Overview

Historical trauma is often understood to be multigenerational wounding caused by the cumulative impact of major events inflicted upon a specific cultural, racial or ethnic group. When it comes to research about health and well-being, Western modalities of understanding human experience are limited and biased, further driving disparities and truncated views that can cause even more harm. By contrast, a strength-based, Indigenous framework of understanding resists the narrow view and on-going trauma of colonialism and focuses on restoration and healing. In this interview I speak with a “Storyteller of Health” and epidemiologist Abigail Echo Hawk about her vision of an anti-racist approach to data collection and recovery among tribal communities.

About Abigail Echo Hawk, MA

Abigail Echo-Hawk, M.A., an enrolled member of the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma, is the Chief Research Officer for the Seattle Indian Health Board, a Federally Qualified Health Center serving American Indians and Alaska Natives in King County, Washington. She also serves as the Director of the Urban Indian Health Institute (UIHI), a Tribal Epidemiology Center whose mission is to support the health and well-being of urban Indian communities through information, scientific inquiry, and technology. UIHI assists a national network of Urban Indian Health Programs, which are private nonprofit corporations that provide native people in select cities a range of health and social services, from outreach and referral to full ambulatory care. Ms. Echo-Hawk directs a staff of public health professionals who work on multiple ongoing research, evaluation, and disease surveillance projects to benefit American Indian/Alaska Natives in urban and rural settings. She received the University of Washington Bothell’s Distinguished Alumni Award in 2013 for her dedication to eliminating health disparities and was also recognized in the 2015 class of the National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development’s (NCAIED) Native American 40 Under 40.

As a dedicated community volunteer, Ms. Echo-Hawk has concentrated on policy and institutional change to eliminate disparities for women of color locally and nationally. She focuses on policy advocacy in areas such as maternal and child health, domestic violence, sexual assault, and health disparities. Volunteer memberships include the Native American Women’s Dialogue on Infant Mortality, Hope Heart Institute, the Center for Indigenous Law and Justice, the Children and Youth Advisory Board of King County, and the Coalition to End Gender-Based Violence.

Ms. Echo-Hawk’s greatest joy is her place within her extended family. She is a wife, mother, auntie, daughter, granddaughter, friend, and community member. She strives to serve her family, friends, and community with love and to be a small part of ensuring a great future for the next generation.

Show Notes

Indian Health Service https://www.ihs.gov/

Urban Indian Health Institute https://www.uihi.org/

More about Abigail Echo Hawk

From the National Institute of Health “All of Us Research Program” https://allofus.nih.gov/about/who-we-are/tribal-collaboration-working-group-all-us-research-program-advisory-panel/abigail

VIDEO Native Peoples and Genetic Research 15: Abigail Echo Hawk https://youtu.be/OZobwOUDSDc

VIDEO: Creative Time Summit X | Abigail Echo-Hawk: Health & Gender https://youtu.be/P_GPZsAwwdI

ARTICLE: Science Magazine “COVID-19 data on Native Americans is ‘a national disgrace.’ This scientist is fighting to be counted” https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/09/covid-19-data-native-americans-national-disgrace-scientist-fighting-be-counted

ARTICLE: “Abigail Echo-Hawk on the art and science of 'decolonizing data'“ https://crosscut.com/2019/05/abigail-echo-hawk-art-and-science-decolonizing-data

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