INFORMATION
The SWEHSC supports Tribal efforts to creata and maintain healthy communities. Current partnerships are with the Inter Tribal Council of Arizona, Inc and with the Department of Environmental Quality at the Gila River Indian Community. New partnerships are welcome.
Tribal governments are interested in science and are concerned for the health of their people and environments. They want to be included in the design of the research and in getting results. They want their children to be trained and to have an opportunity to be able to serve their own community.
Some Principles of Developing Tribal Partnerships for Environmental Health Research 
Presented at the Annual Environmental Health Sciences Core Centers Meeting held Oct. 19-21, 2008, at the University of Pennsylvania. Based on Promises to keep: Public health policy for American Indians and Alaska Natives in the 21st century by Yvette Roubideaux and Mim Dixon.
Lindsey suggested the following principles in her presentation.
* It is important to consider learning about and incorporating Native viewpoints into the study design.
* Researchers should consider hiring Native people to assist in the studies and training them, instead of traditional graduate students, to become investigators.
* Another important concept to consider is funding a Native Research Committee appointed by the local community to oversee the study. This group can help investigators through the cultural differences and help them make good connections with the leadership in the community.
* When the study is finished, researchers should report their findings to this committee and the community in a non-technical summary.
Lindsey’s professional and personal experiences with Native Americans give her a special insight. She is married to a Cherokee and lived on the Navajo reservation in northern Arizona for six years. She earned a master’s degree in education, completing her thesis, A Constructivist Study of Developing Curriculum to Teach Internet Information Literacy to Navajo High School Students, and studied retension of American Indian graduate students while competing her master's degree in Information Resources and Library Science.
