By Lee Egerstrom
The Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community (SMSC) as started a $6 million campaign with partners to provide facilities and conduct research on ways to improve the physical fitness and mental wellness of Minnesota’s Native American youngsters. Don’t expect to see a lot of lab coats, test tubes, syringes or scales. The laboratories will be the kids’ playgrounds.
SMSC announced in January it is starting a three-year program through its philanthropic operations and will partner with the John Hopkins Center for Indigenous Health (CIH), the national playground nonprofit group KABOOM!, and the Minnesota Vikings.
The announcement said the SMSC effort will fund a variety of projects and programs on physical fitness and wellness, commission research, raise public awareness, and support efforts to “Indigenize” athletic programs.
The effort is called the IndigeFit Kids campaign. SMSC Vice-Chairwoman Natasha Hacker and Secretary/Treasurer Ashley Cornforth are co-chairs of the campaign.
Health problems are more common among Native American youth that others in the general population, Hacker explained in the program’s announcement. “We believe that through a dedicated campaign, we can change this reality and close health disparities among young Native Americans in Minnesota by giving them more resources to lead active, healthy lives,” she said.
Through IndigeFit Kids, SMSC will provide $500,000 to John Hopkins’ CIH to prepare at two-year study on culturally appropriate looks at physical activity and at obstacles and pathways for promoting good health among Native youth.
Dr. Melissa Walls (Couchiching First Nation and Bois Forte Ojibwe), and Dr. Donald Warne (Oglala Lakota) represented the Johns Hopkins Center for Indigenous Health and its Great Plains Hub at the announcement..
At that event at the Minneapolis American Indian Center in January, Warne said Native groups share a value to preserve well-being for future generations. “The IndigeFit initiative aligns with these teachings and invests in our children and young people in deeply meaningful ways.”
The CIH opened its regional operations at Rapid City, S.D., in October. Walls is a co-director of the center and is director of its Great Lakes Hub at Duluth.
Meanwhile, SMSC will also provide a $1.5 million grant to the Bethesda, Md., nonprofit KABOOM! It will conduct a research project assessing the adequacy of play spaces in Minnesota’s Native communities, both in reservations and in urban settings. This is considered a first-of-its-kind study.
In line with that, SMSC is committed to provide funds for building five community-designed “playspaces” in Native communities in the next three years. This will be done with KABOOM!
The Vikings football team will partner in these efforts as part of its work in promoting youth fitness and physical activity.
Learn more at: SMSC
