In the past few weeks, urban Native groups have centered affordable housing in public health strategies, we debuted an Indigenous Food Pyramid, and the adminstration nominated a director for the Indian Health Service (IHS) after an 18-month vacancy. Here is our health equity round-up.
Food Pyramid
Last month, we launched the Indigenous Food Pyramid, a response to the U.S. government’s official dietary guidelines released earlier this year. The pyramid represents a traditional Indigenous diet as it fits the federal recommendations — pre-colonial staples that embody cultural sovereignty, like salmon, buffalo and wild rice. Each item on the graphic is accompanied by a story of a tribe for whom the food is central, and how they are creating access to it for their members by leveraging sovereignty and navigating federal agricultural policies. The stories will roll out throughout the year under the banner of Cultivating Culture, a reporting project that examines food sovereignty and language revitalization efforts across Indian Country. In the first installment, Native News Online reporter Elyse Wild takes us to the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming, where buffalo meat keeps students fed, increasing attendance and reading comprehension.
Family
Licensed Native American foster homes have increased by 44% in South Dakota since last year. Native children make up 13% of the state’s population and 69% of its foster care system. While non-Native homes make up the vast majority of foster care homes, the growth in Native homes is attributed to a kinship licensing standard that lowered the eligibility age to 19, down from the previous requirement of 21. Thirty-three percent of Native children in foster care are now in kinship placements.
Health Village, Affordable Housing
Redding Rancheria locked in $80 millionfor the construction of its $230 million Tribal Health Village. The tribe broke ground on the 185,000-square-foot facility last March. Expected to open in early 2027, the health village will include a full-sized indoor gymnasium, fitness and training spaces, a natatorium, and hydro and physical therapy facilities, as well as a 95,000-square-foot spa, which will offer massages, facials, and intravenous vitamin and fluid therapies.
The Native American Health Center in Oakland, California, opened a 14,000-square-foot community and clinical facility that includes 76 affordable housing units Housing is a primary social determinant of health, and Native people experience the highest rates of homelessness of any demographic. Studies show that housing instability leads to a higher risk of a number of serious health ailments, including congestive heart failure, diabetes and mental illness. Native people in California experience housing instability at a rate 61% higher than the national average. Dubbed the Flicker Center, Native American Health Center CEO Natalie Aguilera said the space intersects culture and health.
“Flicker represents what is possible when we treat housing as healthcare and center culture as a critical part of healing,” Aguilera said in a press release. “This space was built with and for the community — from the ground up. It honors the land, reflects Native American cultures, and creates a place where families can access care, find stability, and stay connected to culture. This is more than a building. It’s a commitment to our community’s future.”
Friendship House Association of American Indians of San Francisco announced it will break ground in September on a transitional housing project for the city’s Native American population. Along with [number] housing units, the facility will include programming for youth, elder support and mental, dental and behavioral health care.
The Native American Community Clinic announced that its south Minneapolis health clinic and housing center will open in September. The $55 million project was a collaboration with Minneapolis’s American Indian Corridor and will include medical, dental and behavioral health services, and 83 housing units. Housing applications are now open and available here.
In D.C.
Last month, the Senate Indian Affairs Committee held a budget hearing that zeroed in on funding for the Indian Health Service, or IHS, including a $93 million cut to sanitation funding. The administration says it plans to bridge the gap with money from the Infrastructure and Jobs Act. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, pushed back, arguing those funds were meant to supplement, not replace, base funding.
“I don’t think that we can go backward,” Murkowski said. “Those [Infrastructure Act funds] were designed to supplement because we were in such a hole that we needed to put billions of dollars towards it.”
Mark Cruz (Klamath) was nominated on June 1 to serve a four-year term as director of the IHS. The position has been vacant since the onset of President Trump’s second term. Cruz currently serves as senior adviser to Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
