Stan and Clarence chat with two incredible leaders in Indigenous health and public policy: Ravyn Gibbs and Kris Rhodes.Ravyn Gibbs serves as the Tribal Liaison at the Minnesota Department of Health. Ravyn works to uplift Native communities, focusing on Indigenous rights and reducing health disparities. With a Bachelor’s degree in Criminology from the University of Minnesota Duluth and dual Master’s degrees in Social Work and Public Health from the University of Minnesota, Ravyn is also pursuing a Doctorate in Public Health at Johns Hopkins University. Drawing on previous work in federal Native and Tribal affairs policy, Ravyn is committed to addressing social injustices and advancing health equity.Kris Rhodes was appointed Director of the Office of American Indian Health in 2024. With a deep commitment to public health, Kris leads initiatives to improve the well-being of Indigenous communities through policy and collaboration. Kris holds an MPH in Public Health Administration & Policy from the University of Minnesota School of Public Health and an undergraduate degree in Community Health Education from the University of Minnesota Duluth. Over a decades-long career, Kris has founded initiatives like the American Indian Cancer Foundation, playing a key role in culturally grounded, sustainable public health programs across tribal, academic, and nonprofit sectors.Join us as Ravyn and Kris share their journeys, professional experiences, and visions for creating a healthier future for Native communities.Join the conversation at healthchatterpodcast.comBrought to you in support of Hue-MAN, who is Creating Healthy Communities through Innovative Partnerships.More about their work can be found at http://huemanpartnership.org/
Hello, everybody. Welcome to today's special show on American Indian, Indigenous, and overall Indian health. We have two great, wonderful guests with us today. We'll get to them in just a moment. I want to thank our illustrious staff that helps make all these shows successful and interesting for you, the listening audience. Maddie Levine-Wolf, Aaron Collins, Deandra Howard, Matthew Campbell,
Sheridan and Nygaard are second to none. They take care of all of our research, our recording. our production because Clarence and I don't know how to do that. So it's really nice to have them. They're really, really great, great colleagues. Thank you to all of you. We also have Dr. Barry Baines, who unfortunately can't be on the show today.
He's our medical advisor and sometimes gives us some medical twists on some of the subjects that we're talking about. So thank you to Barry. We have Human Partnership is the sponsors for our show. It's a wonderful community health organization that does wonderful things out in the community for everyone. everyone. And so thank you to human partnership.
You can check them out at human partnership.org. You can check us out health chatter podcast at health chatter podcast.com. All shows will have our research attached to the shows on our website. And also that's an opportunity for you to provide some insight and even provide us with ideas for shows that you might want to hear in the future. So thanks to everyone.
Today, we have two great guests with us, Chris Rhodes and Raven Gibbs. Chris just started recently at the Minnesota Department of Health. She's an Anishinaabe and Bad River Fond du Lac Reservations affiliations. was hired as the director of the Office of American Indian Health in January, just this last January. She comes with much, much background in this area.
She's a trusted leader and partner on indigenous public health issues. She launched the health education department at the Fonda Lake Reservation, the American Indian Community Tobacco Projects at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, and it goes on and on. A great, great addition to our health department.
So thank you, Chris, for being with us today and give us some perspectives on this. Also, we have Raven Gibbs is an Anishinaabe as an enrolled member of the Boys 40 Band of Chippewa, has family ties with the Red Lake Nation. She focuses a lot on federal policy. She's a public health social worker and She's focused not only on native and tribal issues, but also overall in public health.
Holds a bachelor of arts degree in criminology at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health. So she got her bachelor of arts degree and also master's in social work, is currently in the doctoral program at Johns Hopkins University, focusing on health policy. Again, unique perspective on the subjects that we're going to be talking about today. So both of you, thank you.
Thank you so much for being on Health Chatter. Actually, this show, Clarence, has been kind of a long time coming. And the reason why is for all the different subjects that we've talked about in the health arena, and you can imagine them all, inevitably, we will say that these populations are at higher risk. And it just goes on and on and on.
