What WA can learn from Native communities' vaccination plan

The Aboriginal community in Australia is 31 times more likely than other Australians to die of alcohol-related causes. Could a "tough love" approach stressing accountability and making rehab mandatory work? Or is further restricting access to alcohol for everyone a better approach?

Native American students are 237% more likely to drop out than their white counterparts. Organizations like the Native American Community Academy (NACA), are changing those statistics by creating curricula that focus on tribal identity values. These alterations have proved successful as graduation rates and college attendance have risen among Native American students attending NACA.

In Rapid City, South Dakota, talking about money is taboo among Native American families. To help improve their financial situations Black Hills Community Loan Fund offers financial literacy classes. The organization is in the process to be certified as a Native CDFI, a program that will help expand their impact.

After generations of waiting, the Oglala Sioux prophecy of an economic, spiritual, and social renaissance is coming true. "Now the Seventh Generation is here," and they are creating dynamic change in one the least developed communities in the United States. Providing highly reduced tuition and parental efficacy at excellent schools has allowed many children to break the generational poverty chain.

Generations of oppression and poverty have led to severe food insecurity for many Native Americans, resulting in some of the country's highest obesity and diabetes rates. But a few dedicated individuals on the Blackfeet reservation are striving to reclaim their food system, and their first step is collecting and disseminating traditional knowledge about nutritious, locally-sourced food for their people and ensuring it is accessible.

A growing number of tribal judges nationwide - including Judge Abby Abinanti of the Yurok Tribal Court - are using a framework of traditional culture and an approach known as "restorative justice" to address both the need for rehabilitation of offenders and resolution for people often failed by the dominant criminal justice system.

A graduate student from British Columbia, the Arctic Energy Alliance, and the elders of the Inuvialuit people may seem a strange team, but together they are tackling the dual concerns of climate change and the loss of indigenous language in Canada. By inventing new terms and words in the Inuvialuit language to describe renewable energy technologies, they are increasing awareness about sustainable development while helping preserve the culture and heritage of this unique population.

One small thing colonization destroyed was seeds. Indigenous communities used to pass seeds down from generation to generation, but according to some estimates, seed erosion has wiped off as much as 90 percent of agricultural crops. A global effort is being undertaken to save seeds, and also conserve tradition.

“It’s like my tongue is tap-dancing,” is how one student described learning Lushootseed, an indigenous language. Colleges and universities are allowing students to get a credit for learning an indigenous language. A feat, that for some, is a way to relearn a lost history.

In Canada, just under ten percent of indigenous adults hold university degrees. Canadian universities are working to make college campuses more welcoming to indigenous communities that have historically been subject to forced and often abusive assimilation in the name of "education." Administrators are incorporating indigenous-focused courses into the curriculum, adding an admissions counselor for indigenous applicants, and creating cultural centers for indigenous students. While many barriers remain, one university has seen a 40% increase in indigenous enrollment since implementing changes in 2011.