# Promoting Community Wellbeing Through Indigenous Science and Healing

> **NIH NIH OT2** · WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY · 2024 · $2,199,999

## Abstract

ABSTRACT
 American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) communities have been disproportionately negatively
impacted by opioid and stimulant drugs, health conditions that cause chronic pain, and related problems such
as trauma, suicide, and alcohol use. These problems are caused by settler colonialism. Therefore, AI/AN
communities are best positioned to understand and overcome these challenges using cultural strengths and
protective factors. Too often research is driven by funder priorities and led by non-community researchers rather
than centered on community objectives and led by local research teams. Thus, AI/AN people may not experience
sustained health benefits or have the opportunity to develop and strengthen their own research expertise and
infrastructure. In response to the opioid epidemic that is disproportionately harming Native people and calls by
AI/AN leaders to support communities in implementing their own solutions, the National Institutes of Health (NIH)
invites Tribes and Native American Serving Organizations (T/NASOs) and alley organizations to form The Native
Collective Research Effort to Enhance Wellness (N CREW). The objectives of N CREW are to support T/NASOs
to conduct community prioritized research, grow their infrastructure, and improve the quality of relevant data for
local decision-making. With the support of N CREW, T/NASOs will conduct research and data improvement
projects to promote wellbeing and healing from the effects of opioid and stimulant drugs, pain, and related
problems, such as suicide, alcohol use, and historical trauma.
 We will form a key component of the N CREW Native Research Resource Network (NRRN) entitled,
“Promoting Community Wellbeing Through Indigenous Science and Healing (PC-WISH).” PC-WISH will partner
with other NRRN members to support T/NASOs as they develop and pilot research and data improvement
projects. PC-WISH is led by a Multiple Principal Investigator team of three Native Investigators (Abigail Echo-
Hawk, Kamilla Venner, Stacy Rasmus), and a non-Native researcher (Michael McDonell), who together have
over 50 years of experience leading or partnering with T/NASOs, and a productive history of collaboration with
one another. Our team has expertise in research on culturally grounded and adapted prevention, harm reduction,
treatment, and recovery interventions for opioids, stimulants, pain, and other problems, as well as leaders in
Indigenous data improvement frameworks and research with Urban Indian people.
 PC-WISH is rooted in the understanding that Indigenous Knowledge is the basis for healing in AI/AN
communities. We propose an Indigenous Research and Evaluation Partnership Model based on the metaphor
of the seasons of the harvest. Using this model and guided by the principles of Tribal and Community Based
Participatory Research, we propose the following aims. We will listen and learn from communities to understand
their research and data improvement strengths and resource needs. We will ...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10977942
- **Project number:** 1OT2DA061134-01
- **Recipient organization:** WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Abigail Echo-Hawk
- **Activity code:** OT2 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $2,199,999
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2024-08-15 → 2026-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10977942

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10977942, Promoting Community Wellbeing Through Indigenous Science and Healing (1OT2DA061134-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-06-12 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10977942. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*