And, you know, in the back of my head, I keep asking the question, you know, what's going on here? To kick us off, and I want to be, I guess, politically correct or just correct in general, it's like, what's the terminology? What's the appropriate terminology that we should use, everyone, all of us should use and be aware of when we talk about these populations?
Should we be talking about Native American health, Indigenous health, American Indian health, American, Alaskan Native? How do we encapsulate the population that we're dealing with here, or do we have to keep them separate? So who can start us out here? Maybe Chris, you can start us out.
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?
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.
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.
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.
And I think that's in summary, Raven, if you wanna add anything more, otherwise we can move on to the next.
Raven, what do you think?
Yeah, absolutely. I think Chris really captured it. It's not an easy answer. It's not so black and white. There's not one term that is going to be the safe bet. Right. I really think the safe bet is to ask.
OK, so. All right. So then I'll ask if if we were going to label this show. Okay, you know, for the public. What do you think would be the best thing that we should label the show? Good guess? Chris, go ahead.
I would say it is on American Indian Health.
Okay, got it. All right, so be it. And then one other quick follow-up, Clarence. When we deal with things epidemiologically, from a data perspective, when we try to get a handle on all the different issues that are affecting this population, again, is it kind of all combined or are there things that are separated out? Any thoughts on that? Chris, are you there?
I'm so sorry. I thought you had asked Clarence the question. No, no, no, no.
Go ahead. Chris or Raven, either one. It's like when you get data, how is it presented to you? Is it presented to you as Native American health issues?
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.
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.
All right, Clarence, here we go. Here's Clarence at his best now. Here we go.
I don't know my best, but here. First of all, Stan, acknowledge the fact that we have such different kinds of health disparities among different groups of people. How do you... would you explain to us this complicated history that the Native American community has had with the U.S. government?
Because I think that part of, you know, whether we talked about the data, we talked about the narratives, a lot of this stuff comes back to the relationship between the groups and the U.S. government. Could you just kind of give us a short history of what you just share with us? this complicated history between your communities and the US government?
I'm going to ask Raven to go.
Yes, thank you so much for the question. A question that is difficult to summarize in such a short paragraph. We know that in essence, American Indian people had ceded territory and land in exchange for certain trust and treaty responsibilities that the federal government is responsible to uphold and maintain, one of those being healthcare. And when you talk about the very
complicated history, it didn't just end and start with those treaty responsibilities. We know that there are certain policies and Supreme Court decisions that have impacted the jurisdiction of sovereign nations and their ability to take care of the health and wellbeing of American Indian people. So what we know of today is that one, when it comes to healthcare,
one of the major funding government bodies that is there to promote the health and well-being of American Indian people is an Indian health service out of the Department of Health and Human Services. And we know many of our colleagues across the nation and Indian country have given testimony on the Hill stating that there is chronic underfunding of the Indian Health Service.
And that is truly where a lot of the health disparities that we see stem from, in addition to the complicated history. When it comes to the health and well-being of American Indian people, it's really important to consider the indigenous social determinants of health. The really unique determinants of health that only American Indians have experienced
And those are related to the institutional racism, related to the traumatic history of not only tribal nations getting certain rights stripped from them, but in addition to forced removal of children, in addition to policies that removed American Indian people from their tribal lands into urban spaces, where they then have a disconnection to culture.
There's so many pieces that in essence really surround and impact the health and well-being of American Indian people.
So how can we enter into this question then? I mean, the thing for me, and I thank you for that. I think, you know, you mentioned the term sovereign nation, those kinds of things. How do we, those of us who care but don't know how to care, how do we enter into this conversation about this issue of Native American health?
I think from a A government perspective, for example, at Minnesota Department of Health, it is our duty and my duty as the tribal liaison to help the agency to implement Minnesota Statute 1065. And that is a piece of legislation that recognizes that legal relationship between governments and the 11 sovereign nations in Minnesota
And in essence, making sure that frequent and regular consultations happen in connection and collaboration to ensure that tribes are part of the decision-making process when it comes to issues that have tribal impact.
