Safeguarding America’s Borders: Homeland Security’s Elite Native American ‘Shadow Wolves’ Unit

By NAT Staff


(Photo Credit: ICE &DHS, collage created by Ruby Layne)

The Shadow Wolves are the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) only Native American tracking team specifically utilized for targeted interdiction operations. Shadow Wolves recover an estimated 60,000 pounds of illegal contraband each year, and over a ten-year period, interdiction and investigative efforts have resulted in 437 drug and immigration arrests along with the seizure of over 117,264 pounds of drugs, 45 weapons, 251 vehicles and $847,928 in U.S. currency. They perform their duties as “tactical agents” for DHS’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the premier federal law enforcement agency within the department.

The name "Shadow Wolves" refers to the unique ways the tactical patrol unit hunts, likening them to a wolf pack. They specialize in the interdiction of human and drug smugglers who conduct their illegal operations through the rugged terrain of the Sonoran Desert. The Tohono O’odham Nation covers 2.8 million acres, including a 76-mile stretch of land shared with Mexico.


"We’re wide open out here," says former Customs Service Agent Rene Andreu. "Most of our apprehensions come in a specific corridor from Tucson to the U.S.-Mexico boundary, but the border spreads out over 150 miles – half of that on the reservation – and that’s a lot of real estate to keep track of."

"There’s a continual supply of people willing to strap cargo onto their back and take on the dangers of the desert," says Roger Maier, regional Customs Service spokesman in El Paso.

Referred to as “mules,” impoverished young men are available on the street corners in many towns south of the border. These human pack animals will tote a 50-pound burlap or sugar sack filled with dope over ten miles in two days – or on moonlit nights – to reach a drop spot for their cargo, which represent high street market values in the drug market. When they travel in the summer, the desert temperatures hover between 105-125 degrees. During winters, temperatures plunge to freezing conditions.


A Shadow Wolf taking a mule into custody. (Photo Credit: Desert USA)

“There’s a huge federal footprint on tribal lands now that wasn’t there years ago,” says Angel Rascon, Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the Homeland Security operation in Sells, Arizona. “Because of the sheer amount of traffic we see here on the Nation – different corridors run by different smuggling operations – several task forces come together to handle federal, state, and tribal issues. The mere fact that the Wolves are Native Americans allows them to better interact with the Nation’s citizens. Not only do most of the Wolves speak the native language, but their unmatched knowledge of the area is a tremendous tool,” said Rascon.

Verlon Jose, governor of the Traditional Tohono O’odham Leaders of Mexico and former Vice-Chairman of the Nation, described Shadow Wolves as “protectors” and “warriors.”

"The men and women who commit to track smugglers and stop the flow of drugs have a vested interest in their community," he said.

Cutting For Sign


The smallest clues left behind by a column of backpacking drug smugglers can reveal a
wealth of information. Flattened vegetation, as well as damage to tree branches and the
spines of saguaro cactus, reveals the direction in which a backpacker is traveling.
(Photo Credit: Scott S. Warren)

These highly trained officers use modern technology and a traditional Native American tracking technique called "cutting for sign," which means they locate and interpret any kind of physical evidence left by smugglers and decode their meaning.

Examples of physical evidence include:

  • Footprints
  • Tire Tracks
  • Thread
  • Clothing
  • Plants/Vegetation Disturbance
  • Animal Tracks

"Smuggler prints have deeper indentations," says Shadow Wolf David Scout, an Oglala Sioux. "Thicker imprints are the result of a backpacker carrying a 50-pound package of dope along with water and other supplies. Hoof prints of horses also give clues. Horses without riders have a slight sideways gait. Prints of animals carrying a rider are frequently in a straight line and are deeper, indicating a passenger with possible cargo.”

“Everything makes a difference when you are reading tracks,” said Lambert Cross, one of the original members of the Shadow Wolves, “See that fiber? When it shines like that, you know it’s not natural. You know it’s man-made, and somebody’s passed this way.”

Utilizing traditional Native tracking protocols mixed with state-of-the-art law enforcement surveillance technology, the Shadow Wolves successfully identify cartel operations. The modern law enforcement surveillance protocols include GPS-tracking devices, night vision goggles, and encrypted radios for long-distance communications.

