This website provides information on Health topics, People and Traditions, Program and Services and Research and Data all relevant to Native American populations.
Also check out the Native Voices site. This site presents video interviews with tribal elders, healers and other prominent people who practice traditional medicine, Western medicine or a combination of both. From their unique experiences and perspectives, they weave a tapestry of stories of the vibrant and diverse cultures and medicine ways of Alaska Natives, Native Americans and Native Hawaiians.
The following links will take you to health information courtesy of American Indian Health website, sponsored by the National Library of Medicine. Much of the links are informative and offer many resources.
HEALTH TOPICS
The Division of Program Statistics (DPS) produces the Indian Health Service’s statistical information and publications that measure and document the progress in assuring access to health care services and improving the health status of the American Indian and Alaska Native populations we serve. The DPS data and publications are the most important tools to support the IHS’s mission and goal. They are also the historical and foundational documents that will support the new health initiatives.
Inspiring Change: Native Americans Share Health Transformations
In June 2010 American Indians at the Tahoma Indian Center in Washington began participating in fitness and nutrition courses. They want to share the benefits of this change with American Indians across the country in hopes of inspiring change.
The American Indian Health Council is a group of American Indians dedicated to providing health information, referral, and outreach services to the American Indian community.
The Indian Health Service (IHS), an agency within the Department of Health and Human Services, is responsible for providing federal health services to American Indians and Alaska Natives. The provision of health services to members of federally-recognized tribes grew out of the special government-to-government relationship between the federal government and Indian tribes. This relationship, established in 1787, is based on Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution, and has been given form and substance by numerous treaties, laws, Supreme Court decisions, and Executive Orders. The IHS is the principal federal health care provider and health advocate for Indian people, and its goal is to raise their health status to the highest possible level. The IHS provides a comprehensive health service delivery system for American Indians and Alaska Natives who are members of 566 federally recognized Tribes across the U.S.
This Web resource on American Indian Health, sponsored by the National Library of Medicine, is designed to bring together health and medical resources pertinent to the American Indian population including policies, consumer health information, and research. Links are provided here to an assortment of documents, Web sites, databases, and other resources.
AMERICAN INDIAN TRADITIONAL FOODS
In the 1800s wild plants and wild game were plenty on the land. In areas where hunting and fishing dominated, Indian people were well nourished. Acorns were a staple food, the nutmeats were ground and then leached before final preparation and consumption.
Tribes boiled foods in almost all native cultures. Stone boiling was the dominant method with some tribes. The earth oven was used to prepare plant and animal foods. Some foods were heat and steam cooked (normally overnight). Broiling or roasting were common methods of preparation. Smoking and drying meat was also common and a great variety of vegetable foods were preserved by drying.
According to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2010, a healthy eating plan:
The goals of the AIHDP are to bring to light the health problems faced by indigenous peoples, to understand how we came to our unhealthy situations and what we can do about them. You will find no fry bread recipes here! This site also focuses on connecting with the natural world, finding ways to do our part to be responsible consumers and to halt environmental degradation.
Indians boiled foods in almost all native cultures. Stone boiling was the dominant method in California. The earth oven was used to prepare plant and animal foods. Some foods were heat and steam cooked (normally overnight). Broiling or roasting were common methods of preparation. Smoking and drying meat was also common.
For many Indigenous People in the Americas, this triad is called the Three Sisters:Corn, or Maize, Beans and Squash.
Although this food trinity has a variety of names among Native People,.these three staples remain the heart of most Indigenous diets.
A shared space, plot of land, or garden gardened by a group of people. Community gardens are increasingly used in urban settings where land is limited. More often, rural communities are exploring collective gardening to address decreasing land options and free time.
PEOPLE & TRADITIONS - TRADITIONAL HEALING
Our Health
Native American Ethnobotany
(University Of Michigan-Dearborn)
Native American Healing
(American Cancer Society)
Native American Traditional Healing
(New Mexico AIDS InfoNet)
Traditional Healing in Healthfinder
(U.S. Department of Health and Human Services)
Traditional Health, Medicine and Healing
(Alaska Native Knowledge Network)
Traditional Medicine - Arctic Health
(National Library of Medicine/ University of Alaska Anchorage)
The Center's Training and Scholarship Program is dedicated to supporting current and future American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) health professionals in their educational and professional development. We are committed to addressing health needs in Indian Country, and through our pgorams and partnership with tribes, strive to provide valuable tools necessary to strengthen from the inside out
The National Center for American Indian Health Professions (NCAIHP) is dedicated to helping Native students become healthcare professionals and leaders within American Indian and Alaska Native communities. We focus A.T. Still University Arizona’s efforts to address the needs of under-served American Indian communities for competent, culturally adept healers.
The American Indian Health Career Ladder (AIHCL) is a pipeline fostering the progress of students from the community in becoming skilled and compassionate health care practitioners in a variety of medical and health care professions. This program, which mentors American Indian youth through their undergraduate education to eventual matriculation at Western University of Health Sciences, is based upon five pillars.
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