So let me follow up. And I'm a prober now. Did I say that before we started? I'm a prober. OK. You talked about there are 11 sovereign nations in Minnesota. But is it more than 80% of the people, Native American community, they live outside of the reservation? Is that correct? How then do we address that along with this whole issue around American Indian health?
Because if they're not in the sovereign nation, they're here in the urban communities, how then can we work together to make something happen to address those issues?
I think first there is an education piece. You're absolutely right. That's a large portion of American Indian people live in urban spaces. And Minneapolis and St. Paul, the Twin Cities, nationally are part of one of the urban hubs that have a large, large population of urban American Indian people. Minneapolis, as we know, is home to the American Indian movement.
And I mentioned earlier, you know, there's a federal body of Indian Health Service. And in the Twin Cities, we have a clinic called Indian Health Board. And that is part of that ITU system that is out of Indian Health Service. There's I for Indian Health Service. There's T for tribal and U for urban. And there are only a handful of urban clinics nationally. And Minneapolis is home to one of them.
We also have the Native American Community Clinic and FQHC in Minneapolis. These two entities target American Indian populations to serve them. And they also have these really unique factors that incorporate cultural aspects into their services. But again, we know that these two clinics are chronically underfunded. They see a broad spectrum of clients.
So when it comes to the health of urban American Indian people, I think it's multifaceted too of some tribal nations have the resources and the ability to extend their services into some urban spaces through their urban offices. And largely, you know, in the Twin Cities, we have, I don't, I can't recall the number, I believe it's 30 plus urban American Indian community serving organizations.
So they really do work to fill in the gap and need that American Indian people need in the Twin Cities area. So there are these really strong structures, these sometimes viewed as these non-traditional systems of power, right?
And they just need to be brought into the conversation, into decision-making, really consider when it comes to health equity, whether that be in program delivery, in partnership, in funding.
So, you know, this is a huge ongoing problem. You know, I said, you know, before the show started, when I headed up the cardiovascular unit at the Department of Health, always, for 18 years, always, it was American Indian and African American who are at higher or high risk. So what's causing, first of all, what's causing it besides the fact that, you know, we have social determinants of health.
We have healthcare discrimination. But this has been going on for a long time already. It's like, what is it that we really need to do in order to impact stroke rates, to impact heart attack rates, to impact high blood pressure to, you know, all these things that seem to be ongoing. And it's like, we're, we're almost like tearing out our hair, trying to figure out what to do.
So, you know, Chris, you're heading up with this program now. And, and, and in many ways, I'm going to say to you, I wish you the best of luck because I think it's way over way overdue, but, vision-wise, going forward, maybe in the short term and then in the long term, what is it? What is it that is really going to make a difference here? Hopefully, finally.
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?
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
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.
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.
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,
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.
Yeah, you know, I know this is a very difficult conversation, you know, and I thank you for both for entering into it. And I am a community person, very interested in your community as well as my community. It's been difficult having conversations and like what we're having right now.
You know, people are somewhat hesitant about having, I mean, I call it eyeball to eyeball conversations because there are people in our communities that really do care. But the question for us is what are the low hanging fruits that we can do, I mean, to assist you in this work? I mean, that's really where we're coming from. And so help me to be able to share with others What we can do.
It's like the short term and the long term. What is it truly in the short term that we can do that hopefully will make a difference? And then some of the seeds for long term.
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.
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.
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.
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
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
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
It's one thing having conversations because I sense that people don't even know what to converse about besides that we have some problems here, as opposed to maybe the first thing is getting some information out. about what's going on. Then you can circle back and talk about these things. I want to relate a quick story.
When we were dealing with cardiovascular disease for the indigenous populations, we realized that they were at very, very high risk and we wanted to teach how to take blood pressure. So we went into the communities, literally, you know, people from our department went into the communities and started, you know, trying to educate.
And then we realized that they weren't tuned in because we weren't considered a trusted person to provide that information. Even though, you know, we have all these degrees and all this other kind of stuff, it didn't matter. And then we engage some of the leaders of your community, you know, the chiefs even, and we would train them. And then they would go out and provide information.
