There are over 503,000 American Indians and Alaskan Natives today who strive each day, weeks and months to ensure that all they have learned and experienced are passed onto the next generation of tribal elders — today’s tribal youths. What our elders know and retain in their memories are stories, customs and tribal traditions. This is the value of our elders, and the National Indian Council on Aging has been at the forefront of this quest for cultural continuity — or rather the survival of the 574 plus tribes in the United States for the last four and half decades.

When President Nixon signed the Indian Self-Determination and Tribal Self-Governance (P.L. 93-638) in 1975, tribal elders saw in this legislation an opportunity to truly exercise self-determination. We want, they said, to be able to develop and administer our own programs with funds coming directly from the federal government. This took the form of Title VI of the Older Americans Act, a law that signed by President Carter in 1978, a few months ahead of the Indian Child Welfare Act. This year will be the 24th year of both laws — ironic and coincidental in that each Act viewed these two ends of the age spectrum as requiring special treatment. The youth being the future continuity of tribes; the elderly the walking encyclopedias of their tribes’ language, culture, history and traditions, which is critical to the continuity of tribes. They are both of equal importance to the continued existence and survival of tribes.

It is time that our elders are protected in the same manner as our youth. The pandemic reminded us how important our elders are to tribes — wrapping a protective covering around them, meals delivered, reaching out to isolated elders, and prioritizing the vaccine for elders who still spoke the tribal language. Concurrently, there are many tribal elders who are in long-term care facilities in urban or off-reservation communities. With only 22 long-term care facilities on Indian reservations, there will come a time when the need further increases to protect the elders who are in off-reservation long-term care facilities — bringing them home and placing them in culturally sensitive facilities in their own communities.

With the growing prospect of an increasing number of American Indian and Alaska Natives being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia in the near future — estimates are one in three within the next decade — we cannot wait for this health issue and have it catch us flatfooted. We need tribal leaders, elders, youth and tribal communities to help us meet this matter proactively.

NICOA needs your advocacy and support on these and a myriad of other issues. If we value and respect our elders as we say we do, then we all need to be together on this issue. We pray for our elders, our tribal leaders and the frontline workers who make the lives of our elders meaningful in the twilight of their lives.

MacKenzie Scott's generous gift of $4 million to NICOA was recently covered by KUNM and Source NM. Click here to read the Source NM interview with Executive Director Larry Curley, and click here to read or listen to his interview with KUNM.

American Indian and Alaska Native elders completed a survey to help determine how they get their health information and their preferences for receiving dementia-related health data. Over 100 elders from 15 states and 51 tribes responded to the International Association for Indigenous Aging’s (IA2) survey distributed at the National Indian Council on Aging’s (NICOA) American Indian Elders Conference last year.

The survey revealed that the top three ways people usually get health information was from the doctor’s office, online, newspaper or tribal newsletter. The best ways to provide information about dementia, Alzheimer’s, or brain health to elders and their families was community education through senior services, flyers and brochures, and the doctor’s office.

The survey also asked what makes it hard to access available resources. The answers were transportation and no formal diagnosis. Those surveyed expressed that they were the least satisfied with their ability to access respite care for caregivers, support groups with people from similar cultural backgrounds, and community events for people living with dementia.

Click here to read more about the survey results. The information gathered in this survey will be used to help create and promote health information resources for American Indian and Alaska Native elders.

People still want to go out and enjoy themselves for a fine meal or a good movie, but few want to work out in the community. You can now purchase your movie tickets online and have reserved seating, and because housekeepers are hard to get, you now have to ask to have your room cleaned. This is the new normal.

Baby boomers are older, making them higher risk of severe illness and death from COVID-19. Many have opted to opted to start drawing Social Security and live off their nest egg instead of taking a risk at work, economists said. Grandparents may have also offered to watch their grandkids and ease childcare duties for working parents, since daycare is also very hard to find.

The Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP) works with the mature worker to learn new skills and get them back into the workforce. NICOA’s SCSEP team provides services to the states of Arizona, Minnesota, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Wisconsin. However, it is a program being provided nationally by many other service providers.

If you or someone you know could benefit from learning new work skills and get assistance finding a job, are 55+ and low income, visit our website, call 505-292-2001 or send an email. If you’re interested in participating in the program, fill out the pre-application form.

NICOA and GetSetUp, the largest and fastest-growing virtual social learning platform designed specifically for elders, have partnered to help bridge the digital divide and offer job skills training for eligible Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP) participants.

This partnership provides our SCSEP participants with live interactive classes on GetSetUp covering a range of topics like technology and how to use the software used by many companies so qualifying job seekers age 55 and over can gain the skills needed to re-enter the workforce. 

Colleen Teske spent a full year applying for work without success. The North Dakota resident had spent many years as a residential treatment advisor at the Dakota Boys and Girls Ranch Safe Home and nearly a decade as a shelter manager at the YWCA, yet could not find employment until she discovered the National Indian Council on Aging’s (NICOA) Senior Community Service Program (SCSEP). According to a poll by AARP, 78 percent of elder workers say they have seen or experienced age discrimination in the workplace. And yet two-thirds of elder workers are still open to learning new skills to stay competitive in the job market.

“At NICOA we believe there is no reason why someone cannot start a new career at 60. In fact, some statistics would suggest that we are most productive from ages 60 to 70. What employer would not want to benefit from the unparalleled experience, productivity and loyalty our elders provide?” said Sarah Piersol, program manager for SCSEP in North Dakota.

Piersol has had the opportunity to work with Teske for over two years. “I have attended job fairs with Colleen and witnessed how employers reacted to her age and overlooked her experience. The employers who were interested only wanted to bring her in as an entry level employee,” she said.

Sandy Simon joined NICOA’s Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP) last year and is currently training at The Arc of Dickinson in North Dakota. When Sandy started her training, she had no computer skills. She recently had back surgery and was concerned about not having enough paid hours. Once she was trained on a computer course, she was able to sign in and learn how to navigate the website. Now Sandy has logged over 55 hours of courses completed on the computer.

She also learned how to enter her hours into an app on her smartphone, and even taught other participants at her host agency how to put their hours into the work computer.

Deb Brych started NICOA’s SCSEP after getting hurt. She didn’t have any experience with computers and was scared to use them. She has since mastered many of the online courses offered and trains at the Welcome House, a local homeless shelter in Bismarck, North Dakota.

She enjoys her training and does the online courses as often as she can. She has finished well over 50 courses so far and is still going strong. She now has the confidence to do office work involving computers.

“When I applied to this program, I felt defeated. The job-hunting process has changed so much from the earlier years. Beginning with my very first host site to the last one, the things I learned were invaluable. This program teaches self-worth for the aging population that still wants to work,” said NICOA SCSEP participant Jacqueline Lewis. “The staff will listen to your concerns and guide you in the best direction. They provide workshops and interview techniques along with the on-site training to better prepare you to re-enter the workforce. This program is a confidence-builder that at 55 and over you can step out and succeed. I am now employed full-time thanks to this program. If you have barriers to employment start here for help in overcoming them and success in job search.”

Jay Meier, a job developer with National Indian Council on Aging (NICOA), helps run the state’s Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP). He said COVID-19 has played a large role in the shake-up of the workforce in the past couple of years. However, sometimes the pandemic can also play a part in convincing retirees to stay retired.

“The older workers that I'm working with, they're starting to look at that again (going out into the workforce),” Meier said. “But because of their age, they're a little bit more tentative than a younger worker to go back out and be in an environment where there's a lot of people.”

Meier is currently “criss-crossing” North Dakota to inform workforce and job centers of what the NCSEP is and the people within it looking for employment. In the NCSEP, retirees aged 55 and older looking to re-enter the workforce enroll and join a training program for two to four years. The program currently has about 100 participants.

