Formative Research and Cultural Tailoring of a Substance Abuse Prevention Program for American Indian Youth: Findings From the Intertribal Talking Circle Intervention

Background. Substance use among American Indians (AIs) is a critical health issue and accounts for many health problems such as chronic liver disease, cirrhosis, behavioral health conditions, homicide, suicide, and motor vehicle accidents. In 2013, the highest rates of substance use and dependence were seen among AIs when compared to all other population groups, although these rates vary across different tribes. Among AI adolescents, high rates of substance use have been associated with environmental and historical factors, including poverty, historical trauma, bicultural stress, and changing tribal/familial roles. Our project, the Intertribal Talking Circle intervention, involved adapting, tailoring, implementing, and evaluating an existing intervention for AI youth of three tribal communities in the United States. Formative Results. Community partnership committees (CPCs) identified alcohol, marijuana, and prescription medications as high priority substances. CPC concerns focused on the increasing substance use in their communities and the corresponding negative impacts on families, stating a lack of coping skills, positive role models, and hope for the future as concerns for youth. Cultural Tailoring Process Results. Each site formed a CPC that culturally tailored the intervention for their tribal community. This included translating Keetoowah-Cherokee language, cultural practices, and symbolism into the local tribal customs for relevance. The CPCs were essential for incorporating local context and perceived concerns around AI adolescent substance use. These results may be helpful to other tribal communities developing/implementing substance use prevention interventions for AI youth. It is critical that Indigenous cultures and local context be factored into such programs.

Medical Students in a Talking Circle: the Popular Extension Dialogues with Potiguara Indigenous People

Introduction: University extension projects with socially excluded populations can be a strategy for the training of professionals in the cultural and social diversity of the Brazilian population. The practice of Popular Health Education (PHE) through university extension is one of the possibilities to foster dialogic interactions between teaching and the community and has been a space for the development of health education with social commitment. The Îandé Gûatá Extension Project was created in Paraíba in 2013, based on the principles of PHE and Popular Extension, focusing on the meeting between Potiguara indigenous people and Medical students. This study aimed to evaluate the learning built by this project students’ for their medical education. Method: Therefore, a qualitative approach research was developed through the analysis of discursive practices, using the talking circle technique at the end of the project cycle. To analyze the material, linguistic repertoires were identified from the subjects’ speech and three sets of meanings were built: extension university as a counter-hegemonic space of medical education; building skills for the future doctor; relations between health and culture in care. The linguistic repertoires were discussed based on theoretical references, such as popular health education, indigenous health and competences in medical education. Results: According to the students, this project allowed them gains in the attributes of: knowledge, as it allowed reflections, identification of gaps and greater understanding about the health-disease process in the context of the indigenous population; allowed gains in the ability of making and receiving criticism, teamwork and dialogue between different cultures; and allowed gains in attitudes, broadening the attitude of professionalism, the comprehension and performance on ethical issues and the construction of social commitment. Conclusion: Therefore, they highlight both the development of general competences for the future doctor, but also more specific ones, such as cultural competence. Moreover, the challenge of dialoguing in the polarity: aiming to reduce the distances within the same institutional space; cultural conflicts; and understanding and acting in an emancipatory education. This group of students wished, with the indigenous community, that these distances would be lessened, in a collective commitment aimed at producing change and social transformation.

Decolonizing microfinance: An Indigenous feminist approach to transform macro-debit into micro-credit

Nancy Fraser’s theoretical critique of feminism’s unintended facilitation of neoliberal capitalism discusses the reproduction of poverty at the grassroots among Indigenous women. This article situates the discussion in gendered colonialism to show the ways that microfinance is actually a form of structured colonization and gender oppression. The authors argue that neither the emerging literature on microfinance nor Nancy Fraser’s theory provides Indigenous women a practical way out of the existing oppressive structures of microfinance practice. Rather, they suggest that these ideas are better understood through talking circle conversations with local Indigenous women food producers in Ghana. Through conversations, the authors learned about how these women are actively decolonizing and indigenizing microfinance and what Corntassel has described as everyday acts of resurgence and renewal within native communities. The authors reason that racialized, capitalist, gender oppression can be overcome by decolonial feminism.

The Tricksters Speak: Klooscap and Wesakechak, Indigenous Law, and the New Brunswick Land Use Negotiation

In 2015, the University of New Brunswick hosted the Kawaskimhon Talking Circle Moot. The moot problem was based on the case of Buctouche First Nation v. New Brunswick. The applicant First Nation applied to the courts for an injunction opposing the New Brunswick government’s forest strategy. The forest strategy increased the annual harvesting of softwood timber while reducing the area of Crown-protected conservation forest. Participants were assigned clients and asked to represent these clients’ interests and perspectives. This article presents the argument made on behalf of the Council of Traditional Elders and Chiefs of the Mi’kmaq peoples. Their interests consist of protecting the traditional lands of the Mi’kmaq people while recognizing that the Mi’kmaq have a legal duty to the forests upon which they depend. The argument is presented as a dialogue between two Indigenous tricksters—Klooscap (a Mi’kmaq trickster) and Wesakechak (a Cree trickster). The tricksters advance their position using Mi’kmaq law. In particular, the tricksters focus on the environmental and constitutional principle of netukulimk. Netukulimk is a theory of sustainability that is offered as an alternative framework to the colonial laws that currently dominate Canadian Aboriginal legal issues. The use of Mi’kmaq law presents opportunities for self-governance by recognizing and applying Mi’kmaq legal obligations to the natural world. This article concludes with a brief commentary on the application of Indigenous law in this fictionalized context and its future as an influence on and alternative to Canadian Aboriginal law.