And then lo and behold, we saw more engagement in it. So the point I'm bringing up is the idea of we, all of us, have to be aware of the culture and what the culture values, how it is that they want to receive information. And we all like to receive information in different ways. And for me as a professional back then, that was a lesson even for me. And I think that lesson still goes forward.
Clarence.
Yeah. So first of all, let me commend MDH for the creation Amen. But what took him so long? Yeah. The contribution of the Native community has been phenomenal for a long time. And so anyway, it's 2024. OK, so we're grateful for that. But Sam mentioned the fact about getting information out. But I would like to have doable information, OK?
Because so many times when we talk about different communities, we always talk about how bad it is, right? what I would like to see for me as a community person is what is it that we can do to assist, to help, to make it better? You know what I mean? In a doable way, because we have so many members that are not clinicians. So many of our members are not doctors.
I mean, so, you know, many times when we do this information out there, it's directed at that level. But there are a lot of people that are not at that level that would love to be allies. So help us to learn how we could be allies as well. Give us something that's doable for us. And I think that we can then begin to see some movement. So that's just my thoughts.
Absolutely. Thanks, Clarence. And I just kind of want to reiterate and then I'll expand upon what Chris was saying about the visibility of American Indian people. I think it's individual responsibility to do your research. For example, we're here in Minnesota. We have 11 tribal nations. Who are those tribal nations? We know we have seven Ojibwe. We have four Dakota. Learn their names.
Go to a powwow. Go to cultural events to see culture, to be part of the joy. It's open to everyone. Really understanding who are your American Indian neighbors here in Minnesota and in your professional spaces absolutely understanding I'm not a medical doctor I'm not in the healthcare field right I'm in government. And, you know, if you are in.
in a government institution or a community-based organization, really educating yourself on the program services. What do you offer and how can you include American Indian Voices in the work that you do and not making assumptions on what is needed, but being good partners, reaching out to these urban American Indian organizations. As I said, there's 30 plus across the Metro
A large chunk of them are in Minneapolis along the American Indian Corridor on Franklin in Minneapolis. There are several in St. Paul and building genuine relationships with them to determine how you can be supportive. And that also goes for those folks who are not in the urban spaces to be reaching out to building genuine relationships with your tribal partners.
understanding and respecting their status as a sovereign nation and and then doing that engagement i think is a really are some short-term immediate steps the folks who listen to this podcast can do what about training of health care professionals okay so like you know i'm i'm just throwing that out i i don't know but
It seems to me that if somebody from your population presents themselves in a clinic or presents themselves in a hospital with, let's just say, an apparent heart attack, okay, just, okay, how should health providers be trained in order to effectively treat treat somebody in that kind of a situation.
For one, I think that they need to be trained on differences in values, differences in trust, differences in how to communicate. Any thoughts on that overall?
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.
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,
we don't have to spend all this time to educate people at these right before they're gonna provide service.
That would be the goal. Can I ask a question? And this is me now, I told you, I'm just out there. I think the thing for me is that I'm not sure how to get invited. to these places where I can learn more. I think that many times when I think about it, I mean, I'm very open, but I'm not sure where I can enter the space and the place. Those people that want to do that, how can they do that?
I mean, you say, well, just go to the powwow, go to this. That's a whole different kind of thing. Is there a way for us as a community to be able to be more proactive in terms of inviting people to learn more in a safe manner? So that's my community comment. How do we do that?
Yeah, great question. I think for For the general community member, I think it is that individual research that you can do. You can, for example, here in Minneapolis, of course, we have a native owned bookstore. I think that's a really great place to go and pick up some resources to do that reading and education. A Google search, we mentioned Dr. Mary Owen.
She has given a plethora of interviews and trainings that are accessible to folks. So I think there's reading that individual research. And I think that is where it has to start. That is obviously I'm giving unique relationships to the Twin Cities area here in Minnesota.
