National Native American Heritage Month

Posted by Carolyn Martin on November 9th, 2015 Posted in: News from NIH

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National Native American Heritage Month (NNAHM) is a time to recognize the accomplishments of this country’s first inhabitants.  As the early inhabitants of this great land, the native peoples of North America have their own tribal orientations, language origins, and cultural histories.  Today, many healing techniques that are practiced have been adopted from traditions that originate from various Native American tribes.  This year’s NNAHM theme, “Tribal Diversity: Weaving Together Our Traditions,” highlights spirituality as an inseparable element of healing in medicine.  Healing the physical parts of a patient is not enough; one must acknowledge the importance of emotional wellness, as influenced by Native American rituals and traditions.

This month is dedicated to building new avenues of opportunity for Native Americans by making critical investments to improve health, to strengthen tribal communities, and to promote educational opportunities at the NIH.  Maintaining an inclusive biomedical research workforce with a diversity of talent is critical to the NIH mission of fostering new discoveries and promoting the highest level of scientific integrity to improve our nation’s health.  NNAHM allows the opportunity for every individual to learn more about the distinctive backgrounds and heritages of Native Americans. 

I encourage everyone in the NIH community to show their support during National Native American Heritage Month by actively engaging with the Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion’s (EDI’s) social media campaign.  To continue our inclusion efforts, on November 2, we will launch a month-long Twitter campaign (https://twitter.com/NIH_EDI). More information is located on the Strategist for the Native American Portfolio website (http://edi.nih.gov/people/sep/na/about) Together, let’s celebrate the many achievements made by Native Americans.

Sincerely yours,

Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D.

Director of National Institutes of Health