Through the practice of storytelling, Teshia Arambula Solomon and coauthors characterize the health effects of structural racism and epigenetic trauma on American Indians and Alaska Natives in a recent Health Affairs article.

"The deliberate cultural genocide caused by the forced separation of American Indian and Alaska Native children from their families and from their tribes [to boarding schools] led to a loss of modeled parenting skills and valuable, culturally grounded gender and family roles," Solomon and coauthors write.

Drawing on wisdom from their communities, the authors make recommendations to deconstruct institutionalized racism to benefit American Indian and Alaska Native people.

Among their recommendations: using the Cultural Wisdom Declaration–published as part of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s National Tribal Behavioral Health Agenda–as a model for all programs that may affect American Indian and Alaska Native health.

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