Indigenous Trauma & Resilience Research Center

American Indian/Alaska Native Tribes experience significant multifactorial-related health conditions, including addiction, posttraumatic stress disorder, chronic diseases, infant mortality, and suicide. Many of these health conditions are worse for American Indians (AIs) in the Dakotas. AI Tribes also contend with historical and intergenerational effects from decades of high rates of Tribal member losses. Hence, we will establish the Indigenous Trauma & Resilience Research Center at UND to address conditions that negatively impact health status and identify the protective factors of Tribal connectedness and resilience. The Center will consist of three interrelated research projects, each led by an early-career investigator and assisted by senior scientist mentors. Objectives: Establish a nationally recognized and acclaimed Research Center at UND to improve AI health and well-being. Provide support and mentoring to project leaders to enable future success in obtaining R01 funding. Establish Administrative, Tribal Connection & Outreach, and Human Subjects Cores that will support the Center and provide services to strengthen research capacity to address AI health. Methods: The three original research projects include: (1) Historical stress and resilience as a biological state and its association with the effects of the traditional Tribal food chokeberry; (2) Impact of boarding school attendance on perceived stress, allostatic load, and resilience; and (3) Stress and health in AI pregnancies. We will leverage existing assets at UND, including several Institutional Development Award (IDeA) programs. Mentoring will be provided to support the project leaders through an Administrative Core consisting of the Program Director/Principal Investigator (PD/PI), Internal and External Advisory Committees, and a group of high-level scientific Project Mentors. Each project leader will utilize Tribal-focused research principles and complete the AI Engagement Training Module, developed by the PD/PI. A Tribal Connection & Outreach Core will be led by Dr. Julie Smith-Yliniemi, who is Anishinaabe and grew up on the White Earth Indian Reservation in northern Minnesota. Tribal considerations for human subjects research and collection of biological samples will be supported by a Human Subjects Core that will provide technical assistance regarding research compliance and addressing Tribal practices. Significant opportunities exist for meta-scholarship in which COBRE stakeholders will publish best and promising practices to support human subjects research with AI Tribes. The Center will be sustainable and competitive for numerous other grant programs, including Research Project Grants (R01) and related funding. New grant title option: Center for Indigenous Health Enhancement