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A Decade of Tribal Environmental
Health Research:
Results and Impacts from EPA's Extramural
Grants and Fellowship Programs
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SEPA
United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Office of Research and Development
National Center for Environmental Research
Tribal Environmental Health Research Prograr
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Prepared for:
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Office of Research and Development
National Center for Environmental Research
Washington, D.C. 20460
Prepared by:
The Scientific Consulting Group, Inc.
656 Quince Orchard Road, Suite 210
Gaithersburg, MD 20878
Under EPA Contract No. EP-C-08-010
Disclaimer
The research described in this document has been funded wholly by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under the
Science To Achieve Results (STAR) grants program. The information provided does not necessarily reflect the views of the Agency,
and no official endorsement should be inferred. Mention of trade names or commercial products does not constitute endorsement
or recommendation by EPA for use. The information presented in this synthesis report is intended to provide the reader with insights
about the progress and scientific achievements of STAR research grants. The report lists the grantees whose research is discussed,
and it also indicates where more detailed peer-reviewed scientific data can be found. This report is not sufficiently detailed nor is it
intended to be used directly for environmental assessments or decision making. Readers with these interests should instead consult
the peer-reviewed publications produced by the STAR grants and conduct necessary data quality evaluations as required for their
assessments.
EPA and/or its contractor has received permission to use the images within this document, most of which were obtained from
grantees of the research projects described herein. A minority of the images are stock images obtained by the contractor.
Terms Used in This Document
There are many different terms that indigenous peoples of the United States use to identify themselves. For the purposes of this
document, the National Center for Environmental Research has chosen to use the term "American Indian and Alaska Native"
(abbreviated AI/AN) and the term "citizen" to denote an Alaska Native village or tribal member. EPA recognizes that some Native
communities may prefer to refer to themselves using different terminology. Terms such as "Native American,""American Indian,"
"Alaska Natives,""Alaska Native people," "tribes," "tribal members" or similar may be found in grantees' project descriptions, reports and
publications, as well as on the program's website and in Requests For Applications.
A "lifestyle" is the typical way of life of an individual, group or culture. The term "lifeways" generally is understood to mean the specific
customs and practices of a culture; in this report "lifeways" refers to the traditional lifestyles of AI/AN people prior to First Contact.
Finally, "environmental justice communities" is a standard term used by EPA to refer to communities with environmental justice
concerns. These communities are commonly identified as those in which residents: predominantly are minorities or low-income; have
been excluded from the environmental policy-setting or decision-making process; are subject to disproportionate impact from one
or more environmental hazards; and experience disparate implementation of environmental regulations, requirements, practices and
activities in their communities.
List of Acronyms
AI/AN American Indian and Alaska Native
EPA U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
NCER National Center for Environmental Research
ORD Office of Research and Development
P3 People, Prosperity and the Planet Student Design Competition for Sustainability
RFA Request for Applications
STAR Science To Achieve Results
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Executive Summary
Introduction/Background
Results of the Tribal Research Funded by EPA
Cultural Practices, Language and Traditional Ecological Knowledge
Subsistence Foods and Water Resources
Community-Based Participatory Research and Community Outreach and Education
Risk Assessment and Sensitive Populations
Impacts on Regulations and Management Plans
Future Directions for Tribal Research
Conclusion
References
Appendix A: Summary of Tribal Environmental Health Research Program STAR
Grants by RFA
Appendix B: Outputs From Tribal Environmental Health Research Program STAR
Grants
Appendix C: Tribal Environmental Health Research Program Presentations
ppendix D: Overview of Tribal Environmental Health Research Program Grantee
Webinars
Appendix E: Summary Tables of EPA Tribal Research Projects Discussed Within
the Report
Appendix F: Practical Applications of EPA Tribal Research
Appendix G: Additional Resources.
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xecutive Summary
American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN)
communities have been inextricably linked to their
environments for millennia. Because of their reliance
on natural resources to maintain traditional diets,
lifeways, customs and languages, there is a unique
need for tribal-focused research to identify impacts
of pollution, dietary exposure, cumulative risk and
climate change as well as to inform decisions to
reduce health risks in these areas.
Recognizing this need, the National Center for
Environmental Research (NCER), within the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Office of
Research and Development, was tasked to establish
the Agency's Tribal Environmental Health Research
Program in 2000 through the Science To Achieve
Results (STAR) grants program. Since its inception,
the program has funded 10 STAR grants for tribal
environmental health research, many of which are
carried out on tribal lands by researchers from
tribal colleges and universities and tribal health
organizations. EPA also supports tribal environmental
research via its STAR and Greater Research
Opportunities fellowship programs; People, Prosperity
and the Planet Student Design Competition for
Sustainability (P3); and Small Business Innovation
Research program. In addition, NCER, as the
program lead, collaborates with EPA-sponsored
partnership groups (e.g.. National Tribal Operations
Committee, National EPA-Tribal Science Council)
to ensure that its extramural research program is
responsive to tribal needs and research priorities.
These grants, programs and partnerships support
tribally led research projects that encompass
traditional and nontraditional scientific approaches
to collect baseline data linking culture and exposure.
To highlight the research conducted within the
Tribal Environmental Health Research Program,
NCER sponsored a series of webinars in 2009 and
2012. NCER leadership realized that it was critical
to develop a synthesis document to communicate
the outputs and outcomes of the program and
expand awareness in this essential research area.
This document describes outcomes of past EPA
tribal environmental research and discusses future
directions and initiatives.
The first step in identifying the tribal research
outcomes was to develop a list of relevant tribal
grants, fellowships, P3 grants and Small Business
Innovation Research projects. This list was compiled
through a targeted search of the NCER Research
Project Database. The investigators for these studies
were contacted to obtain annual and final reports
for their grants/projects as well as information on
the outputs and subsequent outcomes of their
research. The information collected was analyzed
to identify common themes throughout the various
projects. Five themes emerged:
• Cultural practices, language and traditional
ecological knowledge.
• Subsistence foods and water resources.
• Community-based participatory research and
community outreach and education.
• Risk assessment and sensitive populations.
• Impacts on regulations and management plans.
These themes serve as the basis for the format of
this synthesis report.
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Executive Summary
What Are the Outcomes of the Tribal
Environmental Health Research Program?
After more than a decade of funding research addressing
the unique needs of AI/AN communities, EPA's Tribal
Environmental Health Research Program and other Agency
tribal research has yielded data, tools, products, methods
and knowledge. These help to:
• better define and reduce the health risks of tribal
populations,
• protect natural resources essential to cultural and
spiritual practices, and
• encourage the ecological knowledge and tribal
practices of protecting and preserving the earth for
future generations.
Some of these outcomes are described briefly in the
following paragraphs.
(Cultural Practices, Language and
Traditional geological j\jiow!edge
Each AI/AN community has its own unique set of
cultural practices, language and traditional ecological
knowledge. EPA has funded several STAR grants that
strive to support tribal citizens in continuing their cultural
practices with reduced health risks. These projects also
help to strengthen native language skills and increase
culturally relevant communication of traditional ecological
knowledge. Highlights of this research include:
• Alaska Native communities use STAR research
to inform their wellness planning surrounding
consumption of subsistence and medicinal berries,
which are being threatened by pollution and climate
change.
• A library of resources in the Mohawk language has
been created for the Haudenosaunee Confederacy
to enhance education about toxic substances and
empower the community to protect the health of
its citizens while practicing traditional subsistence
lifeways.
• A booklet on Cherokee wild plant knowledge was
created to increase tribal ecological plant knowledge
and revitalize the culture; the booklet has been
translated into the Cherokee language and serves
as a textbook for Cherokee Nation Immersion School
students.
Subsistence \ oods and
Resources
AI/AN communities place an emphasis on following
traditional diets, many of which include an abundance of
fish and seafood. In addition, water is sacred and plays
an important role in tribal cultural and spiritual practices.
Several STAR grants focused on reducing health effects
associated with consumption of contaminated traditional
subsistence foods. These research projects have resulted in
the following outcomes:
• Fish advisory maps for inland lakes in the Great
Lakes region have been created to allow tribal
citizens to pursue their traditional subsistence
fishing practices while reducing their risk of mercury
exposure.
• Personal participation geographic information system
maps have been developed for tribes residing near
the Klamath River Basin (California) that provide
information about historic and contemporary
contaminant information, raising awareness of
potential exposures.
• The Swinomish Indian Tribal Community issued
voluntary consumption limits for shellfish to reduce
its citizens' exposures to toxic chemicals.
• The Makah Nation used STAR data to support
its claim that its citizens had significantly higher
contaminant exposures from locally caught fish than
had been previously determined via contaminant-
exposure models.
• Researchers are developing an inexpensive, easy-
to-use technology from an indigenous material to
remove contaminants from groundwater used by
residents of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in
South Dakota.
(_j3mmunitu~L)ased [articipatoru
Research and (_^ommunitu (^yutreacn
and
Indigenous populations have experienced historical trauma
as a result of past unethical research imposed on them.
Utilizing community-based participatory approaches
in tribal research is crucial to ensure that researchers
partner with AI/AN people in planning and implementing
needed research. Community-based participatory research,
education and outreach continue as longstanding,
important components of STAR grants and fellowships
funded under the Tribal Environmental Health Research
Program. Most of the grants use community outreach
and tribal consultations to obtain input that guides the
research projects. Tribal citizens learn about the results of
the grants through community presentations, training and
workshops, books, DVDs, maps, radio interviews and other
means. Some outcomes of this research are:
• Researchers actively engaged the Yurok Tribal Council
and community in their data-gathering process,
A Decade of Tribal Environmental Health Research: Results and Impacts from EPA's Extramural Grants and Fellowship Programs
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Executive Summary
which allowed the scientists to identify community
perceptions about the quality and abundance of the
tribes important resources and their relationship to
community health.
• Crow Nation tribal elders described previous water
quality conditions of the Little Big Horn River,
providing the researchers with valuable information
that drove their research project, which was focused
on developing risk assessment methodology for
multimedia exposure to contaminants in water and
wastewater.
• Presentations made to the Anishinaabe tribal citizens,
including children, increased awareness about fish
advisory maps that could be used to reduce their
exposure to mercury from consuming subsistence
fish.
• Researchers used teacher training and in-class
workshops to teach environmental risk and cultural
practices to teachers and students at a tribal school.
These workshops were completed entirely in the
Mohawk language using oral tradition and hands-on
participatory response techniques to share meaning.
• STAR research resulted in a traditional food book,
coloring book and documentary that promote safe
Swinomish fish and shellfish consumption.
Rjsk /Assessment and Sensitive
Populations
Tribal citizens experience unique risks because of their
traditional lifestyles and use of natural resources. As a
result, risk assessments and exposure scenarios must be
tailored to the distinct needs of each AI/AN community.
Several notable outcomes of the research efforts that have
focused on risk assessment and tribal populations include:
• A Traditional Tribal Subsistence Exposure Scenario
and Risk Assessment Guidance Manual was
published to help each tribe to identify its specific
exposure risks.
• Researchers developed specific fish consumption
guidelines for high-risk and sensitive populations in
Great Lakes tribal communities to decrease mercury
exposure in these populations.
• A Swinomish Traditional Cultural Lifeways Exposure
Scenario was developed to decrease toxic chemical
exposure in tribal citizens who pursue traditional
lifeways. Subsequent research has identified a set of
environmental public health indicators for additional
tribes in the Pacific Northwest.
Impacts on pyeguiations and
Management ) !ans
State and tribal officials have incorporated results from
STAR grants and fellowships to refine their regulations and
management plans. For example:
• The states of Washington and Oregon are using STAR
data to reexamine and revise their state water quality
standards. These revisions offer greater protection
of tribal populations whose cultural practices and
traditional lifeways could result in greater exposures
to contaminants in water resources.
• To protect its citizens from exposure to toxic
chemicals, the Makah Nation implemented more
protective water quality standards than those issued
by the state of Washington as a result of data
produced by a STAR fellowship.
• The Cherokee Nation used the results of another
STAR fellowship to design its Tribal Integrated
Resource Management Plan, which provides
guidance for Cherokee land and resource planning
and management.
• Other STAR research has resulted in the development
of tribal aquatic water quality monitoring plans for a
number of tribes. These stricter standards and plans
protect the resources that are important to the tribes'
cultural and spiritual practices.
Where Will the Tribal Environmental Health
Research Program Go From Here?
Future STAR tribal research will explore new strategies,
methods and tools to assess environmental health
exposure among tribal populations. The program also
will identify other research opportunities for advancing
health protection while maintaining traditional tribal
lifeways. The program recently released its latest Request
for Applications (RFA), "Science for Sustainable and
Healthy Tribes," in February 2013 (U.S. EPA, 2013a). EPA
solicited tribal input regarding current tribal environmental
challenges to help determine the RFA's focus. This input
initially was gathered from tribal citizens and EPA staff at
the National EPA-Tribal Science Council-sponsored 2010
National Tribal Science Forum; members of the National
EPA-Tribal Science Council continue to provide input. Also,
STAR Graduate Fellowship solicitations now include a
topic focused specifically on Native populations. The goal
of this category is to protect the environment and these
communities, with specific focus on related environmental
health, sustainability and pollution prevention/remediation
strategies and issues.
As it has done for more than a decade, EPA's Tribal
Environmental Health Research Program will continue
to engage and collaborate with AI/AN communities
and partners to support them in maintaining their
long-standing, intricate relationships with the natural
environment even in the face of the myriad stressors
threatening their health, wellness and lifeways. •
A Decade of Tribal Environmental Health Research: Results and Impacts from EPA's Extramural Grants and Fellowship Programs
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Introduction/Background
Many traditional American Indian and Alaska
Native (AI/AN) populations maintain intricate and
ecologically interdependent relationships with the
natural environment, as they have for millennia.
To restore and protect the health and knowledge
base of their communities, tribal nations encourage
traditional diets, religious practices, customs
and language use. This emphasis on traditional,
healthy lifeways for AI/AN communities requires
that the unique health and environmental impacts
of pollution, dietary exposure, cumulative risk and
climate change be identified to reduce tribal health
rj|ksjiJ.S. EPA, 2012e).
The relationships between tribal citizens and their
environments are being affected adversely by a
variety of stressors. Industrial chemical pollution,
Cate change, the availability of processed foods,
social and political isolation threaten the
health, wellness and lifeways of AI/AN communities.
Contaminated sites, pesticide drift, bioaccumulation
and rights of access issues have an effect on
exposures from subsistence lifestyles and diets (U.S.
EPA, 2012e).
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
and its tribal partners recognized that AI/AN
populations have distinct research needs as a
result of their unique relationship with the natural
environment. To address these needs, the Agency
directed the Office of Research and Development's
(ORD) National Center for Environmental Research
(NCER) to establish its Tribal Environmental Health
Research Program. In 2010, the EPA Administrator
made strengthening tribal partnerships one of
the Agency's seven priorities, demonstrating ERA'S
commitment to support and, when possible, bolster
tribal capacity (U.S. EPA, 2010a).To underscore this
commitment, the FY2011-2015 EPA Strategic Plan
includes strengthening of tribal partnerships as a
cross-cutting fundamental strategy for EPA (U.S. EPA,
201 Ob).
To meet the specific needs of the tribes, EPA
supports research that focuses on assessment and
reduction of risk in susceptible populations. Tribal
populations may be at increased risk for
environmentally induced diseases as a result of
unique lifestyle practices, community activities,
occupations and customs, and/or environmental
releases that significantly affect tribal lands. EPA's
Tribal Environmental Health Research Program
has supported studies to better understand the
health effects of environmental contaminants on
tribal populations. Through the Agency's Science To
Achieve Results (STAR) grants program, NCER has
expanded its Tribal Environmental Health Research
Program from a single grant in 2000 focused on
environmental justice in tribal communities to
include nine additional STAR grants that explore
tribal environmental risks, particularly cumulative
chemical exposure and how global climate change
may affect AI/AN populations (U.S. EPA, 2012e).
These grants were funded under three Requests for
Applications (RFAs) for a total of approximately
$6 million (U.S. EPA, 2012c). A summary of the
goals and objectives of the research projects
organized by RFA is included in Appendix A, and a
list of outputs of these grants, including publications
and presentations, is provided in Appendix B. Past
STAR tribal environmental health research has
focused on identifying and quantifying cumulative
risk, determining the impacts of climate change on
tribal populations, and identifying dietary exposure
risks of traditional subsistence diets (U.S. EPA,
2012c,2012e).
Relationships between tribal
citizens and their environments
are being affected negatively by
a variety of stressors.
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Introduction/Background
EPA also funds fellowships for undergraduate (Greater
Research Opportunities Undergraduate Fellowships) and
graduate (STAR Fellowships) students investigating tribal
environmental health. In addition, several P3 grants, which
provide funding to undergraduate and graduate students
to design solutions for a sustainable future, have been
focused on tribal projects. The majority of the STAR grant
and fellowship research funded by the Tribal Environmental
Health Research Program is being or has been carried out
at tribal colleges and universities. These schools include
Fort Belknap College, Haskell Indian Nations University,
Salish Kootenai College, Northwest Indian College, Dine
College and Little Big Horn College. Other opportunities
for early-career development for tribal citizens include
postgraduate fellowships coordinated by NCER (e.g.,
American Association for the Advancement of Science
Science and Engineering Fellows Program, Association of
Schools of Public Health Fellows Program, EPA Marshall
Scholarship Program). More information about these
fellowships may be found via the links in Appendix G.
The Tribal Environmental Health Research Program
broadly aligns with EPA's Air, Climate and Energy Research
Program by addressing climate change as well as indoor
air related research, while specifically addressing impacts
on AI/AN communities (U.S. EPA, 2012a). This research
synergizes with one of the National EPA-Tribal Science
Council's National Tribal Science Priorities announced in
2011, which is devoted to climate change. Also, NCER
developed a category beginning in 2011 for its STAR
Graduate Fellowship solicitations that is focused on
"tribes and American Indian/Alaska Native/Pacific Islander
communities" (U.S. EPA, 2012b, 2012g, 2012h). The
focus is on investigations that protect the environment
and these communities, with specific emphasis on
related environmental health, sustainability and pollution
prevention/remediation strategies and issues. For example,
projects within this category could assess the impacts of
environmental challenges on these populations or explore
how traditional lifeways may be connected to unique
risk and exposure pathways. Other projects could explore
sustainability through tribes'traditional or local ecological
knowledge or expand the understanding of cumulative risk
in Native communities (U.S. EPA, 2012b, 2012g, 2012h).
The STAR tribal program also supports EPA's Sustainable
and Healthy Communities Research Program. The
STAR tribal program supports EPA's mission under the
Sustainable and Healthy Communities Research Program.
The newly released Tribal Environmental Health Research
Program solicitation, "Science for Sustainable and Healthy
Tribes," specifically supports this theme by focusing on
improving understanding of tribal exposures and health
impacts. The Sustainable and Healthy Communities
Research Program research action plans and projects are
available at http:// www.epa.gov/ord/research-programs.
htm. The relationships among EPA's six integrated research
programs are highlighted in the accompanying figure.
Sustainab
& Healthy
Communities
EPA's Six Integrated Research Programs. EPA's six
research programs emphasize coordination and
integration. The Sustainable and Healthy Communities
program integrates research across the environmental
spectrum. Air, climate, water and chemical research
all inform the Agency's risk assessment and homeland
security research efforts.
O EPA Tribal Environmental Health Research Program
Academic Institution and Tribal Locations
O STAR/GRO Fellowship Locations at Tribal Colleges
and Universities
• P3 Award Project Location
Locations of EPA Tribal-Related Research Highlighted in
This Document. Although the NCER grants and fellowships
program is a national program, only a relatively small
number of projects have been funded as a result of the
competitive process driven by identified research gaps.
There may be additional tribal project locations that are
not identified in this report because they were recently
awarded and have not generated outcomes or are
funded by other EPA programs or federal agencies.
Recognizing the importance of this research program and
the need to communicate its results, NCER staff members
made several presentations to EPA and external partners/
stakeholders (Breville, 2011; McOliver, 2013b). More
information about these presentations can be found in
Appendix C. NCER also has established a website devoted
to tribal environmental health issues (http:/Avww.epa.gov/
ncer/tribalresearch) to disseminate the results of the tribal
research and communicate with AI/AN stakeholders. The
Tribal Environmental Health Research Program conducted
a webinar series in 2009 in partnership with the National
EPA-Tribal Science Council and a second series in 2012.
The presentations can be found at http://www.epa.gov/
ncer/tribalresearch/recipients.html and http:/Avww.epa.gov/
ncer/tribalresearch/multimedia/index.html.
The webinars were designed to translate and disseminate
recent findings of STAR-funded research addressing the
A Decade of Tribal Environmental Health Research: Results and Impacts from EPA's Extramural Grants and Fellowship Programs
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Introduction/Background
environmental health and exposure concerns of AI/AN
subsistence populations. The series highlighted research
goals and preliminary findings of projects focused on
cumulative risk and climate change. The webinars featured
tribal communities and their research partners who are
conducting research on dietary exposure, cumulative risk,
climate change health effects and risk reduction. This
research aimed to quantify and reduce environmental risks
and encourage or restore traditional, healthy lifeways for
AI/AN communities (U.S. EPA, 2012e). More information
about these webinars is available in Appendix D.
Based on the attendance at and response to webinars
sponsored by EPA to communicate the outcomes and
accomplishments of STAR research across the Agency's
programs, this form of dissemination is highly important
and useful. AI/AN people can attend webinars to obtain
information relevant to their communities on a variety of
critical topics across broad program areas (e.g., water, air,
sustainable communities). Information about webinars and
other events can be found at http://epa.gov/ncer/events/.
To ensure that the Agency's grants are responsive to
tribal needs, NCER communicates with Agency-sponsored
partnership groups, such as EPA's National Tribal
Operations Committee1 and National EPA-Tribal Science
Council. The National EPA-Tribal Science Council helps
to integrate Agency and tribal interests, specifically with
respect to environmental science issues (U.S. EPA, 2012d).
NCER has worked with the National Tribal Operations
Committee and National EPA-Tribal Science Council to
identify tribal research priorities. For example, a session at
the National EPA-Tribal Science Council-sponsored 2010
National Tribal Science Forum encouraged the tribes to
provide direct input in developing the Tribal Environmental
Health Research Program's most recent RFA (Breville,
2011), "Science for Sustainable and Healthy Tribes,"
which was released in February 2013 (U.S. EPA, 2013a).
Following the strategy session, several members of the
National EPA-Tribal Science Council continued to provide
$3,000,000
$2,500,000
$2,000,000
$1,500,000
$1,000,000
$500,000
$0
2000 2002 2007
| Nontribal Organization or Academic Institution
| Nontribal Organization or Academic Institution
With a Tribal Partner
I Tribal Organization or Academic Institution
Tribal Environmental Health Research Program Funding
by Institution. The amount of STAR funding granted by the
Program to tribal and nontribal institutions is presented
by RFA. The majority of funding is provided to tribal
organizations or institutions with tribal partners.
substantive input on updated drafts of the RFA, serving as
writing team members and reviewers (McOliver, 2013a).
EPA sponsored a series of informational webinars in
March, May and June of 2013 to disseminate information
about the RFA. The purpose of the webinars was to
describe the major research elements of the RFA; review
any administrative, electronic filing, eligibility and peer
review concerns; and share answers to frequently asked
questions about the RFA and application process (U.S. EPA,
2013a,2013b).
Because research projects funded by the Tribal
Environmental Health Research Program resulted in
important and beneficial outcomes, EPA leadership
recognized the need to publicize them to benefit as
many AI/AN communities as possible. This synthesis
report, which highlights the outputs and outcomes of this
research, is one of the results. This document focuses
on tribal-related research funded by EPA, including STAR
grants and fellowships. It does not describe any of the
tribal research sponsored by other EPA offices, such as the
Tribal ecoAmbassadors Program2, or programs such as the
Indian General Assistance Program3. The synthesis report
describes outcomes for past NCER tribal environmental
research and discusses future directions and initiatives
while recognizing that each AI/AN community is unique
and not all research issues nor results apply to all
communities. The goal is that the lessons learned through
the research will result in practical applications that can
be used broadly by AI/AN and other communities as well
as the general public. This research has been conducted
to address complex problems within NCER's scope, and is
just part of the wide variety of AI/AN research that supports
the protection of human and environmental health being
undertaken throughout EPA and other federal agencies. It
also is important to note that the research may be more
qualitative than quantitative in nature, focusing on public
health protection and community-level risks rather than
individual risk.
To develop this document, all former STAR grantees who
had received funding under the Tribal Environmental
Health Research Program were contacted to determine
the outcomes and impacts of the research, including
those that occurred after the funding period ended.
1 The National Tribal Operations Committee comprises 19 tribal leaders (the National Tribal Caucus) and EPA's senior leadership, including the
Administrator, Deputy Administrator, and Assistant and Regional Administrators (U.S. EPA, 2012f).
2 Through the Tribal ecoAmbassadors Program, EPA conducts research in partnership with tribal colleges and universities to solve the environmental
problems most important to their tribal communities.
3 The General Assistance Program assists tribes in building capacity to plan and establish environmental protection programs and develop and
implement solid and hazardous waste programs in accordance with their individual needs.
A Decade of Tribal Environmental Health Research: Results and Impacts from EPA's Extramural Grants and Fellowship Programs
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Introduction/Background
The researchers were asked whether their research had
been utilized by the Agency; tribal, local, state or federal
agencies; and/or other interest groups or stakeholders.
Examples of such utilization may include educating tribal
populations, developing regulations or management plans,
taking actions to mitigate climate change and so forth.
