American Indian Tribes Research Articles

アメリカ原子力開発と犠牲区域の空間構築

Throughout the history of nuclear development in the United States, the accompanying environmental risks have been invisible to the general public. This is largely because the federal government has isolated each specific process, from the uranium mining to the radioactive waste disposal, inside the National Sacrifice Zone, which was inhabited historically by American-Indian tribes. The spatial construction of the National Sacrifice Zone, which was justified by referring to the notion of national security, has reproduced a state of exception. By looking at the historical geography of uranium mining in the Navajo Nation, this paper articulates the social processes inherent in the exclusion of indigenous land, bodies, and rights from the federal government's legal obligations to protect its own citizens. This structural colonialism over the indigenous nations, intertwined with their geographical marginalization, has formed the core of the reproduction of risks in nuclear development inside the U.S.

′Sho-Goh-Wah-Pee-Nay′ - The sugar disease: Not so sweet!

Sho-goh-wah-pee-nay or sugar disease, an Oji-Cree word (Native American Indian terminology), is more commonly known as diabetes. Over the last 70 years, diabetes has become an epidemic within Native American Indian tribes. At about 16%, American Indians and Alaska Natives have the highest occurrence of diabetes in the United States. There are 566 federally recognized tribes. Drifting genes, obesity, and lower educational levels are among the well-known causes of disease management in this group. However, often forgotten are the socio-cultural aspects of this issue. Disease perception, diet, traditional medicine, poor communication, sedentary lifestyle, poor socio-economic status are most important obstacles. Various government-funded programs like National Diabetes Education Program, We have the power to prevent diabetes and Move it! And reduce your risk of diabetes and diabetes prevention program are in place. Similar guidelines should be developed for all the ethnic or tribal groups across the world before it becomes a pandemic.

Trends and Correlates of Child Passenger Restraint Use in 6 Northwest Tribes: The Native Children Always Ride Safe (Native CARS) Project

We compared proportions of children properly restrained in vehicles in 6 Northwest American Indian tribes in 2003 and 2009, and evaluated risks for improper restraint. During spring 2009 we conducted a vehicle observation survey in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho tribal communities. We estimated the proportions of children riding properly restrained and evaluated correlates of improper restraint via log-binomial regression models for clustered data. We observed 1853 children aged 12 years and younger in 1207 vehicles; 49% rode properly restrained. More children aged 8 years and younger rode properly restrained in 2009 than 2003 (51% vs 29%; P < .001). Older booster seat-eligible children were least likely to ride properly restrained in 2009 (25%). American Indian children were more likely to ride improperly restrained than nonnative children in the same communities. Other risk factors included riding with an unrestrained or nonparent driver, riding where child passenger restraint laws were weaker than national guidelines, and taking a short trip. Although proper restraint has increased, it remains low. Tribe-initiated interventions to improve child passenger restraint use are under way.

Fumbling at Your Soul

Fumbling at Your Soul

Abstract 19185: An Employer-Initiated Challenge to Improve Cardiovascular Health in the Workplace

Introduction: Concerted attention is focused on achievement of the AHA’s 2020 Strategic Impact Goal which is aimed at a 20% reduction in deaths due to heart disease and stroke. Innovative strategies for promoting awareness of cardiovascular (CV) risk and maintaining and improving CV health are needed for a variety of community-based settings. Objective: To describe an ongoing employer-initiated program aimed at evaluating the effectiveness and efficacy of a CV health intervention focused on maintaining and improving cardiovascular health in an occupational setting. Methods: Administrators from the Oklahoma City Indian Clinic (OKCIC) implemented a voluntary 9-month “Cardiovascular Health Challenge” based on Life’s Simple 7. The OKCIC is an urban healthcare facility for members enrolled in federally-recognized American Indian tribes. Participants were asked to complete My Life Check assessments of Life’s Simple 7 at the beginning, midpoint, and end of the challenge period and to donate a small financial contribution that will be pooled and awarded to the employee with the greatest changes in CV health at the completion of the program. Several program-based workplace resources have been provided to promote healthy behavior change, including an AHA-sponsored walking path at the clinic facility, encouraged daily walking breaks, Life’s Simple 7 materials posted throughout the workplace, pedometers, cooking classes and smoking cessation workshops. Participant feedback regarding program experiences will be solicited and adherence, efficacy and effectiveness will be evaluated. Results: Approximately one-third (n=44) of OKCIC clinic employees are currently enrolled in the CV health challenge. Initial assessments indicate that baseline My Life Check assessments prompted screening of CV health components for a large proportion of participants who were previously unaware of their CVD risk. Conclusions: Incentive-based workplace programs focused on improving CV health represent a unique opportunity to achieve progress towards achievement of the 2020 goals. Maximization of employer encouragement and co-worker camaraderie may be key factors for improved awareness of CVD risk and promotion of healthy behavior change in the workplace.

