Decolonizing Risk Communication: Indigenous Responses to COVID-19 using Social Media

In this exploratory study, we examine how American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) governments and organizations are using social media to share critical health information about coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) with their citizens.  Through a thematic analysis of 119 public Facebook posts made by Tribal governments and organizations, we identified three broad categories and 13 subthemes. Tribal governments and organizations created risk communication material for their respective communities that fell under (1) risk reduction, (2) meeting community members’ needs, and (3) staying connected to community and culture.  Our findings suggest that through social media AIAN communities and organizations played a crucial role in disseminating reliable culturally adapted risk communication and vital community information to Tribal citizens during the COVID-19 pandemic. Such communication included clear illustrations, posts and messages about the importance of masking up, social distancing and washing one’s hands; mandated border closures; and suggestions for maintaining a sense of connectedness with community.  By doing so they are filling a gap that ensures their communities receive the relevant information they need to mitigate and manage risks.  In order to understand how to better meet community needs, more work is needed to improve the wellbeing and visibility of AIAN people in the areas of health disparities, technology, social media, and the many impacts of COVID-19.&nbsp

Using a value-based approach to inform environmental management decision-making aimed to meet the water insecurity needs of two tribal communities

Water is central among indigenous cultures that depend on healthy ecosystems for their well-being. The value systems of indigenous peoples links their past to their present, determines what is significant to them and guides their sustainable practices as first stewards. In the present, numerous pressures are threatening their water security, thereby threatening their cultural, spiritual, physical, and economic health. For example, in some communities infrastructural limitations, contaminated drinking and surface water, extreme weather events and other factors challenge their accessibility to safe water. Using case studies our research consisted of two Parts. In Part 1, we examined the opportunities and barriers experienced by two tribes when applying for the Environmental Protection Agency’s Treatment in the Same Manner as a State (TAS), and the challenges faced when implementing water quality standards (WQS). For this part we conducted in-depth interviews with natural resource employees. In Part 2, we aimed to understand the cultural values expressed by two tribes in order to develop a means-ends network, value trees and performance measures. To understand the values, we held focus group interviews with tribal community members, then utilized a structured decision-making approach to organize culturally driven objectives and actions to meet water insecurity needs. Our research ranked the most demanding challenges experienced by these tribes when seeking to develop WQS under a federal framework. Furthermore, we learned about tribal values that can inform decision-making, and also issues that hinder water security. Values were used to develop a means-ends network, objectives hierarchies and subsequent performance measures for achieving water security. Understanding values allows us to inform environmental policies as to attain healthier communities. Lastly, this value-based approach may aid the incorporation of indigenous value systems into environmental management for tribes

Molecular Detection of Viable Bacterial Pathogens in Water by Ratiometric Pre-rRNA Analysis ▿ †

Ratiometric pre-rRNA analysis (RPA) detects the replenishment of rRNA precursors that occurs rapidly upon nutritional stimulation of bacterial cells. In contrast to DNA detection by PCR, RPA distinguishes viable from inactivated bacteria. It exhibits promise as a molecular viability test for pathogens in water and other environmental samples

Indigenous information system in Chiapas, Mexico: Integrating community radio, library and impact assessment for community development

We discuss an integrated information and evaluation system for indigenous development with the Tzeltal indigenous communities in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas. We create an integrated system that brings together an indigenous community radio station, an indigenous library and documentation center, and a program to evaluate the impacts of development activities in the region, from an indigenous perspective. This project illustrates interdisciplinary work in information science that combines indigenous world views with modern information technologies, brought together for locally relevant community development

Native American Perspectives on Health and Traditional Ecological Knowledge

BACKGROUND: Traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) is a conceptual framework that highlights Indigenous knowledge (IK) systems. Although scientific literature has noted the relevance of TEK for environmental research since the 1980s, little attention has been given to how Native American (NA) scholars engage with it to shape tribal-based research on health, nor how non-Native scholars can coordinate their approaches with TEK. This coordination is of particular importance for environmental health sciences (EHS) research exploring interdisciplinary approaches and the integration of environmental and human health. OBJECTIVE: Our perspective on TEK arose from a series of Health and Culture Research Group (HCRG) workshops that identified gaps in existing EHS methodologies that are based on a reliance on Euro-American concepts for assessing environmental exposures in tribal communities. These prior methods neither take into account cultural behavior nor community responses to these. Our objective is to consider NA perspectives on TEK when analyzing relationships between health and the environment and to look at how these may be applied to address this gap. DISCUSSION: The authors-the majority of whom are NA scholars-highlight two research areas that consider health from a TEK perspective: food systems and knowledge of medicinal plants. This research has yielded data, methods, and knowledge that have helped Indigenous communities better define and reduce health risks and protect local natural food resources, and this TEK approach may prove of value to EHS research. CONCLUSION: NA perspectives on TEK resulting from the HCRG workshops provide an opportunity for developing more accurate Indigenous health indicators (IHI) reflecting the conceptualizations of health maintained in these communities. This approach has the potential to bridge the scientific study of exposure with methods addressing a tribal perspective on the sociocultural determinants of health, identifying potential new areas of inquiry in EHS that afford nuanced evaluations of exposures and outcomes in tribal communities.Smithsonian Institution's Consortia; Western Carolina University; National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences; Recovering Voices program of the Smithsonian InstitutionOpen access journalThis item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]