These are lawmen and women who have learned to look for stories written on the ground. One of the new generation of agents compares the skill of tracking to playing a musical instrument. "You learn the rudiments, but it takes lots of practice before your skill level improves.”

Per Kevin Carlos, a Shadow Wolf Supervisory Tactical Officer, “In a high-tech world, Native American tracking is an art that can easily be lost. The Shadow Wolves are actively using time-honored and proven skills at a time when the stakes are as high as they ever have been, with people trying to bring contraband and other threats into the United States.”


Drug lords will pay between $400 and $1,200 to carry burlap sacks filled with contraband
across the border, where Shadow Wolves are waiting. (Photo Credit: Scott S. Warren)

“The name Shadow Wolves refers to the way we hunt, like a wolf pack,” reports former “Senior Wolf” Bryan Nez, who joined the U.S. Customs Patrol Office of Investigations after a stint as an officer with the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Navajo Police Department. “If one wolf finds prey, it will call in the rest of the pack.”


A slight sheen left on desert sand suggests an attempt to obscure tracks
by tying carpet to the soles of boots. (Photo Credit: Scott S. Warren)


Multiple law enforcement agencies participated in Operation Rocky Top 2, as part of the
HIDTA NATIVE Task Force, dismantling a component of the Sinaloa Cartel. (Photo Credit: ICE)

"Sometimes you get it, sometimes you miss," says one patrol officer. In reply, agent Andreu states, "I’ll put my money on the Shadow Wolves and the use of ancient tracking skills to put a dent in border drug smuggling."

History of the Shadow Wolves

The unit was established by Congressional mandate in 1974 in response to rampant drug smuggling and human trafficking occurring through the Tohono O’odham Nation, which borders Mexico territory.

The Shadow Wolves were originally part of the U.S. Customs Service. They became part of the Department of Homeland Security in 2003, when the U.S. Customs Service was folded into the Department of Homeland Security.

They are a key component of the Native American Targeted Investigations of Violent Enterprises (NATIVE) Task Force, a High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) initiative formed in August 2013, to disrupt and dismantle drug trafficking organizations. NATIVE’s partners include HSI, the Tohono O’odham Police Department, the Bureau of Indian Affairs-Drug Enforcement Division, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and the Bureau of Land Management.

On December 22, 2021, during the 117th Congress, Rep. John Katko (R-NY-24) introduced H.R. 5681, which proposed to broaden the Shadow Wolves' authorities while preserving the important legacy of the unit. The bill became Public Law 117-113 on April 19, 2022. The law provides flexibility to reclassify the Shadow Wolves, current and future, from GS-1801 Tactical Officers to GS-1811 Special Agents.

In October 2022, ICE issued a strategy for recruiting additional Shadow Wolves, retaining existing Shadow Wolves, and expanding the program to other tribal lands. ICE's strategy includes high-level recruitment methods, such as partnering with colleges and recruiting tribal law enforcement officers.

2022 Shadow Wolves Enhancement Act


The lead sponsors of the Shadow Wolves Enhancement Act
were Senator Mark Kelly (R-AZ) and Senator Krysten Sinema
(R-AZ) (Photo Credit: Arizona Technology Council)

In 2022, ICE issued a recruitment and expansion strategy for the program, which includes expanded recruiting beyond the unit’s traditional Tohono O'odham Nation to other tribal lands. With bipartisan support, Congress passed the legislation on April 5, 2022. Former President Biden signed the Shadow Wolves Enhancement Act into law on April 19.

“The Shadow Wolves Enhancement Act will dramatically increase agency effectiveness in targeting and disrupting human and drug smugglers throughout the rugged terrain of the Sonoran Desert and across tribal lands,” said ICE Acting Director Tae D. Johnson at the time. “The reclassification of the Shadow Wolves broadens the authority of an elite law enforcement program while preserving the unit’s historic legacy and augments critical state and federal partnerships while furthering our broad national security missions.”

The act reclassified the Shadow Wolves from officers to Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) tactical agents, allowing them to not only patrol the desert, but also to investigate, interdict, and disrupt criminal activity.