Next, all NCER grantees, fellows and contractors were
identified—including those from its STAR, P3 and Small
Business Innovation Research programs—who had
conducted tribal-related research outside of the Tribal
Environmental Health Research Program. This was
accomplished through relevant keyword searches of the
NCER Research Project Database (U.S. EPA, 2012c) as
well as input from NCER staff. These researchers were
contacted and asked the same questions to determine
whether other EPA-funded research had resulted in
outcomes that benefited tribal communities; before
the report was finalized, the Tribal Environmental Health
Research Program grantees were contacted again to
ensure that the most up-to-date information about
outcomes was included in the report. In addition, a
bibliometric search was performed to assess how often
the publications from tribal-related research funded by EPA
were cited by other researchers.
NCER staff members also contacted the project officers
for the STAR grants and asked them to identify any
additional tribal-related research that may not have been
captured in the database search and investigator contacts.
Finally, after all of the information was collected, it was
analyzed, organized by common themes within research
projects, and developed into the synthesis report. The
research projects identified in the search and their results/
impacts are described by theme in the next section
and summarized in Appendix E. Several of the research
projects encompassed multiple themes and, therefore,
may be described in more than one section. Practical
applications of EPA's tribal research can be found in
Appendix F, and Appendix G contains a list of additional
online resources. •
Summary of NCER-Funded Tribal Grants and Fellowships Discussed in This Report
Project Title
(Grant/Fellowship Number)
Institution(s)
Tribal Environmental Health Research Program STAR Grants
* An Epidemiologic Study of Time Trends
and Health Effects of Persistent Organic
Pollutants, Mercury and Micronutrients
(R833705)
* Community-Based Risk Assessment
of Exposure to Contaminants via Water
Sources on the Crow Reservation in
Montana (R833706)
Impacts of Climate Change on Health
Benefits of a Tribal Alaskan Resource:
Integrating Traditional Ecological Knowledge
with Risk Assessment Through Local
Monitoring (R833707)
* Understanding the Cumulative Effects of
Environmental and Psycho-Social Stressors
thatThreaten the Pohlik-lah and Ner-er-
nerLifeway:TheYurok Tribe's Approach
(R833708)
Environmental Contaminants in Foodstuffs
of Siberian Yupiks from St. Lawrence Island,
Alaska (R831043)
lakotisa'tstentsera:wis Ne Ohontsia:
Reducing Risk by Restoring Relationships
(R831044)
Alaska Native Tribal Health
Consortium
Montana State University
and
University of New England
University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign
YurokTribe Environmental
Program
Alaska Community Action
on Toxics
AkwesasneTask Force
on the Environment
and Haudenosaunee
Environmental Task Force
Location(s)
Total Amount
of Funding
Yukon-Kuskokwim River Delta, $948,121
Alaska
Crow Reservation (Crow $329,532
Agency, Montana) and
Big Horn County, Montana
Akutan, Point Hope and $300,000
Seldovia, Alaska
Klamath River Basin, California $974,389
St. Lawrence Island, Gambell $449,510
and Savoonga,Alaska
Akwesasne Freedom School
(Hogansburg, New York)
$450,000
Identified Theme(s)1
> Risk Assessment and Sensitive Populations
> Subsistence Foods and Water Resources
• Community-Based Participatory Research and
Community Outreach and Education
> Cultural Practices, Language and Traditional
Ecological Knowledge
> Subsistence Foods and Water Resources
• Community-Based Participatory Research and
Community Outreach and Education
• Subsistence Foods and Water Resources
> Community-Based Participatory Research and
Community Outreach and Education
• Subsistence Foods and Water Resources
> Community-Based Participatory Research and
Community Outreach and Education
> Cultural Practices, Language and Traditional
Ecological Knowledge
• Community-Based Participatory Research and
Community Outreach and Education
"These grants still are active at the time of publication.
1 These themes were identified after analyzing all of the information provided by the grantees and fellows; this synthesis report is organized by these themes.
2 These research areas are based on the RFA needs that the projects addressed as well as relevant keywords assigned to the projects.
A Decade of Tribal Environmental Health Research: Results and Impacts from EPA's Extramural Grants and Fellowship Programs
Research Area(s)2
> Tribal cumulative exposures
• Impacts of climate change on cultural and
physical health
• Tribal cumulative exposures
• Subsistence-based risk reduction
> Impacts of climate change on cultural and
physical health
> Subsistence-based risk reduction
• Tribal cumulative exposures
• Subsistence-based risk reduction
• Tribal cumulative exposures
• Subsistence-based risk reduction
• Language preservation and education
• Subsistence-based risk reduction
-------
Introduction/Background
Project Title
(Grant/Fellowship Number)
Risks to Northern Alaskan Inupiat: Assessing
Potential Effects of Oil Contamination on
Subsistence Lifestyles, Health and Nutrition
(R831045)
Lifestyle and Cultural Practices of
Tribal Populations and Risks From Toxic
Substances in the Environment (R831046)
Reducing Risks of the Anishinaabe From
Methyl Mercury (R831047)
Bioaccumulative Toxics in Native American
Shellfish (R829476)
Institution(s)
Mote Marine Laboratory
Location(s)
Kaktovik, Barrow and
Wainwright.Alaska
Oregon State University National Scope
Great Lakes Indian Fish and
Wildlife Commission
Swinomish Tribal
Community
Michigan, Minnesota and
Wisconsin
Padilla, Fidalgoand Skagit
Bays (state of Washington)
Total Amount
of Funding
$437,399
$449,970
$445,830
$1,170,389
NCER Grants and Fellowships Awarded Outside of the Tribal Environmental Health Research Program
Tribal Environmental Public Health
Indicators (R834791)
Midwest Hazardous Substance Research
Center (R828770)
Space-Time Aquatic Resources Modeling
and Analysis Program (R829095)
Rocky Mountain Training and Technical
Assistance to Brownfields Communities
Program (TR831579) (STAR Training Grant)
Linking Traditional Knowledge and
Environmental Policy in the Cherokee
Nation of Oklahoma (F5C30541) (STAR
Graduate Fellowship)
Dine Bikeyah: Environment, Cultural Identity
and Gender in Navajo Country (U915164)
(STAR Graduate Fellowship)
Makah Traditional Environmental Knowledge
and Gray Whale Conservation (U914970)
(STAR Graduate Fellowship)
Use of Bone Char for the Removal of
Arsenic and Uranium from Groundwaterat
the Pine Ridge Reservation (SU834713 and
SU835069) (P3 Grant)
Swinomish Tribal
Community
Kansas State University (in
partnership with Haskell
Indian Nations University)
Colorado State University
Colorado State University
and Montana Tech of the
University of Montana (in
partnership with Aaniih
Nakoda College [formerly
Fort Belknap College])
University of California,
Berkeley
University of Wisconsin-
Madison
University of Washington
University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign (in
partnership with Oglala
Lakota College)
Puget Sound, Washington
Tribal communities throughout
the Midwest
National via available Internet
resources
Montana, North Dakota,
Colorado and Missouri
Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma
(Tahlequah, Oklahoma)
Kayenta,Arizona, and Kirtland,
New Mexico
Neah Bay (state of
Washington)
Pine Ridge Indian Reservation
(Pine Ridge, South Dakota)
$235,517
$501,000
$2,998,331
$180,000
$106,722
$102,000
$102,000
Phase 1:
$10,000
Phase 2:
$75,000
Identified Theme(s)1
> Community-Based Participatory Research and
Community Outreach and Education
• Community-Based Participatory Research and
Community Outreach and Education
> Risk Assessment and Sensitive Populations
> Cultural Practices, Language and Traditional
Ecological Knowledge
• Subsistence Food and Water Resources
• Community-Based Participatory Research and
Community Outreach and Education
> Risk Assessment and Sensitive Populations
> Subsistence Foods and Water Resources
• Community-Based Participatory Research and
Community Outreach and Education
> Risk Assessment and Sensitive Populations
> Impacts on Regulations and Management Plans
• Risk Assessment and Sensitive Populations
• Community-Based Participatory Research and
Community Outreach and Education
> Community-Based Participatory Research and
Community Outreach and Education
• Impacts on Regulations and Management Plans
> Community-Based Participatory Research and
Community Outreach and Education
> Cultural Practices, Language and Traditional
Ecological Knowledge
• Impacts on Regulations and Management Plans
> Community-Based Participatory Research and
Community Outreach and Education
• Subsistence Foods and Water Resources
• Impacts on Regulations and Management Plans
> Subsistence Foods and Water Resources
> Community-Based Participatory Research and
Community Outreach and Education
* These grants still are active at the time of publication.
1 These themes were identified after analyzing all of the information provided by the grantees and fellows; this synthesis report is organized by these themes.
2These research areas are based on the RFA needs that the projects addressed as well as relevant keywords assigned to the projects.
Research Area(s)2
> Subsistence-based exposure quantification
> Subsistence-based risk reduction
> Risk assessment and exposure scenarios
> Culturally sensitive education and guidance
> Subsistence-based exposure quantification
> Subsistence-based risk reduction
> Researcher/tribal community partnership
> Community-based, culturally sensitive
education
• Tribal-specific health indicators
• Tribal community health
• Hazardous exposure reduction
• Community-based, culturally sensitive
education
• Learning materials development
• Tribal aquatic water quality monitoring plan
development
• Hazardous exposure reduction
• Community-based, culturally sensitive
education
• Cultural revitalization and resource
sustainability
• Community-based, culturally sensitive
education
• Tribal cultural and environmental historical
perspectives
• Tribal cumulative exposures
• Subsistence-based risk reduction
• Subsistence-based risk reduction
• Inexpensive technology development
A Decade of Tribal Environmental Health Research: Results and Impacts from EPA's Extramural Grants and Fellowship Programs
-------
-------
Funded by EPA
The tribal environmental research funded by EPA
for more than a decade has resulted in myriad
outcomes and outputs, including but not limited to:
• methods to reduce environmental and social
impacts on tribes,
• standards and regulations that offer greater
protection to tribal communities,
• advisories that reduce exposure associated with
traditional subsistence lifeways,
• tribal education and outreach, and
1 peer-reviewed publications.
This section provides greater detail about the five
overarching themes that have emerged from the
tribal research conducted under the program:
• Cultural practices, language and fradifional
ecological knowledge are of great significance to
tribes, and many of the tribal grants fi
EPA reflect their importance.
• AI/AN populations still rely heavily on traditional
subsistence foods and water resources,
considering water a sacred resource to be
revered and protected.
• Because the tribes are involved with the
community-based participatory research and
community outreach and education that EPA
researchers conduct, they are invested in the
research and outcomes and benefit from them.
• Many EPA tribal researchers focus on risk
assessment and sensitive populations.
• A number of tribal research projects have
had beneficial impacts on regulations and
management plans.
It is important that AI/AN communities, the larger
public, researchers, health departments, practitioners.
state and local regulators, and other stakeholders
understand how tribal research conducted within the
STAR Tribal Environmental Health Research Program
and other EPA initiatives can provide them with
practical applications and approaches that may be
replicated in their own communities as they confront
real-world environmental health issues. These
practical applications and methods are highlighted
in call-out boxes within each theme below, and
more detailed information is provided in Appendix F.
STAR-funded research is
addressing environmental
concerns of American
Indian and Alaska Native
communities so that their
members can continue their
cultural practices with reduced
health risks.
-------
Each AI/AN community has its own unique set of
cultural practices, language and traditional ecological
knowledge. STAR-funded research strives to support citizens
of these communities as they continue their cultural
practices with reduced health risks. For example, as a
result of the grant, "Reducing Risks of the Anishinaabe
From Methyl Mercury," there is greater awareness of fish
advisory maps that help to protect the health of tribal
citizens residing in Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin.
These maps allow them to continue their traditional
consumption of subsistence fish by harvesting in less-
contaminated waters (DeWeese et al., 2007; Kmiecik and
Foran, 2007; Madsen et al., 2007). Additional details about
this project are described under the theme of "Subsistence
Foods and Water Resources."
Anishinaabe Fishermen Harvesting Walleye Using
Spears. Fish advisory maps developed with STAR funding
allow the fishermen to practice traditional lifeways with
reduced risk of mercury exposure.
A Decade of Tribal Environmental Health Research: Results and Impacts from EPA's Extramural Grants and Fellowship Programs
STAR-funded research also helps to strengthen native
language skills and increase culturally relevant
communication of traditional ecological knowledge.
For example, the researchers of a STAR grant,
"lakotisa'tstentsem:wis Ne Ohontsia: Reducing Risk
by Restoring Relationships," focused on teaching
environmental risk of cultural practices to teachers and
students at the Akwesasne Freedom School in upstate
New York. During the 3-year project, more than 100
tribal citizens learned about toxic substances while also
learning the Mohawk language and skills associated with
traditional cultural practices. Workshops were completed
entirely in the Mohawk language using oral tradition
and hands-on participatory response techniques to
share meaning. A library of resources has been created,
including posters, books, pictures and charts written in
the Mohawk language, which will be shared with other
immersion schools and educational programs throughout
the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. Through this effort, the
community understands risk issues and can take action to
protect tribal citizens' health while engaging in traditional
subsistence practices (Arquette et al., 2008).
Traditional ecological knowledge of Alaska Native
people has long considered wild indigenous berries a
health-promoting, life-sustaining resource. The results
of a STAR grant, "Impacts of Climate Change on Health
Benefits of a Tribal Alaskan Resource: Integrating
Traditional Ecological Knowledge with Risk Assessment
Through Local Monitoring," confirmed this traditional
ecological knowledge, which held that the berries have
-------
Cultural Practices, Language and Traditional Ecological Knowledge
Practical Application
• Create culturally relevant educational
and training materials to help community
members understand risks and actions that
will promote healthier lives while practicing
their traditions.
Alaska Natives Picking Wild Indigenous Berries.
medicinal properties. The research was carried out with
the communities of Akutan, Point Hope and Seldovia,
Alaska. The wild berries also were confirmed to play
a key role in community wellness beyond nutrition
because of the social and outdoor activities associated
with harvesting. These benefits, however, are potentially
threatened by uncertain impacts from contamination,
climate change, and sociocultural and behavioral changes
that shift focus away from locally available foods. Research
findings are informing community wellness planning
by the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium and have
served as important learning opportunities for community
members, particularly youth. The researchers concluded
that a strong sense of community and solidarity clearly
centered on the annual wild berry yields in Alaska Native
communities. Scouting, family-centered wildcrafting
and harvests, and preparations are highly anticipated
events. Community members' perspectives about the
impacts of climate change on this tradition varied, and
often risks were categorized along with other perceived
threats (e.g., pollution) to the subsistence berries. Several
public interviews resulted from this work, including those
on National Public Radio and in The Ecologist (Lila et al.,
2012).
A STAR graduate fellowship, "Linking Traditional Knowledge
and Environmental Policy in the Cherokee Nation of
Oklahoma," summarized information on culturally
significant plant communities of the Cherokee Nation in
northeastern Oklahoma. This information is being used
to target the plant communities for conservation while
simultaneously encouraging the sustainable, cultural
use of the resources by tribal citizens. Related work on
the revitalization of Cherokee ethnobotanical knowledge
has been performed. As a result of interviews with tribal
elders conducted under the grant, an advisory group to
the Natural Resources Department of the Cherokee Nation
of Oklahoma has been created. The group, composed of
Cherokee elders who are knowledgeable on the subject
of Cherokee ethnobotany, will focus on the issue of
Cherokee plant knowledge. The group also works with
Natural Resources Department staff on Tribal Integrated
Resource Management Plan implementation, as well as
on larger goals of cultural and environmental protection.
One significant product from this collaboration is a
booklet on Cherokee wild plant knowledge, Wild Plants
of the Cherokee Nation, which is intended to serve as
an instrument to increase awareness about this subject
among tribal citizens and promote cultural revitalization.
The entire booklet has been translated into the Cherokee
language and is being used as a textbook in the Cherokee
Nation Immersion School (Carroll, 2011). •
A Decade of Tribal Environmental Health Research: Results and Impacts from EPA's Extramural Grants and Fellowship Programs
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Subsistence |5 oods and Water Resources
Tribes emphasize consumption of traditional diets,
many of which include an abundance of fish and
seafood. In addition to food supply, water plays an
important role in tribal cultural and spiritual practices.
Several STAR grants have focused on identifying the
environmental and health risks and approaches for
reducing health effects associated with consumption of
traditional subsistence foods.
The Siberian Yupik people, who live on Saint Lawrence
Island, Alaska, in the northern Bering Sea region, follow
a traditional lifestyle that relies on a diet of seal, whale,
walrus, sea bird eggs, fish, reindeer, berries and local
plants. These traditionally harvested foods play a vital
role in their health and prosperity, and the ability to
maintain this diet and continue to engage in communal
harvesting is critical to their physical, cultural, social
and economic well-being. The research team for the
STAR grant, "Environmental Contaminants in Foodstuffs
of Siberian Yupiks from St. Lawrence Island, Alaska,"
examined these Yupik traditional foods for polychlorinated
biphenyls, chlorinated pesticides and heavy metals. The
team worked with Yupik hunters and heads of households
to collect tissue samples from freshly killed animals and
those that had undergone preparation for consumption.
The researchers found that rendered oils (e.g., mungtak
and blubber) are major dietary sources of polychlorinated
biphenyls, because these oils are vital components of the
traditional diet and consumed on a regular basis by the
St. Lawrence Island Yupik people. Organ meats of certain
animals, such as reindeer and walrus, contain levels of
mercury that exceed health-based standards, although
these organ meats are consumed less frequently. The
ronmental Health Research: Results and Impacts from EPA's Extramural Grants and Fellowship Programs
Anishinaabe Fisherman Harvesting Walleye Using
Nets. Fish advisory maps help to protect the health
of Anishinaabe people who consume mercury-
contaminated walleye.
researchers concluded that proactive policies are essential
to the protection of the health of present and future
generations of the St. Lawrence Island Yupik. The leaders
of the communities emphasized the need to continue
collaborative community-based research. The St. Lawrence
Island communities will examine methods to reduce
exposures while continuing to rely on their traditional
subsistence diet (Miller et al., 2010).
Great Lakes Anishinaabe tribal citizens rely on traditional
lifeways, which include the harvesting and consumption
of indigenous freshwater fish; this cultural tradition
places the tribe at a greater risk for exposure to elevated
concentrations of methyl mercury. As a result of the STAR-
-------
Subsistence Foods and Water Resources
The mouth of the Klamath River; the river is an important subsistence resource for the Yurok Tribe.
funded grant, "Reducing Risks of the Anishinaabe From
Methyl Mercury," there is greater awareness of the fish
advisory maps (see example maps on pages 16 and 17)
produced by the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife
Commission. This increased awareness helps to protect
the health of Anishinaabe tribal citizens who consume
mercury-contaminated walleye. Tribal citizens use the
fish advisory maps to reduce their risk of methyl mercury
exposure through lake-specific meal consumption advice
and information that helps them select lakes for harvest
where walleye contain lower mercury concentrations. The
data collected under the grant were sufficient to provide
consumption advice for 293 of the 449 lakes assessed
in the study. Most of these carried a recommendation
of no more than four meals per month for the general
population, and no more than one meal per month for the
sensitive population. A significant increase in preference
for smaller walleye occurred among tribal harvesters
in Wisconsin, Michigan and Minnesota but not among
women of childbearing age. The Great Lakes Indian
Fish and Wildlife map-based advisory program did not
adversely affect tribal harvest of walleye, which increased
from 63,000 to 88,000 less-contaminated fish in the three
states following the intervention (DeWeese et al, 2007;
Kmiecik and Foran, 2007; Madsen et al., 2007).
Coastal and river resources are primary and secondary
food sources for a majority of Yurok tribal citizens,
particularly those residing near or within Yurok ancestral
territory in northern California. The researchers involved
in the grant, "Understanding the Cumulative Effects of
Environmental and Psycho-Social Stressors that Threaten
the Pohlik-lah and Ner-er-ner Lifeway. The Yurok Tribes
Approach," combined ethnography and qualitative data on
subsistence resources and practices from previous and
current tribal studies with quantitative data on chemical
exposures and epidemiological analyses of health data.
The goal was to determine how these factors interact
to affect the health of various vulnerable populations
within the tribe. Using personal (or public) participation
geographic information system methods to better
incorporate the tribe s local geographic awareness, the
researchers were able to develop a series of 12 maps
with the Yurok Tribe that provide historic and contemporary
contaminant information on the Klamath River Basin in
California (Sloan et al., 2011). Although the full impact of
the research has not been realized because the project
A Decade of Tribal Environmental Health Research: Results and Impacts from EPA's Extramural Grants and Fellowship Programs
-------
Subsistence Foods and Water Resources
This map is to help you find safe Ogaa (Walleye) in lakes harvested by Lac Courte Oreilles
NELSON L
SMITH L
SPIDER L LOST LAND L
LOWER CLAM L
TIGER CAT FL
V \
ROUND L
LITTLE ROUND L
TEALL
MOOSE
\f
WASHBURN
BARRON
LAC COURTE OREILLES
BARBER L
BIRCH L
WINDFALL L
f
L OF THE PINES
SAWYER
MILLE LACS
fc
fcrttf
RUSK
OTTER L
CHIPPEWA
PRIG
EAU CLAIRE
L EAU CLAIRE
For Ogaa Smaller than 20 Inches:
| Eat up to 8 meals or 64 ounces per month.
| Eat up to 4 meals or 32 ounces per month.
Eat up to 2 meals or 16 ounces per month-
Eat up to 1 meal or 3 ounces per month.
| Do not eat ogaa from these lakes
Not enough information available.
Number of meals is based on an 8 ounce meal size. IF your
meal size is larger, you should reduce the number of meals
you eat per month.
Lac Courte Oreilles Reservation
County Boundary
i nbai reservation boundaries are representations and may not be the actual
legally binding boundaries
THORNAPPLE FL
MAP FOR USE BY PREGNANT WOMEN. WOMEN OF CHILDBEARING
AGE, AND CHILDREN UNDER 15 YEARS OF AGE.
DO NOT EAT OGAA LARGER THAN 20 INCHES.
EAT OGAA LESS THAN 20 INCHES AND CHOOSE EVEN SMALLER
OGAA TO FURTHER REDUCE MERCURY EXPOSURE.
AMACOY L
This is an example of a fish consumption advisory map developed by the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission for tribal fishermen in Michigan,
Minnesota and Wisconsin.
A Decade of Tribal Environmental Health Research: Results and Impacts from EPA's Extramural Grants and Fellowship Programs
-------
Subsistence Foods and Water Resources
This map is to help you find safe Ogaa (Walleye) in select Walleye lakes in the Michigan 1842 Ceded Territory
MAP FOR USE BY PREGNANT WOMEN, WOMEN OF CHILDBEARING AGE.
AND CHILDREN UNDER 15 YEARS OF AGE.
DO NOT EAT OGAA LARGER THAN 20 INCHES.
EAT OGAA LESS THAN 20 INCHES AND CHOOSE EVEN SMALLER OGAA
TO FURTHER REDUCE MERCURY EXPOSURE.
ONTONAGON
SUNDAY L
GOGEBIC
SIX MILE L
-
SUDDEN L
VICTORIA RESERVOIR
L GOGEBIC
HOUGHTON
BARAGA
BOND FALLS FL
NORWAY L
STE KATHRYN L
BEATONS L
POMEROY L
0
LITTLE OXBOW L
LANGFORD L
*
PAINT POND
CLOVERLEAF L
MARION L
WINSLOW L
CLEARWATER L
PORTAGE L
TAMARACK L
For Ogaa Smaller than 20 Inches:
| Eat up to 8 meals or 64 ounces per month.
| Eat up to 4 meals or 32 ounces per month.
Eat up to 2 meats or 16 ounces per month.
Eat up to 1 meal or 8 ounces per month.
Do not eat ogaa from these fakes.
Not enough information available.
Number of meals is based on an 8 ounce meal size. If your
meal size is larger, you should reduce the number of meals
;RCH ' you eat per month,
9 i
Lac Vieux Desert and Keweenaw Bay
Reservation
County Boundary
Tribal reservation and ceded territory boundaries are representations and may
not be the actual legally binding boundaries.
CISCO L CHAIN DUCK L
ALLENL
DINNER L
IRON
JAMES L
GIBSON L
MICHIGAMME RES
BIRCH L
LAC VIEUX DESERT
IRON L
OTTAWAL
.ArPRUAN ,
HAGERMAN L
STANLEY L
SUNSET L
SWAN L
' EMILY L
CHICAGON L
onmn i
IklHIAM 1
RUNKLE L
MARY 1
PEAVY POND
This is another example of a fish consumption advisory map developed by the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission for tribal fishermen in
Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin.
A Decade of Tribal Environmental Health Research: Results and Impacts from EPA's Extramural Grants and Fellowship Programs
-------
Subsistence Foods and Water Resources
is ongoing, these maps will allow the tribal citizens to
avoid contaminated areas during harvesting. Another
product of the grant was the development of a geographic
information system eco-toxicological tool that models and
calculates residual contaminants, which allows the tribe
to model the amount of contaminants in a specific area.
Contaminant queries may be made from disparate data
sources and formats, ultimately generating a statistical
report on these data. This is useful as pesticide and
contaminant data reporting standards and formats change
over time and vary among states (Sloan, 2013).
An April 19, 2007, article in the Seattle Times reported
that Swinomish tribal leaders were advising citizens to
Stock photograph of little neck clams.
restrict their consumption of clams and crabs gathered
in and around their reservation after a 4-year study
funded by EPA's STAR program, "Bioaccumulative Toxics in
Native American Shellfish," found that they contain toxic
chemicals. This caused some concern for many tribal
citizens, who consume approximately 20 times more
shellfish than average Americans. Researchers analyzed
Dungeness crabs and two species of clams, including
little neck clams, harvested in several sites near the
reservation and found traces of toxic chemicals, including
polychlorinated biphenyls; various industrial chemicals,
including arsenic; and oil and gas derivatives. The tribe
issued voluntary limits of up to three meals per week of
shellfish from the sampled beaches in the Padilla, Fidalgo
and Skagit Bays in the state of Washington. The limits
varied depending on the consumers age. The limits are
considered temporary until the tribe can institute a long-
term solution. The study found that many tribal citizens
already had been decreasing their consumption of
shellfish, some because of concern about pollution. One
outcome of the study was for the tribe to create its own
definition of health to use in the cost-benefit analysis of
gauging risk. The social, cultural and spiritual benefits of
gathering and eating shellfish could, in some instances,
outweigh the risks of contamination (Mapes, 2007).
