A member of the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe named Katherine Goodlow spoke out about how she had seen people die too soon in her town. She said six people she knew had died by suicide, car accidents, or appendicitis. She also said that four family members had died of things like COVID-19 and liver failure.
“Most Native American kids and young people lose their friends at a young age,” Goodlow said to show how bad this is. Says she, “So, I’d say we’re basically used to it, but it hurts worse every time we lose someone.”
There is a difference of almost fourteen years in life expectancy between Native Americans and White Americans. This means that Native Americans die faster than White Americans.
Donald Warne, a doctor who is a member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe and co-director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Indigenous Health, said that a mix of social and economic problems are the main reasons why Native Americans die young.
Warne has pushed for “community-based preventions,” saying, “It’s almost sacrilegious for a doctor to say that hiring more doctors and nurses is not the answer to these problems.”
He said that he thinks more parenting lessons, home visits, and case management should be offered along with better access to medical care. Warne also talked about the programs they already have in place to help indigenous mothers and children, as well as ways they can continue to make it easier for people who need it to get hands-on, trusted medical care.
A lot of government officials and health experts have worked together to find a better way to make sure that Native American and pregnant women can get health care and stop them from dying too soon.
As an example of how many people are living now, Goodlow lives with seven other people in her mom’s two-bedroom house, which you can understand is hard. Getting medical care and not having enough help from their tribe and communities is also making things worse for them all.
