“Representation is really important; it plays a vital role in cancer prevention and research,” said Craig Dee, also a member of the Navajo (Dine’) Tribe, and a community health educator with the Cancer Consortium’s Office of Community Outreach & Engagement.

But it’s not just representation within the health care system, he said.

“There also needs to be representation at the research level, at the principal investigator level in cancer and prevention research,” said Dee, who is pursuing a master’s degree in public health at UW. “The community needs to see commonality and your understanding of the lived experiences that stream from historical trauma and colonization. This helps with the trust.”

Originally from the Four Corners region, Dee focuses on urban American Indian and Alaska Natives, which he terms an “often-overlooked population.”

Like Pete, who recently received a large grant from the National Cancer Institute to study stomach cancer risk among the Navajo people, Dee works to connect two communities — academic and Indigenous.

“My work is to walk in both worlds,” he said. “To build relationships and create internal and external educational opportunities, but lately more so to support the scientific community to better understand and acknowledge the significant value of Indigenous relationality in cancer research.”

Dee said strengthening the health of American Indian and Alaska Native peoples means recognizing research and data evaluation as Indigenous values that can be used to tackle the health disparities they face.

“American Indian and Alaska Natives have been observational researchers since time immemorial,” he said. “A lot of our traditional medicines, ones that were used thousands of years ago to treat infection, relieve pain and other things, are still being used today.”

Read the full article about Indigenous representation in healthcare by Diane Mapes at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.