Friend,

As many of us gather this week with family and friends, it’s also a time to remember our country’s violent history of forced displacement, genocide, and cultural erasure of Indigenous communities. And partly as reparations for ongoing oppression, now is a crucial time to support Indigenous-led organizations.

Here in Detroit, American Indian Health & Family Services (AIHFS) is providing holistic support for the physical, spiritual, emotional, and mental well-being of American Indian/Alaska Native people in Southeastern Michigan.

Making sure not to turn anyone away, AIFHS serves uninsured people by providing discounts and sliding scale fees based on income, and offers transportation as needed to bring people to programs and appointments.

The non-profit organization runs a medical clinic in addition to providing:

• Behavioral health services (including counseling for mental health and addictions, a recovery support group using a Native cultural model for recovery, suicide screenings and ongoing care, suicide intervention trainings, and weekly Talking Circles)

• Community wellness services (including community gardening, pregnancy and postpartum support, youth programs, and supporting people in signing up for assistance to pay for food and electric bills)

• And cultural services (such as workshops in Native art-making or ancestral foods, and ceremonies like traditional healing sweat lodges)

This Thanksgiving weekend, can you help address centuries of injustice by donating as generously as you can to American Indian Health & Family Services, which makes holistic healthcare accessible for Indigenous people?

What’s taught in schools about Thanksgiving is a myth, one that harms Indigenous people to this day by condoning and erasing the truth about settlers’ theft of Indigenous land.  

Our government is still breaking treaties, including by enabling ongoing resource extraction that’s destroying Indigenous people’s land, water, food sources, spiritual centers, and more.

Centuries of colonialist and racist policies have taken a toll on American Indians’ and Alaska Natives’ health by contributing to chronic stress, multi-generational trauma (including from our discriminatory healthcare system), and poverty.

This has led to massive health disparities, with Indigenous people suffering from higher rates of diabetes, asthma, and heart disease. And sadly, such underlying conditions have contributed to the disproportionate burden that Indigenous people have experienced during this pandemic.

As compared to white Americans, American Indians and Alaska Natives have 3.5x higher COVID-19 infection rates, are over 4x more likely to be hospitalized due to COVID-19, and have higher mortality rates at younger ages. During the pandemic, American Indian Health & Family Services sprung into action, providing COVID-19 testing and vaccinations, along with important community education.

And for years, American Indian Health & Family Services has specialized in suicide prevention, because unfortunately, American Indian/Alaska Natives have up to 3x higher rates of suicide than any other racial/ethnic group in the United States.

However, experts have found that reconnecting with one’s Indigenous heritage, spirituality, and community can help reduce suicide risk.

That’s yet another important reason for American Indian Health & Family Services’ holistic approach to healthcare, which integrates traditional Native American healing and spiritual practices with contemporary western medicine.

Can you chip in today to support the essential work of American Indian Health & Family Services, as part of healing centuries of injustice?

If you've saved your payment information with ActBlue Express, your secure donation will go through immediately, directly to American Indian Health & Family Services:

In solidarity,

Rashida