The case of the noble savage: the myth that governance can replace leadership

The presumption of American’s noble savage provides the foundation for the creation of one of the world’s most recognizable stereotypes – the American Indian. The stereotype, lodged in the minds of most Americans as the Plains Indian warrior, contributed to decades of misunderstanding about leadership in traditional American Indian societies and governance in contemporary American Indian tribes. Review of both indigenous leadership styles and governance structure, defined as Public Law 93–638 or the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act of 1975 (25 USC 450), will provide the framework for a critical analysis of culture and American Indian leadership and governance. We argue that the individualist and democratic culture of white America has generated a particular approach to American Indians that promotes western governance systems at the expense of indigenous leadership cultures. In this approach, the nature of American Indians is reduced to an interpretation of the “noble savage” in which their either anarchic or tyrannical culture can only be tamed by the imposition of western governance systems. This implies displacing the indigenous cultures of leadership with the “universal” culture of democracy. This article will provide the context for discussions on the myth of self-determination, a construct of governance, and the indigenous leadership roles which continue to struggle against assimilation, cultural appropriation, and a history of genocidal policies. After comparing and contrasting indigenous concepts with western notions of governance, the authors propose a series of questions about the fundamental assumptions of governance in contemporary affairs.

Geographical Access and the Substitution of Traditional Healing for Biomedical Services in 2 American Indian Tribes

American Indians who live in rural reservation communities face substantial geographic barriers to care that may limit their use of health services and contribute to their well-documented health disparities. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of geographical access to care on the use of services for physical and mental health problems and to explore American Indians' use of traditional healing services in relation to use of biomedical services. We analyzed survey data collected from 2 tribes (Southwest and Northern Plains). Geographical access to the closest biomedical service was measured using a Geographic Information System, including road travel distance, elevation gain, and reservation boundary crossing. Use of biomedical services was unaffected by geographical access for Northern Plains tribal members with mental health problems and for Southwest tribal members with physical or mental health problems. For members of the Northern Plains tribe with physical health problems, travel distance (P=0.007) and elevation gain (P=0.029) significantly predicted a lower likelihood of service use. The use of traditional healing was unrelated to biomedical service use for members of the Northern Plains tribe with physical or mental health problems and for members of the Southwest tribe with physical health problems. For members of the Southwest tribe with mental health problems, the use of biomedical services increased the likelihood of using traditional healing services. Findings suggest that biomedical services are geographically accessible to most tribal members and that tribal members are not substituting traditional healing for biomedical treatments because of poor geographical access.

From Survival to Sovereignty: 1970s Energy Development and Indian Self-Determination in Montana's Powder River Basin

Abstract This article explores how increasing demands for domestic energy resources during the 1970s threatened the survival of American Indian tribes, leading to an impassioned indigenous movement to protect reservation resources and change federal law to increase tribal sovereignty. Beginning with a close examination of the specific reasons why the Northern Cheyenne and Crow resisted potentially lucrative energy development, the investigation follows a broadening national movement to equip tribes with the tools necessary to manage their own affairs. In the face of intense pressure to develop energy resources, American Indians reclaimed control over their reservations and forced changes in federal law that provided the fullest expression of tribal sovereignty since the nineteenth century.

A Game of Checkers Tribes Can Win: Tribal Authority to Zone Non-member Fee Land Using the First Montana Exception

The modern Congress and executive branch primarily recognized that American Indian tribes retain their inherent sovereign authority over people and property within Indian Country unless Congress acts to limit the authority. However, the Supreme Court incrementally moved away from the recognition of inherent sovereignty by implementing limits on tribal authority over crimes committed by nonmembers and tribal authority to assert civil regulatory and adjudicative jurisdiction over nonmembers. The Supreme Court first applied this theory of implicit divestiture to limit tribal civil regulatory authority in the landmark case Montana v. United States. This limitation of tribal sovereignty continues to severely impact the ability of tribal governments to implement successful zoning and comprehensive land use plans within reservation boundaries. Despite the Supreme Court’s divestiture of tribal authority over nonmember land, this Note offers advice and suggestions for tribes to use the language of these decisions to develop consensual relationships with nonmember fee land owners in the creation of comprehensive zoning plans.

