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Health Equity: Changing the Narrative About Indian Country

Native News Online is launching a year-long deep dive into critical health equity issues affecting Indian Country.  Through this reporting project, our team of journalists will explore four pressing challenges facing tribal communities and their citizens: mental health, environmental health, maternal mortality, and the overdose crisis.

American Indians and Alaska Natives face stark health disparities, with life expectancies 5.5 years shorter than the U.S. average and higher mortality rates across numerous conditions. Our coverage goes beyond statistics to examine innovative, culturally centered solutions developed by Native communities.

Led by award-winning Senior Editor Elyse Wild and Reporter Kaili Berg (Aleut), this project aims to shine a light on both challenges and successes in tribal healthcare. Through our Native News Online platforms and partnerships with Native-owned and mainstream media outlets, we'll work to ensure these stories reach tribal leaders, citizens, policymakers, and allies nationwide, advancing understanding of health equity issues in Indian Country.  Our goal is to help change the narrative about health in Native American communities. 

Want to submit news or share a personal story about how health equity in Indian Country affects you, your family, or your community? Contact editor@nativenewsonline.net. If you’d like to support our continuing coverage of boarding schools, please consider a one-time or recurring donation.

  • Ovarian Cancer Test Less Effective for Native, Black Women

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    A standard diagnostic test for ovarian cancer is less effective in detecting the disease among Black and Native American women, according to a recent study published in JAMA Network Open.

  • New FBI Surge Targets Violent Crimes and Cold Cases in Indian Country

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    The FBI is ramping up efforts to combat the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Peoples crisis with a six-month deployment of 60 personnel to 10 FBI field offices nationwide. The initiative aims to solve unsolved violent crimes in Native communities through partnerships with the Bureau of Indian Affairs and tribal law enforcement.

  • Q&A: Mechelle Negrete on NAMI’s New Mental Health Initiative for Native Communities

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    Native Americans face some of the highest suicide rates in the country, yet have limited access to life-saving interventions and culturally centered mental health care. 

  • What is Urban Indian Health, Anyway?

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    Guest Opinion. People often ask me what I do.
     

    “I work in urban Indian health,” I say,and then I wait.

  • Secretary Kennedy Extends Public Health Emergency to Combat Opioid Crisis

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    Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. renewed a declaration designating the opioid crisis a public health emergency yesterday.

  • Alaska Native Tribe Defends Against Claims Its Food Assistance Program is Wasteful Government Spending

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    As Indian Country contends with slashed funding from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), an Alaska Native tribe is defending claims that its food assistance program is wasteful spending. 

  • Health Equity Round-Up (March 10, 2025)

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     Last week, the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs advanced 10 bills that strengthen tribal water rights; a study from the University of New Mexico looked at burdens faced by Native American elders when accessing healthcare; and the federal government marked a dozen IHS offices across Indian Country for closure.

  • Senate Committee Advances Ten Bills to Strengthen Tribal Water Rights and Infrastructure

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    Ten bills aimed at tribal water rights passed the Senate Committee on Indin Affairs on Wednesday.

  • ‘Their Lives Mattered’ | Q&A with the Hosts of We Are Resilient: An MMIP True Crime Podcast

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    In the vast world of podcasts, true crime has emerged as the most popular genre. From re-tellings to in-depth reporting, listeners have downloaded billions of hours of podcasts exploring homicides and missing person cases, according to a study by thePew Research Center.

  • NAU’s American Indian Nursing Program Expands With Direct Relief Grant to Tackle Critical Shortages in Native Communities

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     A Northern Arizona University program aimed at critical nursing shortages in Native American communities is expanding after two decades, thanks to a grant from the humanitarian aid organization Direct Relief. 

  • New Redding Rancheria Health Village Aims to Transform Native Healthcare with Whole-Body Approach

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    Next month, the Redding Rancheria will break ground on a project 25 years in the making that will bring together Western medicine and Indigenous knowledge to improve the health of tribal members.

  • IHS Gets Clarity on DEI Executive Orders: Treaty Obligations Remain Intact, DEI Programs Must Go

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    After weeks of confusion amid a flurry of executive orders, the Indian Health Service has received clarity on how EOs targeting Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs for funding cuts will affect the agency.

  • GOP Budget Could Gut Medicaid, Further Straining Indian Health

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    As a $340 billion House budget resolution moves toward a floor vote this evening, Native advocates warn that proposed cuts to Medicaid would buckle the already strapped Indian Health Service (IHS). 

  • Morongo Breaks Ground on $55 Million Healthcare Facility

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    Riverside-San Bernardino County Indian Health (RSBCIHI) and the Morongo Band of Mission Indians recently broke ground earlier this month on a new healthcare facility aimed at expanding medical services for Native Americans in the region. 

  • Masto, Mullin Introduce Bill Aimed at Hiring and Retention at the Indian Health Service

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    Today, Senators Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) and Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) reintroduced the IHS Workforce Parity Act to make it easier for Indian Health Services (IHS) to recruit and retain medical workers.

  • Leonard Peltier Begins a New Chapter on Tuesday

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    Leonard Peltier will begin a new chapter in his life on Tuesday morning. He willbe released from the Federal Correctional Complex Coleman in Florida. He will be flown home to the Turtle Mountain Indian reservation, where he will spend the rest of his life.

  • Health Equity Round-Up (Feb. 17, 2025)

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     Last week, federal layoffs aimed at the Indian Health Service sent shockwaves through Indian Country; former presidential candidate Robert F Kennedywas confirmed as the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services; Native health organizations sounded the alarm about how federal spending cuts could threaten critical healthcare in Native communities.

  • Q+A: Nicole Wagon’s Fight for MMIP Reform After Losing Her Two Daughters

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    At a recent Southwest Indigenous Women’s Coalition event in Arizona, a woman reached out and literally touched Nicole Wagon (Northern Arapaho), saying she hoped to gain some of Wagon’s strength. For many Indigenous families seeking justice for missing and murdered loved ones, Wagon has become a symbol of persistence and hope. 

  • BREAKING: Federal Layoffs Target Indian Health Service, Threatening Healthcare Access Across Indian Country

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    The Indian Health Service faces losing 2,500 employees in new federal layoffs, nearly triple initial estimates, warns the top executive of a national Native health organization. The cuts would further strain the agency responsible for providing healthcare to 2.5 million American Indians and Alaska Natives. 

  • Indian Health Service Programs Are Exempt from Trump’s DEI Order

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    Federal DEI funding restrictions do not apply to the Indian Health Service (IHS) programs serving American Indians and Alaska Natives (AI/ANs), according to a Feb. 6 Department of Health and Human Services legal memo obtained by Native News Online.