The STAR grant, "Impacts of Climate Change on Health
Benefits of a Tribal Alaskan Resource: Integrating Traditional
Ecological Knowledge with Risk Assessment Through Local
Monitoring," focused on subsistence berries consumed
by residents of Alaska Native villages (Akutan, Point
Hope and Seldovia, Alaska). The results indicate that
the berries studied contain A-type proanthocyanidins, a
relatively rare configuration. For commercially available
berries, the configuration is found only in cranberries and
blueberries. The significance of this unique component
in the berries is that the A-type proanthocyanidin has
anti-adhesin properties, effectively disabling the bacteria
that cause urinary tract infections and dental decay.
The cloudberry (Rubus chamaemorus) is an important
component of Alaska Native subsistence diets.
Therefore, these berries provide an alternative natural
therapy for these microbial diseases (Lila et al., 2012). The
proanthocyanidin content in the berries also was found to
be highly effective at lowering lipid deposition into adipose
tissue, which has implications for prevention of metabolic
syndrome. The unique complement of anthocyanins
(pigments) in the berries proved to be particularly effective
in reducing blood glucose levels in vivo in a diabetic
mouse model; the consumption of the berries may prove
to be an important deterrent to the development of type
II diabetes mellitus in adults. The discovery of these
properties and the unique components that contribute to
them supports the local traditional, medicinal use of the
berries (Lila et al., 2012).
The quantitative chemical, mineral and microbial water
quality data from the STAR grant, "Community-Based
Risk Assessment of Exposure to Contaminants via Water
Sources on the Crow Reservation in Montana," revealed
A Decade of Tribal Environmental Health Research: Results and Impacts from EPA's Extramural Grants and Fellowship Programs
-------
Subsistence Foods and Water Resources
Practical Applications
• Utilize community-based research to inform
and develop wellness plans that allow
communities to consume their traditional
foods with less health risks.
• Use data on contaminant levels to help
community members protect their health
while eating their traditional diets.
that 55 percent of the wells tested exceed EPA primary
standards or health advisories (Ford, 2013). These data
were provided recently to the Crow Tribes Office of Water
Resources, which is using the data as a baseline in
planning a rural water distribution network for the Crow
Reservation and Big Horn County in Montana (Eggers,
2013). The project coordinator and leader continue to
meet with tribal elders on the Crow Reservation to discuss
the microbial contamination of a spring and a creek on
the reservation. The elders supported the submittal of
an additional grant proposal to the EPA Environmental
Justice Small Grants Program to begin addressing the
contamination, and this new grant has been awarded
(Eggers, 2013). The researchers also continue to provide
data and support to the Apsaalooke Water and Wastewater
Authority, which has begun its next phase of water and
wastewater infrastructure improvement for the town of
Crow Agency, Montana (Eggers, 2013).
The results of a STAR fellowship, "Makah Traditional
Environmental Knowledge and Gray Whale Conservation,"
collected data from Neah Bay in the state of Washington,
near the main settlement of the Makah Nation, which
indicated that tribal consumption of locally caught fish was
significantly higher than the levels used in contaminant
exposure models. As the previous water quality standards
had been based on these models, they were not as
protective as possible. The tribe had been contending
that this was true for years, and the STAR data provided
the Makah Nation with the evidence that it needed to
effectively argue its case and revise the standards to
be more protective. These data also were utilized by the
tribe to support its request to the International Whaling
Commission for an annual subsistence quota of five
(nonendangered) gray whales. The tribe also used the
data extensively in the revised draft Environmental Impact
Statement by the National Marine Fisheries Service on the
Makah whaling quota (Sepez, 2011).
Many residents of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in
southwest South Dakota, home to the Oglala Sioux Tribe
(also known as the Oglala Lakota Nation), rely on private
wells as their drinking water source. A number of studies
revealed that significant levels of arsenic and uranium
contaminate the reservations groundwater (Werth et al.,
2010). A P3 grant, "Use of Bone Char for the Removal of
Arsenic and Uranium from Groundwater at the Pine Ridge
Reservation," focuses on the development of inexpensive,
The P3 team that traveled to the Pine River Reservation
to obtain water samples for the EPA-funded project.
A local Pine River Reservation resident works on a pump
to provide a house with well water.
easy-to-use technology based on bone char, an
indigenous material, to remove arsenic and uranium from
the groundwater used by the residents of the reservation.
The researchers tested reservation wells and developed a
map that highlights the location of contaminated sources.
The team is working with citizens of the reservation and
local leaders of the Oglala Lakota College to determine
whether the use of bone char filter for water purification
is appropriate for the reservation; feedback based on the
presentation of a working prototype has been positive
(Becraft and Werth, 2012).*
A Decade of Tribal Environmental Health Research: Results and Impacts from EPA's Extramural Grants and Fellowship Programs
-------
arid F .Plication
Utilizing community-based participatory research in
Tribal Environmental Health Research Program is
crucial to ensure that researchers partner with AI/AN
people in planning and implementing needed research. As
such, community-based participatory research, education
and outreach have been and continue to be important
components of STAR grants and fellowships funded under
the Tribal Environmental Health Research Program. In
community-based participatory research, the community
is actively involved in every phase of the research project
being conducted. The researchers must understand the
particular culture of the people with whom they are
partnering in research and recognize the sovereignty
of their government. For example, the researchers of
the EPA grant, "Understanding the Cumulative Effects
of Environmental and Psycho-Social Stressors that
Threaten the Pohlik-lah and Ner-er-ner Lifeway. The Yurok
Tribes Approach," developed their research questions by
consulting the Yurok Tribal Council and community, which
is located in northern California. Phase 2 of their research
actively engaged the community in the data-gathering
process (Sloan, 2010), presenting about the project at
the annual Yurok Tribe Klamath Salmon Festival and
annual tribal membership meeting during each year of
the project period (Sloan, 2013). Tribal community input
via scoping sessions, oral interviews and questionnaires
allowed the researchers to identify key resource species.
The researchers also ascertained community perceptions
about resource quality and abundance, resource conditions
across time, and the relationship between resources and
community health (Sloan and Fluharty, 2010). The grant
allowed the researchers to perform sustained environmental
research that addresses community concerns, enabling
them to collect valuable data and provide answers about
the health of the community's environment and culturally
significant and key subsistence species. The community
A Di ironmental Health Research: Results and Impacts from EPA's Extramural Grants and Fellowship Programs
has been grateful for this information, as these long-
standing concerns had not been adequately researched
or addressed previously (Sloan, 2013). The quantitative
data collected and analyzed during the project resulted
in the development of a Yurok Community Health Profile,
which the researchers shared with the tribe via the Yurok
Tribal Environmental Program website. A final version will be
printed and distributed with other project materials to the
tribe (Sloan etal.,2013).
Because community and traditional communal activities
and lifeways are important to the Siberian Yupiks, the
research team for one STAR grant, "Environmental
Contaminants in Foodstuffs of Siberian Yupiks from St.
Lawrence Island, Alaska," conducted a series of meetings
with the tribal leadership of the Alaska Native villages of
Gambell and Savoonga and with the people in the villages
Crow people "going after water" in the Little Big Horn
River, Montana, in the late 1800s. (Photo courtesy Little
Big Horn College Archives; original at the Smithsonian
Institution)
;cade of Tribal Environ
-------
Community-Based Participatory Research and Community Outreach and Education
Practical Applications
• Work in strong partnership with communities
so that they not only endorse research
projects, but are full participants in design/
development, translation, and ultimately
application of the research findings to
improve their health and protect their local
environments.
• Communicate and disseminate research to
community members and other stakeholders
respectfully, creatively and effectively while
explaining how they can use the results to
protect their health.
of St. Lawrence Island. At these meetings, the researchers
and the communities discussed the implications of the
project results, with the awareness that traditional foods are
vital to the well-being and culture of the Yupik people. The
research team discussed the results in the context of the
recognized nutritional and cultural benefits of the traditional
diet. The leadership of the St. Lawrence Island communities
emphasized the need to continue collaborative community-
based research and find methods to reduce exposures
while continuing reliance on the traditional diet (Miller et
al.,2010).
Elders are respected and revered among AI/AN populations.
They carry much of the cultural and traditional ecological
knowledge of their tribes and villages and pass their
wisdom and knowledge on to the younger generations.
Understanding the importance of elders, the researchers
involved in the project, "Community-Based Risk Assessment
of Exposure to Contaminants via Water Sources on the
Crow Reservation in Montana," reached out to Crow tribal
elders, who described how the water quality in the Little
Big Horn River had deteriorated during the past 50 years.
The elders reminded the younger tribal citizens, as well
as the researchers, that they do not appreciate water as
a precious resource as previous generations did because
they no longer must haul it themselves. From the tribal
elders, younger generations and academic partners learned
about the high respect that the Crow people always have
had for water and the importance of protecting this natural
resource (Cummins et al., 2010). The tribal elders also
helped to guide the research project via their involvement
in the Crow Environmental Health Steering Committee
(Ford, 2010). To ensure that community outreach and
education were successful, the researchers provided
Crow Reservation residents comprehensive reports about
their water quality, potential health issues and suggested
treatments. The researchers provided in-home followup,
often in the Crow language, to increase residents'
understanding of the research results (Ford, 2010).
The researchers involved with the grant, "Reducing Risks
of the Anishinaabe From Methyl Mercury," used community
outreach and education to increase awareness of Great
Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife-produced fish advisory
maps among the tribal community. Through the grant,
researchers explained how to use the maps to tribal
leaders, health care providers, fish harvesters, mothers
with young children, women of childbearing age, children
and elders in Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin. These
maps help to protect the health of tribal citizens by
supporting them in their efforts to reduce consumption
of mercury-contaminated walleye. Large fish advisory
maps were posted at locations in which spearing and
netting permits were issued; maps were distributed to on-
reservation health service providers and posted at public
locations on the reservation (e.g., tribal administration
buildings, grocery stores, libraries, health clinics, natural
resources departments, elder centers and community
centers). Researchers presented about the maps at
various meetings and to children at Boys' and Girls' Club
gatherings. The children were provided with maps to take
home and encouraged to share them with their families.
Postintervention surveys showed that the percentage
of survey participants who indicated awareness of the
advisory maps significantly increased among fish harvesters
in Wisconsin, Michigan and Minnesota and among women
of childbearing age in Wisconsin (DeWeese et al., 2007;
Present-day Crow Nation members and their academic
partners obtaining water samples from the Little Big Horn
River, Montana.
Kmiecik and Foran, 2007; Madsen et al., 2007). The
researchers have continued to update, publish online and
distribute the maps and have created additional outreach
materials targeted toward the two groups for which the
outreach/intervention had been less effective (women of
child-bearing age and fish harvesters in Michigan and
Minnesota), as identified by the research (Moses, 2013).
The approach used for another STAR grant
("lakotisa'tstentsera:wis Ne Ohontsia Reducing Risk by
Restoring Relationships") was to work with teachers at
the Akwesasne Freedom School in upstate New York and
environmental staff in the Haudenosaunee Confederacy to
develop intervention materials and education programs. The
project worked to transfer expertise about environmental
risk and cultural practices to teachers and students at
the Akwesasne Freedom School. This was accomplished
through teacher training and in-class workshops in
which students were engaged in subsistence practices.
During each of the 3 years of the project, 20 professional
development days per year were offered to more than
25 teachers, staff members, assistant teachers and
environmental research scientists. As a result, more than
100 youth, teachers, teacher assistants and environmental
A Decade of Tribal Environmental Health Research: Results and Impacts from EPA's Extramural Grants and Fellowship Programs
-------
Community-Based Participatory Research and Community Outreach and Education
scientists learned about toxic substances while also
learning the Mohawk language and skills associated
with traditional cultural practices (Arquette et al., 2008).
Workshops were conducted entirely in the Mohawk
language using oral tradition and hands-on participatory
response techniques to share meaning. A library of
resources has been created, including posters, books,
pictures and charts written in the Mohawk language,
which will be shared with other immersion schools and
educational programs throughout the Haudenosaunee
Confederacy. Through this effort, community members
understand risk issues and can take action to protect their
health while engaging in traditional subsistence practices
(Arquette et al., 2008).
It is important to foster a positive working relationship—
based on trust, credibility and appropriate communica-
tion—among researchers and community members. One
of the goals of another tribal STAR grant ("Risks to Northern
Alaskan Inupiat: Assessing Potential Effects of Oil Contami-
nation on Subsistence Lifestyles, Health and Nutrition")
was to strengthen relationships with Native leaders and
communities. The principal investigators worked to develop
community ties in various ways, including attending pub-
lic functions. These efforts have led to recognition of the
researchers in the community. The principal investigators
made numerous public presentations, met with school
children, provided radio interviews and met in small groups
with community leaders to present the results of the study.
Presentations of the data typically were preceded by dis-
cussions with research staff to ensure that scientific infor-
mation was provided in a culturally relevant and sensitive
manner (Wetzel et al., 2008). The researchers presented at
a number of town council meetings in Kaktovik, Barrow and
Wainwright, Alaska, as well as other towns, to inform the
Inupiat people about the study and the outcomes (Wetzel,
2010).
Community education and outreach have continued
beyond the end of the grant, "Impacts of Climate Change
on Health Benefits of a Tribal Alaskan Resource: Integrating
Traditional Ecological Knowledge With Risk Assessment
Through Local Monitoring."
The research continues to
generate requests from AI/AN
groups, with the researchers
presenting follow-up
workshops on the research
in North Dakota and Alaska.
Additionally, the project
partners in North Dakota
and Alaska traveled to North
Carolina, where the lead
researcher had relocated,
to learn how the results
of their field biodiscovery
of tribal resources would
translate to the next level of
laboratory investigation and
validation. The researchers'
training techniques are being
used in high school and
community college classes at
The Swinomish Indian Tribal Community was able to develop this DVD documentary
with a STAR grant.
A Decade of Tribal Environmental Health Research: Results and Impacts from EPA's Extramural Grants and Fellowship Programs
AI/AN institutions in Alaska and North Dakota (Lila, 2013a,
2013b).
The researchers of the grant, "Lifestyle and Cultural
Practices of Tribal Populations and Risks From Toxic
Substances in the Environment," sponsored a tribal
research symposium in April 2010 that focused on issues
addressed in the grant. Participants discussed important
matters and perspectives to consider when performing
research with tribal communities, including tribal legal
issues, research ethics, indigenous and Western science
concepts, and integration of sociocultural health indicators
in tribal risk research. The symposium featured speakers
from several tribes as well as a tribal legal scholar;
university researchers, members of the public, public
agency staff and others interested in tribal issues attended
(Harding, 2013).
The researchers of a Tribal Environmental Health Research
Program STAR grant, "Bioaccumulative Toxics in Native
American Shellfish," used the research conducted in
the state of Washington to publish several outreach
and educational pieces about safe Swinomish fish and
shellfish consumption, including the Swinomish 73 Moons
traditional food book, Swinomish 73 Moons Coloring Book,
the Slow Bum documentary and several posters. Numerous
oral presentations were given at independent and EPA-
sponsored conferences and symposia to communicate the
results of this grant (Donatuto, 2010).
As is the case for STAR grants funded through EPA's Tribal
Environmental Health Research Program, education and
outreach also are important for other tribally relevant
STAR grants and fellowships. A STAR fellowship, "D/ne
Bikeyah: Environment, Cultural Identity and Gender in
Navajo Country," resulted in the book, Dreaming of Sheep
in Navajo Counfry.The publication has been used in
workshops with high school teachers on the reservation,
and the author participated in workshops in Navajo
communities in Kayenta, Arizona, and Kirtland, New Mexico.
These workshops focused on the environmental health
of grasslands, grazing issues and oral histories about a
-------
Community-Based Participatory Research and Community Outreach and Education
One output of a STAR grant was the 13 Moons1 book about how the 13 annual
lunar phases guide the Swinomish people in using their natural resources.
conservation program in the 1930s known colloquially as
"livestock reduction" (Weisiger, 2011). The award-winning
book provides an important historical perspective about
Navajo pastoralism, allowing tribal citizens and other
readers to understand the environmental history of the
reservation and policies that led to current conditions.
The researchers of a STAR training grant, "Rocky Mountain
Training and Technical Assistance to Brownfields
Communities Program," found that outreach is more
effective when it is partnered with education. The
researchers provided one-on-one training and outreach to
neighborhoods, tribes and tribal communities in Montana,
North Dakota, Colorado and Missouri. The training was
developed based on tribal needs and focused on topics
that the tribes identified as useful, such as education
about hazardous materials and how to write Environmental
Impact Statements. Approximately 25 culturally sensitive
courses were developed with Fort
Belknap College (now known as
Aaniiih Nakoda College) faculty
members and consultants. The
courses addressed specific
Brownfields issues and innovative
environmental technologies that
could be used to remediate
these sites. They were offered as
full-credit courses for community
members; continuing-education
credits also could be earned
for professional development
(Burgher, 2011).
Education and outreach were
particularly important for
two tribal-relevant projects
conducted by the STAR-funded
Midwest Hazardous Substance
Research Center. The centers
Technical Outreach Services
for Communities and Technical Outreach Services for
Native American Communities programs used university
educational and technical resources to help community
groups throughout the Midwest understand the technical
issues and impacts of hazardous waste sites. The two
outreach programs empowered the communities to
participate substantively in the decision-making process
regarding their hazardous substance problems, including
environmental assessment and clean-up needs. The
projects provided a link between the community and
the university, serving the needs of environmental justice
communities. These outreach programs provided technical
assistance, such as reviewing and explaining technical
reports and offering information and training, to AI/AN
communities (Banks et al., 2007).
The Technical Outreach Services for Native American
Communities program was national in scope and
coordinated primarily through the Haskell Environmental
Research Studies Center at Haskell Indian Nations University.
Services included first contact, needs assessment, initial
support and long-term technical support arrangements
by regional Technical Outreach Services for Communities
programs and other resources as necessary (Banks et al.,
2007). The researchers conducted a number of outreach
activities over many years. The most significant outcome of
this work is the increased level and capacity for community
involvement at Superfund and other environmental issue
sites. Training materials and various models for successful
community involvement that address tribal risk (subsistence
and cultural lifestyle exposures), technical clean-up issues,
and environmental justice dynamics at clean-up sites were
developed (Leven, 201 l).The Center provided support to
24 AI/AN communities in 13 states (Center for Hazardous
Substance Research, 2009).
Another STAR-funded center with tribal education and
outreach as one of its goals, "Space-Time Aquatic
Resources Modeling and Analysis Program," developed and
tested learning materials related to environmental sampling
that were made available on the Internet. A variety of
people, including those associated with tribes, indicated an
interest in using these materials. Direct contact, education,
outreach and support were offered to the tribes as a result
of this project (Urquhart, 2011).
In addition to focusing on the development of water-
purification technology, a P3 grant, "Use of Bone Char for
the Removal of Arsenic and Uranium from Groundwater
at the Pine Ridge Reservation," also aims to educate the
residents of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in southwest
South Dakota about the importance of water quality. The
researchers are developing a 2- to 4-minute video about
the project to be used in conjunction with a water quality
educational outreach effort for children. The researchers
also are creating an educational handout that includes
water quality education materials for the residents of the
reservation (Becraft and Werth, 2012). •
This book is in its second printing. EPA does not endorse or promote any product, but if you would like more information, please contact Todd Mitchell, Swinomish Water Resources Coordinator, at tmitchell@swinomish.nsn.us,
11430 Moorage Way, La Conner, WA 98257.
A Decade of Tribal Environmental Health Research: Results and Impacts from EPA's Extramural Grants and Fellowship Programs
-------
Some tribal citizens have unique risks as a result of
their traditional lifestyles and extensive reliance on
natural resources. As a result, risk assessments and
exposure scenarios must be tailored to the tribes' distinct
needs. The Traditional Tribal Subsistence Exposure Scenario
and Risk Assessment Guidance Manual, based on the
major ecological zones across the mainland United
States, was published as a result of a Tribal Environmental
Health Research Program STAR grant, "Lifestyles and
Cultural Practices of Tribal Populations and Risks From
Toxic Substances in the Environment."The researchers'
goal was to develop regional traditional tribal subsistence
multipathway exposure scenarios based on eco-cultural
zone delineations and descriptions, major exposure factors,
regional food patterns and unique exposure pathways. The
manual can be used by the tribes to modify, refine and
adapt the regional scenarios for their site-specific and/
or individual tribal situations. It is particularly useful to
assist the tribes in compliance with the Comprehensive
Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability
Act, which includes a risk-based process. To comply,
the tribes have been requesting risk tools that reflect
their activity patterns and potential exposures. If a
tribal scenario is not available early in the compliance
process, the results may not be protective of tribal uses.
This research resulted in model regional tribal exposure
scenarios that are formatted for standard Comprehensive
Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act
risk assessments, which can be progressively modified
as site-specific information becomes available (Harper et
al., 2007). The researchers have received many requests
for the Traditional Tribal Subsistence Exposure Scenario
and Risk Assessment Guidance Manual'from EPA staff,
A Decade of Tribal Environmental Health Research: Results and Impacts from EPA's Extramural Grants and Fellowship Programs
consultants in the private sector, academics, graduate
students and others working on tribal issues (Harding,
2013).
Under the grant, "Reducing Risks of the Anishinaabe From
Methyl Mercury," researchers explained to those considered
to have increased risk from exposure to mercury—mothers
with young children, women of childbearing age, children
and elders—who consume mercury-contaminated walleye
in Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin how to use
Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife fish advisory maps
to reduce their risk. The data collected under the grant
were used to recommend that no more than one walleye
meal per month from the affected lakes be consumed by
these people. To reduce risk in children, the researchers
presented fish advisory information at Boys' and Girls' Club
gatherings. The children were provided with maps to take
home and encouraged to share them with their families
(DeWeese et al, 2007; Kmiecik and Foran, 2007; Madsen
et al., 2007). For more information about how data
Practical Applications
• Use methods that better assess the exposui
risk of sensitive populations to help these
individuals avoid or reduce exposures and
protect their health.
• Develop environmental public health
indicators that reflect the community's heath
views and priorities to assess and improve
the health status of its members.
-------
Risk Assessment and Sensitive Populations
Jim Gibson, Swinomish shellfish biologist, provides an offering and asks for abundant
harvests and protection from harm during the upcoming fishing seasons in a ceremony
called the Blessing of the Fleet. Also known as the First Salmon Ceremony, the ceremony
is enacted by many Pacific Northwest tribes.
generated through this grant were used to develop the
cumulative risk scenarios and fish advisory maps, please
see the section entitled, Subsistence Foods and Water
Resources.
Risk assessment was an important component of another
Tribal Environmental Health Research Program STAR grant,
"Bioaccumulative Toxics in Native American Shellfish."
The researchers partnered with Oregon State University to
develop a Swinomish Traditional Cultural Lifeways Exposure
Scenario and perform passive air monitoring of polycyclic
aromatic hydrocarbons, one of the suite of chemicals
identified as potentially hazardous in the STAR research.
A partnership with Seattle University was used to explore
the issues of treaty rights and fish consumption (Donatuto,
2010). For more information about how data from this
grant were used to develop the exposure scenario, please
see the section entitled, Subsistence Foods and Water
Resources. Although the grant has been completed,
the researchers have
continued the work
initiated in the original
STAR grant by partnering
with the Puget Sound
Partnership and
representatives from the
Lower Elwha Tribe, the
Suquamish Tribe and the
Port Gamble S'Kllalam
Tribe to develop tribal-
specific health indicators
for the Salish Sea. This
research is being carried
out under a new STAR
grant, "Tribal Environmental
Public Health Indicators."
During the first year of the
project, the researchers
were able to establish
a set of environmental
public health indicators for Coast Salish communities
near Puget Sound, Washington, that reflect how the
communities view and prioritize health. These "Indigenous
Health Indicators" include six key health indicators, each
with three components:
• Resources security (abundance, access and sharing).
• Community connection (cooperation, participation/
roles and familiarity.
• Ceremonial use (gatherings/ceremonies, giving
thanks and feeding the Spirit).
• Education (elders, youth and the Teachings).
• Self determination (healing, economic development
and restoration).
• Well-being (connection to nature, confidence and
resilience).
The next step is to test the indicator set with tribal citizens
by employing it to assess the health status of the tribal
communities (Donatuto, 2012).
The researchers of the grant, "An Epidemiologic Study
of Time Trends and Health Effects of Persistent Organic
Pollutants, Mercury and Micronutrients," investigated
risks to Alaska Native Yupik newborn infants and their
mothers, who live in the Yukon-Kuskokwim River Delta of
southwestern Alaska and consume the traditional marine
subsistence diet. Data regarding blood levels of mercury,
lead, cadmium, arsenic and omega-3 fatty acids in these
populations have been collected and are being analyzed.
These data will allow any potential associations between
maternal exposure and potential adverse pregnancy
outcomes (e.g., gestational diabetes mellitus, hypertension,
preterm delivery, birth defects, growth abnormalities)
to be examined as well as any associations between
micronutrients and positive pregnancy and infant health
outcomes. The researchers also collected salmon tissue
for parallel analysis. The results will be used to inform the
Alaska Native residents of the Yukon-Kuskokwim River Delta
about trends in human tissue levels and any evidence of
negative and positive health outcomes. The salmon data,
combined with sea mammal data from other studies,
will enable subsistence hunters and consumers to have
confidence in the low contaminant levels in the salmon
and consume those sea mammal species that have
been found to have the lowest levels of contaminants.
