# Healthy Native Nations: Identifying Effective Alcohol Policies for American Indian Tribes

> **NIH NIH R01** · PACIFIC INSTITUTE FOR RES AND EVALUATION · 2022 · $575,894

## Abstract

ABSTRACT
This Tribal Community-Engaged project uses spatial and legal epidemiological methods within community
participatory frameworks to assess the differential relationships of state and tribal alcohol policies to alcohol-
related health risks for residents of American Indian reservations. We propose to compile and summarize
alcohol regulatory policies established by sovereign tribal nations in conjunction with extant alcohol policies of
the U.S. states with which they are collocated. Many correlates of the high rates of alcohol-related problems
observed among American Indians (AI) compared to other U.S. populations have been extensively addressed
in individual social-behavioral studies in, for example, genetics, psychology, and community health. Very few
studies have considered contrasting state vs. tribal alcohol policies as social-structural determinants that may
be related to AI alcohol related problems. Sovereign tribal nations have the right to establish their own alcohol
policies, which may vary according to adjacent state policy conditions and attitudes towards alcohol across
tribal communities. Tribal alcohol policies are publicly registered, but there has been no common repository nor
systematic typology established that allows researchers to characterize these ordinances and relate them to
state alcohol conditions (see, e.g. NIAAA’s Alcohol Policy Information System). Prior studies of tribal alcohol
policies were not able to consider the full impacts of collocated state alcohol regulatory conditions on tribal
alcohol problems. Recent studies have developed an Alcohol Policy Score (APS) that characterizes the
strengths of alcohol policies across U.S. states. The APS may now be applied to studies of tribal alcohol
regulatory conditions. Cross-site studies of tribal alcohol outcomes have also been hampered by the use of
heterogenous data systems. We demonstrate that hospitalization records and motor vehicle crash data
collected in similar ways across U.S. states can be used to assess tribal alcohol outcomes using common data
frames and advanced spatial epidemiological methods. Finally, analyses of tribal policies will be limited in
interpretive scope without obtaining local insights and knowledge of tribal leaders who have designed, enacted,
and are charged with enforcing tribal alcohol ordinances. We use Tribal Community-Based Participatory and
qualitative research methods at multiple levels of community engagement (Tribal Community Advisory Board;
tribal research review; Tribal Key Leader Interview; Tribal and Local Law Enforcement Survey) to assess how
tribal and state alcohol policies are effected on tribal lands and may support or reduce alcohol-related risks for
residents of tribal nations. Our engagement plans ensure tribal community oversight of the interpretation of
findings, and dissemination of results to tribal leaders as well as scientific communities.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10363646
- **Project number:** 5R01AA028236-02
- **Recipient organization:** PACIFIC INSTITUTE FOR RES AND EVALUATION
- **Principal Investigator:** JULIET P LEE
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $575,894
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2021-03-05 → 2026-02-28

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10363646

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10363646, Healthy Native Nations: Identifying Effective Alcohol Policies for American Indian Tribes (5R01AA028236-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10363646. Licensed CC0.

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