NCAI 2020 NATIVE GRADUATE HEALTH FELLOWS

The NCAI Native Graduate Health Fellowship is a program that “aims to build a pipeline of Native health professionals who can support tribal sovereignty and who are prepared to lead in promoting health policies and practices that address the unique needs of American Indians and Alaska Natives,” (ncai.org). The Fellowship is supported and sustained by American Indian and Alaska Native Living publisher Robert Burnette and the Seventh-day Adventist Church. In 2020, three Fellows were accepted and their reflections on their experiences are shared below.

Julia Wilson-Peltier

Hello, my name is Julia Wilson-Peltier and I am a 2020 NCAI Graduate Health Fellow. I am writing this letter to express my gratitude for your generosity in making this fellowship happen. I am an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, and I am also Oglala Lakota, Assiniboine Sioux, Northern Cheyenne, and White Bear First Nations. I am a 3rd generation urban Indian living in Washington and have a two-year-old son. I work fulltime as a graduate student at North Dakota State University specializing in American Indian public health and part-time as a program coordinator for Urban Native Education Alliance, a Native non-profit organization. While the current COVID-19 pandemic has changed the format of the Fellowship, I still learned a lot and made great connections with the other NCAI Graduate Health Fellows and the NCAI staff. This Fellowship was a source of light and provided a lot of clarity and insight to what I plan to do after graduate school. The guest speakers were all amazing change makers doing important work for Indian country. Guest speaker Dr. Yvette Roubideaux especially resonated with me. After listening to her presentation and getting the opportunity to ask her health policy questions, I felt a great sense of empowerment and clarity.

Coming into this Fellowship, I knew I wanted to work in research and policy; however I did not know there were careers in health policy research. Listening to Dr. Roubideaux, I was able to make that connection (as she is the head of policy research for NCAI). Another great highlight of the Fellowship was connecting with a cousin I did not know, Ben, another Fellow. Benjamin Yawakie, NCAI Fellow Tara Maudrie and I share similar interests and educational backgrounds and also are particularly interested in urban Indian health. These

Julia Wilson-Peltier

are connections I hope will last a lifetime.

Overall, the NCAI Graduate Health Fellowship opened a lot of doors for me and made me feel incredibly empowered and offered a great sense of clarity with what I plan to do with my MPH degree upon graduation. I sincerely thank you for your generosity in making this opportunity happen.

Thank you,

Julia Wilson-Peltier

Tara Maudrie

Boozhoo nniichkiwenh. Mishkwa Unungo Kwe ndizhnikaaz. Tara Maudrie ndizhnikaaz. Mishiikenh doodem. Waawiyatanong nindonjibaa. Naubinway onjibaa nindede.

The structure of Ojibwe greetings explain who we are accountable to so I wanted to start this letter by introducing myself in my traditional language. Translation: Hello my relative. My Ansihinaabe name is mishkwa unungo kwe or Red Star Woman. My English name is Tara Maudrie. I’m Snapping Turtle Clan of the Sault Ste Marie Ojibwe tribe. I’m from where the river bends (Detroit, Michigan). My father’s family is from Naubinway in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

I am currently pursuing a Masters of Science in Public Health degree at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. I am studying nutrition and working on many different food systems projects across Indian Country. I am incredibly passionate about Indigenous Food Sovereignty, food justice, and equitable food access, particularly for urban Native communities who have high rates of food insecurity. My current research projects include the first study of the Baltimore Native community’s food security status, the “Together on Diabetes Project” in five Ojibwe communities in the Midwest, and a children’s storybook titled “Our Smallest Warriors, Our Strongest Medicine.” Someday I hope to be faculty at the Johns Hopkins Center for American Indian Health where I can continue to conduct strengths-based research to inform AI/AN health policy and mentor the next generation of Native Public Health Professionals.

My own experiences with my family and my home community of Detroit inspired me to pursue a career where I can help to raise a healthier generation of Native youth and improve health outcomes for Native peoples of all ages. My graduate research has focused both on individual behavior change and food system wide change (mostly increasing access to healthy foods) but this Fellowship brought a new level of understanding to the deeper purpose of research. The NCAI Fellowship opened my eyes to the ways my research could inform new and existing federal policies. I’ve reframed my current study with the Baltimore Native community in the hopes that it can better build an evidence base to advocate for policy change to better support urban Native nutritional health.

Through the NCAI Fellowship I was able to converse with people whose work I’ve followed and admired for years. I was able to speak with the director of the National Council of Urban Indian Health and ask her questions about my research. The connections I made during this Fellowship are already proving to be extremely valuable and useful to my future career.

I cannot thank you enough for making this opportunity possible for myself and the other 2020 Fellows. This Fellowship truly did change

Tara Maudrie

the way I think about research and ultimately the type of research I hope to conduct in the future. Chi miigwech for all that you have done for me and all that you have done for other Native graduate students.