Village-specific harvest adaptation plans will be developed
to ensure the lowest exposure for pregnant women and
children while still preserving the enormous cultural and
public health value of the traditional diet (Berner, 2013). •
A Decade of Tribal Environmental Health Research: Results and Impacts from EPA's Extramural Grants and Fellowship Programs
-------
acts on Kegulations and Management
Several STAR grants and fellowships have influenced
state regulations and tribal management plans.
Based on the results of a STAR grant, "Bioaccumulative
Toxics in Native American Shellfish," and other studies
that have found high levels of toxins in fish and shellfish
in and around tribal gathering places, the Washington
Department of Ecology began re-examining the states
water quality standards in the fall of 2010 (Brooks, 2010).
Oregon's Department of Environmental Quality has been
working closely with state, federal and tribal governments
and industries to set a stricter water quality standard, one
that would allow people to safely eat not just one serving
of fish or shellfish per month but one serving per day
(State of Oregon, 2007). EPA has encouraged individual
states to set standards based on data that show how
much fish people typically consume from state waters. In
the absence of those data, the federal standard of about
one 7-ounce serving of fish per month applies, and this
has been the state of Washington's standard for more
than 2 decades (State of Washington, 2009,2010). In the
state review of the fish consumption rate, the Swinomish
are advocating for historical consumption rates, which are
perhaps as high as 1 pound of fish per person per day
(Brooks, 2010). At the time of publication of this report,
the state of Washington had not revised its limits; more
information can be found at the Washington Department
of Ecology website.
The quantitative data produced by a STAR fellowship,
"Makah Traditional Environmental Knowledge and Gray
Whale Conservation," were used by a tribal biologist
to support the implementation of stricter water quality
standards on the Makah Nation reservation than those
issued by the state of Washington. The data indicated that
tribal consumption of locally caught fish was significantly
higher than the levels used to develop the previous
standards (Sepez, 2011).
The results of a STAR fellowship, "Linking Traditional
Knowledge and Environmental Policy in the Cherokee
Nation of Oklahoma," continue to be used internally by
the Cherokee Nation in northeastern Oklahoma to design
its Tribal Integrated Resource Management Plan. The
plan serves as formal guidance for all of the Cherokee
Nation's land and resource planning and management
issues. The grant resulted in the formation of a group,
composed of Cherokee elders who are knowledgeable
on the subject of Cherokee ethnobotany, to advise the
Cherokee Nation Natural Resources Department. The elders
work with departmental staff on Tribal Integrated Resource
Management Plan implementation, as well as on larger
goals of cultural and environmental protection (Carroll,
2011).
A Decade of Tribal Environmental Health Research: ;lts and Impacts from EPA's Extramural Grants and Fellowship Programs
-------
Impacts on Regulations and Management Plans
Practical Applications
• Use research to help establish environmental
quality standards that take into account
community practices and unique exposures
of special populations to protect their health.
• Help communities develop conservation
plans that allow them to manage and
monitor their resources so that community
can continue to safely use them.
The "Space-Time Aquatic Resources Modeling and Analysis
Program," a STAR-funded center, worked with 10 tribes in
four states to assist with the development of tribal aquatic
water quality monitoring plans that take into account
definitive tribal needs for monitoring cultural uses of tribal
water. The tribes involved in the research actively pursued
the protection of culturally sensitive water uses, such as
hand-dredging of clay for pottery making and wetland
plant harvesting for construction of sweat lodges and
cradle boards (Johnson, 2003). •
A Decade of Tribal Environmental Health Research: Results and Impacts from EPA's Extramural Grants and Fellowship Programs
-------
-------
Future tribal research supported by EPA will
explore new strategies, methods and tools to
assess environmental health exposure among Al/
AN populations as well as identify other research
opportunities for advancing health protection while
maintaining traditional tribal lifeways. Ongoing
research needs for many tribal communities include
protection of drinking water from enteric pathogens
such as Escherichia coll, protection and survival
of native plants, better understanding of health
issues surrounding climate change, the impacts of
widespread pesticide use and endocrine disrupting
chemicals, indoor air quality, and the extent and
impacts of consumption of contaminated meat from
animals that tribal communities raise or harvest
(e.g., bison, deer, elk). Past and current STAR
research has attempted to address components of
many of these issues (e.g., climate change impacts,
endocrine disrupting chemicals, indoor air quality,
cumulative risk related to subsistence foods),
although not always in tribal settings.
An emerging topic of concern for many tribes is
hydraulic fracturing (tracking). In addition to sharing
in the immense benefits of tracking, tribal, Alaska
Native and other communities in the United States
are in need of research and guidance related to
potential adverse ecological and human health
impacts of this activity. For example, what are the
considerations regarding the quality and availability
of fresh water resources used for pumping? What
are the potential health impacts of and exposure
scenarios related to the chemical mixtures used in
the extraction processes? What are waste disposal
concerns and approaches that safeguard the
ecosystem and human health? In addition, there
are considerations involving air quality, groundwater
contamination, and destabilization of rock formations
and topography from drilling.
An ongoing issue is related to the ability of tribal
community members and staff to gain technical
expertise and capacity for applying for grants and
responding to solicitations. Please see Appendix
G for information about training and workshops
that are available from EPA's Office of Grants and
Debarment and the contact information for the
current Regional Tribal Program Managers in Regions
9 and 10, where the majority of tribes reside.
Finally, there is an opportunity to establish regional
tribal research partnerships that would serve as a
resource for National EPA-Tribal Science Council
Tribal Representatives in linking regional priorities
to tribal research needs. This effort would develop a
systematic method to connect ORD scientists (e.g..
Regional Science Liaisons and scientists in the
regional research facilities) with tribal scientists to
collaborate on shared goals, communicate current
research efforts and pursue common scientific goals
for communities. It also is expected that the National
EPA-Tribal Science Council's semiannual meetings
will continue to provide an opportunity for research
and science communication across tribes and
regions, including participation by STAR grantees.
EPA's Air, Climate and Energy Research Program
released its 2012 RFA,"Measurements and Modeling
for Quantifying Air Quality and Climatic Impacts
of Residential Biomass or Coal Combustion for
Cooking, Heating, and Lighting." This solicitation
included a component that focused on the
"developing world and Indian tribes and Alaska
Native groups." The goal is to quantify the extent that
interventions for cleaner cooking, heating or lighting
can impact air quality and climate, which in turn
affect human health and welfare (U.S. EPA, 2012a).
-------
Future Directions for Tribal Research
The Tribal Environmental Health Research Program
released its latest RFA, "Science for Sustainable and
Healthy Tribes," in February 2013 (U.S. EPA, 2013a). In
preparation for this RFA and to help identify tribal research
priorities, the program hosted an RFA Strategy Session at
the National EPA-Tribal Science Council-sponsored 2010
National Tribal Science Forum in Traverse City, Michigan.
EPA and Tribal Representatives discussed current tribal
environmental challenges as a basis for determining the
focus of the RFA. Many topics of interest were identified
during the session. Climate change was acknowledged
as an overarching issue; of specific concern was tribal
adaptability to climate change. Water concerns included
drinking water quality and quantity as well as the presence
of wastewater and heavy metals in rivers. Indoor air quality
was another tribal concern, specifically exposure to mold,
radon and formaldehyde. Mercury contamination in fish
is considered a global issue, with dietary change and
adaptation being a specific concern among AI/AN people.
Stewardship of tribal lands and tribal control of research
performed on these lands also emerged as important
topics. Another key issue discussed was environmental
enforcement and protection against unlawful agricultural
practices on reservations (Breville, 2011).
Building on its 2006 priorities, the National EPA-Tribal
Science Council initiated a tribally driven process to
identify priority science issues of national significance
in Indian country. The process commenced with the
publication of a document that outlined the background
of the National Tribal Science Priorities (U.S. EPA, 201 la).
The document was sent to all federally recognized tribes
and other tribal organizations and included criteria to
allow them to identify their science priorities for Agency
consideration as national priorities. An initial set of
environmental concerns for AI/AN populations to consider
included:
• Climate change impacts on tribal health, well being,
and safety as well as on local food sources (with
emphasis on adaptation/mitigation strategies).
• Off-reservation sources adversely affecting ambient
air quality conditions in tribal communities and
comprehensive monitoring for environmental triggers
of respiratory distress.
• Impacts of indoor air quality associated with building
ventilation (i.e., to assess and mitigate for mold,
radon and asbestos) and other sources of pollution
(e.g., wood stoves, tobacco consumption, open dump
burning) (U.S. EPA, 201 la).
As a result of the process, the National EPA-Tribal Science
Council highlighted climate change and the integration of
traditional ecological knowledge in environmental science,
policy and decision making as two primary research
concerns for Agency action (U.S. EPA, 2011 b, 2011 c).
At the July 2011 National Tribal Operations Committee
meeting, the National Tribal Caucus and EPA Administrator
Lisa Jackson endorsed these priorities as issues that align
with their respective efforts to protect human health and
the environment in Indian country (U.S. EPA, 20121).
Building on the priority-setting efforts of the National EPA-
Tribal Science Council, this solicitation invites applications
for research on climate change and indoor air quality that
integrates traditional ecological knowledge for informed
science, policy and decision making (U.S. EPA, 2013a).
Since the RFA strategy session at the 2010 National Tribal
Science Forum, several EPA members of the National
EPA-Tribal Science Council have continued to provide
substantive input on updated drafts of the RFA, serving as
writing team members and reviewers (McOliver, 2013a).
The RFA was developed with input from four EPA program
offices (Office of Science Policy, Office of Children's Health
Protection, American Indian Environmental Office and the
Indoor Environments Division within the Office of Radiation
and Indoor Air); three regional offices (Regions 5, 7 and
10); and three ORD laboratories and centers (National
Risk Management Research Laboratory, National Exposure
Research Laboratory and National Center for Environmental
Assessment) (Breville, 2011; McOliver, 2013b). •
A Decade of Tribal Environmental Health Research: Results and Impacts from EPA's Extramural Grants and Fellowship Programs
-------
onclusion
The synthesis of more than a decade of research
conducted under EPA's Tribal Environmental Health
Research Program has resulted in the identification
of practical applications that apply to each of the
of cultural practices, language a
traditional ecological knowledge, it is important to
understand and integrate the cultural aspects of
the community into research and develop culturally
relevant educational materials, such as a booklet
on wild plant knowledge in the Cherokee language,
to explain risks and how to mitigate them to more
effectively reduce exposures of sensitive populations
as they engage in traditional practices.
One practical application regarding subsistence foods
and water resources is that it is necessary to utilize
community-based research to develop wellness plans,
such as those being developed by the Alaska Native
Tribal Health Consortium around sustenance berry
use, that preserve traditional diets while managing
risk and protecting public health. Another is that
using quantitative data on contaminant levels, such
as those used by the St. Lawrence Island Yupik
people to assess the contaminants in rendered oils
and organ meat that are part of their traditional
diet, can help communities avoid or reduce the risks
associ<
Community-based participatory research and
community outreach and education are very
important when partnering with AI/AN communities.
It is essential to develop strong partnerships with
the community and enlist community representatives
to guide the research design and implementation,
as was done for the research project on the
Crow Reservation that was guided by the Crow
Environmental Health Steering Committee. This
approach ensures that the research is informed by
the local culture and relevant to the communities'
needs and, ultimately, that the results will be more
readily accepted and used to protect community
health and natural resources. It also is important
'o communicate research results to community
lembers in a culturally sensitive manner, as was
done, for example, during the town council meetings
i Northern Alaskan Ifiupiat, and provide personal
followup in the native language, such as the in-
home followup in the Crow language provided to
Crow residents, to increase the community members'
understanding of the results and how to use
them to reduce their exposures to environmental
contaminants.
In terms of risk assessment and sensitive
populations, incorporating risk assessment
methodologies to create exposure scenarios that
can be applied at the national, regional and local
levels, such as those detailed in the Traditional
Tribal Subsistence Exposure Scenario and Risk
Assessment Guidance Manual, ultimately help
sensitive populations to reduce exposures and
protect community and environmental health. Also,
stakeholders must use the knowledge obtained
from environmental public health indicators that are
reflective of communities' health views and priorities,
such as the Tribal Environmental Public Health
Indicators that were developed for Salish Sea tribes,
to assess and improve the health status of these
communities and their members.
-------
Conclusions
Finally, grants funded under EPA's Tribal Environmental
Health Research Program have had positive impacts
on regulations and management plans. One practical
application of the research is to develop and use
quantitative data to establish environmental quality
standards that more accurately reflect the unique
exposures of special populations, such as the stricter water
quality standards established by the Makah Nation based
on STAR grant data, to ultimately reduce their risks and
protect their health and culturally important resources.
Research also can be used to assist communities in
developing resource management and monitoring plans,
such as the tribal aquatic water quality monitoring plans
developed by several tribes to monitor cultural uses of
tribal water, that protect environmental resources and
community health.
As they have done for more than a decade, EPA's Tribal
Environmental Health Research Program and the Agency
research programs that it helps to support will continue
to engage and collaborate with AI/AN communities
and partners. These programs will continue to provide
opportunities for tribal and Alaska Native citizens, scientists
and engineers and other partners to participate in
collaborative partnerships that further their communities'
capacity for identifying environmental health concerns and
research strategies, developing sustainable and culturally
relevant solutions, and supporting decision making, with
the goal of protecting the health and the environment of
AI/AN communities.
These EPA programs play an important role in addressing
the myriad stressors threatening the health, wellness and
lifeways of AI/AN populations that are striving to maintain
their long-standing, intricate relationships with the natural
environment. The research funded under the STAR Tribal
Environmental Health Research Program has supported
the critical research priorities of importance to tribal
communities. NCER anticipates that future collaborations
with the National EPA-Tribal Science Council and other
tribal science partners will ensure that the EPA STAR
grants program continues to fund critical, leading-edge
research that results in improved human heath for
tribal communities and protection of the tribal natural
resources. •
A Decade of Tribal Environmental Health Research: Results and Impacts from EPA's Extramural Grants and Fellowship Programs
-------
eferences
Appendix A: Summary of Tribal Environmental Health
Research Program STAR Grants by RFA
Appendix B: Outputs From Tribal Environmental Health
Research Program STAR Grants
Appendix C: Tribal Environmental Health Research Program
Presentations
Appendix D: Overview of Tribal Environmental Health Research
Program Grantee Webinars
Appendix E: Summary Tables of EPA Tribal Research Projects
Discussed Within the Report
Appendix F: Practical Applications of EPA Tribal Research
Appendix G: Additional Resources
-------
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A Decade of Tribal Environmental Health Research: Results and Impacts from EPA's Extramural Grants and Fellowship Programs
-------
Appendix A: Summary of Prior NCER Tribal Research
Appendix A: Summary of Tribal
Environmental Health Research
Program STAR Grants by RFA
Issues in Tribal Environmental Research and Health
Promotion: Novel Approaches for Assessing and Managing
Cumulative Risks and Impacts of Global Climate Change
(2007 RFA)
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recognized the need
to increase capacity within the tribes to assess differential subsistence-
based exposures related to cumulative chemical exposures and global
climate changes. As a result, this solicitation was designed to stimulate
community-based participatory research to generate data that identified
subsistence resources, sensitive populations within tribal communities,
complex chemical exposures from multiple sources and routes, and
links between environmental stressors and health outcomes. The Agency
was interested in research proposals that developed culturally relevant
strategies for exposure mitigation and/or health promotion. Four grants
were awarded under this RFA (U.S. EPA. 2012e). The remaining research
projects are scheduled to conclude in 2014.
R833705: An Epidemiologic Study of Time Trends and Health
Effects of Persistent Organic Pollutants, Mercury and
Micronutrients
This project is being carried out in Yupik Alaska Native residents living
in the Yukon-Kuskokwim River Delta of southwestern Alaska. Salmon
are the largest component of the subsistence diet for Alaska Native
people in the delta, with seals being second in importance in coastal
communities. Prior work has shown that pregnant Yupik women have
levels of persistent organic pollutants similar to other Arctic women, with
higher toxaphene, brominated flame retardants and mercury levels than
most other Arctic pregnant women.
The objectives of the research project were to: (1) determine time
trends in tissue levels of persistent organic pollutants, mercury and
omega-3 fatty acids in a cohort of 200 pregnant Yupik women and
infants (because climate change has increased atmospheric and ocean
transport of persistent organic pollutants and mercury to Alaska and
the Bering Sea, resulting in persistent organic pollutants and mercury
uptake by salmon, marine mammals and humans) and (2) determine,
using health record review, physical exam and statistical analysis, any
association between maternal levels of persistent organic pollutants and
mercury and risk for adverse health outcomes in mothers, infants and
prior cohort children between 4 and 7 years of age (because Alaska
Native infants have a higher risk of a serious infection in the first year
of life and a higher risk for congenital heart disease). The proposal
is examining the relative risk of these outcomes if they are prenatally
exposed to persistent organic pollutants in the highest tercile of the
cohort. Alaska Native 4- to 7-year-old children in the highest tercile of
prenatal mercury exposure are being compared to determine whether
they have significantly higher blood pressure than those in the lowest
tercile. Alaska Native women with blood levels of persistent organic
pollutants in the highest tercile are being compared with those having
POP levels in the lowest tercile to determine they have a greater risk of
diabetes.
R833706: Community-Based Risk Assessment of Exposure to
Contaminants via Water Sources on the Crow Reservation
in Montana
This project is a community-based participatory research project that
involves the University of New England, Montana State University, Little
Big Horn College and the Crow Tribe in developing risk assessment
methodology for multimedia exposure to contaminants in water and
wastewater.The objectives of the research were to: (1) establish a
sampling and analysis program to assess contaminant loadings to
water and aquatic/wetland subsistence foods, (2) evaluate lifestyle and
cultural practices that contribute to exposure risk from water sources,
(3) supplement the current Tribal Lifeline™ software to include water
contamination and exposure factors specific to reservation settings, and
(4) design and support culturally appropriate risk communication and
risk management measures that minimize impact on subsistence and
other traditional practices, which may be transferable to other tribes. This
research will test the following hypotheses:
• Contamination is not adequately monitored, and water resources on
the reservation are more contaminated than similar rural, non-AI/AN
communities.
• Subsistence lifestyles and cultural practices of Crow Reservation
communities place them at increased risk of exposure to
environmental contaminants.
• The Tribal Lifeline™ software will more accurately assess risks if it
includes exposure to water contaminants.
• A community-based participatory research approach to understanding
exposure pathways will contribute to developing culturally appropriate
mitigation strategies
• Including the local tribal college in risk assessment and management
will substantially strengthen and sustain community-based
participatory research methodology on reservations.
R833707: Impacts of Climate Change on Health Benefits of a Tribal
Alaskan Resource: Integrating Traditional Ecological
Knowledge With Risk Assessment Through Local
Monitoring
Within Alaska Native communities, traditional ecological knowledge
has long held that wild indigenous berries are a health-promoting, life-
sustaining resource. Modern science recently has elucidated specific
health-protective, adaptogenic properties of the natural components
within berry fruits. This project integrates biological scientific data
relevant to wild berry bioactive properties with community perceptions
of risk under the threat of global climate change and encroachment
on the habitat of the berry resources. The research hypothesis is that
there are predictable links between climatic stress factors and shifts
in climatic regimes, berry fruit composition and the preventative/
therapeutic value of berries to combat diabetes and other complications
of metabolic syndrome. It also is expected that tribal community
approaches to mitigating health risks through dietary berries will be
conditioned by community-held risk perceptions, local tribal knowledge
and uncertainties regarding global climate change impacts on these
valued resources.
The objectives of the research project were to: (1) provide a baseline
assessment of the bioactivity (health risk mitigation properties) of berry
resources as influenced by climatic stress factors relevant to global
climate change via cross-comparison of two Alaska tribal communities
characterized by inherently different climatic regimes and (2) assess
local traditional knowledge and risk perceptions regarding community
health, berries and climate change and integrate these aspects with
biophysical findings for informed local health-related decision-making.
R833708: Understanding the Cumulative Effects of Environmental
and Psycho-Social Stressors that Threaten the Pohlik-lah
and Ner-er-ner Lifeway: The Yurok Tribe's Approach
Coastal and river resources are primary and secondary food sources for
a majority of Yurok tribal members, particularly those residing near or
within Yurok ancestral territory. The researchers combined ethnography
and qualitative data on subsistence resources and practices from
previous and current tribal studies with quantitative data on chemical
exposures and epidemiological analyses of health data to determine
how these factors interact to affect the health of various vulnerable
populations within the Yurok Tribe.
The specific objectives of this research project were to: (1) identify the
chemical stressors and contaminants known to be used or to occur
historically and contemporarily throughout the Klamath River Basin and
watershed, (2) identify the common mechanism groups, pathways and
contaminants known to be used or to occur throughout the Klamath
Basin that are associated with adverse health outcomes, (3) collect
primary data on the current conditions of Klamath River water and
select key subsistence species by testing for selected contaminants and
chemical stressors as identified in the first two objectives, (4) identify
relationships between resource health and tribal member health, and
(5) develop geographic information system tools, educational materials,
measures and policies designed to reduce, minimize or prevent risks of
exposures by subsistence practitioners to improve and protect Klamath
River tribal members' and resource health. During the course of the
project, the researchers identified three additional research questions:
What contaminants currently are detectable in the river and key aquatic
subsistence resources? Is there a relationship between environmental
health as reflected by resource health and community health? How can
this study and the data produced from this study be used to identify and
reduce risk and improve tribal member and resource health?
A Decade of Tribal Environmental Health Research: Results and Impacts from EPA's Extramural Grants and Fellowship Programs
-------
Appendix A: Summary of Prior NCER Tribal Research
Lifestyle and Cultural Practices of Tribal Populations and
Risks From Toxic Substances in the Environment (2002
RFA)
This RFA focused on the need to develop methods to assess
subsistence-based exposure and increase capacity within the tribes
to assess environmental health threats from subsistence life styles. It
was designed to promote research that would help understand the
risks derived from the combined or "cumulative" exposure experience
associated with concurrent dietary, cultural and related practices. The
solicitation invited applications in two areas: (1) exposure and effects
assessment methods that can be broadly applied across geographic
regions and tribal populations and (2) risk management strategies and
options that would lead to reduction in risk from exposure. Five grants
were awarded under this RFA (U.S. EPA, 2012e).
R831043: Environmental Contaminants in Foodstuffs of Siberian
Yupiks from St. Lawrence Island, Alaska
The researchers previously showed that the Siberian Yupik people
of St. Lawrence Island, Alaska, have relatively high serum levels of
polychlorinated biphenyls and pesticides. This project examined
traditional foods of the Yupik people for polychlorinated biphenyls, three
pesticides and several metals to determine those that are the most
significant sources of exposure and how preparation for consumption
influences the level of contaminants.
R831044: lakotisa'tstentsera:wis Ne Ohontsia: Reducing Risk by
Restoring Relationships
This project aimed to develop and implement a research program to
examine the impacts that toxic substances have had on the traditional
cultural practices of Haudenosaunee Nations.This project provided training
to teachers, youth and Haudenosaunee Environmental Task Force staff
who are dealing with a variety of toxic substances impacting their health,
lands and future. Community-based participatory research methodologies
were used to develop culturally appropriate intervention materials and
design educational strategies based on oral tradition.The objectives of
the research project were to: (1) empower and strengthen the capacity
of Haudenosaunee scientists, environmental staff and educators; (2)
build on existing partnerships to share expertise and experiences; and
(3) provide hands-on training about the relationship between toxic
substances and traditional cultural practices. Secondary objectives were
to identify culturally appropriate strategies that effectively communicate
environmental health issues to Haudenosaunee, including youth, and
identify strategies that effectively evaluate the success of the project.
R831045: Risks to Northern Alaskan Ifiupiat: Assessing Potential
Effects of Oil Contamination on Subsistence Lifestyles,
Health and Nutrition
Scientists have focused on the potential effects of toxic substances on
Native American populations with subsistence lifestyles in the Arctic
and found that risks from toxicant exposures range from direct health
hazards to changes in lifestyle that may impair nutrition and health.
Also, petroleum hydrocarbons may enter the Arctic environment in a
variety of ways and can enter humans through species that form a
major part of the Ifiupiat diet. In Barrow, Alaska, 75 percent of Ifiupiat
households consume bowhead whale (Balaena mysticetus), and
nearly 50 percent consume bearded seals (Erignathus barbatus).
Marine mammals are exposed to petroleum directly or through their
diet and may metabolically transform petroleum-related compounds.
Based on indications from toxicological properties, polycyclic aromatic
hydrocarbons in the human diet should be investigated. At the time of
the grant application, limited information was available on the extent to
which species eaten by the Ifiupiat were exposed to and contaminated
by petroleum. Contamination could cause Ifiupiat households to avoid
eating traditional foods, and handling and preparation of foods affect
levels of ingested polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.
The focus of this project was to evaluate the potential exposure to
the native Eskimos from petroleum exploration and drilling on their
subsistence harvested foods. The specific objectives of the research
were to: (1) characterize levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons
in a range of tissues from bowhead whales and bearded seals, (2)
characterize PAH levels in meat and other food items following their
handling and preparation for consumption, (3) document traditional
biomarkers that hunters and field scientists could use to accept or
reject tissues for consumption following harvest, (4) assess chemical or
histological assays that could serve as low cost biomarkers of exposure,
(5) use published information and the results of this study to develop
a risk assessment model incorporating health risks associated with
ingestion of petroleum-related compounds and cultural and nutritional
risks related to avoidance of certain foods, and (6) develop outreach
and public awareness programs to inform residents in northern Alaska of
issues, potential consequences and options.
