Presentation Type
Oral Presentation
Category
Social Sciences/Humanities
Abstract/Artist Statement
The impacts of historical and intergenerational trauma on American Indians and Alaska Natives (AIAN) are widely documented. While the rate of lifetime alcohol use for AIANs is lower than that of non-Hispanic Whites (NHW), AIAN individuals continue to report the highest rates of heavy alcohol and illicit drug use for any racial or ethnic group in the United States. In response to this trend, substance use programming for AIAN populations will often draw from evidence-based practices (EBP) developed for mostly non-AIAN populations. Sometimes, these EBPs are then adapted to integrate cultural approaches to decrease alcohol and illicit drug use in AIAN individuals and communities. In contrast, our study seeks to draw on practice-based evidence that has existed within AIAN communities for millennia to inform the development of an intervention that uses traditional ceremonial practices (TCP) to address trauma and reduce rates of problem substance use. Specifically, we explore the potential for this type of intervention to be successful in an urban, multi-tribal setting.
Guided by Critical Indigenous Research Methodologies, we developed a sequential, mixed-method research design in partnership with All Nations Health Center. All Nations is a federally funded urban Indian health organization (UIHO) serving Missoula and Ravalli counties. In the first phase of our study, we collected information about the AIAN community. To do this, we delivered a survey questionnaire (N = 194) to adult AIAN community members. The survey asked respondents about their intent to participate in TCP as well as how they think and feel about these activities. Additionally, the survey asked about substance use behaviors over the past 12 months, including the use of alcohol, marijuana, methamphetamine, inhalants, and prescription medications. Demographic and socio-economic survey questions allowed us to consider how these variables might influence results.
In the second phase of the study, we conducted interviews, using a semi-structured moderator’s guide, with 20 AIAN adults living in Missoula and Ravalli counties. The interview questions helped contextualize many of the close-ended responses from the survey. These conversations explored participant backgrounds with TCP as well as their vision of what a TCP-based substance use intervention could look like in an urban, multi-tribal setting. This perspective is significant in that an urban program would serve AIANs from many tribes from across the country. The interview data were analyzed to identify themes, which were merged with the survey data to inform the future development of a TCP-based problem substance use intervention for urban AIANs.
Currently available TCP-based interventions have been developed largely for reservation-based communities, which are relatively homogeneous in terms of culture, language, and TCP. This is the first study of its kind to explore TCP among AIANs living in an urban setting in Montana. Additionally, this study explores the development of a holistic substance use intervention driven by TCP rather than incorporating TCP into an already defined substance use EBP. The results will guide All Nations, and others, to design, pilot, and implement an AIAN community-informed substance use intervention for urban AIANs.
Mentor Name
Blakely Brown
Personal Statement
This research project included a non-Native mentor who served as Principal Investigator (PI), a Native doctoral student who served as Co-PI, and two research assistants, one of whom is a Native student who just completed her master’s degree in the fall. The lived experiences of the Native Co-PI and Native master’s student played an integral part in the formation of this research. D’Shane Barnett (Mandan/Arikara) has been working in the Indian Health field for more than two decades. Over the course of his career, he has been frustrated at the unwillingness of government and private healthcare payers to cover the costs of traditional ceremonial practices (TCP) as an intervention, due to a lack of “evidence.” Native communities have generations of evidence to support the effectiveness of these interventions, but that type of evidence has been shunned in favor of Western clinical research. This project is an attempt to shift the scales to a greater balance between evidence-based practices and practice-based evidence. Julie Cahoon (Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribes) works for Kauffman & Associates, Inc. (KAI), one of the oldest and most respected consulting firms specializing in Indian Health. In her professional role, she has had the opportunity to work with many innovative programs throughout Indian Country that are on the forefront of bridging public health, education, and economic development to improve the quality of life in Native communities. For both of us, this project represented not just a labor of love but a way to live out our cultural values of respect, responsibility, and reciprocity. The experience of higher education is not only an opportunity to better our own lives, but to find ways to lift up those communities that nourished us as children and continue to support our personal and professional development as adults. We’ve spent our lives hearing statistics and seeing news stories that portray Native communities as feckless, lacking, or even inferior environments void of any value, save for beautiful dances and colorful regalia. It was important to us to carry out a strengths-based research project that exposes the assets, resources, and wealth of knowledge and skills inherent in Native communities. We seek to be a small part of a changing narrative in which programs and services designed by Natives, for Natives are held in the same esteem as those from the mainstream community. We present this research not just as the culmination of our time and effort as students, but as a foundation of work still to come. We both plan to use the data and experience garnered from this study to work toward the continuing development of holistic, community-informed and community-driven programs and services aimed at healing the historic and intergenerational trauma that presents itself in the form of addiction and violence.
Barnett et al.
American Indian Traditional Ceremonial Practices as a Potential Community-Informed Intervention Against Problem Substance Use
UC 327
The impacts of historical and intergenerational trauma on American Indians and Alaska Natives (AIAN) are widely documented. While the rate of lifetime alcohol use for AIANs is lower than that of non-Hispanic Whites (NHW), AIAN individuals continue to report the highest rates of heavy alcohol and illicit drug use for any racial or ethnic group in the United States. In response to this trend, substance use programming for AIAN populations will often draw from evidence-based practices (EBP) developed for mostly non-AIAN populations. Sometimes, these EBPs are then adapted to integrate cultural approaches to decrease alcohol and illicit drug use in AIAN individuals and communities. In contrast, our study seeks to draw on practice-based evidence that has existed within AIAN communities for millennia to inform the development of an intervention that uses traditional ceremonial practices (TCP) to address trauma and reduce rates of problem substance use. Specifically, we explore the potential for this type of intervention to be successful in an urban, multi-tribal setting.
Guided by Critical Indigenous Research Methodologies, we developed a sequential, mixed-method research design in partnership with All Nations Health Center. All Nations is a federally funded urban Indian health organization (UIHO) serving Missoula and Ravalli counties. In the first phase of our study, we collected information about the AIAN community. To do this, we delivered a survey questionnaire (N = 194) to adult AIAN community members. The survey asked respondents about their intent to participate in TCP as well as how they think and feel about these activities. Additionally, the survey asked about substance use behaviors over the past 12 months, including the use of alcohol, marijuana, methamphetamine, inhalants, and prescription medications. Demographic and socio-economic survey questions allowed us to consider how these variables might influence results.
In the second phase of the study, we conducted interviews, using a semi-structured moderator’s guide, with 20 AIAN adults living in Missoula and Ravalli counties. The interview questions helped contextualize many of the close-ended responses from the survey. These conversations explored participant backgrounds with TCP as well as their vision of what a TCP-based substance use intervention could look like in an urban, multi-tribal setting. This perspective is significant in that an urban program would serve AIANs from many tribes from across the country. The interview data were analyzed to identify themes, which were merged with the survey data to inform the future development of a TCP-based problem substance use intervention for urban AIANs.
Currently available TCP-based interventions have been developed largely for reservation-based communities, which are relatively homogeneous in terms of culture, language, and TCP. This is the first study of its kind to explore TCP among AIANs living in an urban setting in Montana. Additionally, this study explores the development of a holistic substance use intervention driven by TCP rather than incorporating TCP into an already defined substance use EBP. The results will guide All Nations, and others, to design, pilot, and implement an AIAN community-informed substance use intervention for urban AIANs.