But I think just Googling, starting with maybe even who are the tribes in your state, understanding that history and kind of snowballing from there. From a government perspective, I will say that at the states, there is the tribal-state relations training.
And this training is available and required to be taken by certain state agency staff who work primarily with tribes and American Indian people. And that is a two-day intensive resource. So folks can understand the... the history of tribes and American Indian people in Minnesota from contact to all the way through where we are today.
And that incorporates, as I mentioned earlier, that Minnesota Statute 1065, how state agencies need to be conducting that government to government relationship, that respecting relationship and respecting the sovereign nations. I see Stanton shaking his head. Did you get a chance to do that training while you were at NIH?
I remember distinctly doing that and sending my staff to it as well. And I will tell you, I was incredibly impressed and not only impressed, but also it was interesting As hell, I'm telling you, it was just like unbelievable. And I kept kind of knocking my head saying, man, I wish I had known this earlier in my career. But, you know, of course, you could always say better late than never.
But I really encourage people, when you see an opportunity that, embraces these kinds of populations, go to them. I mean, it's just, it's really a wake-up call in many ways, in a good one. I want to state one thing and then share it, and I know that you have a comment, so hang on for one second.
Um, so Chris, you know, you know, I mentioned, you know, somebody presenting themselves like both an apparent heart attack, but you brought up a very, very important point that we kind of thematically bring through our, our programs here and that's prevention. So you do, what is it that we can do about prevention and then, you know, acute treatment and, and disease management. And to your point,
you know, the prevention aspect is really knowledge at a really, really young age for sure. That really, really helped. Sheridan, you had a question, I believe, or a comment. Are you there?
Yeah, just going back to talking about getting introduced to this topic earlier on. I was born and raised in Minnesota. I went through the public school system here. My first introduction to Indigenous struggles, Indigenous people in general, was in sixth grade in a Minnesota history class. I will, I hate to say this, I will say it was pretty whitewashed.
It was very watered down from what I have sensed unpacked and learned from the community. And I would just like to share a few things that got me involved in the community a little bit more in case this would help other people. Indigenous Peoples Day is coming up October 14th, 2024. Great time to check in with the community.
Great time to check in with the people around you about what they know, what they don't know. where they can get connected with resources and people more. So great day to just start exploring and unpacking. I, last year, found a great reading list of, I think it was like 15 different books that I, I mean, I ended up reading seven of them and every single one of them was great.
So you'll find a lot of resources that day. You'll find a lot of things being shared around, you know, on Instagram stories, Facebook, Instagram, dig into it, click in, read, do your own research, like really engage with some of these sources, resources that people are putting out there because it takes a lot of effort to put this stuff out there. Give it a, give it a listen, give it a read.
And I think this podcast will obviously be sharing on indigenous people's day as well. Um, And then also for me, locally, I live in downtown Minneapolis. I live very close to Awamni, which is a restaurant by The Sous Chef. I have to shamelessly plug that place. It is so good. It is really some of the best food I've had in Minnesota ever.
Truly deserves all the accolades, has one of the most beautiful views of the Mississippi. I and my vegan brother and fiance absolutely adored it too. It is truly an amazing restaurant. If you want to try also the Indigenous Food Lab in the Midtown Global Market.
these are other they have great resources in there they have indigenous cookbooks they have things that you can buy from indigenous communities straight from the communities like it is truly a great way just start talking to those folks too I don't know I just think that go out there get in the community and just give it a try and just don't be afraid to also like make a mistake and say I'm sorry I love that I love that thanks for sharing Clarence
Thanks, Sheridan. Here's what I'd like to know. Is there a brochure or something about 10 tips for learning about the American Indians here in Minnesota? I mean, you know, just 10 things that we need to know. I mean, you know, 10 places we need to go. I mean, just like Sheridan was talking about those spaces. I mean, a great restaurant. I just need a starting point.
So I'm just throwing it out there to say that I am more than interested. I'm sure a lot of other people are more than interested in learning. But is there a space, a place where we can just say, these are 10 tips or 10 places or 10 something where we can get started in this journey?
