National Congress of American Indians 2015 Mid Year Conference St. Paul,

Afternoon Breakout V June 30, 2015 1:30 – 4:00 pm

Data Speaks for Justice

Description: One of the central functions of the NCAI Policy Research Center is to support tribes in leveraging data to advance the work of sovereignty. The panelists featured in this session will cross a broad range of subjects—sharing trends in health research, financial giving to Indian Country, the classification of tribal identity in datasets, and access to economic capital in ways that will equip communities to tell their own stories and pursue justice for tribal citizens.

Policy Applications: Information shared at this session will be used to inform policy development on health outcomes, data collection, and meaningful investments.

Co-Facilitators: Councilman Joe Garcia, Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo Community (invited) Heather Curley, Navajo Nation

PRESENTATIONS:

Data for Sovereignty: Counting and Classifying Tribal Identity

Desi Rodriguez Lonebear is a member of the Northern Cheyenne Nation from , U.S.A She holds a Bachelors Degree with Honours and Masters Degree in Sociology from Stanford University. Desi is pursuing a Dual PhD in Demography at the University of Waikato in New Zealand and Sociology at the University of Arizona. Her research focus is indigenous demography examining the interface of identity, enumeration, official statistics, and data sovereignty for indigenous peoples.

Data to Advance Economic Access and Justice for Tribes

Richard M. Todd is a Vice President of the Federal Reserve Bank of with responsibilities in Community Development and monetary policy and serves as an advisor the Bank’s Center for Indian Country Development. He holds a Ph. D. in Agricultural and Applied Economics from the University of Minnesota.

Achieving an AIDS-Free Generation in Indian Country

Pamela Jumper Thurman, Ph.D., a Western Cherokee, is a Senior Affiliate Faculty scholar at Colorado State University. She has 30 years of experience in mental health, substance abuse/epidemiology research, and Capacity Building Assistance, as well as 35 years in the provision of direct treatment and prevention services in communities. She is a co-developer and co-author of the Community Readiness Model, a model used internationally to build capacity for prevention and intervention efforts.

Sharon Day, is the Executive Director of the Indigenous Task Force. She has over 30 years of direct service delivery experience in Public Health, including HIV/AIDS, Chemical Dependency, and Tobacco prevention and cessation. She authored the curriculum, Waybinagay, a tobacco prevention and cessation curriculum.

Harlan Pruden is a co•founder of the NorthEast Two• Spirit Society, a NYC based organization, where he worked with the Two•Spirit community locally, nationally and internationally. In August 2014, Harlan was appointed to the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA. Harlan is one of the lead organizers of the National Confederacy of Two •Spirit Organizations; and serves as the principal Two•Spirit consultant to Substance Abuse Mental Services Administration (SAMHSA) Tribal Training and Technical Assistance Center. He is currently working on the launching the TwoSpiritJounal.com, a multi-platform Two-Spirit news outlet.

In the Name of Sovereignty: Research Justice, Philanthropy and Tribal Community Empowerment

Elaine Rasmussen, Native Americans in Philanthropy. As part of a management team, Ms. Rasmussen manages program development, external relationship building and internal operations while the organizations searches for a new CEO. She has a Bachelors degree in Marketing and International Business and a Masters degree in Conflict Analysis and Resolution. She regularly speaks at international conferences on the subject and is pursuing her PhD.

Morning Star Gali is a member of the Ajumawi band of the Pit River Tribe in Northeastern California and is the Tribal Historic Preservation Officer and Cultural Information Officer for the Pit River Tribe, working on sacred places protection, language preservation and cultural monitor training. She is also currently serving her second term as Vice-Chairperson for Pit River Health Services, Inc. Morning Star has spent the past eight years as an active community organizer in the efforts to protect sacred places such as the Medicine Lake Highlands of her homeland

Angela Mooney D’Arcy (Juañeno Band of Mission Indians, Acjachemen Nation) has been working with Tribal Nations, Indigenous peoples, and grassroots organizations on Indigenous environmental justice issues for over fourteen years. She is the founder and Executive Director of the Sacred Places Institute for Indigenous Peoples, a Los Angeles-based, Indigenous-led organization that works to build the capacity of Tribal Nations and Indigenous peoples to protect sacred lands, waters, and cultures. She received her B.A. from Brown University and received her JD, with a concentration in Critical Race Studies and Federal Indian Law, from UCLA School of Law.