R831046: Lifestyles and Cultural Practices of Tribal Populations and
Risks From Toxic Substances in the Environment
The overall goals of the project were to prepare a set of regional
traditional tribal subsistence exposure scenarios based on the major
ecological zones across the lower 48 states. The specific objectives
were to: (1) establish an advisory board of tribal and university
community members to provide expertise in tribal cultural lifestyles,
nutrition, ecology and activity patterns; actively guide the project;
validate scenarios for cultural and numerical accuracy; and ensure
that they meet tribal needs; (2) develop regional traditional tribal
subsistence multipathway exposure scenarios based on ecocultural zone
delineations, major exposure factors, regional food patterns and unique
exposure pathways; and (3) develop a draft Tribal Exposure Scenario
Guidance Manual for use by tribes to modify, refine and adapt these
regional scenarios for their site-specific and/or individual tribal situations.
R831047: Reducing Risks of the Anishinaabe From Methyl Mercury
The purpose of this study was to develop, implement, evaluate and
document a comprehensive, systematic and culturally sensitive
intervention program to the reduce risks associated with subsistence-
based consumption of methyl mercury-contaminated fish. This research
project was built on EPA and National Academy of Sciences evaluations
of the toxicology of methyl mercury.
This study attempted to revise the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife
Commission's geographic information system-based fish advisory
methodology to comply with EPA risk-based fish consumption guidance
while not significantly compromising Anishinaabe culture. Secondly,
the study aimed to develop connections to social-tribal networks and
systematically train health care providers, tribal fish harvesters, elders
and youth in the use of the geographic information system-based fish
advisory. Third, the research project aimed to implement the geographic
information system-based intervention program through established
networks to reach mothers with young children, women of childbearing
age, pregnant mothers, breastfeeding mothers and children under the
age of 15. Finally, the study evaluated and documented the efficacy
of the geographic information system-based intervention program
by measuring the change in knowledge and behaviors of targeted
populations as well as the educators of those populations before and
after implementation.
Environmental Justice: Partnerships for Communication
(2000 RFA)
The goal of this RFA was to promote research aimed at achieving
environmental justice by identifying and addressing disproportionately
high and adverse effects of environmental agents on human health
in low-income and minority populations. The Agency desired to
promote research activities such as the development of methods for
risk communication in low-income and underserved communities
unfavorably impacted by environmental hazards; development of
community-based, culturally sensitive educational programs to reduce
adverse health effects from environmental toxicants in low-income and
underserved communities; promotion of public awareness through
community-based training to increase environmental health literacy; and
raising the awareness of health care providers about disorders resulting
from exposure to environmental hazards. One grant was awarded under
this RFA (U.S. EPA, 2012e).
R829476: Bioaccumulative Toxics in Native American Shellfish
The two-part central hypothesis of this research project stated that the
Swinomish people are exposed to low-level, chronic, bioaccumulative
toxics when participating in subsistence consumption of shellfish in tra-
ditional harvesting areas and that this exposure contributes to the high
incidences of health-related problems on the reservation.The two primary
objectives of the project were to: (1) determine the type and concentra-
tions of bioaccumulative toxics present in shellfish and (2) determine
what, if any, connections exist between shellfish toxics and the health
of the Swinomish people.The secondary objective was to communicate
effective and culturally appropriate information regarding identified health
risks to the Swinomish community and nearby tribes who also participate
in subsistence shellfish harvesting to develop and implement mitigation
measures to reduce health risks from shellfish consumption.
This project was intended to complement other ongoing, funded projects,
such as the paralytic sheljfish poison monitoring program, fresh and
marine water quality monitoring programs, ambient air quality program,
the EPA nonpoint source poljution Clean Water Act Section 319 program,
and the Swinomish indoor air quality/medical clinic health monitoring
program.
A Decade of Tribal Environmental Health Research: Results and Impacts from EPA's Extramural Grants and Fellowship Programs
-------
Appendix B: Outputs From Tribal Environmental Health Research Program STAR Grants
Appendix B: Outputs From Tribal
Environmental Health Research Program
STAR Grants
Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles
Broadaway SC, Eggers MJ, Hamner S, Parker A, Camper AK, and Pyle
BH. 2013. Detection of Cryptosporidium using Fluorescent in situ
Hybridization and Solid Phase Laser Cytometry (in preparation).
Christopher S, Saha R, Lachapelle P, Jennings D, Colclough Y, Cooper C,
Cummins C, Eggers MJ, FourStar K, Harris K, Kuntz SW, LaFromboise V,
LaVeaux D, McDonald T, Bird JR, Rink E, and Webster L. 2011. Applying
Indigenous Community-Based Participatory Research Principles to
Partnership Development in Health Disparities Research.fa/m'/yana1
Community Health 34(3):246-255.
Cummins C, Doyle JT, Kindness L, Lefthand MJ, Bear Don't Walk UJ,
Bends A, Broadaway SC, Camper AK, Fitch R, Ford TE, Hamner S, Morrison
AR, Richards CL, Young SL, and Eggers MJ. 2010. Community-Based
Participatory Research in Indian Country: Improving Health Through
Water Quality Research and Awareness. Family and Community Health
33(3): 166-174.
DeWeese AD, Kmiecik NE, Chiriboga ED, and Foran JA. 2009. Efficacy
of Risk-Based, Culturally Sensitive Ogaa (Walleye) Consumption Advice
for Anishinaabe Tribal Members in the Great Lakes Region. Risk Analysis
29(5)729-742.
Donatuto J and Harper BL. 2008. Issues in Evaluating Fish Consumption
Rates for Native American Tribes. Risk Analysis 28:1497-1506.
Doyle JT, Redsteer MH, and Eggers MJ. 2013 Exploring Effects of Climate
Change on Northern Plains American Indian Health. Climatic Change
120(3):643-655.
Flint CG, Robinson ES, Kellogg J, Ferguson G, BouFajreldin L, Dolan
M, Raskin I, and Lila MA. Promoting Wellness in Alaskan Villages:
Integrating Traditional Knowledge and Science of Wild Berries. EcoHealth
2011;8(2): 199-209.
Foran JA, DeWeese AD, Hudson MJ, and Kmiecik NE. 2010. Evaluation
of Mercury Exposure Reduction Through a Fish Consumption Advisory
Program for Anishinaabe Tribal Members in Northern Wisconsin,
Michigan, and Minnesota. Journal of Environmental and Public Health.
Article ID 802584,7 pp. (doi: 10.1155/2010/802584)
Hamner S, Broadaway SC, Berg E, Stettner S, Pyle BH, Big Man N,
Old Elk J, Eggers MJ, Doyle J, Kindness L, Good Luck B, Ford TE, and
Camper AK. 2013. Detection and Source Tracking of Escherichia coli,
Harboring Intimin and Shiga Toxin Genes, Isolated From the Little Bighorn
River, Montana. International Journal of Environmental Health Research.
doi: 10. 1080/096031 23.201 3.835030. E-published 17 Sept.
Harding AK, Harper B, Stone D, O'Neill C, Berger P, Harris S, and Donatuto
J. 2012. Conducting Research With Tribal Communities: Sovereignty,
Ethics, and Data-Sharing Issues. Environmental Health Perspectives
Harper BL, Harding AK, Harris S, and Berger P. 2012. Subsistence
Exposure Scenarios for Tribal Applications. Human and Ecological Risk
Assessment: An International Journal 1 8(4) :81 0-831 .
Judd NL, Drew CH.Acharya C, Marine Resources for Future Generations,
Mitchell TA, Donatuto JL, Burns GW, BurbacherTM, and Faustman EM.
2005. Framing Scientific Analyses for Risk Management of Environmental
Hazards by Communities: Case Studies With Seafood Safety Issues.
Environmental Health Perspectives 113(11):! 502- 1 508 .
Kellogg J, Higgs C, and Lila MA. 201 1 . Prospects for Commercialisation
of an Alaska Native Wild Resource as a Commodity Crop. The Journal of
Entrepreneurship 20(1)77-101 .
Kellogg J, Joseph G.Andrae-Marobela K, SosomeA, Flint C, Kormarnytsky
S, Fear G, Struwe L, Raskin I, and Lila MA. 2010. Screens-to-Nature:
Opening Doors to Traditional Knowledge and Hands-on Science
Education. NACTA Journal 54(3):41-48.
Kellogg J.Wang J, Flint C, Ribnicky D, Kuhn P, Gonzalez De Mejia E,
Raskin I, and Lila MA. 201 0. Alaskan Wild Berry Resources and Human
Health Under the Cloud of Climate Change. Journal of Agricultural and
Food C/iem/sfry 58(7):3884-3900.
Light AR. 2008. Beyond the Myth of Everglades Settlement: The Need for
Sustainability Jurisprudence. Tulsa /.aw/?ew'enM4(l):253-274.
Light AR. 2006. The Waiter at the Party: A Parable of Ecosystem
Management in the Everglades. ELR News and Analysis 36(10):10771-
10785.
Lila MA, Kellogg J, Flint C, and Raskin 1. 2010. Arctic Berries: Stressed for
Success. Pharmaceutical Biology 48 (Suppl 1):2.
Madsen ER, DeWeese AD, Kmiecik N, Foran JA, and Chiriboga ED.
2008. Methods To Develop Consumption Advice for Methyl Mercury-
Contaminated Walleye Harvested by Ojibwe Tribes in the 1837 and 1842
Ceded Territories of Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, USA. Integrated
Environmental Assessment and Management 4 ( 1 ) : 1 1 8- 1 24 .
Sepez J. 2008. Historical Ecology of Makah Subsistence Foraging
Patterns. Journal of Ethnobiology 2S,(])\] 10-133.
Sepez J. 2002.Treaty Rights and the Right to Culture: Native American
Subsistence Issues in U.S. Law. Cultural Dynamics 14(2):143-159.
Sepez J. 1998. Aboriginal Whaling—Biological Diversity Meets Cultural
Diversity. Northwest Science 72(2): 142-145.
Sepez J and Lazrus H (eds.). 2005. Special Theme Issue:Traditional
Environmental Knowledge in Federal Natural Resource Management
Agencies. Practicing Anthropology 27(1): 1 -48.
Solomon M. A Sacred Duty:Tribal "Treatment as State" Under the Clean
Water Act and Restoring Native Fisheries in the Upper Columbia River
Basin. Society & Natural Resources (in review).
Solomon M. Culture Matters: A Game Theoretic Analysis of Tribal/State
Water Resource Conflicts in the Upper Columbia River Basin. The Social
Science Journal (in review).
Wei CA and Woodin T. 2011. Undergraduate Research Experiences in
Biology: Alternatives to the Apprenticeship Model. CBE—Life Sciences
Education 10(2):123-131.
Welfinger-Smith G, Minholz JL, Byrne S, Waghiyi V, Gologergen J, Kava
J, Apatiki M, Ungott E, Miller PK, Arnason JG, and Carpenter DO. 2011.
Organochlorine and Metal Contaminants in Traditional Foods From St.
Lawrence Island, Alaska. Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health,
Part A, 74(18):! 195-1214.
Welfinger-Smith G. 2008. Contaminants in the Traditional Foods of
the Yupik People of St. Lawrence Island, Alaska—Exposure Pathways,
Collaborative Interventions, and Prevention. Epidemiology 19(6):S72-
S73.
Zota AR, Schaider LA, Ettinger AS, Wright RO, Shine JP, and Spengler JD.
2011. Metal Sources and Exposures in the Homes of Young Children
Living Near a Mining-Impacted Superfund Site. Journal of Exposure
Science and Environmental Epidemiology 2011;21 (5):495-505.
Zota AR, Willis R, Jim R, Norris GA, Shine JP, Duvall RM, Schaider LA,
and Spengler JD. 2009. Impact of Mine Waste on Airborne Respirable
Particulates in Northeastern, Oklahoma, United States. Journal of the Air
& Waste Management Association 59(11): 1347-1357.
Books, Proceedings, Technical Reports, Guidance Manuals and Other
Publications
Arquette M and Cole M. 2004. Restoring Our Relationships for the Future.
In: Blaser M, Feit HA, and McRae G (eds). In the Way of Development:
Indigenous Peoples, Life Projects and Globalization. ZedBooks: London,
pp. 332-350.
A Decade of Tribal Environmental Health Research: Results and Impacts from EPA's Extramural Grants and Fellowship Programs
-------
Appendix B: Outputs From Tribal Environmental Health Research Program STAR Grants
Basabe FA and Donatuto J. 2001. Bioaccumulative Toxics in Native
American Shellfish Quality Assurance Project Plan. Swinomish Indian
Tribal Community: La Conner, Washington.
California Tribal Epidemiology Center. 2012. Yurok Tribe Environmental
Community Health Profile 2004-2011. California Tribal Epidemiology
Center, California Rural Indian Health Board: Sacramento, California.
March.
Cherokee Nation Natural Resources Department. 2009. Wild Plants of
the Cherokee Nation. Cherokee Nation Foundation: Tahlequah, Oklahoma.
Donatuto J. 2002. Quality Assurance Project Plan for Speciated Arsenic
Analyses in Saxidomis giganteus. Swinomish Indian Tribal Community: La
Conner, Washington.
Eggers MJ, Lefthand MJ, Young SL, Doyle JT, and Plenty Hoops A. 2013.
When It Comes to Water, We Are All Close Neighbors. Published on It All
Starts With Science: An EPA Blog About Science Matters. 6 June, http://
blog. epa. gov/science/2013/06/when-it-comes-to-water-we-are-all-close-
neighbors/
Etnier M and Sepez J. 2008. Changing Patterns of Sea Mammal
Exploitation among the Makah. In: Layton R, Maschner H, and
Papagianni D (eds.). Time and Change: Archaeology and Anthropological
Perspectives on the Long-Term in Hunter-Gatherer Societies. Oxbow
Press: Woodbridge, Connecticut, pp. 143-158.
Fitch JH. 2009. Pedagogic Opportunities in Designing and Developing
Sustainable Affordable Housing and Outdoor Classrooms in Southwest
Florida. Greening of the Campus VIII Conference Proceedings,
Indianapolis, Indiana, 20-23 September.
Harper BL, Harding AK, Waterhouse T, and Harris S. 2007. Traditional Tribal
Subsistence Exposure Scenario and Risk Assessment Guidance Manual.
Oregon State University Printing and Mailing: Corvallis, Oregon.
Johnson SW. 2003. Needs Assessment of Tribal Requirements for
Instruction in the Use of Statistically-Based Aquatic Water Quality
Monitoring Techniques. Final Report prepared by Water Quality
Technology, Inc.: Fort Collins, Colorado. 12 pp.
Johnson W and Sepez-Aradanas J. 1999. Harvest From the Sea
(editorial). The New York Times, The Seattle Times, and The Port Angeles
Daily News. 2] May.
Kellogg J, Yousef GG, Grace MH, Flint C, Raskin I, and Lila MA. 2009.
Partnering With Alaskan Communities To Examine Health Benefits
of Traditional Wild Berries. The FASEB Journal 23(Meeting Abstract
Supplement):LB469.
Kellogg JJ. 2009. Bioexploration of Wild Alaskan Berries: From Field
Screening to Functional Food. M.S. Thesis. University of Illinois at Urbana-
Champaign: Urbana, Illinois.
Lila MA, Kellogg J, Flint C, and Raskin I. 2010. Arctic Berries: Stressed for
Success. Pharmaceutical Biology 48(Suppl 1):2.
Native Lens Video. 2006. Slow Bum (documentary film).
Norman K, Sepez J, Lazrus H, Milne N, Package C, Russell S, Grant K,
Petersen Lewis R, Primo J, Springer E, Styles M.Tilt B, and Vaccaro I.
2007. Community Profiles for West Coast and North Pacific Fisheries-
Washington, Oregon, California, and other U.S. States. National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration Technical Memorandum NMFS-
NWFSC-85. 602 pp.
Reynolds III JE and Wetzel DL. 2007. Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon
(PAH) Residues in Matrices of Bowhead Whales (Balaena mysticetus)
and Bearded Seals (Erignathus barbatus). Proceedings of the 17th
Biennial Conference on the Biology of Marine Mammals, Cape Town,
South Africa, 29 November-3 December.
Reynolds III JE, Wetzel DL, Hanns C, Mercuric P, and O'Hara TM. 2005.
Analyses of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Sediments, Fish and
Marine Mammals From the North Slope of Alaska. Proceedings of
International Symposium on Oil and Gas Activities in the Arctic, St.
Petersburg, Russia, 13-15 September, pp. 594-598.
Rickard PM and Hargrove G. 2008. KANIEN'KEHA:KA: Living the Language.
Video aired on the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network, Fall.
Sepez-Aradanas J and Tweedie A. 1999. Makah Harpoons vs. Media
Hype: Cultural Stereotypes, Academic Research, and Public Policy. Oregon
Humanities Magazine Fall 1999:48-53.
Swinomish 13 Moons Coloring Book.
Swinomish 13 Moons Traditional Foods Book.
Swinomish Tribe Office of Planning and Community. 2006.
Bioaccumulative Toxics in Subsistence-Harvested Shellfish—Contaminant
Results and Risk Assessment. 1 December.
Urquhart NS and Moore JC. 2004. Statistics in EPA's STAR Program:
Learning Materials for Surface Water Monitoring. OPPTS Tribal News
4(3):45-46.
Wapner J. 2011 .The Struggle to Save Alaska's 'Illness-Busting'Wild
Berries. The EcologistJ September.
Weisiger M. 2009. Dreaming of Sheep in Navajo Country. University of
Washington Press: Seattle, Washington.
Wetzel DL, Mercuric P, Reynolds III JE, and George JC. 2007. The Pursuit
of Precise and Accurate Methods To Determine Ages of Bowhead Whales
(Balaena mysticetus). Proceedings of the 17th Biennial Conference
on the Biology of Marine Mammals, Capetown, South Africa, 29
November-3 December.
Wetzel DL and Reynolds III JE. 2006. Review of Effects of PAH Exposures
on Marine Mammals and a Suggested Approach for Assessing PAH
Levels and Effects in Sotalia. Proceedings of the Workshop on Research
and Conservation of the Genus Sotalia, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 19-23
June.
Presentations
Akwesasne Task Force on the Environment. 2004. lakoti'satstenhserd:wis
Ne Ohon:tsia: They Strengthen The Earth Program Valuation.
Arquette M. 2007. Akwesasne Task Force on the Environment Inc.
Akwesasne Freedom School: A Place to Maintain and Renew
Relationships. Presented at the State University of New York Potsdam
Campus Festival and International Conference: Connections and
Intersections—Our Changing Landscape, Potsdam, New York, 18-22
April.
Arquette M. 2006. Haudenosaunee Environmental Protection Process
(HEPP): Applying Traditional Teachings to Protect the Natural World and
Promote a Sustainable Society. Presented at the National Forum on
Tribal Environmental Science, Quinault Indian Nation, Ocean Shores,
Washington, 24-28 September.
Arquette M. 2005. Connecting social and environmental factors to
measure and track environmental health disparities summary report.
Presented at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Office of
Children's Health Protection Meeting, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor,
Michigan, 24-25 May.
Berner JE. 2012. Human Health Effects of Persistent Organic
Contaminants in the Arctic: Update of Current Findings. Presented to the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's National Center for Environmental
Research, Washington, DC, May.
Berner JE. 2011. Maternal Organics Monitoring (MOM) Study Data.
Presented at the Summer Institute of Circumpolar Health Research, Oulu
University, Oulu, Finland, June.
Berner JE. 2010. Maternal Organics Monitoring (MOM) Study Data.
Presented at the Annual General Meeting of the International Network for
Circumpolar Health Research, Copenhagen, Denmark, 18-19 May.
Berner JE. 2009. Maternal Organics Monitoring Program and Initial
Findings. Presented at the Annual General Meeting of the International
Network for Circumpolar Health Research, Copenhagen, Denmark, 18-19
May.
Berner JE. 2009. Climate Change and Contaminants in Subsistence
Foods: A Tribal Program To Monitor the Health of Alaskan Yupik Woman
and Children. Presented jointly at the Promoting Environmental Health
in Native American Communities Webinar Series and the National EPA-
Tribal Science Council, 10 December.
A Decade of Tribal Environmental Health Research: Results and Impacts from EPA's Extramural Grants and Fellowship Programs
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Appendix B: Outputs From Tribal Environmental Health Research Program STAR Grants
Berner JE. 2009. Maternal Organics Monitoring Program and Initial
Findings. Presented to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/
National Center for Environmental Health, Atlanta, Georgia, July.
Berner JE. 2009. Maternal Organics Monitoring Program and Initial
Findings. Presented to the Yukon Kusokwim Human Studies Committee,
Bethel, Alaska, December.
Berner JE. 2009. Maternal Organics Monitoring Program and Initial
Findings. Presented at the Northern Contaminants Program and Arctic
Monitoring Assessment Program (AMAP) Symposium on Human Health
and Arctic Environmental Contaminants, Iqaluit, Nunavut, Canada, 10-12
June.
Big Man N, Smith Backbone A, Cummins C, Eggers M, and Camper A.
2009. Community-Based Risk Assessment of Exposure to Contaminants
Through Water Sources on the Crow Reservation. Poster presented at the
Western Region COBRE-INBRE Scientific Conference, Big Sky, Montana,
16-18 September.
Burger J, Gochfield M, and Harper B. 2008. Identifying High-End and
Highly Impacted Fish Consumers: Methods for Assessing Exposure Risk
for Populations with High Fish Consumption Rates. Presented at the
International Society of Exposure Analysis Annual Meeting, Pasadena,
California, 13 October.
Camper AK, Doyle J, Bear Don't Walk U, Lefthand M, Shield M, Cummins
C, Good Luck B, Hamner S, Broadaway S, and Eggers, M. 2010.
Community-Based Risk Assessment on the Crow Reservation. Presented
at the Center for Native Health Partnerships Webinar, Bozeman, Montana,
20 December.
Cummins C, Bends A, Young S, and Eggers M. 2010. Crow Water Quality
Project: Using community based participatory research to address
local environmental and health concerns. Panel presentation at the
Earth Rights: Learning the Language of Indigenous Environmentalism
Conference, Bozeman, Montana, 1-2 April.
Cummins C, Doyle J, Kindness L, Young SL, Ford TE, and Eggers MJ.
2010. Community-Based Risk Assessment of Exposure to Contaminants
via Water Sources on the Crow Reservation in Montana. Panel
presentation at the 2010 National Tribal Science Forum,Traverse City,
Michigan, 10 June.
Cummins C and Eggers M. 2009. Developing Community Based-
Participatory Research With Little Big Horn College, the Crow Reservation
Community and Montana State University. Presented at the Western
Region COBRE-INBRE Scientific Conference, Big Sky, Montana, 16-18
September.
Cummins C, Ford T, Doyle J, Kindness L, Bear Don't Walk U, and
Eggers M. 2009. Community-Based Risk Assessment of Exposure to
Contaminants via Water Sources on the Crow Reservation in Montana.
Presented at the Promoting Environmental Health in Native American
Communities Webinar Series, 18 November.
Groom DB and Lila MA. 2013. Bioexploration Beyond The Field -To the
Laboratory, Curriculum, Clinical, and Commercial. Presented at the U.S.
Department of Agriculture (USDA) Higher Education Challenge (HEC)
Workshop/United Tribes Technical College Summer Camp, Bismarck,
North Dakota, July.
Groom DB and Lila MA. 2013. Goals and Outcomes for Student
Bioexploration Experiences. Presented at the USDA HEC Finale Workshop,
Kannapolis, North Carolina, July.
Groom DB and Lila MA. 2013.TEK + STNs + STEM: Measuring Levels of
Engagement. Presented at the USDA HEC Finale Workshop Curriculum
Roundtable, Kannapolis, North Carolina, July.
Groom DB and Lila MA. 2013. The Science Behind Traditional Knowledge:
An In-Field Plants Bioassay Method Boosts STEM Engagement of
American Indian and Alaska Native High School Students. Presented at
the 59th Annual North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture
Conference, Blacksburg, Virginia, 26 June.
Dietrich E, Rao V, Allen C, Doyle JT, Old Coyote TJ, Eggers MJ, and
Camper AK. 2013. Service Learning to Address Drinking Water Quality
through Community-Based Participatory Research on the Crow
Reservation. Presented at the Montana INBRE Network Research and
Training Symposium, Bozeman, Montana, 17-19, April.
Donatuto J. 2006. The Importance of Fish Consumption Surveys
for Native Americans. Seminar presented at the University of British
Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
Donatuto J. 2006. Swinomish Tribe's Bioaccumulative Toxics and Native
American Shellfish Project. Presented to the Skagit Marine Resources
Committee, Mt.Vernon, Washington.
Donatuto J. 2006. Swinomish Tribe's Bioaccumulative Toxics and Native
American Shellfish Project. Presented at the People for Puget Sound's
Toxics Forum, Seattle, Washington.
Donatuto J. 2006. Articulating Sociocultural Health Effects From
Contaminated Subsistence Foods. Presented at the 141st American
Public Health Association Annual Meeting and Exposition, Boston,
Massachusetts, 4-8 November.
Donatuto J. 2006. Fish Consumption and Policy in the Tribal Context.
Presented at the 66th Annual Meeting of the Society for Applied
Anthropology, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, 28 March-2 April.
Donatuto J. 2006. Results and Discussion of the Swinomish Tribe's
Toxics in Shellfish Project. Presented at the U.S. Environmental Port
Agency Tribal Leaders Summit, Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian
Reservation, Pendleton, Oregon.
Donatuto J. 2006. Results and Discussion of the Swinomish Tribe's
Toxics in Shellfish Project. Presented at the National Forum on
Tribal Environmental Science, Quinault Indian Nation, Ocean Shores,
Washington, 24-28 September.
Donatuto J. 2005. Rounding the Home Stretch: Learning Experiences
from the Bioaccumulative Toxics in Native American Shellfish Project.
Presented at the Puget Sound Georgia Basin Research Conference,
Seattle, Washington, 29-31 March.
Donatuto J. 2005. Bioaccumulative Toxics in Native American Shellfish.
