Development of a Biomedical Program of Research in the Blackfeet Community: Challenges and Rewards

Abstract

Highlights• We describe the development of a biomedical program of research in a Tribal Community.• We found that experiences varied across generations within the tribal community.• Shifting the focus to resilience stimulated more community interest in the program of research.Abstract American Indian (AI) communities have high levels of stress and trauma and are disproportionately affected by numerous preventable diseases. Here, we describe an academic-community partnership based on a collaboration between Blackfeet Community College students and faculty in Psychology and Immunology at Montana State University (MSU). The collaboration, which has spanned over 5 years, was sparked by community interest in the relationship between stress and disease on the Blackfeet reservation. Specifically, community members wanted to understand how the experience of psychological stress and trauma may affect disease risk in their community and identify factors that promote resilience. In doing so, they hoped to identify pathways through which health could be improved for individual community members. Here, we discuss all stages of the collaborative process, including development of measures and methods and themes of research projects, challenges for community members and non-indigenous collaborators, future directions for research, and the lessons learned. Finally, we note the ways in which this partnership and experience has advanced the science of community engagement in tribal communities, with the hope that our experiences will positively affect future collaborations between indigenous community members and non-indigenous scientists.

Community Psychology and Indigenous Peoples

“…In this special issue, we see other examples such as John‐Henderson et al. (), Chung‐Do et al. (), Quayle and Sonn (), Straits et al.…”

“…John‐Henderson et al. () likewise describe a long‐term community‐academic partnership. In “Development of a Biomedical Program of Research in the Blackfeet Community: Challenges and Rewards,” we learn about the development of a research infrastructure at a tribal college to address the community‐identified priorities of stress, trauma, and disease susceptibility.…”

“…() and John‐Henderson et al. () show how community‐academic partnerships can support Indigenous nation building, that is, increase capacity for community self‐determination, Jacob et al. () directly discuss the topic of nation building and Indigenous survivance.…”

“…(), John‐Henderson et al. (), Kading, Gonzalez, Herman, Gonzalez, and Walls (), Parker, Pearson, Donald, and Fisher () and Wendt et al. ().…”

COVID-19 and food insecurity in the Blackfeet Tribal Community

“…Using a Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR) approach, which emphasizes an equitable partnership between researchers and community stakeholders (John-Henderson et al, 2019 ; Woodbury et al, 2019 ), we examined food insecurity in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Blackfeet community during the four-month period when COVID-19 cases and deaths reached their highest peak on the reservation (August 2020-November 2020) (Mohr, 2020 ; USA Facts, 2020 ).…”