The Future of the National Register

The Future of the National Register Carol Shull (bio) Our National Register of Historic Places continues to expand in breadth and reach. As of September 2012, the 88,200 listed historic districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects include nearly 1.7 million historic resources—almost three times the number from when I wrote my article in 1987. National Register bulletins now provide guidance on nominating rural and designed landscapes, traditional cultural properties, boats, suburbs, airplanes, and properties that have achieved significance in the last 50 years, among others. The National Register's website, webinars, and social media outreach make information about the National Register more accessible as do other training and assistance efforts. Much of the National Register documentation is digitized and online. Soon the National Register is expecting to begin accepting nominations electronically. The National Park Service's Teaching with Historic Places program provides online lesson plans and advice for educators and preservationists on how to engage students, and its online Discover Our Shared Heritage Travel Itinerary Series guides visitors to thousands of historic places. The United States has the world's most egalitarian and participatory national inventory. Our National Historic Preservation Act authorizes federal agencies, states, and American Indian tribes to nominate sites and local governments and every individual to participate in the nomination process. More than 1,800 Certified Local Governments and over 130 American Indian tribes participate in the national preservation program today. Some 68 percent of listings are for properties of local significance. The National Register is not a comprehensive catalog of the nation's historic resources. States list in excess of 8 million properties in their inventories and CLGs added 10,000 properties to local registers in 2011, sometimes using different criteria than the National Register and conferring a range of restrictions and benefits under state and local laws. States have not been delegated authority to list properties in the National Register as proposed in 1987. Because listing has federal consequences, including conferring eligibility for federal tax incentives and grants, these decisions still occur at the federal level. Some 75 percent of registered properties are in private ownership with federal tax benefits the motivation for many nominations. The federal tax incentives have generated more than $62 billion in the rehabilitation of income-producing historic properties. Federal preservation grants for registered historic properties have not been appropriated since 2010. [End Page 5] The number of listings continues to vary widely from state to state as do nomination priorities, but many agencies submit multiple property nominations based on surveys, which provide historic context and facilitate registration. The National Park Service has begun urging its partners to nominate more properties associated with underrepresented ethnic and cultural groups. The NPS is sponsoring theme studies on American Latino Heritage and Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders to assist in evaluation and National Historic Landmark nominations. The 2009 report, "Building Capacity to Preserve and Protect Our Cultural Heritage," (www.nps.gov/history/nr/publications/guidance/NHPII_Final_NPS.pdf) demonstrates how far we are from creating a comprehensive inventory of historic properties and making inventories more compatible and accessible. In 2009, 56 percent of State Historic Preservation Offices (SHPO), 6 percent of Federal Preservation Offices (FPO), and no Tribal Historic Preservation Offices (THPO) had accessible inventory data online and relatively few SHPOs, THPOs, and FPOs were capable of easily sharing historic property data in compatible formats. Lack of funding was cited as the foremost reason that inventories were so inadequate. Virtually all SHPOs and THPOs indicated their highest priority was to complete additional historic property surveys for Section 106 compliance and National Register of Historic Places purposes, but funding is limited. The nearly $47 million in federal Historic Preservation Fund grants to states in 2012, when adjusted for inflation, is estimated to have approximately the same buying power as the $21 million appropriated in 1982. The more than 130 participating tribes share a little less than $8.4 million in 2012. The preservation partners have moved ahead with some of the 1987 recommendations of the National Historic Preservation Forum Historic Identification Study Group, but should look at them again and find ways to step up efforts to achieve the goal of identifying, registering...

