Category: Current

Archeologists try to uncover policies for digging at burial sites

Those invested in archeological excavations and preserving history attended the Chesterfield City Council meeting May 15 to address concerns about future development. Mark Leach, a founding member of the Chesterfield Historic and Landmark Preservation Committee, questioned the city about the efforts to protect Native American sites. Leach served as the coordinator of Chesterfield’s Blake Mound […]

St. Louis was once Mound City. Its Native American residents still feel erased

A member of the Cherokee Nation, Galen Gritts is proud to be an elder in St. Louis. He was born and raised in the area and graduated from University of Missouri-St. Louis with a history degree. When he was young, it was Gritts’ goal to stay put and grow old in St. Louis. Now, he […]

Native American panelists speak on fractured identity, express hope for future

Members of the St. Louis area Native American community gathered at the Center for Spirituality and Sustainability to discuss the mistreatment of Indigenous people by the United States and relationship building between these two groups, both in the past and present.  During their introductions, the panelists provided background on themselves and the Native American peoples […]

Rare trail marker tree planted at WashU

An oak tree that had guided Illinois travelers for nearly three centuries collapsed on April 20, 2008. Today, its spirit endures on the Washington University in St. Louis campus, maintaining an ancient practice of human connection with nature. Born in northern Illinois around 1730, that fallen oak, known as “Pathfinder,” was among the last of […]

Scholars look to Indigenous knowledge and practices in fight against climate change

As humans grapple with how to protect the environment and sustain life amid intensifying climate issues, St. Louis-area universities and other local institutions are looking to time-tested approaches for ideas as they kick off a free virtual conference later this week. One of those ideas has to do with kinship, an ancient concept that Kyle Whyte, the […]

Buder Center Gets New Funding for Students Working in Indian Country

An innovative program to support Brown School students who are interested in completing part of their practicums in Indian Country has received additional funding of nearly $1 million for an additional four years to build capacity for integrated and trauma-informed behavioral health care. The program, Social Workers Advancing through Grounded Education (SAGE), is led by […]

In Remembrance: David Patterson Silver Wolf

The Brown School community is saddened by the loss of David Patterson Silver Wolf, associate professor. An Irish/Cherokee descendent, David’s research focused on two main areas: substance abuse recovery and advocating for underrepresented minority college students, especially those from American Indian/Alaska Native populations.

COVID-19 and American Indians: Dr. Donald Warne on the Devastating Toll of the Pandemic on Native American Populations

This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Dr. Donald Warne, Director of Indians Into Medicine (INMED) at the University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences. A renowned expert on American Indian health policies, Dr. Warne talks about the devastating toll COVID-19 is exacting on the nation’s most vulnerable communities,  particularly American […]

COVID-19 & Race Series: Native Communities & COVID – Reflections of the Past & Outlooks for the Future

COVID-19 is disproportionately affecting Native communities across the United States. While these communities are not new to devastation from disease, trauma, and broken treaties, this latest public health crisis reveals deep roots of systemic injustices that have spanned hundreds of years. Part IV of the series features Native professionals who will shed light on how […]

WashU Expert: Navajo Nation needs support

The Navajo Nation now has the highest rates of coronavirus infection per capita in the U.S. The people need assistance, says Wynette Whitegoat, assistant director of the Kathryn M. Buder Center for American Indian Studies at Washington University’s Brown School and a member of the Navajo Nation. “There are many factors that have led to the Navajo Nation’s current […]

Scholars Tell Stories and Share Resources to Keep Pow Wow Commitment

​Every year since 1990, Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis students and the Kathryn M. Buder Center for American Indian Studies have hosted an annual Pow Wow—a gathering that brings together people from all across the country to celebrate Native culture. The 30th annual event was to occur on April 11, 2020 with […]

Battling Treatment Resistant Opioid Use Disorder

Similar to treatment resistant depression, there is a subpopulation of those addicted to opioids who do not respond to standard opioid use disorder (OUD) treatments. In a new paper, an addiction expert at the Brown School suggests a new category for these types of patients: treatment resistant opioid use disorder (TROUD). “The field has suggested […]

Buder Center Celebrates 30 Years of Training and Service for Native Americans

As the Kathryn M. Buder Center for American Indian Studies celebrates three decades at the Brown School, it has emerged as the preeminent center for the academic advancement and study of American Indian issues related to social work, public health and public policy. Offering a unique graduate degree focus for social work students, the center recruits American […]

Encouraging the next generation of public health professionals

Each year, UIHI hires full-time public health interns to work on various projects under the mentorship of UIHI staff. The interns assist in the planning, implementation, and follow-up of initiatives happening during their internship period. They also work to establish a relationship with the Department of Health (DOH) and are encouraged to use some time […]

Two Brown School Students Chosen as CSWE Minority Fellows

Two Brown School students were recognized as CSWE Minority Fellows at the 2019 Council for Social Work Education Annual Program Meeting in Denver. CSWE’s Minority Fellowship Program (MFP) aims to increase the number of individuals trained to work with underrepresented and underserved racial/ethnic minority persons with or at risk for mental health and/or substance abuse disorders. […]

Why public health responses have racial preferences

One of the reasons I became an addiction counselor and obtained advanced degrees in social work was my awareness that people in power neither resembled nor came from those communities most in need. In 1990, after I completed a 30-day addiction treatment program in Louisville, Kentucky, I decided that rather than returning to my job […]

