Native communities are on the front lines of the nation’s ongoing overdose crisis, with Native youths, pregnant tribal members, and unhoused relatives most at risk. Data from state and federal health agencies shows that Native Americans are 2.6 times more likely to die of an overdose than white Americans.
As they seek to heal from the overdose crisis, tribal nations across Indian Country are leaning on cultural practices and traditional values to reduce deadly overdoses and heal their communities in the long term.
Starting this year, federally recognized tribes will begin receiving funds from the $1.5 billion Tribal Opioid Settlements, reached with the manufacturers, distributors and marketers responsible for flooding Indian reservations with opioids. Many across Indian Country are also advocating for legislation that would require states to earmark their opioid settlement funds for the tribes within their borders to give Native American communities a healing chance against the scourge of the crisis.
Through examination of programs funded by an Indian Health Service pilot project to address the overdose crisis in Native communities, Native News Online journalist Elyse Wild uncovers how combining Indigenous cultural practices and Western science increases the effectiveness of treatment for opioid substance use disorder in Native American communities across the continuum of care, from prevention to harm reduction to recovery, within the most at-risk groups.