Sidebar: Addressing Infant Mortality Disparity Rates in a Small Rural County

ncmedicaljournal.com 390 impactful as it is for diabetes. In the case of diabetes, which is much more common, the absolute difference can be used for population approaches to prevention. However, the relative difference is important because it helps us identify specific risk factors for disease. Both HIV infection and diabetes, in different ways, represent significant public health burdens and health disparities for African American and other minority populations. There are some limitations to the data contained in these reports. For example, the documentation of race/ ethnicity in medical records, on death certificates, and in other sources of data is notoriously fraught with error and omissions. For some health conditions, there are limited data available, and some population groups are not large enough to generate stable rate measures for less common health outcomes. For example, although there are 8 American Indian tribes in North Carolina, data are reported for American Indians as a whole, because most tribes are small. Finally, data on the Hispanic population in North Carolina may be difficult to interpret, particularly data for chronic diseases, because of the younger age distribution of that population in the state. Reporting on the Hispanic population also often does not take into consideration the diversity of this population in country of origin and length of time in the United States. Despite these limitations, these reports are the most comprehensive sources of documentation on health disparities available to state policymakers, researchers, and health care providers. These reports not only demonstrate wide disparities in many health and health care indicators, they also unfortunately show that these disparities have been stubbornly persistent across long periods of time. It is extremely important to continue to use data to document whether disparities continue to exist. According to the Institute of Medicine, increasing awareness of health disparities among health care providers, insurance companies, and policymakers is a key element in addressing health disparities [9]. Efforts on the part of providers, insurance companies, and policymakers to understand the reasons for these disparities are sorely needed, so that they can develop Addressing Infant Mortality Disparity Rates in a Small Rural County

Béla Bartók’s The Miraculous Mandarin and the Apaches from Paris

In the well-discussed introduction to The Miraculous Mandarin Bartók’s music depicts the stylized image of an anonymous metropolis. It is, however, very likely that Bartók referred to a specific city: the capital of Europe in the (long) 19th century, Paris. The precise geographic attribution is made possible by Bartók’s repeated use of the French term apache, referring to the three thugs. Originally the name of a group of North American indian tribes, the second meaning of the term came up at the beginning of the 20th century. It was omnipresent in French press and French cultural life at a time when Bartók, in 1905, first visited the city that impressed him so much. As Bartók began to think about the Mandarin in 1918 he chose this term, that by now had been integrated into Hungarian too, to designate the thugs adequately.

American Indian Tribal/State Title IV-E Intergovernmental Agreements: An Update on the Challenges and Opportunities for Accessing Foster Care and Adoption Assistance

Title IV-E of the Social Security Act is one of the most important funding sources available to American Indian tribes for child welfare services. A nationwide content analysis of existing Title IV-E agreements was conducted, as well as qualitative surveys with tribal and state officials in states with IV-E agreements. Results of this study revealed that most IV-E agreements contain provisions for administrative costs and foster care maintenance payments. Roughly half of the agreements analyzed contain provisions for adoption maintenance payments. Findings are discussed in light of current legislation and recommendations are made to help facilitate effective IV-E agreements.

Patterns of Substance Use Initiation among Young Adolescents in a Northern Plains American Indian Tribe

Background: Substantial evidence documents problematic substance use in Northern Plains American Indian communities. Studies suggest that disparities can be traced to disproportionate rates of early substance use, but most evidence comes from the retrospective reports of adults or older adolescents. Objective: To use a prospective longitudinal design to examine substance use initiation patterns as they emerge among young American Indian adolescents. Methods: Four waves of data were collected across three consecutive school years from middle school students on a Northern Plains reservation (N = 450). Discrete-time survival analyses were used to estimate risks of initiation of cigarettes, alcohol, and marijuana from age 10 to 13. Results: Risk for cigarette initiation was relatively high at age 10 and stable until age 13. Marijuana risk was low at age 10 but increased sharply by age 12. Alcohol initiation lagged, not surpassing risk for cigarette initiation until age 13 and remaining below risk for marijuana initiation throughout middle school. Hazards for girls trended higher than those for boys across all substances, but differences did not reach significance. Conclusion: Initiation patterns among these American Indian adolescents differed from patterns reported in other US groups, particularly with respect to deviation from the sequence characterized the initiation of marijuana before alcohol that is predicted by the gateway theory. Scientific Significance: Findings suggest that prevention efforts with youth in this community should begin early with a primary focus on marijuana use. They also suggest the importance of examining sequences of substance initiation among youth in other American Indian communities.