“Our job is to get them out in unsubsidized employment,” Meier said. “So basically, it’s any job in the community. One of the things that I really want to make sure that I express is this program, we're the National Indian Council on Aging. ... But anybody can be in this. You don't have to be Native American. You don’t have to be Indian or Alaskan or anything like that.”

Some of them don’t need much training, either.

“For example, in Fargo right now, we have a guy that's pretty good with electronics and those types of things,” Meier said. "Job fair season is coming up in North Dakota, so I'm going to be going to a lot of job fairs trying to visit with the employers ... and talk about these older people that are pretty reliable. They show up for work, and they have skills.”

Overall, about 60 percent of SCSEP participants find employment after their time in the program is over. The program also provides help with finding jobs in the community.

“We need all the help we can get,” Meier said. “We are always looking for new participants. We want people in the program and employers that want to visit with me and talk about this stuff.”

NICOA’s Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP) works with elders to find employment in their communities to become self-sufficient. 2^nd Chances Thrift Center in Bismarck, North Dakota, is a great example of how the program works in our communities!

Carol Schumacher started out as a program participant and soon became the assistant store manager. With her work experience, she was able to gain the skills that allowed her to apply for the position. 

Store Manager Brad Wahl is a big supporter of the NICOA SCSEP and the progress of the participants that are placed there. Employers like these make it possible for SCSEP participants to gain the necessary self-confidence, skills and job opportunities.

We would like to take this time to thank all the employers that we work with in all states we provide services, and let them know how much their contribution means to us and the participants we serve. If you are a nonprofit or governmental agency, and would like to find out more, contact NICOA at 505-292-2001.

Membership with NICOA offers many valuable benefits. As a paid member you will receive NICOA’s online bimonthly newsletter, legislative updates on important issues and resolutions affecting elders, voting privileges for qualified members and discounted registration fees for qualified members to attend our biennial conferences.

Be an important part of a national membership network and become a NICOA member by applying online or by mail.

For years nursing homes have often been seen as a distasteful living arrangement for loved ones, especially elders. They were far too regimented, based on a medical model of care and offered very little privacy, dignity or opportunity for residents to thrive.

In response, creative minds during the 1980’s and 1990’s brought forth a paradigm shift; a new concept of living and of service to elders. This new approach focused on a residential model with freedom to manage one’s own affairs, medications and personal schedule.

The goal was to be like a home not an institution and counter the plagues of nursing home confinement: Loneliness, Helplessness, Boredom. A new concept was born — “Assisted Living.”

In this webinar you’ll learn about the components and services that make up assisted living, as well as its history and evolution. Discover the different levels of assisted living, how to qualify, and what it takes to develop and operate an assisted living facility.

David Wildgen is an experienced CEO of Life Plan/Continuing Care Communities including assisted living and post-acute/rehab skilled nursing facilities with over 40 years as a healthcare executive with not-for-profit, faith-driven corporations. He is a multi-state licensed nursing home administrator. Over the past eight years he’s engaged in consulting and interim CEO/executive director/administrator positions. He finds it rewarding to use his many years of experience to help elder service providers.

A Native American financial sovereignty moment is gaining ground, revolutionizing capital access for Native families. The Oweesta Corporation, a national Native community development financial institution (CDFI) intermediary, is forging a path to financial sovereignty. Led by Native CDFIs, the Native financial sovereignty movement acknowledges that nothing will change for Native communities without Native families having access to homeownership and Native small businesses having access to capital.

The Native financial sovereignty movement now has 70 certified Native CDFI and the number grows in momentum, scale, and size each day. These Native CDFIs represent diverse Native nations ranging from Hawaii to Maine, and yet they remain deeply connected and more similar in model than disparate. These community-driven financial institutions help their borrowers navigate the bureaucratic systems steeped in inequities that continue to sideline — and redline — Native communities.