Yeah, to get more knowledgeable. I mean, we can put it in on our website. If you want to know a little bit more about this population or just go to talk to somebody, here you go. For instance, I'll give a for instance, I've been reading a lot of William Kent Kruger's books. He's a local author that's very, very connected with the American Indian and his books are really great.
And it kind of gives you an interesting twist and information load on these populations and what they think and how they think and how we should appreciate how they think that's perhaps different than us. So I'd be remiss if I didn't at least highlight some of the issues. All right, so I mean, Think about all these major thematic areas and how it's affecting this population.
Addiction and substance abuse, off the charts. Tobacco consumption. Violence. COVID and how COVID really hit this population. Access to care. Trust with our care providers. Diabetes is just, whoa, it's just very, very rampant. Helping a population like this get vaccinated, and we're seeing upticks in many, many ways.
things, including most recently we're seeing up there's like 35, 36 cases of measles just in Minnesota alone. And that can affect all of us. So how is it that we can all work together so that we can really make differences? And it goes on and on with this population. Erin,
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
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.
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
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.
This resource is really, really cool to seriously dig into some of the serious barriers and social issues that are affecting this community.
Yes, and I'm actually just gonna jump in quickly to one additional, a couple of additional things, the tangible where to go to, right? A couple of things, there's the state has a Minnesota Indian Affairs Council, shorthand MIAC, M-I-A-C. If you go to their government website, there is an about section where you can read in detail this overview of all of the 11 tribes in Minnesota.
I think that is a really great place for folks to search. There is also, I would recommend understandnativemn.org. And they have some publications and a podcast. And in essence, this was a campaign campaign. started by one of our tribes in Minnesota by Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community.
They started this campaign to really try to shift the narrative of American Indian people and really focusing on that Minnesota K through 12 curriculum and education system. And from that spurred a really large investment from the University of Minnesota to offer Indigenous education for all online free courses to the public.
And I believe that will be available in their press release, they say, mid 2025. And I will say there was one other book source that I know folks can't see or can't Didn't see, but Chris had shared a resource from an Ojibwe author here in Minnesota. That book title is Everything You Wanted to Know About Indians But Were Afraid to Ask, an Ojibwe author, Dr. Anton Troyer.
Very good resources to start and snowball your research off of.
So, you know, these... you know, if you just, you know, I'll use myself as an illustration. If you just say, okay, where do I get started? These are the types of things that I think are, would be really great. I mean, even just started with reading a book, you know, just to get, get your head around it a little bit. So Chris, I have a question for you. Um,
Minnesota Department of Health, not unlike many health departments, and also at the national level as well, are really deep into creating strategic plans. For instance, at the national level, and we've referred to this before, Healthy People comes out every week. every 10 years. And I know that there are some specific objectives related to the subjects that we're talking about.
But let's go down the funnel a little bit. Is there an overall strategic plan or is that in the works or are we just kind of going little by little here for the state of Minnesota?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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
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.
That's good.
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.
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.
Well put, absolutely. It's easy to focus on the problematic issues, but there are definitely some positives as well. You know, I recommend that if Health Chatter can be useful for you, the podcast format can be useful for you in getting information out. It does not have to stop at this one show. All you need to do is contact us and say, hey, we have something to say. Great. Boom. Done.
You know, we'll set it up and off we go and getting... a show out there. Anytime, absolutely anytime. We are a partner with you in, in chatting about, about this for sure. So let's do some last comments here. Some takeaway comments that you really want our, our listening audience to, to be aware of. So, so Raven, I'll start out with, with you first.
Thank you. I think my final thoughts are, in essence, tribes and American people know the solutions and know what our community needs. They just need the funding and good partnership.
Right. Amen. Amen to that. Chris.
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.
Absolutely. Clarence, you've always got a great one-liner.
Well, no, no, no. I don't know about that, but I look forward to partnering with you if you let me. I'm more than willing to do that and to share resources or be engaged in community conversations. Let me know.
And in the meantime, I want everybody to keep health chatting away.