Partnering to Achieve Wellness for Native Americans through Indigenous Knowledge (PAWNIK)

The proposed project aims to support Tribes and Native American Serving Organizations (T/NASOs) to build capacity for NIH-funded research focused on HEAL (Helping End Addiction Long-Term) related topics, as part of the N CREW program. Led by Sacred Path Indigenous Wellness Center (SPIWC) and RAND, our team will apply their expertise from working on

previous NIH, PCORI, NSF, and DCHS projects to provide technical support, training, tools, and resources for T/NASOs. SPIWC and RAND's collaboration spans over a decade across four NIH grants with Native American populations addressing substance use, mental health, wellbeing, cultural identity, and community connection. Our work successfully blends Indigenous

Knowledge with Western science, emphasizing rigorous, culturally focused, and community- responsive research. We have successfully recruited over 1,000 American Indian/Alaska Native young people and adults for various research projects, and have developed robust strategies for deep collaboration, participant engagement, and effective data analysis and dissemination. Our

team proposes to conduct direct consultation with and support for T/NASOs in identifying relevant research topics for their communities, developing research questions and methods, collecting data, and documenting and disseminating findings. We will also offer both remote and in-person training focused on research design, survey development, data collection, and

knowledge dissemination. Ultimately, we aim to help T/NASOs blend innovative scientific and biomedical approaches with Indigenous ways of understanding and addressing behavioral health, while maintaining respect for data sovereignty and cultural sensitivity. Our team includes researchers from multiple disciplines, and has extensive experience in community participatory

research, designing and implementing interventions, managing projects, and disseminating

results in engaging and accessible formats. Our approach emphasizes advancement of community priorities, with advisory boards of young people, Elders, practitioners, parents, and other community members to help guide projects at all stages. Our interventions are developed in partnership with AI/AN communities to ensure sustainability beyond the funding period. We

have also been innovative in disseminating findings and intervention curricula through online platforms and videos. In summary, this grant proposal aims to leverage our collective expertise to help T/NASOs build capacity to conduct NIH-funded research focused on overdose, substance use, and pain management by integrating Indigenous Knowledge with Western science.

This study is part of the NIH’s Helping to End Addiction Long-term (HEAL) initiative to speed scientific solutions for the overdose epidemic, including opioid and stimulant use disorders, and the crisis of chronic pain. The NIH HEAL Initiative bolsters research across NIH to improve treatment for opioid misuse and addiction and acute and chronic pain.