Community-Based Projects: Integrating Traditional Knowledge to Address Contemporary Issues in Health and Education among the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI)

As Tribal communities continue to address health and education issues that have manifested from generations of colonialism, the Center for Native Health uses a language-based model that brings traditional knowledge to bear on old problems. This poster session will highlight two projects underway that encourage the application of Cherokee language and Traditional knowledge to address two issues: 1) the lack of Native youth entering health careers and 2) the need to re-establish Indigenous midwifery and women's medicine as part of Tribal healthcare options for EBCI women. Tribal health administrators have voiced concern about how few local youth are obtaining college degrees and training for healthcare positions and how few Cherokee women are considering traditional options for childbirth and post-partum care. In working with Elders, Tribal agencies, and university partners, these initiatives garner the investment of the community by seeking and incorporating advice of Cherokee speakers regarding traditional epistemologies and by applying the concepts and models that are posited by those epistemologies.