Erratum to: Influence of Framing and Graphic Format on Comprehension of Risk Information among American Indian Tribal College Students

Erratum to: Influence of Framing and Graphic Format on Comprehension of Risk Information among American Indian Tribal College Students

A Community-Based Intervention to Prevent Obesity Beginning at Birth Among American Indian Children: Study Design and Rationale for the PTOTS Study

Eating and physical activity behaviors associated with adult obesity have early antecedents, yet few studies have focused on obesity prevention interventions targeting very young children. Efforts to prevent obesity beginning at birth seem particularly important in populations at risk for early-onset obesity. National estimates indicate that American Indian (AI) children have higher rates of overweight and obesity than children of other races/ethnicities. The Prevention of Toddler Obesity and Teeth Health Study (PTOTS) is a community-partnered randomized controlled trial designed to prevent obesity beginning at birth in AI children. PTOTS was developed to test the effectiveness of a multi-component intervention designed to: promote breastfeeding, reduce sugar-sweetened beverage consumption, appropriately time the introduction of healthy solid foods, and counsel parents to reduce sedentary lifestyles in their children. A birth cohort of 577 children from five AI tribes is randomized by tribe to either the intervention (three tribes) or the comparison condition (two tribes). The strengths and weaknesses of PTOTS include a focus on a critical growth phase, placement in the community, and intervention at many levels, using a variety of approaches.

The Healthy Children, Strong Families Intervention: Design and Community Participation

Healthy Children, Strong Families (HCSF) is a 2-year, community-driven, family-based randomized controlled trial of a healthy lifestyles intervention conducted in partnership with four Wisconsin American Indian tribes. HCSF is composed of 1 year of targeted home visits to deliver nutritional and physical activity curricula. During Year 1, trained community mentors work with 2-5-year-old American Indian children and their primary caregivers to promote goal-based behavior change. During Year 2, intervention families receive monthly newsletters and attend monthly group meetings to participate in activities designed to reinforce and sustain changes made in Year 1. Control families receive only curricula materials during Year 1 and monthly newsletters during Year 2. Each of the two arms of the study comprises 60 families. Primary outcomes are decreased child body mass index (BMI) z-score and decreased primary caregiver BMI. Secondary outcomes include: increased fruit/vegetable consumption, decreased TV viewing, increased physical activity, decreased soda/sweetened drink consumption, improved primary caregiver biochemical indices, and increased primary caregiver self-efficacy to adopt healthy behaviors. Using community-based participatory research and our history of university-tribal partnerships, the community and academic researchers jointly designed this randomized trial. This article describes the study design and data collection strategies, including outcome measures, with emphasis on the communities' input in all aspects of the research.

First tribal college or university to offer hydrology degree program

American Indian tribes and tribal confederations exert sovereignty over about 27% of freshwater resources in the United States. Yet only about 20–30 Native American students receive bachelor's degrees in the geosciences each year, and few of those degrees are in the field of hydrology. To help increase the ranks of Native American hydrologists, the Salish Kootenai College (SKC) in Pablo, Mont., now has associate and bachelor of science degree programs in hydrology, the first hydrology and geoscience degree programs offered by any of the Tribal Colleges and Universities in North America. SKC received approval to offer the degree programs from the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities in 2010.

Influence of Framing and Graphic Format on Comprehension of Risk Information among American Indian Tribal College Students

We evaluated methods for presenting risk information by administering six versions of an anonymous survey to 489 American Indian tribal college students. All surveys presented identical numeric information, but framing varied. Half expressed prevention benefits as relative risk reduction, half as absolute risk reduction. One third of surveys used text to describe prevention benefits; one third used text plus bar graph; one third used text plus modified bar graph incorporating a culturally tailored image. The odds ratio (OR) for correct risk interpretation for absolute risk framing vs. relative risk framing was 1.40 (95 % CI = 1.01, 1.93). The OR for correct interpretation of text plus bar graph vs. text only was 2.16 (95 % CI = 1.46, 3.19); OR for text plus culturally tailored bar graph vs. text only was 1.72 (95 % CI = 1.14, 2.60). Risk information including a bar graph was better understood than text-only information; a culturally tailored graph was no more effective than a standard graph.

Integrating Dynamic Assessment and Response-to-Intervention in Reading Instruction

Integrating Dynamic Assessment and Response-to-Intervention in Reading Instruction