Presented at the Region 10 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Tribal
Leaders Summit, Sitka, Alaska.
Donatuto J. 2004. Bioaccumulative Toxics in Native American Shellfish.
Presented at the U.S Environmental Protection Agency Region 10 Tribal
Conference: Collaborating for Success, Bow, Washington, 19 May.
Donatuto J. 2004. Update on the Bioaccumulative Toxics in Native
American Shellfish Project. Poster presented at the National Institute
for Environmental Health Sciences Annual Grantees Conference,
Albuquerque, New Mexico, 13-15 June.
Donatuto J. 2004. Swinomish Toxics Trends in Sediment Monitoring
Project Report. Presented to the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community, La
Conner, Washington.
Donatuto J. 2004. Bioaccumulative Toxics in Native American Shellfish.
Presented at the National Tribal Environmental Council Meeting,
Marysville, Washington.
Donatuto J. 2004. Developing a Human Health and Cultural Risk
Assessment: Toxics in Shellfish on the Swinomish Reservation. Presented
at the 64th Annual Meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology,
Dallas,Texas, 31 March-4 April.
Donatuto J. 2004. Subsistence Lifeways: Native American Fish
Consumption Rates and Risk. Presented at the Fourth Society of
Toxicology and Environmental Chemistry World Congress and 25th
Annual Meeting, Portland, Oregon, 14-18 November.
Donatuto J. 2003. Project Design and Implementation: Bioaccumulative
Toxics in Native American Shellfish. Presented at the Georgia Basin/
Puget Sound Research Conference, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada,
31 March-3 April.
A Decade of Tribal Environmental Health Research: Results and Impacts from EPA's Extramural Grants and Fellowship Programs
-------
Appendix B: Outputs From Tribal Environmental Health Research Program STAR Grants
Donatuto J. 2003. Project Design and Implementation: Bioaccumulative
Toxics in Native American Shellfish. Presented to the Northwest Indian
Fisheries Commission, La Conner, Washington.
Donatuto J. 2003. Project Design and Implementation: Bioaccumulative
Toxics in Native American Shellfish. Presented at the People for Puget
Sound Meeting, Bellingham, Washington.
Donatuto J and Basabe T. 2003. Project Design and Implementation:
Bioaccumulative Toxics in Native American Shellfish. Presented at the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Science To Achieve Results Human
Health Symposium, Washington, DC, 9-10 April.
Donatuto J and Campbell L. 2003. Project Design and Implementation:
Bioaccumulative Toxics in Native American Shellfish. Presented at the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Science Forum, Washington, DC,
5-7 May.
Donatuto J and Harper B. 2008. Defining and Evaluating Risks
from Contaminated Food in a Native American Fishing Community
(Swinomish). Presented at the International Society of Exposure Analysis
Annual Meeting, Pasadena, California, 15 October.
Donatuto J and O'Hara C. 2002. Project Design and Implementation:
Bioaccumulative Toxics in Native American Shellfish. Presented at the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 10 Tribal Conference,
Lincoln City, Oregon.
Donatuto J and Smith K. 2005. Bioaccumulative Toxics in Native
American Shellfish. Poster presented at the National Institute for
Environmental Health Sciences Annual Grantees Conference Jalkeetna,
Alaska, 19-22 September.
Doyle JT, Kindness L, Bear Don't Walk UJ, Realbird J, Eggers MJ, Bends
AL, Crow Environmental Health Steering Committee, and Camper AK.
2012. For As Long As the Grass Shall Grow and the Rivers Shall Flow:
Clean Water, a Sovereign Responsibility. Plenary presentation at the
National Congress of American Indians Tribal Leader and Scholar Forum,
Lincoln, Nebraska, 17-20 June.
Doyle JT, Kindness L, Bear Don't Walk U, Realbird J, Eggers MJ, Crow
Environmental Health Steering Committee, Ford TE, and Camper AK.
2013. Addressing Disparities in Safe Drinking Water Access on the Crow
Reservation, Montana. Presented at the Environmental Health Disparities
and Environmental Justice Meeting, Raleigh, North Carolina, 29-31 July.
Doyle JT, Kindness L, Bear Don't Walk U, Realbird J, Eggers MJ, Crow
Environmental Health Steering Committee, Ford TE, and Camper
AK. 2012. Reducing Tribal Health Disparities Through Solving Water
Infrastructure Challenges. Presented at the National Institutes of
Health's National Institute of General Medical Sciences Fourth Biennial
National IDeA Symposium of Biomedical Research Excellence (NISBRE),
Washington, DC, 25-27 June.
Doyle JT, Kindness L, Bear Don't Walk U, Realbird J, Eggers MJ, Old
Coyote TJ, Crow Environmental Health Steering Committee, Ford TE, and
Camper AK. 2012. Addressing Disparities in Safe Drinking Water Access
on the Crow Reservation, Montana. Presented at the National Institutes
of Health Summit on the Science of Eliminating Health Disparities,
National Harbor, Maryland, 17-19 December.
Doyle JT, Kindness L, Bends AL, Eggers MJ, Old Coyote TJ, Crow
Environmental Health Steering Committee, and Camper AK. 2012. For As
Long As the Grass Shall Grow and the Rivers Shall Flow: Clean Water, a
Sovereign Responsibility. Panel presentation at the National Congress of
American Indians Tribal Leader and Scholar Forum, Lincoln, Nebraska,
17-20 June.
Doyle JT and Young SL. 2013. Understanding and Addressing Disparities
in Safe Drinking Water Access on the Crow Reservation. Presented at the
Third Biennial Western Regional IDeA Scientific Conference, Honolulu,
Hawaii, 6-8 October.
Eggers MJ and Bull Chief E. 2012. Health Risks of Lead Exposure from
Elk and Deer Meat Consumption. Presented at the Native American
Fish & Wildlife Society 23rd Annual Great Plains Regional Conference,
Bozeman, Montana, 27-29 March.
Eggers MJ, Cummins C, Crow Environmental Health Steering Committee,
Sigler A, Hamner S, Richards CL, Big Man N, Ford TE, and Camper AK.
2010. Community-Based Risk Assessment on the Crow Reservation.
Poster presented at the Third Biennial National IDeA Symposium of
Biomedical Research Excellence, Bethesda, Maryland, 16-18 June.
Eggers M, Cummins C, Richards C, the Crow Environmental Health
Steering Committee, Hamner S, Broadaway S, Young SL, Ford.T, and
Camper A. 2009. Community-Based Risk Assessment on the Crow
Reservation. Poster presented at the Western Region COBRE-INBRE
Scientific Conference, Big Sky, Montana, 16-18 September.
Eggers MJ, Doyle JT, Lefthand ML, Kindness L, Young SL, Good Luck
BT, McCormick AKHG, Dietrich E, Felicia DL, Ford TE, Roberts D, and
Camper AK. 2013. Community-Based Risk Assessment of Exposure to
Waterborne Contaminants, Crow Reservation, Montana. Presented at the
Environmental Health Disparities and Environmental Justice Meeting,
Raleigh, North Carolina, 29-31 July.
Eggers MJ, Doyle JT, Old Coyote TJ, Camper AK, Crow Environmental
Health Steering Committee, Ford TE. 2012. Addressing Health Disparities
and Learning Science Through Community-Based Participatory Research,
Crow Reservation, Montana. Invited panel presentation at the National
Institutes of Health Summit on the Science of Eliminating Health
Disparities, National Harbor, Maryland, 17-19 December.
Eggers MJ, Moore-Nail AL, Doyle JT, Crow Environmental Health Steering
Committee, Lageson DR, Roberts D, and Camper AK. 2013. Crow Water
Quality Project: A Community Based Participatory Approach Finds
Elevated Uranium in Wells on the Crow Indian Reservation, Big Horn
County, Montana. Presented at the Fifth Annual International Conference
on Medical Geology, Arlington, Virginia, 25-29 August.
Eggers MJ, Old Coyote TJ, Doyle JT, Kindness L, Lefthand MJ, Bear Don't
Walk UJ, Young SL, Bends AL, Good Luck B, Stewart R, Leider A, White
Clay S, Dietrich E, Ford TE, and Camper AK. 2012. Using Community
Based Risk Assessment to Address Health Risks from Waterborne
Contaminants on the Crow Reservation. Presented at the National
Institutes of Health Summit on the Science of Eliminating Health
Disparities, National Harbor, Maryland, 17-19 December.
Eggers MJ, Old Coyote TJ, Dietrich E, Doyle JT, Lefthand MJ, Kindness
L, Bear Don't Walk UJ, Young, SL, Bends AL, Good Luck B, Stewart
R, Hamner S, Broadaway SC, Ford TE, and Camper AK. 2012. Using
Community-Based Risk Assessment to Reduce Tribal Health Risks from
Water Contamination. Poster presented at the National Institutes of
Health's National Institute of General Medical Sciences Fourth Biennial
National IDeA Symposium of Biomedical Research Excellence (NISBRE),
Washington, DC, 25-27 June.
Eggers M, Old Coyote T, Ford T, Camper A, and Crow Environmental
Health Steering Committee. 2011. Community-Based Risk Assessment of
Exposure to Contaminants via Water Sources on the Crow Reservation
in Montana. Presented to the Harvard University Group, Pine Creek,
Montana, 6 June.
Etnier M and Sepez J. 2003. Ecological, Political, and Cultural
Explanations for Changing Patterns of Sea Mammal Exploitation Among
the Makah. Presented at the Alaska Anthropological Association Annual
Meeting, Fairbanks, Alaska, March.
Fields N, Wetzel D, Reynolds J, Miller P, Waghiyi V, Kmiecik N, Donatuto
J, Harper B, Harris S, Waterhous T, and Harding A. 2006. Advancing
Exposure and Intervention Research to Protect Native American Tribal
Populations. Poster presented at the International Conference on
Environment, Epidemiology, and Exposure, Paris, France, 2-6 September.
Fitch JH. 2009. Sustainability: An Emerging Substrate for Creativity,
Interdisciplinarity, Integrative Learning, and Survival. Presented at the
31st Conference of the Association for Integrated Studies, University of
Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, 8 October.
Flint CG. 2010. Perceptions of Ecosystem Services and Threats to
Well-Being From an Alaska Native Community. Presented at the ACES
(A Community on Ecosystem Services) Meeting, Gila River Indian
Community, Phoenix, AZ, 6-9 December.
A Decade of Tribal Environmental Health Research: Results and Impacts from EPA's Extramural Grants and Fellowship Programs
-------
Appendix B: Outputs From Tribal Environmental Health Research Program STAR Grants
Flint C and Lila MA. 2009. Alaskan Subsistence Resources and
Communities at Risk: Integrating Traditional Ecological Knowledge, Risk
Perception Assessment, and Plant Science in Participatory Research.
Presented at the Rural Sociological Society Annual Meeting, Madison,
Wisconsin, 30 July-2 August.
Flint CG and Lila MA. 2010. Traditional Knowledge and Perceptions
of Ecosystem and Community Well-Being in Three Alaska Native
Communities. Presented at the International Symposium for Society and
Resource Management, Corpus Christi.TX, 6-10 June.
Foran J. 2004. Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Fish Advisory
Program and STAR Grant Plans. Presented at the Fifth Annual
Environmental and Occupational Health Conference, Minneapolis,
Minnesota, 11-13 July.
Foran J. 2004. Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Fish Advisory
Program and STAR Grant Plans. Presented at the Great Lakes Research
Consortium State-National Consumption Advisory Workshop.
Ford TE, Eggers MJ, Cummins C, Doyle J, Kindness L, and Young SL.
2010. Translating Community-Based Participatory Research: Lessons
Learned. Panel presentation at the 2010 National Tribal Science Forum,
Traverse City, Michigan, 6-10 June.
Ford TE, Eggers MJ, Old Coyote TJ, Good Luck B, Felicia DL, Doyle JT,
Kindness L, Leider A, Moore-Nail A, Dietrich E, and Camper AK. 2012.
Comprehensive Community-Based Risk Assessment of Exposure to
Water-Borne Contaminants on the Crow Reservation. Presented at the
EPA Tribal Environmental Health Research Program Webinar, 17 October.
Hamner S, Broadaway S, Big Man N, Old Elk J, Doyle J, Kindness L,
Pyle B, Eggers M, Camper AK, and Ford T. 2012. Detection of Multiple
Enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coll Serotypes in the Little Bighorn River,
Montana, USA. Presented at the Society for General Microbiology Spring
Conference 2012, Dublin, Ireland, 26-29 March.
Harding A and Harper B. 2011 .Addressing Tribal Exposures to Polycyclic
Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) and Building Tribal Capacity Through
a Tribal-University Partnership. Presented at the National Institute of
Environmental Health Sciences and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Superfund Research Program Risk e-Learning Series Webinar, 23 May.
Harding A, Harper B, Harris S, Stone D.Anderson K, Simonich S, Uesugi S,
Forsberg N, Motorykin 0, Cardenas A, and Waters K. 2012. Working With
a Native American Community to Characterize (and Define) Their "Risk":
Risk as a Value-Based Decision Based on Important Cultural Practices.
Presented at the 140th American Public Health Association Annual
Meeting and Exposition, San Francisco, California, 30 October.
Harding AK, Harper BL, and Harris S. 2008. Estimating Environmental
Exposures for Tribes Engaged in Traditional Subsistence Lifestyles. Poster
presented at the 136th American Public Health Association Annual
Meeting and Exposition, San Diego, California, 25-29 October.
Harper B. 2010. Research Ethics and Informed Tribal Consent. Presented
at the Symposium on Conducting Research in Tribal Communities,
Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon, 7 April.
Harper B. 2009. Exposure Scenarios—Fish Consumption Rates Within
the larger Tribal Exposure Context. Presented at the Tribal Rights and
Fish Consumption Workshop: Issues and Opportunities for the Pacific
Northwest, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, 12 August.
Harper B. 2008. Bridging Western and Traditional Science in Assessing
Exposure in Subsistence Populations. Presented at the 18th Annual
International Society of Exposure Analysis Annual Meeting, Pasadena,
California, 15 October.
Harper B. 2008. Constructing Traditional Tribal Subsistence Exposure
Scenarios. Presented at the 18th Annual International Society of
Exposure Analysis Annual Meeting, Pasadena, California, 15 October.
Harper B and Harding A. 2008. Tribal Exposure Analysis and Scenario
Development. Presented at the EPA National Risk Assessors Training,
Seattle, Washington, 8 October.
Harper B, Harding A, and Harris S. 2007. A Multidisciplinary Approach
to Developing Tribal Exposure Scenarios. Presented at the International
Society for Exposure Analysis Annual Meeting, Durham, North Carolina,
18 October.
Harper B, Harding A, Waterhous T, Harris S, and Fleming H. 2006.
Estimating Environmental Exposures for Tribes Practicing Traditional
Subsistence Lifestyles: Part 1: Cross-Cultural Methods and Part 2:
Research Results for Specific Exposure Pathways. Poster presented at the
National Forum on Tribal Environmental Science, Quinault Indian Nation,
Ocean Shores, Washington, 24-28 September.
Harper BL, Harding AK, Waterhous TS, Harris SG, Wilcox AR, McCulley EA,
and Fleming HS. 2005. Regional Tribal Exposure Scenarios Based on
Major Ecological Zones and Traditional Subsistence Lifestyles. Poster
presented at the Oregon Public Health Association Annual Meeting and
Conference, Corvallis, Oregon, 6 October.
Harper BL, Harding AK, Waterhous TS, Harris SG, Wilcox AR, McCulley EA,
and Fleming HS. 2005. Regional Tribal Exposure Scenarios Based on
Major Ecological Zones and Traditional Subsistence Lifestyles. Poster and
presentation at the Annual Grantee Meeting Sponsored by the National
Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency, and National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health,
Talkeetna, Alaska, 19-22 September.
Harper B, Harding A, Waterhous T, Wilcox A, and Harris S. 2009. Eco-
Social Cultural Mapping: Tribal Lifestyles and Environmental Risks—
Regional Tribal Exposure Scenarios Based on Ecological Zones and
Traditional Lifeways. Presented at the Promoting Environmental Health in
Native American Communities Webinar Series, 30 June.
Harper B and Harris S. 2009. Climate, Drought, Adaptation. Invited
presentation at the Workshop on Climate, Drought, and Early Warning on
Western Native Lands, Jackson Lake Lodge, Grand Teton National Park,
Wyoming, 9-11 June.
Harper B and Harris S. 2007. Risk Assessment at the USDOE
Hanford Nuclear Site With an Ecologically Based Tribal Human
Health Subsistence Exposure Scenario. Presented at the Society for
Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry Annual Meeting, Milwaukee,
Wisconsin, 15 November.
Harper B and Harris S. 2005.Tribal Perspectives on Exposure Assessment
Presentation and Panel Discussion on Updating EPA's Guidance on
Exposure Assessment. Presented at the International Society for Exposure
Assessment Annual Meeting, Tucson, Arizona, 2 November.
Harris S, Harper B, Donatuto J, and Harding A. 2006. Impacts to Tribal
Health and Culture of Mercury and Other Contaminants in Columbia
Basin Fish. Presentation at the Conference on Mercury as a Global
Pollutant: Toward Integration of Science, Policy, and Socioeconomics,
Madison, Wisconsin, 6-11 August.
Harris SG, Harper BL, and Harding AK. 2004. Risks From Tribal
Subsistence Lifeways in the Columbia Basin. Presentation at the Fourth
Society for Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry World Congress,
Portland, Oregon, 14-18 November.
Kellogg J, Flint C, Ferguson G, Raskin I, and Lila MA. 2010. Phytochemical
Composition and Bioactivity of Wild Alaskan Berries. Presented at the
2010 Joint Annual Meeting of the American Society of Pharmacognosy
and the Phytochemical Society of North America, St. Petersburg Beach,
Florida, 10-14 July.
Kellogg J, Flint C, Ferguson G, Raskin Land Lila MA. 2010. Partnering
With Alaska Native Communities to Link Science and Traditional
Ecological Knowledge of Wild Berry Resources. Presented at the 2010
National Tribal Science Forum, Traverse City, Michigan, 6-10 June.
Kellogg J.YousefGG, Grace MH, Flint C, Raskin Land Lila. 2009.
Partnering With Alaskan Communities to Examine Health Benefits of
Traditional Wild Berries. Presented at Experimental Biology 2009, New
Orleans, Louisiana, 18-22 April.
Kellogg J, Yousef GG, Grace MH, Flint C, Raskin I, and Lila MA. 2009.
Partnering With Alaskan Communities to Examine Health Benefits of
Traditional Wild Berries. Presented at the National Science Teachers
Association National Conference on Science Education, New Orleans,
Louisiana, 19-22 March.
Kellogg J, Wang J, Ribnicky D, Kuhn P, Raskin I, and Lila MA. 2010.
Phytochemical Composition and Bioactivity of Wild Alaskan Berries.
Presented at the 33rd Meeting of the American Society of Primatologists,
Louisville, Kentucky, 16-19 June.
A Decade of Tribal Environmental Health Research: Results and Impacts from EPA's Extramural Grants and Fellowship Programs
-------
Appendix B: Outputs From Tribal Environmental Health Research Program STAR Grants
King J. 2007. lakotisa'tstentsera:wis Ne Ohontsia. Reducing Risk by
Restoring Relationships. Workshop presentation at the Haudenosaunee
Environmental Youth Conference.
Kmiecik N. 2008. Intervention research and Probabilities of Risk in
Walleye-Harvesting Ojibwe Communities. Presented at the International
Society of Environmental Epidemiology and International Society of
Exposure Analysis Joint Annual Meeting, Pasadena, California, 12-16
October.
Kmiecik N. 2008. Reducing Health Risks to the Anishinaabe From Methyl
Mercury. Presented at the Joint Conference of the National Tribal Forum
and National Tribal Air Association, Las Vegas, Nevada, 3-5 June.
Kmiecik N. 2008. Reducing Health Risks to the Anishinaabe From Methyl
Mercury. Final report presented to the Voigt Intertribal Task Force, Mole
Lake, Wisconsin.
Kmiecik N. 2008. Reducing Health Risks to the Anishinaabe From Methyl
Mercury. Final report presented to Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife
Commission Board of Commissioners, Mole Lake, Wisconsin.
Kmiecik N. 2007. Reducing Health Risks to the Anishinaabe From Methyl
Mercury. Presented at the Society for Risk Analysis Annual Meeting, San
Antonio, Texas, 9-12 December.
Kmiecik N. 2007. Reducing Health Risks to the Anishinaabe From Methyl
Mercury. Presented at the 135th American Public Health Association
Annual Meeting and Exposition, Washington, DC, 3-7 November.
Kmiecik N. 2007. Reducing Health Risks to the Anishinaabe From Methyl
Mercury. Poster presented at the National Forum on Contaminants in
Fish, Portland, Maine, 23-26 July.
Kmiecik N. 2007. Reducing Health Risks to the Anishinaabe From Methyl
Mercury. Presented at the Native American Fish and Wildlife Society
Annual Meeting, Reno, Nevada, 20-24 May.
Kmiecik N. 2007. Reducing Health Risks to the Anishinaabe From Methyl
Mercury. Presented at the Native American Fish and Wildlife Society,
Great Lakes Region, Lac du Flambeau, Wisconsin.
Kmiecik N. 2007. Reducing Health Risks to the Anishinaabe From
Methyl Mercury. Presented at the Multi-State Workgroup Annual Meeting,
Madison, Wisconsin.
Kmiecik N. 2006. Reducing Health Risks to the Anishinaabe From Methyl
Mercury. Presented at the Boys and Girls Club Meeting of the Bad River
Tribe, Odanah, Wisconsin, 23 October.
Kmiecik N. 2006. Reducing Health Risks to the Anishinaabe From Methyl
Mercury. Presented at the National Forum on Tribal Environmental
Science, Quinault Indian Nation, Ocean Shores, Washington, 27
September.
Kmiecik N. 2006. STAR Grant Project Progress to Date. Poster presented
at the National Forum on Tribal Environmental Science, Quinault Indian
Nation, Ocean Shores, Washington, 27 September.
Kmiecik N. 2006. Reducing Health Risks to the Anishinaabe From Methyl
Mercury. Poster presented at the National Forum on Tribal Environmental
Science, Quinault Indian Nation, Ocean Shores, Washington, 25
September.
Kmiecik N. 2006. Mercury as a Global Pollutant. Poster presented at the
National Forum on Tribal Environmental Science, Quinault Indian Nation,
Ocean Shores, Washington, 25 September.
Kmiecik N. 2006. Fish Consumption Rates of Select Anishinaabe Tribal
Members. Presented at the Eighth International Conference on Mercury
as a Global Pollutant, Madison, Wisconsin, 8 August.
Kmiecik N. 2006. Mercury as a Global Pollutant. Presented at the Eighth
International Conference on Mercury as a Global Pollutant, Madison,
Wisconsin, 8 August.
Kmiecik N. 2006. Reducing Health Risks to the Anishinaabe From Methyl
Mercury. Presented at the Boys and Girls Club Meeting of the Lac Courte
Oreilles Tribe, Hayward, Wisconsin, 20 July.
Kmiecik N. 2006. Reducing Health Risks to the Anishinaabe From Methyl
Mercury. Presented at the Bad River Community Meeting, Odanah,
Wisconsin, 5 June.
Kmiecik N. 2006. Mercury, Chippewa Flowage Mercury Concentrations,
and Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Fish Advisory Program.
Presented at Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe Community College, Hayward,
Wisconsin, 24 April.
Kmiecik N. 2006. Reducing Health Risks to the Anishinaabe From
Methyl Mercury. Presented at the Bad River Spearer's Meeting, Odanah,
Wisconsin, 22 March.
Kmiecik N. 2006. Fish Consumption Rates of Select Anishinaabe Tribal
Members. Presented at the 14th Annual Midwest Chapter Meeting of
Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, St. Cloud, Minnesota,
21 March.
Kmiecik N. 2006. Reducing Health Risks to the Anishinaabe From Methyl
Mercury. Presented at the 14th Annual Midwest Chapter Meeting of the
Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, St. Cloud, Minnesota,
21 March.
Kmiecik N. 2006. Reducing Health Risks to the Anishinaabe From Methyl
Mercury. Presented at the Great Lakes Native American Elders Meeting,
Oneida, Wisconsin, 3 February.
Kmiecik N. 2006. Reducing Health Risks to the Anishinaabe From Methyl
Mercury. Presented at the Foster Grandparents/Senior Companions
Meetings, Mole Lake Foster Reservation, Mole Lake, Wisconsin, 24
January.
Kmiecik N. 2006. Reducing Health Risks to the Anishinaabe From Methyl
Mercury. Presented at the Foster Grandparents/Senior Companions
Meeting, St. Croix Reservation, Webster, Wisconsin, 24 January.
Kmiecik N. 2006. Reducing Health Risks to the Anishinaabe From Methyl
Mercury. Presented at the Foster Grandparents/Senior Companions
Meeting, Lac Courte Oreilles Reservation, Hayward, Wisconsin, 18
January.
Kmiecik N. 2006. Reducing Health Risks to the Anishinaabe From Methyl
Mercury. Presented at the Foster Grandparents/Senior Companions
Meeting, Red Cliff Reservation, Red Cliff, Wisconsin, 17 January.
Kmiecik N. 2006. Reducing Health Risks to the Anishinaabe From Methyl
Mercury. Presented at the Foster Grandparents/Senior Companions
Meeting, Bad River Reservation, Odanah, Wisconsin, 17 January.
Kmiecik N. 2006. Updated Geographic Information System Maps,
Including Walleye Advice and the STAR Grant. Presented at the Bad River
Community Meeting, Odanah, Wisconsin.
Kmiecik N. 2006. Updated Geographic Information System Maps,
Including Walleye Advice and the STAR Grant. Presented at the Great
Lakes Native American Elders Meeting, Oneida, Wisconsin.