“Public Safety, particularly drug and human trafficking, continue to be a priority for Indian Country,” Jamie Azure, Chairman of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, said. “These issues are uniquely difficult for tribal communities, like the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, who are located along the U.S. border. The Shadow Wolves Improvement Act is an additional tool within the law enforcement toolbox that will help.”

Global Training Missions


Shadow Wolves have been dispatched internationally to train law
enforcement on Native tracking techniques. In this photo, Polish border
guards are being educated. (Photo Credit: ICE)

Due to their unique expertise, the Shadow Wolves are often requested to train border guards and customs agents in other jurisdictions, including Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Estonia, Kazakhstan, Poland, and Uzbekistan. The unit was also used in the effort to hunt terrorists along the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan by training border guards in ancestral Native tracking techniques.

Shadow Wolves: The Movie Version


Movie poster (Photo Credit: IMDB)

Synopsis

The 2019 film Shadow Wolves, written and directed by McKay Daines, tells the story of an elite unit of highly trained Native Americans who must stop ISIS terrorists sneaking into the U.S. When Colonel Branson, head of a secret division of the National Security Agency, sends his best agent to help them, his presence could bring the Shadow Wolves closer together or break them apart. Starring Thomas Gibson, Graham Greene and Louise Lombard, the film strived for authenticity in its storytelling, working with a real former Shadow Wolf, Marvin Eleando, as an advisor. Shadow Wolves executive producers McKay Daines, Tom Reeve, and Michael G. Corrigan in collaboration with Co-Executive producer and Native American actor Ray Tracey created a realistic representation of the Native American culture, as well as a sensational thriller about covert terrorist plots.

The film is currently available on Amazon Prime and multiple streaming platforms.

In Popular Culture

YouTube Links

Elite group of Native American officers combat drug smuggling on the Tohono O'odham Nation

A Voice in the Desert

Shadow Wolves

About DHS

The Department of Homeland Security has a vital mission: to secure the nation from the many threats we face. This requires the hard work of more than 260,000 employees in jobs that range from aviation and border security to emergency response, from cybersecurity analyst to chemical facility inspector. Their duties are wide-ranging, and its goal is clear - keeping America safe.

About HSI

Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) is a premier federal law enforcement agency within the Department of Homeland Security. Its purpose is to shield our nation from global threats to ensure Americans are safe and secure.

HSI investigates crime on a global scale – at home, abroad and online. They identify, investigate and stop criminals, while supporting those victimized by their crimes. Through innovation, hard work and determination, HSI works with partners to combat crime and ensure the safety of the general public.

About ICE

ICE was created in 2003 through a merger of the investigative and interior enforcement elements of the former U.S. Customs Service and the Immigration and Naturalization Service. ICE now has more than 20,000 law enforcement and support personnel in more than 400 offices in the United States and around the world.

The agency is primarily devoted to three operational directorates — Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) and Office of the Principal Legal Advisor (OPLA). A fourth directorate – Management and Administration (M&A) – supports the three operational branches to advance the ICE mission.

The Iroquois and Founding of the U.S. Constitution

By NAT Staff

When the Founders met in 1787 to create the U.S. Constitution, there were no contemporary democracies in Europe from which they could draw inspiration. The only forms of government they had encountered were those of the Native American tribes. Of particular interest was the Iroquois Confederacy, who had already formed a multi-state government that ensures individual governance and freedoms. The structure of the Confederacy represented five tribes: Mohawk, Onondaga, Cayuga, Oneida and Seneca and was federal in nature, operating under The Great Law of Peace, a doctrine of 117 codicils where individual tribes handled their own affairs but came together to solve issues of common importance. The founders were impressed by how the Iroquois legislated their affairs and shortly thereafter, they drafted the U.S. Constitution echoing the Great Law of Peace. Historians agree the Iroquois wielded a major influence in the writings of the U.S. Constitution.


Mohican Chief Hendrick Theyanoguin, Mayor Abraham Yates, Jr., and Benjamin Franklin at the Albany Conference, 1754. (Illustration by John Kahionhes Fadden)

Before the Congressional Congress, leaders of the Confederacy attended the Albany Congress in 1754, where Benjamin Franklin was impressed by the Great Law of Peace and wrote what’s known as the Albany Plan of Union. It advocated for the colonies to improve security and better defend themselves from foreign powers. In 1776, during the drafting of the Declaration of Independence, the Continental Congress in Philadelphia invited the Iroquois to make an address, where they were well received by the patriots.


