Be the Source for Better Health: Improving American Indian and Alaska Native Health Outcomes Through Our Cultures, Communities, and Connections

Posted by Erica Lake on November 19th, 2024 Posted in: Blog
Tags: Native American Heritage Month

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November marks Native American Heritage Month, a time to honor the rich cultures, traditions, and contributions of American Indian and Alaska Native populations.

This year, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health is recognizing the month with the theme, Be the Source for Better Health: Improving American Indian and Alaska Native Health Outcomes Through Our Cultures, Communities, and  Connections. This theme encourages us to deepen our understanding of how unique environments, cultures, histories, and other social factors shape the health and well-being of American Indian and Alaska Native populations.

Region 6 is home to 32 federally recognized American Indian nations, including the  Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe of Michigan. This month, the Region 6 Speaker Spotlight webinar featured Anne Heidemann, MLIS, Tribal Librarian for Saginaw Chippewa Tribal Libraries and Kehli Henry, PhD, a Postdoctoral Fellow at Michigan State University who has  worked for the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe throughout her career. They delivered an inspiring presentation titled, Creating Maawn Doobiigeng: Developing A New Classification System For A Tribal Library.

In their talk, they emphasized that the way we organize knowledge reflects our worldview – and that existing systems like the Dewey Decimal System, the Library of Congress Classification System, and the Library of Congress Subject Headings are rooted in colonist logic. These systems, they explained, are both harmful to Indigenous communities and insufficient for accurately describing and providing access to Native topics.

In 2019, the Saginaw Chippewa Tribal Libraries were awarded the IMLS National Leadership Grant to create a new classification system that reflects traditional Anishinaabe ways of knowing and being. The goal of the grant was to explore how tribal libraries can break free from colonial frameworks that reinforce a damaging worldview.

The new system, Maawn Doobiigeng – which means “Gather Together” in Anishinaabemowin  – was launched in April 2024 and is currently being implemented in the libraries. The name reflects both the physical gathering of books on the shelves and the collective effort of community members gathering their knowledge to create this entirely new classification system.

Our webinar attendees asked detailed questions the process and the impact of the new system, clearly inspired by their work. If you are interested in learning more, you can watch the recording of the webinar and explore  the group’s digital brochure for additional information.