Kmiecik N. 2005. STAR Grant Project Progress. Presented at the
Environmental Justice/Community-Based Participatory Research and
Tribal Research Programs Annual Grantee Meeting, Talkeetna, Alaska,
19-22 September.
Kmiecik N. 2005. Updated Geographic Information System Maps,
Including Walleye Advice and the STAR Grant. Presented at the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency Fish Forum, Baltimore, Maryland, 18-21
September.
Kmiecik N. 2005. Updated Geographic Information System Maps,
Including Walleye Advice and the STAR Grant. Presented at the American
Fisheries Society 135th Annual Meeting, Anchorage, Alaska, 10-15
September.
Kmiecik N. 2005. Updated Geographic Information System Maps,
Including Walleye Advice and the STAR Grant. Presented at the Great
Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife All Staff Meeting, Odanah, Wisconsin.
Kmiecik N. 2005. Updated Geographic Information System Maps,
Including Walleye Advice and the STAR Grant. Presented at the Great
Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Board of Commissioners Meeting, Lac du
Flambeau, Wisconsin.
A Decade of Tribal Environmental Health Research: Results and Impacts from EPA's Extramural Grants and Fellowship Programs
-------
Appendix B: Outputs From Tribal Environmental Health Research Program STAR Grants
Kmiecik N. 2005. Updated Geographic Information System Maps,
Including Walleye Advice and the STAR Grant. Presented at the Bad River
Spearer's Meeting, Odanah, Wisconsin.
Kmiecik N. 2005. Updated Geographic Information System Maps,
Including Walleye Advice and the STAR Grant. Presented at the Mole
Lake Spearer's Meeting, Mole Lake, Wisconsin.
Kmiecik N. 2005. Updated Geographic Information System Maps,
Including Walleye Advice and the STAR Grant. Presented at the Voigt
Intertribal Task Force Meeting, Lac du Flambeau, Wisconsin.
Kmiecik N. 2005. Updated Geographic Information System Maps,
Including Walleye Advice and the STAR Grant. Presented at the Honor
Our Children and Maternal Child Health Staff Meeting, Lac du Flambeau,
Wisconsin.
Kmiecik N. 2005. Updated Geographic Information System Maps,
Including Walleye Advice and the STAR Grant. Presented at the
Consolidated Childhood Programs Staff Meeting, Hayward, Wisconsin.
Kmiecik N. 2005. Updated Geographic Information System Maps,
Including Walleye Advice and the STAR Grant. Presented at the Midwest
Environmental Advocates Forum, Lac du Flambeau, Wisconsin.
Kmiecik N. 2004. Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Fish Advisory
Program and STAR Grant Plans. Presented at the Wisconsin
Environmental Health Conference, Wisconsin, October.
Kmiecik N. 2004. Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Fish Advisory
Program and STAR Grant Plans. Presented at the Great Lakes Consortium
State-National Fish Consumption Advisory Workshop.
Lefthand MJ, Eggers MJ, Old Coyote TJ, Doyle JT, Kindness L, Bear Don't
Walk UJ, Young SL, Bends AL, Good Luck B, Stewart R, Leider A, White
Clay S, Dietrich E, Ford TE, and Camper AK. 2012. Holistic Community
Based Risk Assessment of Exposure to Contaminants via Water Sources.
Presented at the 140th American Public Health Association Annual
Meeting and Exposition, San Francisco, California, 27-31 October.
Lila MA. 2013. Stressed for Success: Why Plants from Arctic Extremes are
Extremely Health-Protective. Presented at the Alaska Plants as Food and
Medicine Symposium, Girdwood, Alaska, May.
Lila MA. 2013. The Science and the Traditional Knowledge Behind Halth-
Protective Plant Foods. Presented at the Washington State University
Molecular Plant Sciences Seminar, Pullman, Washington, April.
Lila MA. 2013. Culturally Acceptable Strategies for Boosting Protein and
Phytoactive Delivery in Rural Villages. Seminar presented at the University
of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, Alaska, March.
Lila MA. 2013. Stressed for Success: Berry Wild Origins' Impact on
Health-Relevant Properties. Seminar presented at the University of Alaska
Fairbanks, Fairbanks, Alaska, March.
Lila MA. 2012. Stressed for Success: How the Berry's Wild Origins Result
in Multifaceted Health Protections. Presented at the 10th International
Symposium on Vaccinium and Other Superfruits, in conjunction with
ISHS-IFU, MECC Maastricht, The Netherlands, 17-22 June.
Lila MA. 2012. Capitalizing on the Health Benefits of Berryfruits: Science
Versus the Marketplace. Presented at BiotechFruit 2012, Nelson, South
Island, New Zealand, 20 March.
Lila MA. 2012. Berry Health Benefits. Presented at the Swedish University
of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) Symposium—Bioactive Components in
Plant Foods, Uppsala, Sweden, 15-16 March.
Lila MA. 2011. Stressed for Success: Berry Crops, Environmental Stress,
and Human Health Benefits. Keynote presentation at the North American
Raspberry and Blackberry Association Conference, Savannah, Georgia,
5-7 January.
Lila MA. 2011. Berryfruits and Human Health:The Chemistry Behind the
Bioactivity. Presented at the American Chemical Society (North Carolina
Section) North Carolina Research Campus Meeting, Kannapolis, North
Carolina.
Lila MA. 2011. Environmental Stress, Wild Berry Fruits, and Human Health
Benefits. Presented at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Department of
Neurosciences Summer Seminar Series, Fairbanks, Alaska.
Lila MA. 2009. Alaska Tribal Berry Resources and Human Health Under
the Cloud of Climate Change. Presented at the Promoting Environmental
Health in Native American Communities Webinar Series, 14 October.
Lila MA. 2009. Berry Resources and Human Health....Under the Cloud
of Climate Change. Presented at the International Berry Health Benefits
Symposium, Monterey, California, 22-23 June.
Lila MA and Ferguson G. 2011 .The Store Outside Your Door: Research
Supporting Berries as a Valuable Traditional Food Resource in Diabetes
Prevention. Presented at the Annual Alaska Native Diabetes Conference,
Anchorage, Alaska, 30 November-December 2.
Lila MA, Kellogg J, Flint C, and Raskin 1.2010. Arctic Berries: Stressed
for Success. Presented at the Seventh Natural Health Product Research
Conference: The Next Wave, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, 24 May.
McCormick AKHG, Pease B, Lefthand MJ, Eggers MJ, McClearyT, Felicia
D, and Camper AK. 2012. Water, A Resource for Health: Understanding
Impacts of Water Contamination in a Native American Community.
Roundtable presentation at the 140th American Public Health
Association Annual Meeting and Exposition, San Francisco, California,
27-31 October.
Miller PK, Carpenter DO, Eckstein L, Wellfinger-Smith G, and Waghiyi V
2010. Contaminants in the Traditional Foods of the Yupik People of St.
Lawrence Island, Alaska—Exposure Pathways, Collaborative Interventions,
and Prevention. Presented at the Strengthening Environmental Justice
Research and Decision Making: A Symposium on the Science of
Disproportionate Environmental Health Impacts, Washington DC, 17-19
March.
Miller PK, Carpenter DO, Eckstein L, Wellfinger-Smith G, and Waghiyi V
2009. Environmental Contaminants in Foodstuffs of Siberian Yu'piks from
St. Lawrence Island, Alaska. Presented at the 15th Annual Alaska Tribal
Conference for Environmental Management, Anchorage, Alaska, 16-20
November.
Miller PK, Carpenter DO, Eckstein L, Wellfinger-Smith G, and Waghiyi V
2009. Environmental Contaminants in Foodstuffs of Siberian Yu'piks
from St. Lawrence Island, Alaska. Presented at the University of Alaska
Community-Based Research Institute, Nome, Alaska, July.
Miller PK, Carpenter DO, Eckstein L, Wellfinger-Smith G, and Waghiyi V
2009. Environmental Contaminants in Foodstuffs of Siberian Yu'piks
from St. Lawrence Island, Alaska. Presented at the Arctic Monitoring and
Assessment Programme and Northern Contaminants Programme Human
Health and Arctic Environmental Contaminants Conference, Iqaluit,
Nunavut, Canada, 10-12 June.
Miller PK, Carpenter DO, Eckstein L, Wellfinger-Smith G, and Waghiyi V
2009. Environmental Contaminants in Foodstuffs of Siberian Yu'piks
from St. Lawrence Island, Alaska. Presented at the Fourth Meeting of the
Conference of the Parties of the Stockholm Convention on Persistent
Organic Pollutants, Geneva, Switzerland, 4-8 May.
Miller PK, Carpenter DO, Eckstein L, Wellfinger-Smith G, and Waghiyi V
2009. Environmental Contaminants in Foodstuffs of Siberian Yu'piks from
St. Lawrence Island, Alaska. Presented at the American Association for
the Advancement of Science Meeting, Chicago, Illinois, 12-16 February.
Miller PK, Carpenter DO, Eckstein L, Wellfinger-Smith G, and Waghiyi V
2009. Environmental Contaminants in Foodstuffs of Siberian Yu'piks
from St. Lawrence Island, Alaska. Presented at the Alaska Forum on the
Environment, Anchorage, Alaska, 2-6 February.
Miller PK, Carpenter DO, Eckstein L, Wellfinger-Smith G, and Waghiyi V
2009. Environmental Contaminants in Foodstuffs of Siberian Yu'piks from
St. Lawrence Island, Alaska. Presented at the Kawerak Regional Health
Conference, Nome, Alaska, February.
Miller PK, Carpenter DO, Eckstein L, Wellfinger-Smith G, and Waghiyi V
2008. Environmental Contaminants in Foodstuffs of Siberian Yu'piks
from St. Lawrence Island, Alaska. Presented at the 2008 Joint Annual
Conference of the International Society for Environmental Epidemiology
and the International Society of Exposure Analysis, Pasadena, California,
12-16 October.
A Decade of Tribal Environmental Health Research: Results and Impacts from EPA's Extramural Grants and Fellowship Programs
-------
Appendix B: Outputs From Tribal Environmental Health Research Program STAR Grants
Miller PK, Carpenter DO, Eckstein L, Wellfinger-Smith G, and Waghiyi V.
2006. Environmental Contaminants in Foodstuffs of Siberian Yu'piks
from St. Lawrence Island, Alaska. Presented at the National Tribal Forum
on Environmental Science, Quinault Indian Nation, Ocean Shores,
Washington, 24-28 September.
Moore-Nail A and Eggers MJ. 2012. Elevated Uranium and Lead in
Wells on the Crow Reservation, Big Horn County—A Potential Problem.
Presented at the 2012 Geological Society of America Annual Meeting
and Exposition, Charlotte, North Carolina, 4-7 November.
Moore-Nail A and Eggers MJ. 2012. Elevated Uranium and Lead in
Wells on the Crow Reservation, Big Horn County—A Potential Problem.
Presented at the 2012 Annual Meeting of the Montana Section of the
American Water Resources Association, Butte, Montana, 11-12 October.
Moore-Nail A, Eggers MJ, Camper AK, and Lageson D. 2013.
Elevated Uranium and Lead in Wells on the Crow Reservation, Big
Horn County—A Potential Problem. Presented at the Earth Science
Colloquium, Bozeman, Montana, 12-13 April.
Ramirez N and Steinberg SJ. 2010. Modeling Ecotoxicological Stressors
Using Geographic Information Systems. Presented at Humboldt State
University, Arcata, California.
Ranco D and Borsuk M.201 l.The Clean Air Mercury Rule and Indian
Tribes: Consultation, Subsistence, and Cost-Benefit Analysis. Presented at
the College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, Massachusetts, 1 March.
Ranco D and Borsuk M. 2010.The Clean Air Mercury Rule and Indian
Tribes: Sovereignty, Subsistence, and Participation. Presented at Bates
College, Lewiston, Maine, 17 November.
Reynolds III JE and O'Hara TM. 2004. Goals and Objectives of the
Risks to Northern Alaskan Inupiat: Assessing Potential Effects of Oil
Contamination on Subsistence Lifestyles, Health, and Nutrition Project.
Presented to the City of Wainwright, Alaska, July.
Reynolds III JE and Wetzel DL. 2005. Bowhead Whales, Bearded Seals,
and Alaska Native Health. Invited presentation to the Alaska Forum on
the Environment, Anchorage, Alaska, 7-11 February.
Reynolds III JE and Wetzel DL. 2005. Bowhead Whales, Bearded Seals,
and Alaska Native Health. Invited presentation to the Barrow Arctic
Science Consortium's Outreach Series, Inupiat Heritage Center, Barrow,
Alaska, February.
Reynolds III JE, Wetzel DL, Hanns C, Mercuric P, and O'Hara TM. 2005.
Analyses of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Sediments, Fish and
Marine Mammals From the North Slope of Alaska. Presented at the
International Symposium on Oil and Gas Activities in the Arctic, St.
Petersburg, Russia, 13-15 September.
Richards C, Eggers M, Pyle B, Camper A, and Ford T. 2009. Detection of
Opportunistic Pathogens in Drinking Water and Associated Biofilms in
Rural Montana. Poster presented at the Eurobiofilms Conference, Rome,
Italy, 2-5 September.
Sepez J. 2003. Anthropological and Historical Contexts of Makah
Whaling. Invited lecture presented at the GreenLAW Environmental Law
Lecture Series, University of Washington Law School, Seattle, Washington.
Sepez, J. 2002. Makah Whaling and Sealing Into the Twenty-First
Century. Invited lecture presented at the University of Washington
Sociocultural Anthropology Colloquium Series: Indigenous Rights,
Indigenous Resources, Indigenous Futures, Seattle, Washington, 18
November.
Sepez J. 2002. If Middens Could Talk: Comparing Ancient, Historic,
and Contemporary Makah Foraging Patterns. Presented at the Ninth
International Conference on Hunting and Gathering Societies, Edinburgh,
Scotland, 12 September.
Sepez J. 2000. The Right to Culture in International Wildlife
Management. Presented at the Society For Applied Anthropology
Conference, San Francisco, California, 25 March.
Sloan K. 2012. Preliminary Findings of Pacific Lamprey Tissue Testing.
Presented at the South Coast Lamprey Summit, North Bend, Oregon,
22-24 May.
Sloan K and Fluharty S. 2012. Cumulative Risk and Yurok Tribal Lifeway.
Presented at the U.S. EPA STAR Tribal Environmental Health Research
Program Webinar, November 7.
Sloan K and Fluharty S. 2011 .Yurok Tribe Environmental Justice and
Climate Change Prioritization Project. Presented at the 19th Annual
Region 9 Tribal EPA Conference, Pala, California, 20 October.
Sloan K and Fluharty S. 2010. Understanding the Cumulative Effects of
Environmental and Psycho-Social Stressors That Threaten the Pohlik-lah
and Ner-er-ner Lifeway: The Yurok Tribe's Approach. Presented at the
2010 National Tribal Science Forum,Traverse City, Michigan, 7 June.
Uesugi S, Harding A, Harper B, Harris S, Schure M, Kile M, and Coins
T. 2012. Environment and Health Connections: Perspectives From
Community Members of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian
Reservation. Poster presented at the 25th Annual Meeting of the
Superfund Research Program, Raleigh, North Carolina, 21-24 October.
Uesugi S, Harding A, Harris S, Harper B, Simonich S.Anderson K, Stone D,
Jia Y, Hirsch N, Cardenas A, and Sudakin D. 2011. Walking in Two Worlds:
Tribal-University Partnerships, Capacity Building, Technology Transfer, and
Developing Cultural Sensitivity in Toxicology and Environmental Health
Research. Presented at Pacific Northwest Association of Toxicologists
Annual Regional Chapter Meeting: The Art and Science of Research
Translation in Toxicology, North Bonneville, Washington, 7 October.
Wetzel DL and Reynolds III JE. 2007. Bowhead Whales and Bearded
Seals of Alaska's North Slope: Contaminant Analysis and Nutritional
Assessment. Presented to the citizens of Barrow, Alaska, at the Inupiat
Heritage Museum, Barrows, Alaska, October.
Wetzel DL and Reynolds III JE. 2007. Bowhead Whales and Bearded
Seals of Alaska's North Slope: Contaminant Analysis and Nutritional
Assessment. Presented to the Tribal Council leaders in the Native Village
of Wainwright, Alaska, October.
Wetzel DL, Reynolds III JE, Hanns C, and Mercuric P. 2006. Analysis of
Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Marine Mammals From the North
Slope of Alaska. Presented at the National Forum on Tribal Environmental
Science, Quinault Indian Nation, Ocean Shores, Washington, 24-28
September.
Young SL (moderator), Lefthand MJ, Good Luck BT, Kindness L, Stewart
R, Doyle JT, McCormick AKHG. 2013. Finding Answers in Contrary
Lessons. Presented at the National EPA-Tribal Science Council Traditional
Ecological Knowledge Pre-Workshop Webinar Series Traditional
Ecological Knowledge Webinar #2,28 May.
A Decade of Tribal Environmental Health Research: Results and Impacts from EPA's Extramural Grants and Fellowship Programs
-------
Appendix C-. Outputs From Tribal Environmental Health Research Program STAR Grants
Appendix C: Tribal Environmental Health
Research Program Presentations
Staff members from EPA's Tribal Environmental Health Research Program have given a number of presentations about the research conducted within the program at national and international meetings. A representative list of
these presentations is provided below.
Breville M. 2011. NCER Tribal Programs: An Overview. Presented to the
EPA Office of International and Tribal Affairs, Washington, DC, 3 August.
Breville M. 2011. NCER Tribal Programs: An Overview. Presentation
provided to the National EPA-Tribal Science Council, June.
Breville M. 2010. NCER Tribal Environmental Health Overview. Presented
at the 20th Annual International Society of Exposure Science Conference
(joint with International Society for Environmental Epidemiology), Seoul,
Korea, 30 August.
Breville M. 2010. Tribal Environmental Health Research Program Grants.
Presented at the Tribal Environmental Health RFA Strategy Session, 2010
National Tribal Science Forum,Traverse City, Michigan, 9 June.
Breville M.2010. NCER Tribal Environmental Health Overview. Presented
at the 2010 National Tribal Science Forum, Traverse City, Michigan, 7
June.
Breville M. 2009. Educational Opportunities at EPA's National Center
for Environmental Research. Presented at the Fifth Biennial National
Association of Fellowships Advisors Conference, Seattle, Washington, 16
July.
McOliver C, O'Fallon L, and Finn S. 2013. Role of Federal Funding of
Environmental Research in Building Capacity in Indigenous Communities.
Poster presented during the Creating Healthy Native Communities-
Infrastructure, Capacity, and Equality in Indigenous Public Health
Endeavors Poster Session at the American Public Health Association
141st Annual Meeting and Exposition, Boston, Massachusetts, 3
November.
McOliver C. 2012.Tribal Science: NCER STAR Program. Presented to EPA's
NCER, Washington, DC, 1 November.
McOliver C. 2012.Tribal Science: NCER STAR Program. Presented
at the EPA Office of International and Tribal Affairs American Indian
Environmental Office Tribal ecoAmbassadors Meeting, Washington, DC,
October.
McOliver C. 2012.Tribal Science: NCER STAR Program. Presented to the
EPA Office of International and Tribal Affairs, Washington, DC, Washington,
DC, 5 September.
A Decade of Tribal Environmental Health Research: Results and Impacts from EPA's Extramural Grants and Fellowship Programs
-------
Appendix D-. Overview of Tribal Environmental Health Research Program Grantee Webinars
Appendix D: Overview of Tribal
Environmental Health Research
Program Grantee Webinars
In 2009, the Tribal Environmental Health Research
Program, in coordination with the National EPA-
Tribal Science Council, sponsored a series of webinars
highlighting Science To Achieve Results (STAR)
research focused on tribal environmental health and
exposure concerns. Another series was held during the
fall of 2012. This appendix provides an overview
of the 2009 webinars and information about the
2012 webinars.
Promoting Environmental Health
in Native American Communities:
A webinar Series Addressing the Environmental
Health and Exposure Concerns of North American
Native Subsistence Populations
&ER&
United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Sponsored by the
EPA's STAR Research Grants Program and the National EPA-Tribal Science Council
with additional support from EPA Office of Children's Health Protection and
Environmental Education and the Human Health Research Program
A Decade of Tribal Environmental Health Research: Results and Impacts from EPA's Extramural Grants and Fellowship Programs
-------
Appendix D-. Overview of Tribal Environmental Health Research Program Grantee Webinars
United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Executive Summary
The Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) STAR
Research Grants Program, in partnership with the National
EPA-Tribal Science Council, conducted a webinar series
designed to translate and disseminate recent findings of
previous and current STAR-funded research addressing
the environmental health and exposure concerns of North
American Native subsistence populations. Additional
support for the project was provided by the EPA Office of
Children's Health Protection and Environmental Education
and the Human Health Research Program.
The series highlighted research goals and preliminary
findings of newly awarded projects focused on cumulative
risk and climate change. These projects may particularly
appeal to those interested in novel risk assessment methods
or the potential direct and indirect impacts of global
warming on the health outcomes to Alaska Natives. The
results discussed in these webinars may be of particular
interest to Agency risk assessors, Tribal environmental
managers, and Tribal health care practitioners.
The series consisted of four webinars conducted from
June 30, 2009 to December 10, 2009:
"Eco-social Cultural Mapping: Tribal
Lifestyles and Environmental Risks,"
June 30, 2009.
"Alaska Tribal Berry Resources and
Human Health Under the Cloud of
Climate Change," October 14, 2009.
"Community-Based Risk Assessment
of Exposure to Contaminants via Water
Sources on the Crow Reservation in
Montana," November 18, 2009.
"Climate Change and Contaminants
in Subsistence Foods: A Tribal Program
to Monitor the Health of Alaska
Yupik Women and Children,"
December 10,2009.
Overview of the Research
Many traditional North American Native Tribal Populations
maintain intricate and ecologically interdependent
relationships with the natural environment. Though many
of these relationships developed over centuries, with
knowledge and skills accumulated and passed across scores
of generations, the rapid emergence of industrial chemical
pollution; the availability of refined, processed foods; and
social and political isolation have severely threatened the
health, wellness, and way of life of individuals and entire
Tribal communities in the United States.
Recently, there has been increased emphasis on
encouraging traditional diets, religious practices, and
customs to restore and protect the health and knowledge
base of Tribal communities, while concomitantly
addressing issues of environmental pollution, social
justice, and sovereignty. This seminar series featured
Tribal communities and their research partners conducting
dietary exposure, cumulative risk, climate change health
effects, and risk reduction research that aimed to quantify
and reduce environmental risks and to encourage or restore
traditional, healthy ways of life for American Native
communities.
Specific objectives of the Webinar Series included:
1. Understanding and reviewing research findings.
2. Exploring new strategies, methods, and tools for
assessing environmental health exposure among
Tribal populations.
3. Identifying research opportunities for advancing
health protection and maintaining traditional
Tribal ways of life.
The following pages provide one-page summaries of
each webinar. To read a complete summary or to view the
webinars, visit I- -".pa.gov/osp/tribes/events.htm.
United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Webinar Series
Promoting Environmental Health in
Native American Communities
Eco-social Cultural Mapping: Tribal Lifestyles and Environmental Risks —
Regional Tribal Exposure Scenarios Based on Ecological Zones and Traditional Lifeways
Barbara Harper,1'2 Anna Harding,1 Therese Waterhous,1 Anthony Wilcox,1 and Stuart Harris2
June 30, 2009
This project systematically described
how Tribal people interact with
the environment and how they
might be exposed to environmental
contaminants. The initial driver was
the lack of exposure scenarios and
exposure factors for use in Superfund
risk assessments where Tribes and
Tribal resources are affected.
Tribal communities engage in active, outdoor lifestyles in
all climates, with greater environmental contact rates in
comparison to members of the suburban community. Diets
of each Tribe are based on the natural resources present and
the unique cultural uses. Consequently, most Tribal exposure
factors are higher than EPA default rates.
Exposures occur through food and medicine intake as well
as through cultural, ceremonial, and occupational practices
of Tribal members. Data were taken in consideration of the
whole-life scenario—that is, data from full-time residents, not
those with recreational status—and analyses were conducted
assuming nutritionally complete diets for accurate statistical
plotting.
Researchers operated under the basic concepts of ecology,
cultural quality of life, a broader definition of health,
contemporary suppression of resource use, and reconstruction
of traditional lifeways. Researchers considered the
biodiversity, landscapes, critical habitat, and human use of
the local environment to determine food chain concentrations
and socio-cultural exposures for evaluating eco-risk to the
population.
The researchers recognized that contemporary suppression
of resource use would have to be considered when collecting
data. Local fish advisories, contaminated sites, and rights
of access issues could restrict use and consumption and
associated exposures, so real-time subsistence lifestyles and
diets were measured for risk assessment. The outcomes would
help target restoration efforts of the natural resources.
To reconstruct traditional lifeways and natural resources,
researchers conducted culturally competent interviews and
reviewed anthropological literature that included traditional
ecological knowledge, physiology, culture, ecology, ethno-
botany, language and oral tradition, and exposure science.
Major food groups were used to categorize caloric intake,
and consumption and exposure rates were estimated based
on cultural activities. This holistic overview approach to data
collection was used, versus simple food consumption surveys
to attain precise and accurate study results, and these multiple
lines of evidence were peer-reviewed for a more robust and
confident conclusion.
This research was conducted solely for the benefit of the
Tribe, so it was critical to ensure their willing participation.
An advisory board consisting of Tribal and technical members
ensured that the communities were involved, informed
(informed consent) and in control of the data (intellectual
property). True informed consent was obtained after members
were apprised of how the data would be used and potential
misuse of the data was explained fully.
1 Oregon State University
2 Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservatior
To read a complete summary or to
view and/or listen to the webinar, visit
http://www.epa.gov/osp/tribes/events.htm.
