Today we celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day, a day where we honor the Indigenous peoples of the world for their many contributions to our lives and their stewardship
of the world’s resources.
We especially recognize the Indigenous people of what is currently known as the United States – the Native Americans who were brutally removed from their lands, stripped of their culture, and forced to assimilate into the culture of the Europeans who were colonizing North America.
I recently attended a conference where one of the attendees gave a beautiful land acknowledgement and cited some sobering statistics. When the Europeans first arrived, there were 500 Indian tribes with 1 million Native Americans. They represented 100% of the population. Today they represent less than 3%. At that time, the Native Americans had sovereignty connected to 100% of the land. Today, they are able to steward less than 1% of the land in North America.
Even more sobering are the data related to the social determinants of health and resulting health status. When compared against the U.S. population as a whole, the poverty rate for Native Americans is 10% higher, engagement in postsecondary education is 40% lower, and household income is $16,000 lower. The result is lower life expectancy by 5.5 years, and higher rates of chronic liver disease, diabetes mellitus, unintentional injuries, and self-harm and suicide.
Indigenous peoples have populated the Americas for more than 20,000 years and during that time, they have respected and protected the land which continues to give us all life. As health care professionals, we have a responsibility to address the social determinants of health that impact the people whose land we occupy. There are many resources in the IHP library that can help us get a fuller understanding of the social and health challenges faced by the Native American people; the Massachusetts Center for Native American Awareness is also a valuable resource.
Today, please take a moment to reflect on the Massachusett tribe at Ponkapoag. They are an indigenous people who are still with us today, a people with a beautiful culture, and a people whose land our campus sits upon.
I wish you a peaceful day.
Paula