Native CDFIs are fighting to change exclusionary financial practices every day. Relying on community-driven lending products and deeply accountable to their communities, Native CDFIs operate under a relationship-based lending model. Despite longstanding misconceptions about the risk of lending in Indian County, Native CDFIs often hold lower write off and delinquency rates than conventional banking institutions.

American Indian and Alaska Native populations have higher death rates across age groups and the lowest average life expectancy compared with white, Black and Hispanic populations in the U.S., according to a recent study by researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The study also shows that 34 percent of non-Hispanic Native deaths are misclassified as a different race on death certificates, leading to an underestimation of deaths in this population. The findings in “Mortality Profile of the Non-Hispanic American Indian or Alaska Native Population, 2019,” published as a National Vital Statistics Report in November 2021, confirms what previous studies have shown and are a reminder of stark and persisting health disparities in the population.

At 71.8 years, American Indian and Alaska Native individuals have the lowest life expectancy compared with other races and ethnicities. Life expectancy was 78.8 years, on average, for white people, 74.8 years for Black people, and 81.9 years for Hispanic individuals. This average life expectancy calculation of Native individuals is lower than the 78.4 years reported by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Minority Health, which uses Census Bureau projections.

The Native population also have a higher death rate than white, Black and Hispanic populations across most age groups. American Indian and Alaska Native men have higher death rates than Native women in all age groups, except for 85 and over, the study found.

Sixteen tribal nations will receive $1.7 billion as part of Indian water rights settlements, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland announced in February. The money is drawn from President Biden's bipartisan infrastructure law.

Over the years, at least 34 tribes have turned to settlements to resolve conflicts with the federal government over water rights. The settlement is aimed at funding infrastructure for American Indians and Alaska Natives to store and transport water so they no longer have to suffer from lack of access.

The funding will help deliver long-promised water resources to tribal communities as well as a solid foundation for future economic development for entire communities dependent on common water resources.

Additionally, in April, Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland rescinded a memorandum issued in 1975 regarding the authority to approve tribal water codes. The action will streamline Departmental review of tribal water codes and remove a widely perceived obstacle to their approval.

Secretary Haaland announced that the Department will engage in tribal consultations to discuss the appropriate delegation of approval authority and guidance on approval standards related to the review and processing of tribal water codes.

A North Dakota tribal nation officially assumed ownership of mineral rights under the Missouri River in April, getting the title back from the state in a dispute that has gone on for more than two centuries.

The Biden administration has decided that the mineral rights under the original Missouri River riverbed belong to the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation, also known as the Three Affiliated Tribes. They cited the 1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie and subsequent executive orders saying that the tribes’ territory surrounded the Missouri River. This reverses a May 2020 Trump administration decision that the state was legal owner of submerged lands beneath the river where it flows through the Fort Berthold Reservation.

At stake is an estimated $100 million in unpaid royalties held in trust and future payments certain to come from oil drilling beneath the river, which was dammed by the federal government in the 1950s. That flooded more than a tenth of the 1,500-square-mile Fort Berthold Reservation to create Lake Sakakawea.

The Snoqualmie Indian Tribe, a federally recognized tribe in Washington, filed a petition in March asking the U.S. Supreme Court to consider its hunting and gathering civil rights case against Governor Jay Inslee and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.

The tribe is petitioning to overturn a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision that denied Snoqualmie’s treaty status and stripped it of its hunting and gathering treaty rights reserved in the Treaty of Point Elliott, despite the fact the United States has repeatedly confirmed the tribe as a treaty signatory.

In American jurisprudence, treaties are considered the “supreme law of the land”, and the Executive Branch is responsible for their execution, while Congress alone is solely empowered to abrogate treaty terms. No act of Congress has modified the Treaty of Point Elliott, and the U.S. Department of the Interior has repeatedly acknowledged that Snoqualmie is a treaty signatory with treaty rights.

According to the tribe, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and Governor Jay Inslee refused repeated requests for state officials to stop meddling in a federal issue, forcing the tribe to sue to obtain relief from harassment from state law enforcement officials.