Missouri Humanities to Award Leaders, Authors, and Educators

Each year Missouri Humanities recognizes outstanding citizens throughout Missouri for their achievements in and dedication to the humanities. This year the organization is proud to recognize four Missourians in the following categories: Distinguished Literary Achievement, Excellence in Education, Exemplary Community Achievement, and Partnership in the Humanities. Nominations are collected from across the state and chosen […]

Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals Reaffirms the Constitutionality of ICWA

(PORTLAND, Ore. August 9, 2019)— Today, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals published its decision in Brackeen v. Bernhardt, the federal court challenge to the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA). The court’s decision affirmed the constitutionality of ICWA, recognizing the unique political status of tribal nations and upholding the federal law that is so critical […]

Durbin Introduces Bill To Make Cahokia Mounds A National Historic Park

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) today introduced a bill that would designate the Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site as a National Historic Park.  Cahokia Mounds is currently a National Historic Landmark, but Durbin’s bill would provide a new designation that ensures protection for the ancient mounds in St. Clair and Madison counties along […]

David Patterson Silver Wolf: Missouri needs new plan to tackle opioid crisis

Last month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that, after decades of relentless increases, there is finally evidence that the number of fatal drug overdoses is declining. Averaged across all states, in 2018, there were 4% fewer deaths. Experts from around the country expressed cautious optimism that the money and effort spent to […]

Opioid overdose should be treated like attempted suicide: with an emergency hold

In the last half-century, the United States has endured three major drug epidemics. The first began in the 1970s, around the end of the Vietnam War when veterans returned home addicted to heroin. The death rate due to overdoses at that time was about 1 per 100,000 people. America’s second drug epidemic happened in the 1980 […]

WashU Expert: First Native American U.S. poet laureate will inspire the nation

Joy Harjo, a member of the Muscogee Creek Nation, has been selected as the 23rd U.S. poet laureate, a move that will inspire Native American people throughout the country, says Kellie Thompson, director of the Kathryn M. Buder Center for American Indian Studies at Washington University in St. Louis. “Her selection will inspire us in expected ways […]

Pow Wow 2019: ‘Keep Them Sacred’

The theme of this year’s Pow Wow at Washington University in St. Louis is “Keep Them Sacred: Honoring Generations of Indigenous Women.” The 29th annual event, a celebration of American Indian cultures, will be held Saturday, April 20, in the Washington University Field House on the Danforth Campus. Hosted by the Kathryn M. Buder Center for American Indian […]

Why Aren’t More Doctors Embracing Medication-Assisted Treatment?

A new op-ed on STAT News highlights a troubling concern in regard to medication-assisted treatment (MAT). Author David A. Patterson Silver Wolf, PhD, opined that the reason why methadone, buprenorphine and naltrexone aren’t more widely used to treat opioid use disorders (OUDs) may be due to “branding”—specifically, concern on the part of primary care physicians about the stigma associated […]

Do business concerns keep doctors from treating opioid addiction?

One morning last week as I arrived at our new addiction treatment center, the CAPA Clinic in St. Louis, one of the social work student interns I supervise couldn’t wait to tell me about the “excitement” they’d experienced in the few hours the clinic had been open for the day: a patient had been stabbed, another was […]

Medications to treat opioid addiction are effective, though not widely used

With more than 2 million Americans suffering from an opioid use disorder and the escalating rate of deaths from opioid overdoses reaching about 130 per day, efforts to date have had little impact in curbing this crisis across the country. As a result, a committee of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine released on March […]

Women shaped cuisine, culture of ancient Cahokia

Archaeologists have struggled to explain the rapid rise and fall of Cahokia — the mysterious Mississippian mound-building culture that sprang up about a thousand years ago in the fertile southern Illinois bottom lands just across the river from modern-day St. Louis. Scholars have painted the civilization as a hierarchical, highly centralized society where ruling elites […]

Buder Center Scholars Gain Expertise to Make a Difference in Indian Country

Cheyenne River Sioux member Jasmine Grika contemplated taking a year off before starting graduate school.  But when she received her acceptance from the Kathryn M. Buder Center for American Indian Studies, she was suddenly hitting fast forward and paying student deposits. Lindsey Manshack, a member of the Choctaw-Apache Tribe of Ebarb, toured Buder before applying. […]

University of Missouri’s Indigenous student group searching for a Native artist

Four Directions is in search of a Native artist to create a canvas mural to be hung in the Mizzou Student Center. Four Directions: Indigenous Peoples and Allies is the Indigenous student group at the University of Missouri. Our organization works towards creating an Indigenous community on campus as well as advocating for the political, […]

Native Americans Face Greater Risk Of Becoming Problem Gamblers

Tribal casinos receive a lot of attention. What doesn’t receive as much attention is the higher incidence of problem gambling among Native Americans compared to the rest of the population. Washington University Professor David Patterson Silver Wolf has studied how the Native American population has a higher rate of gambling addiction than the average rate […]

Brown School launches substance use disorder clinic

The Brown School has partnered with Preferred Family Healthcare in St. Louis to launch the Community Academic Partnership on Addiction (CAPA), a teaching, learning and research clinic aimed at combating the opioid epidemic and treating other substance use disorders. “Our aim is to develop a system of shared resources for attacking this issue, in St. […]