An Onondaga sachem giving John Hancock the Iroquois name Karanduawn (meaning “Great Tree”) at Independence Hall. (Illustration by John Kahionhes Fadden)

In 1988, Congress passed a resolution formally acknowledging the influence of the Iroquois Confederacy on the U.S. Constitution. It reads, "The confederation of the original 13 colonies into one republic was influenced by the political system developed by the Iroquois Confederacy, as were many of the democratic principles incorporated into the constitution itself.” In addition, the resolution stated, “the continuing government-to-government relationship between Indian tribes and the United States established in the Constitution,” which reaffirmed the legitimacy and sovereignty of Native nations and their governments.

About the Iroquois Confederacy

The Iroquois Confederacy dates back several centuries, to when the Great Peacemaker founded it by uniting five nations: Mohawk, Onondaga, Cayuga, Oneida and Seneca. In 1722, the Tuscarora nation joined the Iroquois, also known as the Haudenosaunee. They were known during the colonial years to the French as the Iroquois League, and later as the Iroquois Confederacy. The English called them the Five (later Six) Nations. Today, each of the tribes who comprise the Confederacy administer their own affairs and have independent tribal councils.

The Six Nations Iroquois Cultural Center provides for the viewing of 3000-plus artifacts, and features story telling lectures, and a gift shop adorned with Mohawk baskets, beadwork, books, t-shirts, silver jewelry, and acrylic paintings.

About Artist David Parkins (Homepage Image)

David Alan Parkins is a British cartoonist and illustrator who has worked for D.C. Thomson, publisher of The Beano and The Dandy. After the Beano's 60th birthday celebrations in 1998, Parkins took over illustrating the comic's long-running character "Dennis the Menace". In freelance, he’s worked on postcards, textbooks, newspapers, magazines, comics, and illustrated over fifty children's books. The artist has additionally drawn political cartoons for The Guardian, The Observer, The Sunday Times, the Times Higher Education Supplement, The Economist, the Literary Review of Canada, and Nature. In 2013, Mr. Parkins became an editorial cartoonist for The Globe and Mail.

Astronomy and Mythology in Native American Culture

By Grady Winston

Before the age of global positioning systems or compasses, people looked to the stars to find their way. And before civilizations knew what stars were, people formed their own beliefs about their significance. In North America, indigenous tribes had differing ideas about what the stars meant, some believing that the night sky had spiritual meaning, and some attributing human-like qualities to the twinkling objects.

Archaeoastronomy is the study of how people of the past understood the stars and the sky, however this broadly applies to all ancient cultures. The Mayans, Celts, and Egyptians alike all had their own methods for tracking the movement of the stars and heavenly bodies, but all of these cultures have the common belief that the phenomenon above their heads was somehow larger and greater than they were. As such, the vast majority of ancient cultures associated the origins of everything, including the sky, moon, sun and earth with some form of mythology related to the stars. Astronomy played in an important role in early Native American cultures, serving as the basis for governance, agricultural practices and more. And studying the stars also caused tribes to theorize about the beginning of life in the universe.

The Pawnee’s Guiding Principles

Polaris

The Skidi band of the Pawnee Indians referred to a ring of stars in the sky as “The Council of Chiefs.” The Pawnee believed the circle represented their governance style of elders holding council to resolve important matters. This constellation was paramount to the way the Pawnee interacted daily as well as their religious beliefs. They used the stars to set agricultural patterns and embody their own societal values. The Council of Chiefs was connected to their “Chief Star,” what is now referred to as Polaris, which represented their primary god Tirawahat. They built their lodges with openings at the top – not only to allow smoke to escape from warming fires inside, but to allow a clear view of the “Council” stars. Today, those stars are known as the Corona Borealis.

The Anasazi

The Crab Nebula

In New Mexico, researchers found a cave painting that appears to depict a supernova explosion; the orientation of a crescent moon and stars indicate that the art may represent the Crab Nebula, formed in 1054 A.D. by supernova. The Anasazi way of life remains somewhat of a mystery, but researchers found that the tribe built a solar observatory, suggesting that the sky was extremely important to the Anasazi way of life.

