Over my 50 years working in Tulsa, I have seen the health challenges facing American Indians continue to evolve. And while American Indians have come a long way in Oklahoma in terms of recognition and direct discrimination, we are still, in many ways, an “invisible race” that has been historically overlooked in health-related data. Resources like the Senior Report that use the data we do have available to highlight the challenges facing this population are critical to better understanding the health of our elders.
The data we have point to troublesome trends. We have sadly lost many of our elders to COVID-19, as underscored by the Senior Report’s findings around the early death rate. But COVID is not the only threat to our elders; this report shows a rise in chronic conditions like diabetes, which is a health challenge I see every day in my work, as well as disparities in drug deaths and poverty.
For American Indians, older adults hold a breadth of cultural wisdom that is critical to pass along to the next generations in our community. As we recover from these many losses, we know we must form strong intergenerational bonds to record and preserve cultural knowledge and traditions. This is something we pride ourselves on at the Indian Health Care Resource Center (IHCRC) as we aim to foster collaboration between our youth- and senior-focused programming.
We must do our best to protect our elders by investing in physical, mental and emotional health programs and a comprehensive, compassionate and understanding approach — with services ranging from transportation and home visits to social offerings — for the over 1,000 older adults from 112 federally recognized tribes in our care. These older patients, like Barbara Williams, a grandmother and proud member of the Cherokee Nation, remember times when being a Native American did not always elicit friendly responses in health care settings, and thus they value the caring environment and respect they receive at the IHCRC.
In addition to addressing what we know are serious health challenges, we need to ensure that we have strong data to use as a starting point. The health data collection systems which we all rely on often require people to identify themselves as one race alone, but the majority of American Indians do not consider themselves as belonging to a single racial group for a variety of historical reasons. I’ve seen this challenge in action when we assisted our local elders in the COVID-19 vaccination process, which included answering demographic questions as part of the necessary documentation. I watched as many people checked the box identifying themselves as another race, even though I knew they were part American Indian. This limitation in data collection persists in other data sources that rely on self-identification, making it difficult at times to accurately assess the health challenges facing American Indians.
As we emerge from this period of great loss, preserving cultural knowledge through intergenerational connections and better understanding the health of our community will be crucial. And to do that, we need data that make American Indian communities seen and “visible” so we can find solutions to the unique health challenges facing our elders. The Senior Report gives us an important tool to do this. I urge my fellow community leaders to use it as a guide to improve the health challenges of our elders and thereby the overall health of both the American Indian community and the U.S. overall.