Warmly,

Tara Maudrie Sault Ste Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians MSPH Human Nutrition Candidate Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Benjamin Yawakie

Boozhoo, Toka Owe Wanka Hokshila emakiyapi do. Mikinaakwajiw-ininiwag dash A:shiwi nindonjibaa.

My Lakota name is Sees Enemy Tracks and I am a tribal citizen of the Pueblo of Zuni, a descendant from the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa, Fort Peck Assiniboine & Sioux, and White Bear First Nations. My English name is Benjamin Yawakie and I am a recent NCAI Native Graduate Health Fellow. I am currently in my second year of graduate studies at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health and Humphrey School of Public Affairs in a dual Master of Public Health and Master of Public Policy degree program.

My journey through life has brought up many exciting opportunities, and to be a NCAI Native Graduate Fellow ranks as one of the most important experiences that I have had in my relatively young professional career. This Fellowship has already opened doors to other possibilities with respect to the professionals that I met through the program.

I am personally guided by an experience that I had when I was a young child growing up as one of the only American Indian children in a predominately Caucasian city called Brooklyn Park, a suburb of Minneapolis in the 1990s. My dad was accosted by a neighbor who told him, “if you cannot live by the white man’s laws, move back to the reservation.” That moment has stayed with me throughout my life and it has informed my desire to utilize “white man’s laws” to advocate for change at a legislative and policy level in the realm of tribal sovereignty and racial equity.

I have spent a great deal of time trying to navigate the different possibilities that are available to do this policy and advocacy work. It has required a lot of hard work, dedication, and sacrifice to seek out and obtain the education and training to become knowledgeable in doing this work. I have obtained three bachelor degrees, gone through several training programs (Seven Generations Center of Excellence in Native Behavioral Health Post-Baccalaureate Program at the University of North Dakota; Boards and Commissions Leadership Institute of Nexus Community Partners; Community Equity Program of Amherst H. Wilder Foundation and the summer internship for Indigenous peoples in Genomics (SING); and engaged in public service (first Indigenous citizen member of Minnesota’s Environmental Quality Board).

As a former policy analyst for the Public Health Law Center, I had the opportunity to work with the Great Lakes Inter-Tribal Epidemiology Center and the 34 tribes and the four urban Indian

Benjamin Yawakie

health clinics within the Bemidji Service Area of Indian Health Service on tribal public health policy in the areas of healthy eating and active living and commercial tobacco control. This work allowed me to develop relationships and build networks with food sovereignty advocates as well as work with various tribes in advancing policy and drafting tribal ordinances.

As a current government affairs intern at the University of Minnesota’s American Indian Tribal Nation Relations office within the Office for Equity and Diversity, I have had the opportunity to work on advancing tribal sovereignty in drafting tribal ordinances that advance Indigenous ways of thinking in principles of governance. I have also worked with the Minnesota Indian Affairs Council in advocating for the advancement of tribal

Yawakie, continued

sovereignty with respect to the 11 Tribal Nations of Minnesota and their government-to-government relationship with the University of Minnesota.

Recently I had the opportunity to work on a coordinated COVID-19 response effort between the University of Minnesota’s Center of American Indian and Minority Health, Medical School and School of Public Health, the tribal leadership and health directors from the 11 Tribal Nations in Minnesota, Indian Health Service, Minnesota Department of Health, Mayo Clinic, and the Great Lakes Inter-Tribal Epidemiology Center. These experiences have provided me unique insights into how different levels of government and various agencies and organizations work together efficiently and also inefficiently, to provide services and resources to tribal and urban Indian communities.

Over the course of the Native Graduate Health Fellowship program, I was extremely grateful for the opportunity to learn from leading American Indian and Alaska Native health, tribal health, and urban Indian public health advocates and professionals within the National Congress of American Indians, the National Indian Health Board, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services, and the National Council of Urban Indian Health. I knew that this Fellowship program would provide me with the opportunity to learn about different pathways to advocate for AI/AN health. I did not know that the people that we met throughout the week would be so willing to offer additional time, resources, and opportunities outside of this Fellowship.

This Fellowship and the experiences that it has provided have shown me that I have the capabilities and skills to advocate for AI/ AN health. I have long been looking for a way to enter the political and legislative arena to advocate for the 574 federally recognized American Indian tribal nations in the United States and this program has given me the confidence to know that I can succeed in the area of advancing tribal sovereignty and self-determination at the federal level.

The NCAI Native Graduate Health Fellowship has also provided a much needed and appreciated financial aid support in my academic endeavors. With the scholarship associated with being a Native Graduate Health Fellow, I am deeply appreciative of the support that is being provided to help me advance my academic career without taking out additional loans that have already saddled me with a large amount of debt. This is the first time that I have been supported by a Native organization in this way and for that I am deeply appreciative and grateful that you have noticed my capabilities and given me this opportunity to do the work that I believe the Creator brought me here to do.

Chi-Miigwech, Toka Owe Wanka Hokshila, Benjamin Yawakie