Navajo Creation of the Sky

A Navajo legend describes the Four Worlds that had no sun and the Fifth World, which represents Earth. According to the legend, the first people of the Fifth World were given four lights but were dissatisfied with the amount of light they had on Earth. After many attempts to satisfy the people, the First Woman created the sun to bring warmth and light to the land, and the moon to provide coolness and moisture. These were crafted from quartz, and, when there were bits of quartz that were left behind by the carving, they were tossed into the sky to make stars.

Hopi Blue Star

Like the Navajo, the Hopi believe there were worlds before this one. The modern era is believed to be the Fourth World, and each world that came before this one ended with the appearance of “the blue star.” In carvings created by the Hopi in the American Southwest, it seems what they saw may have led them to a belief in aliens, a belief that certainly retains a place in the culture of the U.S. to this day.

The divisions between Native American cultures were not unlike the divisions between the societies of today, so few myths extend beyond a single tribe. With the same sky overhead, ancient myths from around the world do share much in common. The History & Culture channel of the Chickasaw TV website features the tribe’s myths about Creation and the Great Flood, two stories repeated again and again throughout most cultures of the world, proving that, even when the world seemed impossibly large, many people were not far from each other, in terms of what they believed under the night sky.

•    •    •

To see the original article, please visit Legends of America who explores history, destinations, people & legends of this great country since 2003.

Video Credit: Ancient Wisdom 

About the Author: Grady Winston is an avid internet entrepreneur and copywriter from Indianapolis. He has worked in the fields of technology, business, marketing, and advertising implementing multiple creative projects and solutions for a range of clients.

Addressing Health Disparities: Q&A with Dr. Don Warne

by Beth Blevins

Originally printed in the Rural Monitor, a publication of the Rural Health Information Hub

Donald Warne, MD, MPH, is the chair of the Department of Public Health at North Dakota State University and an adjunct clinical professor at the Arizona State University Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, where he taught American Indian Health Policy. In addition, he serves as the Senior Policy Advisor to the Great Plains Tribal Chairmen’s Health Board.

Dr. Warne, a member of the Oglala Lakota tribe from Pine Ridge, SD, received his MD from Stanford University and his MPH from Harvard University. Dr. Warne is a Certified Diabetes Educator and a Diplomate of both the American Board of Family Practice and the American Board of Medical Acupuncture. He completed Fellowships in Minority Health Policy at Harvard Medical School and in Alternative Medicine from the Arizona Center for Health and Medicine. His work experience includes working as a primary care and integrative medicine physician and as a Staff Clinician with the National Institutes of Health in Phoenix. He serves as a member of several national committees and boards including the March of Dimes, the CDC Health Disparities Subcommittee, and the National Advisory Committee for Rural Health and Human Services.

We recently discussed health disparities among American Indians and his transition from medicine to public health policy.

How did you get from an Indian reservation in South Dakota to Arizona State University, where you received your undergraduate degree in science?  

I am originally from Kyle, SD, on the Pine Ridge Indian reservation. When I was in grade school there was, unfortunately, violence at Pine Ridge. It was the early 1970s – the Wounded Knee occupation. President Nixon sent the National Guard and tanks. It was an unsafe community to be in at that time. My parents decided they wanted to find a safer place to raise their family. We moved to Arizona. My dad had relatives there.

I grew up in the shadow of ASU. My dad went there, and my mom got her bachelor’s and master’s in nursing there. I grew up with the expectation that I would go to ASU too. It was a bigger achievement for my mom – she was the first person in her family to go to college. I was fortunate to grow up in a family that had experience attending college and that it was an expectation for my brother and me.

What drew you to science and medicine?

I was spending the summers back in Pine Ridge with my uncles who were traditional healers and medicine men. I was given my grandfather’s Lakota name then: “Pejuta Wicasa,” which means “Medicine Man.” So I was learning a lot about traditional arts and sciences related to healing. It was an apprenticeship without knowing it was an apprenticeship. I was interested in traditional medicine and my mom was a nurse. It exposed me to different perspectives on healing arts and sciences.

