National Council of Urban Indian Health
1 Massachusetts Avenue NW
Suite 800-D
Washington, DC 20001
Phone: 202.544.0344
Urban American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) communities are affected by unique social determinants of health, yet are too often excluded from data, epidemiology, and population health research.
The National Council of Urban Indian Health (NCUIH) addresses this information gap by producing original material on topics of key importance to urban AI/AN population health – including white papers, infographics, resource guides, and commentaries. This page lists just a few of the topics on which NCUIH has produced original resources.
RACIAL MISCLASSIFICATION
When an AI/AN person dies, their race is often recorded as something other than what they indicated while they were alive – usually as “White” alone. This “racial misclassification” leaves public health experts without accurate mortality data, and ultimately endangers lives. It marginalizes AI/AN people and leaves the organizations that serve them without sufficient data to make decisions or fund the services they provide. NCUIH has produced a series of products on this topic in collaboration with the CDC, including: (1) reports describing this issue (2) a series of one pagers and tools that a different stakeholders can use to prevent misclassification in mortality data and (3) a tribal resource guide that funeral directors and community members can use to access burial assistance after a community member’s death.
Trauma and Traditional Healing in Behavioral Health
Urban AI/AN communities often face behavioral health disparities and intergenerational trauma related to relocation. However, traditional practices offered by culturally-competent service providers offers hope and healing despite this injustice. For more information see:
Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW)
Every year, Native women go missing from their communities across the United States, and often are later found to be murdered. MMIW stands for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women. As a movement it advocates for the end of violence against Native women and girls. The movement also brings attention to the high rate of disappearances and murder of all Indigenous people, including boys, LGBT, and Two-Spirit Individuals. In recent years, NCUIH has produced a literature review on the topic, collaborated on human-trafficking training materials, hosted virtual dialogues with the ANA and CDC on the topic, and contributed to the development of a national framework on the topic.
For more resources and information about NCUIH’s leadership on this topic, please see our dedicated topic page.
Environmental Health Data and Children
Many AI/AN children grow up without access to healthy homes, schools, and neighborhoods, and are exposed to an inequitable amount of toxins in both tribal and urban settings as a result. Yet little research or data is available on this topic. In 2018 and 2019, NCUIH assessed Urban Indian Organizations’ capacity to use epidemiology (data collection, analysis, and interpretation) to identify environmental health issues impacting AI/AN children. NCUIH provided technical assistance to UIOs via two webinars on Children’s environmental health programming and data. Findings from this assessment will be used to identify UIHP’s needs for future resource development and information sharing.
- Please see our Webinars and Download Slides.
Others
For more information about population health research with Urban Indian communities or for information about ongoing projects and research opportunities, contact us and select “research”.