Volume 16 Spring 2005 Issue No. 3

In This Issue
Indigenizing Education

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Harmony, not War
Diné College public health degree focuses upon hóhzó

by Marjane Ambler

In response to local demand, Diné College in Shiprock, NM, has developed the first public health degree at a tribal college. In fact, it is one of the few associate degrees in public health in the country.

Edward Garrison, Ph.D., described the program at a regional meeting of tribal colleges sponsored by the American Indian Higher Education Consortium (AIHEC) and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) last September in Albuquerque. The CDC and AIHEC have a cooperative agreement to develop capacities of tribal colleges and universities in health-related fields. They want to increase numbers of American Indians in health professions and to improve the health status of Indians.

Discussion at this meeting highlighted advantages and obstacles of having such a degree program. On the positive side, the Community Health Representatives (CHRs) providing basic health care to large, remote regions of the Navajo reservation now can enhance their professional preparation and training. The program also serves other students, some of whom want higher degrees in the health professions.

However, this degree program has drawn resources from other programs at the college, Garrison said. AIHEC designed the meeting to discuss existing health-related programs and to explore how CDC can make it easier for tribal colleges and universities to provide such programs, according to Edward Sekonde, MPH, director of public health at AIHEC.

The Diné College Associate of Science in Public Health Degree utilizes the Diné Educational Philosophy, which is the underpinning for all curricula at the college. “We talk about harmony in relationship with everything – hózhó,” says Garrison, a non-Indian whose doctoral dissertation was in Navajo semantics.

COMMUNITY INTERFACE. Community Health Representative/Outreach workers provide a multitude of services to rural Navajo people, from home nursing to giving out food and diapers. Photo of Kerlena Tso by Kelly Burke

“Students may think, ‘What is wrong with us?’ when they see high statistics about alcohol-related deaths, accidents, etc. We don’t want that negativity to be something they get from our program,” he says. Terms such as War on Drugs and War on Cancer don’t fit with the Diné philosophy, which focuses upon harmony and beauty.

The tribal college requires public health degree students to take courses in Navajo language and culture. Students are expected to know the Navajo language, and many public health materials are presented in Navajo. Garrison, who also has a Master’s Degree in Public Health, has worked at the Shiprock, NM, campus of Diné College since 1983. The courses are team taught by Garrison; long-time faculty member Dr. Mark Bauer, Ph.D.; and Kelly M. Burke, who also has a Master’s Degree in Public Health.

Garrison’s talk discouraged other tribal colleges at the meeting about developing a public health degree soon. Diné College made many sacrifices for the program, such as borrowing faculty from basic math and science instruction at the Shiprock campus.

“Our success is almost overwhelming us now,” Garrison says. The degree program has become the preferred academic credential for hiring in the CHR/outreach program, which employs over 160 people.

Participants at the AIHEC/CDC meeting in Albuquerque discussed the many obstacles to preparing students for health-related degrees, including lack of basic operational funds, inability to offer competitive salaries, grant programs requiring faculty with terminal degrees, and lack of grant programs for 2-year colleges.

Despite its interest in tribal colleges, the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services dramatically reduced funding for TCU cooperative agreements offered through the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), a companion agency to the CDC, according to Garrison.

Tribal college representatives at the meeting discussed less ambitious options, such as providing a strong foundation in science and math for students who want to pursue health-related degrees elsewhere.

They said CDC could help them all by providing more resources, technical assistance with accessing CDC data, scientific equipment or help finding equipment, cooperative agreements with tribal colleges and tribal governments, and incentives for CDC interns to return to serve their communities.

Southwest Indian Polytechnic Institute (SIPI) hosted the AIHEC/CDC regional meeting in September, and several participating SIPI students strengthened their commitment to studying science. In fact, after meeting their first American Indian medical doctor, Dr. Gayle Dine Chacon, two students immediately said that they, too, wanted to be physicians.