Food Security and Food Sovereignty: The Difference Between Surviving and Thriving.

Previous research in American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) communities has documented high prevalence of food insecurity. Yet many AI/AN scholars and communities have expressed concerns that the dominant societal conceptions of food security are not reflective of the teachings, priorities, and values of AI/AN communities. Food security initiatives often focus on access to food and, at times, nutrition but little consideration is given to cultural foods, the spirituality carried through foods, and whether the food was stewarded in a way that promotes well-being not just for humans but also for plants, animals, land, and water. Despite the concerns of AI/AN communities that their needs are not centered in dominant societal food conceptualizations and food security programming, the food sovereignty efforts of AI/AN communities have captured national attention as a solution to modern food system inequities. Indigenous Food Sovereignty (IFS) is a holistic approach to food that incorporates values of relationality, reciprocity, and relationships. Fundamental differences exist between food security and food sovereignty, yet dominant society often reduces IFS as a solution to food security, rather than an entirely different food system that is predicated on values that contrast with that of dominant society. Despite calls to decolonize the definition and measurement of food security, we explore whether fixing the concept of food security is a worthy endeavor or whether efforts would be better spent supporting the resurgence and revitalization of AI/AN food values, food knowledge, and community food sovereignty initiatives.

Centering Indigenous Knowledges and Worldviews: Applying the Indigenist Ecological Systems Model to Youth Mental Health and Wellness Research and Programs.

Globally, Indigenous communities, leaders, mental health providers, and scholars have called for strengths-based approaches to mental health that align with Indigenous and holistic concepts of health and wellness. We applied the Indigenist Ecological Systems Model to strengths-based case examples of Indigenous youth mental health and wellness work occurring in CANZUS (Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and United States). The case examples include research, community-led programs, and national advocacy. Indigenous youth development and well-being occur through strengths-based relationships across interconnected environmental levels. This approach promotes Indigenous youth and communities considering complete ecologies of Indigenous youth to foster their whole health, including mental health. Future research and programming will benefit from understanding and identifying common, strengths-based solutions beyond narrow intervention targets. This approach not only promotes Indigenous youth health and mental health, but ripples out across the entire ecosystem to promote community well-being.

Development and Dissemination of a Strengths-Based Indigenous Children's Storybook: "Our Smallest Warriors, Our Strongest Medicine: Overcoming COVID-19".

The traditions, strengths, and resilience of communities have carried Indigenous peoples for generations. However, collective traumatic memories of past infectious diseases and the current impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in many Indigenous communities point to the need for Indigenous strengths-based public health resources. Further, recent data suggest that COVID-19 is escalating mental health and psychosocial health inequities for Indigenous communities. To align with the intergenerational strengths of Indigenous communities in the face of the pandemic, we developed a strengths- and culturally-based public health education and mental health coping resource for Indigenous children and families. Using a community-engaged process, the Johns Hopkins Center for American Indian Health collaborated with 14 Indigenous and allied child development, mental health, health communications experts and public health professionals, as well as a Native American youth artist. Indigenous collaborators and Indigenous Johns Hopkins project team members collectively represented 12 tribes, and reservation-based, off-reservation, and urban geographies. This group shared responsibility for culturally adapting the children's book "My Hero is You: How Kids Can Fight COVID-19!" developed by the Inter-Agency Standing Committee Reference Group on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Emergency Settings and developing ancillary materials. Through an iterative process, we produced the storybook titled "Our Smallest Warriors, Our Strongest Medicine: Overcoming COVID-19" with content and illustrations representing Indigenous values, experiences with COVID-19, and strengths to persevere. In addition, parent resource materials, children's activities, and corresponding coloring pages were created. The book has been disseminated online for free, and 42,364 printed copies were distributed to early childhood home visiting and tribal head start programs, Indian Health Service units, tribal health departments, intertribal, and urban Indigenous health organizations, Johns Hopkins Center for American Indian Health project sites in partnering communities, schools, and libraries. The demand for and response to "Our Smallest Warriors, Our Strongest Medicine: Overcoming COVID-19" demonstrates the desire for Indigenous storytelling and the elevation of cultural strengths to maintain physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Cultural Sources of Strength and Resilience: A Case Study of Holistic Wellness Boxes for COVID-19 Response in Indigenous Communities.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had disproportionately severe impacts on Indigenous peoples in the United States compared to non-Indigenous populations. In addition to the threat of viral infection, COVID-19 poses increased risk for psychosocial stress that may widen already existing physical, mental, and behavioral health inequities experienced by Indigenous communities. In recognition of the impact of COVID-19 related psychosocial stressors on our tribal community partners, the Johns Hopkins Center for American Indian Health Great Lakes Hub began sending holistic wellness boxes to our community partners in 11 tribal communities in the Midwestern United States and Canada in summer of 2020. Designed specifically to draw on culturally relevant sources of strength and resilience, these boxes contained a variety of items to support mental, emotional, cultural, and physical wellbeing. Feedback from recipients suggest that these wellness boxes provided a unique form of COVID-19 relief. Additional Johns Hopkins Center for American Indian Health offices have begun to adapt wellness boxes for the cultural context of their regions. This case study describes the conceptualization, creation, and contents of these wellness boxes and orients this intervention within a reflection on foundations of community-based participatory research, holistic relief, and drawing on cultural strengths in responding to COVID-19.