National Minority Health Month
Milton Bluehouse, Jr., is a tribal citizen of the Navajo Nation. Milton has managed a multi-cultural environmental mediation network focused on Native American resources; provided tribal intergovernmental training to federal agencies, corporations, and non-governmental organizations; and facilitated/mediated environmental conflicts involving tribal, state, and federal government agencies. Milton served as the Environmental Justice State Coordinator and Tribal Liaison for the New Mexico Environment Department where he worked to improve government and community relations on environmental resources throughout the state, and co-developed the first tribal consultation policy for the Environment Department, the Office of State Engineer, and the New Mexico Minerals Natural Resources Department.
In 2008, Milton received the EPA, EJ National Award on behalf of the Environment Department for Innovative Policy Development and Implementation on Environmental Justice. Immediately after graduating from the University of Wisconsin – Madison Law School in 2004, Milton worked for the Navajo Nation Washington Office, the Office of the Navajo Nation President and Vice President, and the Navajo Nation Council’s Office of Legislative Services on tribal legislative advocacy involving the U.S. Congress, the States of New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah. He worked as a legislative policy advisor for several Navajo tribal council committees, chapters, and communities. His focus during this time was tribal health care, social services, public safety, and veterans affairs.
As owner of Tribal Consultation Resources, Mr. Bluehouse provides tribal meeting facilitation, tribal intergovernmental relations training, policy and legislative analysis, strategic communications, and campaign services. He is currently apprenticing as a traditional/cultural Dine’ peacemaker, with an emphasis on cultural/religious/health uses for the environment, natural resources, and Navajo community conflict resolution.
Professor Bernardo Ca'amal Itzá is fondly known by his nickname “arux.” In Mayan tradition an “arux” is the name given to leprechaun-like creatures that protect and preserve traditional agricultural wisdom. Until 16 years of age, Professor Itzá spoke only Maya. Although he learned Spanish in his late adolescence he was admitted to the reputable University of Chapingo where he graduated in Agronomic Engineering. Professor Itzá worked as a university-based professor conducting agricultural research, but later chose to return to his native Peto, Yucatán and continue research within Maya communities. From Peto he promotes Mayan agricultural and health knowledge to more fully understand climate change and the effects it has on nature, specifically in terms of the milpa and its capacity to maintain the staple of corn.
In the 1990s Professor Itzá combined his interest in media and his knowledge of agriculture to create radio programs in Mayan, a first at that time in México. The effectiveness of his public health and education-related communication efforts has served as an example to the Mexican government’s approach to reaching historically underserved indigenous populations. His programs continue to emphasize sustainable nutrition and farming practices, as well as the benefits of traditional health knowledge. Professor Itzá also develops regional agricultural trends and analysis of farming issues. In the last decade, he has worked with local governments on sustainable rural development and public health projects and collaborated with NGOs on climate change, which is contributing to the exodus of youth from rural areas to cities. His lifelong goal has been to preserve the intangible knowledge of Maya communities.
Professor Itzá has served as the representative for the Maya for the United Nations conducting presentations throughout the U.S., Canada, and Europe. His radio shows and articles documenting Mayan culture and health are listened to and read throughout the Americas. Professor Itzá was awarded the George Atkins Communication Award by the University of Toronto. This award is given to someone who has demonstrated excellence in the use of radio to contribute to positive change in rural communities.
David Good is the son of a prominent American anthropologist, Kenneth Good, and Yarima, a Yanomami indigenous woman. The story behind his parent’s marriage has been syndicated across the world as their unique romance and relationship captured the interest of major television agencies, news outlets, and magazines. In 1992, David and his family were featured in a National Geographic film called The Yanomami Homecoming documenting their return expedition. David spent the first five years of his life traversing between two radically different cultures; one of the industrialized United States and the other of a remote village nestled deep in the Amazon rain forest of southeastern Venezuela called Hasupuwei-teri.
As a Yanomami-American, David wrestled with his indigenous identity particularly due to his mother leaving the family when he was five years old. It would take twenty years before he would be able to embark on a journey back to his indigenous homeland to reunite with his mother. His accounts can be read in his memoir titled The Way Around.
David is a public speaker and travels domestically and internationally to educate, raise awareness, and provide personal, unique insights on climate change, public health and economic issues facing the Yanomami of Venezuela and the Cabecar of Costa Rica through Project Good. Project Good seeks to mitigate threats and preserve cultural traditions and the ways of life of the Yanomami and the Cabecar who are increasingly threatened by their proximity with industrialization and capitalism.
David received his BS in Biology from East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania in 2011. In 2013 he founded The Good Project, a non-profit organization dedicated to the education, health care, and cultural preservation of indigenous groups in South and Central America. In 2015, he received his Master of Science in Biology at the same university. He is a member of the microbiology lab in the Department of Translational Medicine at NYU and an adjunct biology professor at Northampton Community College of Pennsylvania.