What made you want to pursue an MPH after completing your MD? 

I was tired of treating preventable issues and felt like I didn’t have the tools in the clinic to focus on prevention. That’s why I decided to focus more on public health.

I went into medicine a little naively, thinking I could have a big impact on American Indian (AI) health as a primary care doctor. What I learned very quickly is that I could have an impact one patient at a time, but the issues related to health challenges and health disparities occurred long before people got to the clinic or hospital. So working upstream is also focusing on primary prevention. The vast majority of AI health disparities are preventable. We don’t put enough effort into community-based health promotion and disease prevention programs. We put most of our resources into managing issues once they become a crisis. I was tired of treating preventable issues and felt like I didn’t have the tools in the clinic to focus on prevention. That’s why I decided to focus more on public health.

The word “diabetes” appears more than 55 times on your CV. Why is the study of diabetes so important to you?

It is preventable. We didn’t have a problem with diabetes until tremendous changes in lifestyle – when rivers were dammed, wild game and herds were taken away, land was seized by non-Indian people, and traditional farming went away. Then the lifestyle changed dramatically – from a healthy, organic paleo diet to one dependent on government commodity foods. Through the USDA there is a commodity food program that historically was horrible food – bleached flour, white sugar, white bread, canned meat, and pure corn syrup. The origin of fry bread is not traditional AI food — it’s people doing the best they can with their commodities. We call it “traditional USDA food.”

I don’t look at diabetes as a medical issue but as a social justice issue. It’s a physical manifestation of colonization. We’ve had dispossession of resources, so it’s one of the outcomes. It is preventable, but it requires systemic approaches, including things like food sovereignty and policy.

What health disparities affect rural AI populations? And what are some of their main causes?

When our children grow up in adverse conditions and with higher rates of poverty and instability in their homes and communities, they are at higher risk for all kinds of negative health outcomes.

In the Northern Plains, we have a higher prevalence of diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. We also have a higher prevalence of mental health conditions, including PTSD, depression, addiction, and suicide. The root of those, I believe, is unresolved trauma. We have a lot of historical trauma. If you look at the field of epigenetics, you see that when populations are under tremendous stress, it can have a negative impact on their DNA and it can be passed from one generation to the next. But also, when our children grow up in adverse conditions and with higher rates of poverty and instability in their homes and communities, they are at higher risk for all kinds of negative health outcomes. That’s one of the reasons we see higher rates of depression, hopelessness, and suicidality. It’s really because of the social circumstances.

We have unique patterns of health disparities for AIs. Our system of care historically has taken a one-size-fits-all approach. Empirical data shows that doesn’t work. That’s the reason I’m doing this work. We need to have AI-specific interventions to address our health needs.

What can be done to immediately address these health disparities? And what, particularly, are you doing?

We have to focus on intergenerational solutions – working upstream, working with communities and families to try to eliminate adverse childhood experiences.

There’s very little that can be done immediately to resolve disparities. These are issues that have been building for generations. We have to focus on intergenerational solutions – working upstream, working with communities and families to try to eliminate adverse childhood experiences. And there are emerging practices that appear to be effective in preventing adverse childhood experiences and promoting stability in the home. These are home visitation programs and parenting skills programs. By working upstream, we have to work with those families, but also work with young people before they become parents. We need a whole generation focused on parenting skills and the impact of adverse childhood experiences. We need trauma-informed health systems, educational systems, legal and judicial systems. It is unresolved trauma that’s causing intergenerational health disparities and we can’t just put a band-aid on it. It’s going to take a generation.

How do you define or describe this unresolved trauma?

It’s ongoing discrimination. Racism is alive and well, unfortunately. When a population feels discriminated against or marginalized, it creates a great deal of emotional strife. That’s not just a theoretical construct — it’s a way of life for many of our people. There are highly stressful and toxic conditions and a lot of unresolved anger and depression based on these traumatic experiences. It starts historically and intergenerationally and then perpetuates through childhood and adulthood. In the Great Plains, there’s a lot of overt racism against AIs. That has an impact on health.

NDSU offers an MPH degree with specialization in American Indian public health. Why is it important? And how is it different from other types of public health?

