In December 2015, the Native Nations Institute wrapped up work on the W.K. Kellogg Foundation-funded project "Beyond Health Care: Community, Culture, and Governance in the Health of Native Nations." Originally intended to analyze primary and secondary health and other community data from six participating tribes, data limitations led the project to shift gears.

Three lines of inquiry emerged from collaboration with tribal leaders, program staff, and Indigenous and ally scholars:

1. data sovereignty and data governance for Native nations;
2. opportunities to strengthen tribal public health entities;
3. reclaiming Indigenous health as the basis for tribal and other policy actions.

Stephanie Carroll Rainie was the project lead and continues to study these topics. More information can be found here.

We wish to express our appreciation to the six tribes, their tribal leaders, and program staff for study participation (participation was anonymous); the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe and Ysleta de Sur Pueblo for sharing their population data collection stories; and Indigenous and ally scholars for their engagement and collaboration.