Senate committee hears request to fund University of Minnesota center serving Indigenous health

State Sen. Jen McEwen on behalf of Senate File 17-47 asked a Senate committee to fund the University of Minnesota Duluth's Center for American Indian and Minority Health, saying the center expands culturally competent training for providers who serve American Indian and Alaska Native communities.

McEwen said the legislation would support programs to train more Native health professionals and to ensure University of Minnesota medical students receive indigenous-health instruction. "I ask that you join me in supporting American Indian and Alaska Native students in our health professions who want to improve the health outcomes of their communities," she told committee members.

The request was supported by Dr. Mary Owen, director of the Center for American Indian and Minority Health and associate dean for Native Health at the University of Minnesota Medical School, Duluth, and by medical student Tammy Livermont. Owen said the center has a long record of producing Native physicians and health leaders and that federal funding has declined: "We have, in fact, graduated the second highest number of Native physicians in the entire nation," she said. Owen described the center as a regional hub that trains Native physicians, dentists, nurses, pharmacists and public-health specialists and said sustained state funding would allow the center to hire a full-time staff member to expand interprofessional and pathway programs.

Owen recounted a personal example to illustrate the need for more Native clinicians in care settings. She described accompanying her mother to Anchorage for an aortic valve procedure and said the attending clinician questioned whether her mother should be allowed to "just allow herself a natural death," despite documented dementia. "Not everybody gets a doctor or a kin to advocate for you," Owen said. She told the committee the center also runs the Indigenous Health Education Resource Task Force, which supports pathway programs and has received Robert Wood Johnson Foundation funding.

Tammy Livermont, a University of Minnesota medical student who identified herself as Oglala Lakota, said the center provided cultural, academic and community supports that were decisive in her decision to train and stay in Minnesota. "The center is a lifeline for Native students pursuing a career in medicine," Livermont said, adding the center helps connect students back to tribal health systems and communities.

Witnesses gave several quantitative details during testimony: Owen said 20 to 40 Native physicians graduate nationally each year out of about 20,000 total medical graduates; she also stated that life expectancy for Native people in her remarks was "65 years of age" and noted a separate figure earlier in testimony that American Indians and Alaska Natives have a life expectancy about 5.5 years shorter than the U.S. population as a whole. Witnesses did not provide a specific state appropriation amount in committee testimony.

With no questions from members, the committee "laid over" the bill for possible future action, the chair said at the close of the item. "The bill will be laid over," the chair announced.

The record of today's testimony will be part of the committee's consideration if and when the bill reaches later steps in the legislative process.