American Indian youth experience teen birth and school dropout at higher rates than other racial and ethnic groups in the United States. Early childbearing is associated with adverse health and socioeconomic outcomes, including attenuated education. However, kinship childrearing norms among Northern Plains tribes can support positive experiences…

A Sinte Gleska University professor is exploring the feasibility of cultivating guar, one of the most expensive crops in the world, as a means to bring economic development to the Rosebud reservation and beyond. Guar is a drought-resistant industrial crop mainly grown in the Thar Desert of India and Pakistan. Since guar belongs to the legume…

Rural American Indian (AI) middle school students with depressive symptoms who participated in a culturally modified version of the Adolescent Coping with Depression (CWD-A) course (n = 8) reported significant improvement in depressive symptoms at post-intervention and at 3-month follow-up. There was also a nonsignificant but clinically relevant…

Background: American Indian women in the Northern Plains have a high incidence of cervical cancer. We assessed attitudes on vaccination against human papillomavirus (HPV) in this population. Method: In partnership with two tribal communities, from 2007 to 2009, we surveyed women 18 to 65 years old attending two reservation clinics ("n" =…

This document provides abstracts from a sample of studies that examine risk and/or protective factors or suicide prevention programs for American Indian/Alaska Native youth. Prior to the individual literature summaries, the document includes a section called "From the Literature: Overview of Risk and Protective Factors." The exhibits in…

This study examined the usefulness of a survey on underage drinking in a rural American Indian community health clinic. One hundred ninety-seven youth (90 male, 107 female; age range 8-20 years) were recruited from clinic waiting rooms and through community outreach. The study revealed that the usefulness of the survey was twofold: Survey results…

Fort Belknap Indian Reservation's food system typifies that of many rural communities. Most food is grown and processed hundreds or thousands of miles away and transported long distances before it reaches the local grocery shelf. Like oil and gas, food prices are largely determined by international commodity markets driven by global supply,…

Distance education strategies for remotely deployed, highly mobile, or institutionalized populations are reviewed and critiqued. Specifically, asynchronous, offline responses for special military units, Native Americans on remote reservations, prison populations and other geographically, temporally or technologically isolated niche populations are…

As a result of living in remote rural areas, American Indians living on reservations have limited access to higher education. One-third of American Indians live on reservations, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. According to the most recent U.S. government statistics, the overall poverty rate for American Indians/Alaska Natives, including…

The study investigates change in occurrences for mental and substance abuse children between early and mid-adolescence among a group of indigenous adolescents. Findings show a dramatic increase in occurrence rates for substance abuse disorder and conduct disorder, and a mental health crisis on indigenous reservations and reserves indicating a need…

State and local governments spend billions of dollars annually on the construction, renovation, and maintenance of public school facilities, yet concerns persist about the condition of some school facilities, particularly in school districts serving students residing on Indian lands. The Department of Education's (Education) Impact Aid Program…

Examines and enumerates economic changes that have occurred in the traditional rural Navajo community of Shonto. While women's net income contributions to Shonto's economy has declined, their position has seen only a slight erosion; their activities (sheep and goat husbandry, agriculture, arts and crafts) are still considered necessary and…

Hantavirus, caused due to close contact with mice in a dwelling, first emerged in the spring of 1993 on the Navajo Reservation and although it is by no means an Indian disease, there are four times as many cases of hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS) among non-Indians. Inadequate rural housing, especially common in western Indian Country,…

Life is changing for the American Indians of South Dakota and the United States. Nationally, the population is young, growing, and becoming more urban. The South Dakota population exhibits these same traits, except that it remains predominantly rural. In South Dakota, American Indians combat poverty, unemployment, underemployment, and inadequate…

Interviews with low-income, American Indian, single parents on the Rosebud Reservation in Todd County, South Dakota, included families who were on and who had left Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. Welfare reform issues discussed included transportation problems; access to affordable, quality child care; food insecurity; and the scarcity of…