanks for that question. The strategic plan is in development, and yet some has been in place along the way. There are a number of data reports that have occurred over the years and are on the MDH website under the Office of American Indian Health. You can find some of those that have been put together by the Center for Health Statistics.
Health Chatter
Indigenous Health
with the new office, we have a new opportunity to really expand and really look at this. And so while you bring up all of these disparities where our people are struggling, whether it be in chronic disease outcomes or chemical health, behavioral health, even tobacco addiction, nicotine addiction, We have to, again, uncover what's upstream from that.
Health Chatter
Indigenous Health
How do we because we've been doing these programs for decades, right? We've been and they're making a difference in some populations and in some populations, they're not not touching the issue. So we really need to take a different approach. And that's where we need to look and listen to our communities who know what's best for them.
Health Chatter
Indigenous Health
For example, when we talk about tobacco, of course, tobacco has a unique meaning in our community. For me as a native woman, tobacco is the most important thing for my health. I use it on a daily basis. as a medicine to protect my health. It means I play, it doesn't mean I'm smoking cigarettes. That would be the most dangerous way to use tobacco.
Health Chatter
Indigenous Health
My teaching as an Anishinaabe woman is to place my tobacco outside as an offering on a daily basis. It's part of my prayer. It's part of my spiritual health. And until we recognize that part of the tobacco and understanding and really
Health Chatter
Indigenous Health
claiming that reclaiming that that's when we're going to see the nicotine addiction rates go down and I'm really proud of the work that's been happening at MDH over the years with our American Indian Community Initiatives Unit really leading this work and funding this work that the tribes are saying this is how it needs to be done this is how it'll change
Health Chatter
Indigenous Health
The other thing I want to point out is let's look at some of the positives in our community. Our community has the highest immunization rates of any population. You can look at that data, the data that Aaron referenced. We can go into that report and we can see American Indians' immunization rates doesn't matter the issue. We're on the right end of that. That's fantastic.
Health Chatter
Indigenous Health
Another area where our community shines is around alcohol. And a lot of times there's the stereotype that our community are all alcoholics. And actually, when you look at that data, if you want to look at any population that has the highest sobriety rates, it's the American Indian population. And so while there are still issues with alcohol misuse, in our communities.
Health Chatter
Indigenous Health
I also wanna acknowledge the strengths that our communities bring and learn from those strengths as we continue on, as we face new challenges, such as the opioid epidemic.
Health Chatter
Indigenous Health
Boozhoo, I mean, thanks for having us today. I just want to also just give, Raven and I have been with MDH now for a little over six months. And we work hand in hand as the director of the Office of American Indian Health, myself, and Raven as MDH's tribal liaison. So good question. This comes up a lot, right? What is the terminology?
Health Chatter
Indigenous Health
And I'll just follow, I'll follow right up with what Raven said. And kind of the plea that Clarence has put out throughout this podcast is how can we lift, how can partners be good partners? And that really means engaging, doing the research, being in the community when you're able to, and just lifting it up.
Health Chatter
Indigenous Health
And it really comes down to asking the person or the population that you're talking to about what they want to be called, right? And so in our introductions, you shared that we are Anishinaabe, and then you listed our tribal affiliations. Those are how I would want to be referred to as Anishinaabe, as tribal.
Health Chatter
Indigenous Health
the tribal community where my people come from, Ojibwe, Chippewa are other terms for that. And then within that, we have a number of different, in fact, 574 different tribal groups in the United States, 11 in Minnesota. The term indigenous is definitely on one end of the continuum, and it refers to indigenous people of any land across the globe, right? There's indigenous people in every country.
Health Chatter
Indigenous Health
And so that really is that widest umbrella term. And American Indian has a special meaning because of the policy implications that is that treaty and how the US government identifies us and how we're identified within systems. Therefore, we have the Office of American Indian Health. And then of course we have Native American, some people prefer that term for a variety of reasons.
Health Chatter
Indigenous Health
And I think that's in summary, Raven, if you wanna add anything more, otherwise we can move on to the next.
Health Chatter
Indigenous Health
Yeah, what I can say there is a lot of times data is presented as black, white, and other. And a lot of times our data isn't even included. And that is an issue altogether. What it comes down to is how the demographics are asked within the surveys.
Health Chatter
Indigenous Health
And there isn't this complication what you brought up in our very first conversation here is exactly what can be problematic across any survey is how the demographics are asked and how that data is reported. Yeah, again, yeah.