One of the frustrations I had with academic public health, historically and at many highly respected schools, is that we had a very good focus on international health and global health. But what I had to remind my colleagues is that you don’t have to cross an ocean to find Third World health conditions. It’s right here, in our reservation communities and many of our inner cities. In truth, AI public health has been mostly ignored by academic public health and the public health sector, in general. I think it’s because there are so few AI leaders in public health.

The non-AI world doesn’t understand the unique nature of Indian health, the unique nature of the patterns of our health disparities, and the impact of colonization. We don’t learn accurate history in our educational systems in the United States. We are largely ignored as a population. I’ve complained about it for years. I had an opportunity to do something about it when I joined the faculty here, so that’s why we started it.

AIs are the only population in the U.S. that is born with a legal right to health services. Most people don’t know that, even health experts. Based on treaties and other legal bases, AIs have a legal right to health services – that’s why there’s an IHS and Bureau of Indian Affairs. The entire United States is AI land. We did not lose all of our land and natural resources in a war — they were mostly exchanged through treaties for social services, including housing, education, and healthcare.

We talk about cultural and social determinants of health, recognizing there are hundreds of AI cultures, not just a single AI culture.

We wanted to do something about it, so our program focuses on AI health policy, history, and the evolution of the IHS, looking at health disparities through an unresolved trauma lens, both historical and through childhood experiences. We look at the impact of colonization and the dispossession of resources and how that leads to things like diabetes. We talk about cultural and social determinants of health, recognizing there are hundreds of AI cultures, not just a single AI culture. There’s lots of diversity within our populations and diversity regarding our health disparities. In addition, we have unique research issues. We have indigenous research paradigms, but we also have to respect tribal sovereignty when we are conducting health research, so we have a class focused on research issues within tribal communities. We have a lot of things that are working well in Indian country, but most of them have not been formally evaluated or published. We have a course called Case Studies in Indian Health, so we know what is working and why it is working.

In a recent talk, you said that Kyle, SD, is a food desert, with the nearest grocery store 100 miles away. What can be done to change government policy that funds expensive interventions (like dialysis) but not access to fresh and healthy food?

There’s a whole area of focus on food sovereignty, recognizing that we have options in front of us to recapture some traditional foods. A lot of communities are doing it on a smaller scale, but we’d like to scale it up in terms of local gardens using modern technology, like greenhouses. We could potentially grow crops nearly year-round and have a local food base. In addition, a lot of tribes are raising buffalo herds. Buffalo meat has a higher protein concentration than beef and a better nutritional profile. So, many communities are trying to promote access to inexpensive traditional foods, which actually taste incredibly good! We haven’t had access to it because of dispossession of land, but now we are at a point where some communities are stabilizing and are focusing on prevention and the benefits of traditional food systems.

We have a good partnership with our College of Agriculture here, particularly the College of Plant Sciences. They are studying traditional food profiles. For example, there’s an ancient seed line of squash that we’re studying for its nutritional profile. It’s much healthier than the type of squash you purchase at the local grocery store. We’re blending traditional culture with modern scientific principles.

Each community is different in how they are funding this. One of the approaches that a tribe is taking with one of our graduates is looking at developing a co-op – a community-owned food program where they would provide food to the community but also sell and package traditional foods as an economic development opportunity. Typically, it does need some investment on the front end. There are some opportunities for USDA small business loans and grants to get things jump-started. But it’s potentially sustainable just through economic development.

You’re the Chair of the American Indian Public Health Resource Center (AIPHRC) at NDSU. How does the Center work to address health disparities and achieve health equity for American Indian communities?

When I started working at NDSU, I did not want to focus only on academics. The needs in our communities for public health resources are tremendous, and I wanted to be sure that we are part of the solution in a direct manner. The AIPHRC is unique in academic settings in that we can combine the skillsets and knowledge base of academic public health directly with community needs, community champions, and we can do it in a culturally relevant manner. We are focusing on public health education, policy, research, and services, and we have successfully worked with all the tribes in North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, and Minnesota, as well as communities across the nation. I think the future of AI public health looks bright – our graduates are well prepared and are already accomplishing great things to improve the health of our people.