A Decade of Tribal Environmental Health Research: Results and Impacts from EPA's Extramural Grants and Fellowship Programs
-------
Appendix D-. Overview of Tribal Environmental Health Research Program Grantee Webinars
wEFA
United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Webinar Series
Promoting Environmental Health in
Native American Communities
Alaska Tribal Berry Resources and Human Health Under the Cloud of Climate Change
Mary Ann Lila, Ph.D.,1 Courtney G. Flint, Ph.D.,2 Gary Ferguson, N.D.3
October 14, 2009
This project investigated the potential
health and medical benefits of
wild berries to Alaska Natives in
three coastal communities. Wild
Alaska Berries (salmonberries, bog
blueberries, blue huckleberries, and
blackberries/crowberries/mossberries)
are a rich part of many Alaska Native
people's Tribal resources, and they
produce beneficial biological compounds in response to the
stresses they undergo during growth in the harsh climate. The
research team worked with students and community members
to look at the role berries play in the lives, lifestyle, and
culture of Native Americans in each community.
The participating communities—Seldova, Akutan, and Point
Hope—are located along three distinctive coastal areas of
Alaska. Each one has a complement of berries keyed to the
Field screening of the berries was conducted under the
Screens-to-Nature (STN) program to measure health benefits
and help students and elders learn first-hand how the
chemistry of wild berries makes them healthy for humans.
The STN technology tested for amylases and amylase
inhibitors; proteases and protease inhibitors; and antioxidants.
Scientific analyses of the berries indicated that the amylase-
inhibiting activity of berries slows down the process of
turning starch into sugar (i.e., it has an important impact
on diabetes); berries contain varying levels of antioxidants;
and protease inhibitors in berries may help fight HIV/AIDS,
parasitic diseases, and metabolic disorders.
Alaska Natives were engaged to assess their overall opinions
and perspectives on their communities, including the risks
and challenges they face from climate change, environmental
contamination, threats to subsistence resources, as well as
their concerns about their health and the vitality of their local
health and economic benefits of the community. Berries are
important for food, physical activity, sharing with family
and friends, and keeping traditions alive. They are eaten in a
variety of ways and stored for winter. Berries generally are
considered healthy, but specific benefits are not very well
known in the communities. Berries produced under stress
offer enhanced health benefits to humans.
The project was conducted within a Community Based
Participatory Research (CBPR) framework. CBPR involves
collaboration that equitably includes community members,
organizational representatives, and researchers in the project.
The research team combined biological and social sciences,
community participation, and integrated inquiry.
economies. Each community has concerns about diabetes,
cancer, and unhealthy diets.
In all three communities, Tribal health issues were linked to
the loss of a traditional way of life and a decreased emphasis
on subsistence resources and foods. Many factors prevent
the subsistence lifestyle. The influence of Western culture on
Alaska Native youth and the high cost of fuel are also altering
the cultural landscape.
-1 Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium
To read a complete summary or to
view and/or listen to the webinar, visit
http://www.epa.gov/osp/tribes/events.htm.
United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Webinar Series
Promoting Environmental Health in
Native American Communities
Community Based Risk Assessment of Exposure to Contaminants
via Water Sources on the Crow Reservation in Montana
Crescentia Cummins,1'2Timothy Ford, Ph.D.,3 John Doyle,2'4'5
Larry Kindness,1'2'4 Urban Bear Don't Walk,2'4'6 Mari Eggers1-7
November 18, 2009
This research project developed a risk
assessment program focusing on the
contamination of water sources on
the Crow Reservation in Montana.
Water, wastewater, and aquatic
subsistence foods were collected and
analyzed, and contamination from
toxic substances in drinking water
and surface water sources were evaluated. These data are
being combined with an investigation into contemporary and
traditional uses of water in the Crow community.
LifeLine Tribal risk assessment modeling software will
be used to assess the overall risks to the community from
contaminated water sources. Potential outcomes from this
research include a better understanding of the environmental
risks of water sources associated with a subsistence-based
lifestyle of Tribal populations. Also, through community-
based participation, this research may help improve Tribal
capacity to manage and protect environment and health
through health education and other risk communication
measures.
The Crow Indian Reservation, located in south-central
Montana, encompasses 2.8 million acres and has a
population of about 8,000 people. Although much of the
Reservation is rangeland, it does include a significant
amount of agricultural land.
Water has always been a treasured resource in the Crow
community, and traditions and history surrounding water
are still honored and practiced today. Rivers and springs
continue to be used in many ceremonial practices and
recreational purposes, including in the Native American
Church, the Sun Dance, and Sweat Lodge ceremonies.
However, water quality on the Reservation has deteriorated
over the past 50 years, and, today, degradation of water
quality is the community's top environmental health
concern.
This research project employed a Community-Based
Participatory Research (CBPR) model, which is defined
as " [a] collaborative approach to research that equitably
involves, for example, community members, organizational
representatives, and researchers in all aspects of the research
process."
The data from this project has helped the Apsaalooke Water
and Wastewater Authority move into the next phase of its
work, replacing wastewater lagoons and repairing water lines.
The Authority is in the process of raising funds for Phase 3,
which will include funds for drilling new drinking water wells
and expansion of Little Big Horn College's health education
facility.
'Little Big Horn College
2 Crow Tribal member
^University of New England
"Apsaalooke Water and Wastewater Authority; Crow Environmental Health
Steering Committee
the
To read a complete summary or to view and/or listen to the
webinar, visit http://www.epa.gov/osp/tribes/events.htm.
A Decade of Tribal Environmental Health Research: Results and Impacts from EPA's Extramural Grants and Fellowship Programs
-------
Appendix D-. Overview of Tribal Environmental Health Research Program Grantee Webinars
&EPA
United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Webinar Series
Promoting Environmental Health in
Native American Communities
Climate Change and Contaminants in Subsistence Foods: A Tribal Program to
Monitor the Health of Alaska Yupik Women and Children
James E. Berner, M.D.1
December 10, 2009
Dr. James E. Berner directs the
Alaska Native Traditional Food Safety
_ Monitoring Program, which assesses
JH I contaminant and micronutrient levels
1^ in pregnant Alaska Native women and
evaluates health effects in mothers
and newborn infants. In this webinar,
Dr. Berner describes the climate
changes taking place in Alaska and
the contaminants these changes are bringing to Alaska. He
discusses the impacts climate change and contaminants are
having on the health of pregnant Alaska Yupik women and on
subsistence food safety.
Health impact mechanisms on the Native Alaska people
because of climate change and contaminants in the Arctic
include;
The effect of contaminant transport on subsistence foods.
The spread of zoonotic disease (diseases animals can give
to people).
Damage to permafrost-dependent infrastructure.
Unintentional injury.
Extreme weather events.
Subsistence food safety is essential to the Alaska Native
population in the following ways:
* Rural Alaska Natives are the most subsistence dependent
population in the United States.
• Accumulation of organic contaminants in the food web
biomagnifies and bioaccumulates, and the developing fetus
and pregnant women are most sensitive to the toxicologic
effects of contaminants and heavy metals.
• Traditional food has public health and culture benefits.
• Transport of contaminants by ocean, river, and atmospheric
mechanisms may be increased by a warming climate.
Food safety issues surrounding contaminants include
persistent organic pollutants and heavy metals that are
present and threaten food safety, including mercury, lead,
arsenic, and cadmium.
This research attempted to discover the human toxicological
effects of climate change and contaminants in the Arctic on
subsistence food safety, including negative effects on Native
people in terms of growth, neurologic development; endocrine
disruption; immunologic effects; and adult chronic disease,
which might turn out to be the most common effect of all.
In a comparison of women in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta to
other populations along the Arctic coast, the blood levels of
persistent organic compounds in circumpolar pregnant women
were less than or about average for the group. However, the
Yupik population had substantially higher omega-3 fatty acid
levels than any other pregnant Inupiat women on Alaska's
Arctic Ocean coast, and future studies will consider the risk
and balance of these levels of fatty
acids in the diet of pregnant women.
1 Division of Community Health Services, Alaska
Native Tribal Health Consortium, Anchorage, AK
To read a complete summary or to view
the webinar, visit http://www.epa.gov/osp/tribes/events.htm.
Or. Jim Berner
2007 Tribal Environmental Health Star Grantee
A Conversation on Climate Change, POPs, Subsistence Food and Alaskan Communities
Bio: Dr, James E. Berner has practiced medicine in the Alaska Native health system since 1974, and
is certified in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics. He is the Senior Director for Science in the Division
of Community Health, of the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium.
Research: Dr. Berner's current grant (R833705) focuses on the Yupik Alaskan Native (AN) residents
in the Yukon-Kuskokwim River Delta (YKD) of Southwestern Alaska. Salmon and seals are the
largest component of the subsistence diet for AN in the YKD and climate change has increased the
concentration of POPs in these animals. Pregnant Yupik women have POPs levels similar to other
Arctic women, with higher toxaphene, brominated flame retardants (PBDEs) and Hg levels than
most other Arctic pregnant women. The goal of Dr. Berner's grant is to evaluate whether climate
change is affecting the health of the Yupik AN people through its impact on their subsistence
lifestyle.
A Decade of Tribal Environmental Health Research: Results and Impacts from EPA's Extramural Grants and Fellowship Programs
-------
Appendix E: Summary Tables of EPA Tribal Research
Projects Discussed Within the Report
STAR Grants Discussed in this Report and Funded Under the EPA Tribal Environmental Health Research Program (TEHRP)
Project Title (Grant Number)
RFA Needs Addressed by Grant
Principal
Investigator(s)/ Institution(s)
Fellow(s)
Issues in Tribal Environmental Research and Health Promotion: Novel Approaches for Assessing and Managing Cumulative Risks and Impacts of Global Climate Change (2007 RFA)
An Epidemiologic Study ofTimeTrendsand Health
Effects of Persistent Organic Pollutants, Mercury
and Micronutrients (R833705)
Community-Based Risk Assessment of Exposure
to Contaminants via Water Sources on the Crow
Reservation in Montana (R833706)
Impacts of Climate Change on Health Benefits of
a Tribal Alaskan Resource: Integrating Traditional
Ecological Knowledge with Risk Assessment
Through Local Monitoring (R833707)
Understanding the Cumulative Effects of Environ-
mental and Psycho-Social Stressors that Threaten
the Pohlik-lah and Ner-er-ner Lifeway:The Yurok
Tribe's Approach (R833708)
> Addressed tribal cumulative exposures^ multiple environmental stressor in rural Yupik
Alaska Native people.
i Evaluated the affect of global climate change on contaminants in the Bering Sea to ad-
dress impacts on the cultural and physical health on Yupik Alaska Native people.
i Provided a comprehensive assessment of tribal cumulative exposures of the Crow resi-
dents from their water sources.
> Developed culturally appropriate risk communication specific to the Crow Nation to reduce
subsistence-based risk.
' Provided a baseline assessment of sustenance berry bioactivity as influenced by global
climate change and its impact on the cultural and physical health of three Alaska com-
munities.
> Integrated this information with biophysical findings for informed local health-related
decision-making to reduce subsistence-based risk.
' Collected and evaluated health data on the Yurok Tribe with a focus on health problems
associated with tribal cumulative exposures^ target contaminants.
> Determined with the tribe how the findings could reduce subsistence-based risk and
preserve Yurok subsistence resources.
Lifestyle and Cultural Practices of Tribal Populations and Risks From Toxic Substances in the Environment (2002 RFA)
Environmental Contaminants in Foodstuffs of
Siberian Yupiks from St. Lawrence Island,Alaska
(R831043)
lakotisa'tstentsera:wis Ne Ohontsia: Reducing Risk
by Restoring Relationships (R831044)
Risks to Northern Alaskan Inupiat: Assessing Poten-
tial Effects of Oil Contamination on Subsistence
Lifestyles, Health and Nutrition (R831045)
Lifestyle and Cultural Practices ofTribal Popula-
tions and Risks From Toxic Substances in the
Environment (R831046)
i Examined Yupik traditional foods and subsistence activities to determine food safety and
ascertain the cumulative exposure profile of the tribe.
> Discussed the project implications with the Yupik in a culturally sensitive manner in an
effort to reduce subsistence-based risk without compromising lifestyles to a significant
extent because traditional foods are vital to Yupik well-being and culture.
> Developed educational and intervention materials for the Mohawk community that
promote traditional cultural and subsistence practices to reduce subsistence-based risk
without compromising lifestyles to a significant exten/while restoring healthy relation-
ships with the natural world.
> Identified culturally sensitive strategies^ decrease the health risk associated with expo-
sure to persistent toxic substances and reduce subsistence-based risk.
• Analyzed Inupiat subsistence marine mammals to quantify subsistence-based exposures
that occur primarily through food, cultural/ceremonial and occupational practices.
> Presented study information and outcomes to the Inupiat in a culturally sensitive manner
in an effort to reduce risk in subsistence groups without compromising lifestyles to a
significant extent.
' Prepared a set of regional traditional tribal subsistence exposure scenarios to reduce risk
in subsistence groups without compromising lifestyles to a significant extent.
> Developed a culturally sensitive publication, the Tribal Exposure Scenario Guidance
Manual.
James Berner
Timothy Ford
Mary Ann Lila
Kathleen Sloan
Pamela K. Miller
MaryArquette
Dana L.Wetzel
Barbara Harper
Alaska Native Tribal
Health Consortium
Montana State
University and
University of New
England
University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign
Yurok Tribe Environ-
mental Program
Alaska Community
Action on Toxics
Akwesasne Task Force
on the Environment/
Haudenosaunee
Environmental Task
Force
Mote Marine Labora-
tory
Oregon State
University
Project Period
June 1,2009through May31,
2013 (Extended to May 21,
2014)
June 1,2009, through May 31,
2012 (Extended to May 31,
2013)
January 1,2008, through
December 31,2011
July 1,2008, through Decem-
ber31,2012
December 1,2003, through
November 30,2006
April 1,2004,through March
31,2007
August 1,2003, through July
1,2006
August 1,2003 through July
31,2006
A Decade of Tribal Environmental Health Research: Results and Impacts from EPA's Extramural Grants and Fellowship Programs
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Appendix E: Summary Tables of EPA Tribal Research Projects Discussed Within the Report
Summary of Grants Discussed in This Report and Funded Under the EPA Tribal Environmental Health Research Program (TEHRP) continued
Project Title (Grant Number)
RFA Needs Addressed by Grant
Reducing Risks of the Anishinaabe From Methyl
Mercury (R831047)
> Analyzed Anishinaabe walleye consumption data and collected walleye mercury data to
quantify subsistence-based exposures and predict the cumulative exposure profile of
the Anishinaabe.
• Developed a culturally sensitive intervention program, including fish advisory maps, to re-
duce subsistence-based risks from consumption of methylmercury-contaminated walleye
without compromising lifestyles to a significant extent.
Environmental Justice: Partnerships for Communication (2000 RFA)
Bioaccumulative Toxics in Native American Shell- • Established effective input from an underserved community affected by an environmen-
fish (R829476) tal tor/cant the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community, by administering a community survey
and conducting individual interviews of tribal citizens.
• Developed community-based, culturally sensitive educational materials, including a
Swinomish traditional food book, coloring book, documentary and posters, to mitigate
adverse health effects from environmental toxicants in the Swinomish community.
Principal
Investigator(s)/
Fellow(s)
Jeffrey Foran
Jamie Donatuto
Institution(s)
Great Lakes Indian
Fish and Wildlife
Commission
Swinomish Tribal
Community
Project Period
July 1,2003, through June 30,
2006 (Extended to October 31,
2007)
March 15,2002, through
March 14,2006 (Extended to
August 28,2006)
Summary of Non-TEHRP EPA-Funded Tribal Projects Discussed in This Report
Project Title (Grant Number)
Tribal Environmental Public Health
Indicators (R834791)
Midwest Hazardous Substance Research
Center (R828770)
Space-Time Aquatic Resources Modeling
and Analysis Program (R829095)
Rocky Mountain Training and Technical
Assistance to Brownfields Communities
Program (TR831579)
Linking Traditional Knowledge and
Environmental Policy in the Cherokee
Nation of Oklahoma (F5C30541)
Dine Bikeyah: Environment, Cultural
Identity and Gender in Navajo Country
(U915164)
Makah Traditional Environmental
Knowledge and Gray Whale Conservation
(U914970)
Use of Bone Char for the Removal of
Arsenic and Uranium from Groundwater
at the Pine Ridge Reservation (SU834713
and SU835069)
Funding
Program
NCER STAR
Grant
STAR-Funded
Center
STAR-Funded
Center
STAR Training
Grant
STAR Graduate
Fellowship
Request for Application
Exploring Linkages Between Health Outcomes and Environmental
Hazards, Exposures, and Interventions for Public Health Tracking
and Risk Management (2009 NCER RFA)
Hazardous Substance Research Centers—HSRC (2001 NCER RFA)
Research Program on Statistical Survey Design and Analysis for
Aquatic Resources (2001 NCER RFA)
HSRC—TTAB Brownfields (2003 NCER RFA)
STAR Graduate Fellowships (2005)
STAR Graduate STAR Graduate Fellowships (1997)
Fellowship
STAR Graduate STAR Graduate Fellowships (1996)
Fellowship
Principal
Investigators)/ Institution(s)
Fellow(s)
Jamie Donatuto Swinomish Tribal Community
M. Katherine Kansas State University (in partnership
Banks with Haskell Indian Nations University)
N. Scott Urquhart Colorado State University
Charles D. Colorado State University and Montana
Shackelford and Tech of the University of Montana (in
Karl Burgher partnership with Aaniih Nakoda College
[formerly Fort Belknap College])
Clinton R. Carroll University of California, Berkeley
Marsha L.Weisiger University of Wisconsin-Madison
Jennifer Sepez University of Washington
P3
Phase I (SU834713): P3 Awards: A National Student Design
Competition for Sustainability Focusing on People, Prosperity and
the Planet (2010)
Phase II: (SU835069): P3 Awards: A National Student Design
Competition for Sustainability Focusing on People, Prosperity and
the Planet - Phase 2 (2011)
Charles J.Werth
(Faculty Advisor),
Jacob Becraft et
al. (Student Team)
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
(in partnership with Oglala Lakota
College)
Project Period
July 1,2011, through
June 30,2013
October 1, 2001, through
September 30, 2006
October 1, 2001, through
September 30, 2006
April 1,2004, through
March 30, 2007
(Extended to March 30,
2008)
September 1,2005,
through August 31,2007
September 1,1997,
through December 31,
2000
January 1,1996, through
August 16,1999
Phasel(SU834713):
August 15,2010, through
August 14,2011
Phase II: (SU835069):
August 15,2011, through
August 14,2013
A Decade of Tribal Environmental Health Research: Results and Impacts from EPA's Extramural Grants and Fellowship Programs
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Appendix F: Practical Applications of
EPA Tribal Research
It is important that AI/AN communities, the larger public, researchers,
health departments, practitioners, state and local regulators, and other
stakeholders understand how tribal research conducted within the STAR
Tribal Environmental Health Research Program and other EPA initiatives
can provide them with practical applications and tools, methods and
approaches that may be replicated in their own communities as they
confront real-world environmental health issues.
Theme: Cultural Practices, Language and Traditional Ecological
Knowledge
• Understand and integrate the cultural aspects of the community into
research and develop culturally relevant educational materials, such
as a booklet on wild plant knowledge in the Cherokee language, to
explain risks and how to mitigate them to more effectively reduce
exposures of sensitive populations as they engage in traditional
practices.
Theme: Subsistence Foods and Water Resources
• Utilize community-based research to develop wellness plans, such as
those being developed by the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium
around sustenance berry use, that preserve traditional diets while
managing risk and protecting public health.
• Use quantitative data on contaminant levels, such as those used by
the St. Lawrence Island Yupik people to assess the contaminants in
rendered oils and organ meat that are part of their traditional diet, to
help communities avoid or reduce the risks associated with traditional
diets.
Theme: Community-Based Participatory Research and Community
Outreach and Education
• Develop strong partnerships with the community and enlist community
representatives to guide the research design and implementation, as
was done for the research project on the Crow Reservation that was
guided by the Crow Environmental Health Steering Committee. This
approach ensures that the research is informed by the local culture
and relevant to the communities' needs, and ultimately, the results will
be more readily accepted and used to protect community health and
natural resources.
• Communicate research results to community members in a culturally
sensitive manner, as was done, for example, during the town council
meetings of the Northern Alaskan Inupiat, and provide personal
followup in the native language, such as the in-home followup in the
Crow language provided to Crow residents, to increase the community
members' understanding of the results and how to use them to
reduce their exposures to environmental contaminants.
Theme: Risk Assessment and Sensitive Populations
• Incorporate risk assessment methodologies to create exposure
scenarios that can be applied at the national, regional and local
levels, such as those detailed in the Traditional Tribal Subsistence
Exposure Scenario and Risk Assessment Guidance Manual, ultimately
helping sensitive populations to reduce exposures and protect
community and environmental health.
• Use the knowledge obtained from environmental public health
indicators that are reflective of communities' health views and
priorities, such as the Tribal Environmental Public Health Indicators
that were developed for Salish Sea tribes, to assess and improve the
health status of these communities and their members.
Theme: Impacts on Regulations and Management Plans
• Develop and use quantitative data to establish environmental quality
standards that more accurately reflect the unique exposures of special
populations, such as the stricter water quality standards established
by the Makah Nation based on STAR grant data, to ultimately reduce
their risks and protect their health and culturally important resources.
• Assist communities in developing resource management and
monitoring plans, such as the tribal aquatic water quality monitoring
plans developed by several tribes to monitor cultural uses of tribal
water, that protect environmental resources and community health.
A Decade of Tribal Environmental Health Research: Results and Impacts from EPA's Extramural Grants and Fellowship Programs
-------
Appendix G: Additional Resources
NCER Program Websites
NCER Home Page: http://Www.epa.gov/ncer
Events and Webinars: http://epa.gov/ncer/events
Fellowships Programs: http://www.epa.gov/ncer/fellow
People, Prosperity and the Planet Student Design Competition for
Sustainability: http://www.epa.gov/P3
Requests for Applications/Funding Announcements: http://www.epa.gov/
ncer/rfa
Small Business Innovation Research: http://www.epa.gov/ncer/sbir
Tribal Environmental Health Research Program: http://www.epa.gov/ncer/
tribalresearch
EPA Tribal Websites
American Indian Environmental Office: http://www.epa.gov/aieo/index.htm
American Indian Environmental Office Tribal Portal: http://www.epa.gov/
Indian/
Indoor Air Quality Tribal Partners Program: http://www.epa.gov/iaqtribal/
index.html
Region 1 Tribal Program in New England Portal: http://www.epa.gov/
region 1/govt/tribes/i ndex.html
Region 2 Indian Nations: http://www.epa.gov/region02/nations/index.html
Region 4 Indian Program: http://www.epa.gov/region4/indian/index.htm
Region 5 Indian Environmental Office: http://epa.gov/region5/tribes/
Region 6 Tribal Affairs: http://www.epa.gov/earthlr6/6dra/oejta/
tribalaffairs/index.html
Region 7 Tribal Program: http://www.epa.gov/region07Aribal/index.htm
Region 8 Tribal Assistance Program: http://www.epa.gov/region8/tribes/
Region 9 Tribal Program: http://www.epa.gov/region09Aribal/
Region lOTribal Programs: http://yosemite.epa.gov/rlOAribal.NSF
Science in Indian Country: http://www.epa.gov/ospAribes/Who.htm
A Decade of Tribal Environmental Health Research: Results and Impacts from EPA's Extramural Grants and Fellowship Programs
Grantee Websites
EPA is not affiliated with the content of these websites.
Regional Tribal Exposure Scenarios Based on Major Ecological Zones
and Traditional Subsistence Lifestyles Grant: http://health.oregonstate.
edu/research/featu red-projects/tribal-grant
Space-Time Aquatic Resources Modeling and Analysis Program:
http://www.stat.colostate.edu/~nsu/starmap/program.html
Swinomish Indian Tribal Community Bioaccumulate Toxics in Native
American Shellfish: http://www.swinomish-nsn.gov/Resources/
Environment/Shellfish/Bioaccumulate-Toxics-ln-Native-American-Shellfish.
aspx
Technical Outreach Services for Native American Communities:
http://www.engg.ksu.edu/chsr/outreach/tosnac/
Yurok Tribal Environmental Program: http://www.yuroktribe.org/
departments/ytep/ytep.htm
Federal Tribal Websites
EPA is not affiliated with the content of these websites.
Agency for Toxic Substances & Disease Registry: http://www.atsdr.cdc.
govAribal/
Indian Health Service: http://www.ihs.gov
U.S. Department of Agriculture: http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usda/
usdahome?navid=OTR
U.S. Department of the Interior Bureau of Reclamation: http://www.usbr.
gov/native/
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service: http://www.fws.gov/nativeamerican/
U.S. Forest Service: http://www.fs.fed.us/spfAribalrelations/index.shtml
U.S. Geological Survey: http://www.usgs.gov/indian/
Grants Training: EPA-Supported Programs and Contacts
htt p ://www. p etet ri ba I. o rg/
http://www.epa.gov/ogdAraining/recipJrain.htm
http://www.epa.govAp/contactinfo/regcontacts.htm
Region 9 Current Contact: Laura Ebbert (ebbert.laura@epa.gov)
Region 10 Current Contact: Sally Thomas (thomas.sally@epa.gov)
gov/tribal/
Grants Training: Non-EPA Programs
EPA is not affiliated with the content of this website.
The Administration for Native Americans has been hosting grant writing
training across the country, including Alaska and Hawaii, on an annual
basis for more than 15 years. There is no fee for tribes to attend;
however, they must cover transportation-related expenses. The schedule
can be found at:
http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/ana/assistance/applicant-training-
technical-assistance
These website links were current at the time of publication, but they are
subject to change.
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