A quiet revolution unfolded on a summer day in North Dakota — one that may ripple outward to heal fractures in the fabric of Indigenous health.
On August 4, 2023, four scholars—tribal leaders, public health officers, educators—crossed the virtual and physical thresholds into history.
They became the first-ever recipients of the Ph.D. in Indigenous Health from the University of North Dakota (UND), in a program designed to bridge two worlds: Western science and Indigenous wisdom.
This milestone is not just symbolic. It marks a turning point in how academic institutions, tribal communities, and health systems can co-create pathways to wellness grounded in culture, equity, and lived experience.
Forging A Program From Vision And Necessity
The seeds of this undertaking were planted years before the inaugural cohort embarked. In 2020, UND launched the world’s first doctoral program in Indigenous Health, under the guidance of Dr. Donald Warne, a physician and public health leader.
Warne saw a profound gap: Indigenous communities had long been subject to public health programs designed from outside their worldviews.
The claim “nothing like this exists in the world” was not hyperbole — no fully dedicated Ph.D. program in Indigenous Health existed before.
Undergirded by a philosophy of “two-eyed seeing” — honoring both Indigenous and Western knowledge systems — the program became a laboratory for cultural sovereignty in research.
From the start, the design was intentional: accessible to working professionals, largely virtual, with summer in-person seminars when possible, flexible pacing, and applied as well as academic tracks.
As interest rolled in, the demand confirmed what community leaders already knew: this kind of education was overdue. Applications surged, bringing together students from Alaska, Canada, Hawai‘i, and across the U.S.
In parallel, UND created the first Department of Indigenous Health within a U.S. medical school, and established the Indigenous Trauma & Resilience Research Center and the American Indian Collaborative Research Network.
Four Graduates, Four Journeys, One Mission
Each of the first four doctoral recipients brings a story shaped by both service and scholarship.
- Mona Zuffante (Seneca Cayuga Nation, Oklahoma), serving as Chief Public Health Officer for the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska while also working as an EMT, carried 15 field programs on her shoulders as she pursued the degree. She reflected on how rare and powerful it was to be taught by Indigenous instructors, describing it as “very, very new.”
- Amy Stiffarm (Aaniiih, Chippewa Cree, Blackfeet lineage) balanced motherhood, pandemic constraints, and a virtual curriculum while running maternal-child health initiatives. Her aim was clear: don’t let her dissertation languish on a shelf. She moved directly into work managing the Native initiatives program at Healthy Mothers Healthy Babies Montana, embedding insights from her doctoral work into real community programs.
- Cole Allick (Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa) transitioned from tribal liaison and health consultant roles to academia. He now teaches within the same program that mentored him. He described the experience of learning among Indigenous peers as one where “you don’t have to over-explain anything.”
- Danya Carroll (Navajo and White Mountain Apache) stepped into Indigenous food systems and land health as her doctoral focus. She observed that many chronic diseases trace back to disrupted diets, land disconnection, and cultural dislocation. “Food is really tied to a lot of our cultural teachings … and it’s tied to the land and the water … prevention is key.”
Collectively, their dissertations spanned topics from maternal mental health, Alzheimer’s in tribal contexts, and evaluation frameworks that center Indigenous methodology.
Walking Between Worlds
The most vital centerpiece of this story lies not in any individual biography, but in the structural philosophy that makes this work possible: the embodied integration of two epistemologies.
In Western academia, research is often driven by abstracted logic, universal metrics, and decontextualized methodologies.
For many Indigenous communities, health and knowledge are inseparable from relationships: land, language, ceremony, trust, history.
To require a scholar to navigate only one paradigm can be alienating; to demand both is a bold invitation to mutual intelligence.
UND’s Indigenous Health Ph.D. is built on the notion that students can “walk in two worlds”: to learn Western methods (biostatistics, epidemiology, conventional research design) and to own Indigenous methodologies (oral histories, participatory community research, relational accountability).
When an Indigenous scholar frames a research question, they might ask not “What’s the statistical association?” but “Which relationships, stories, cycles, and histories must be honored for the question to make sense in community?”
The program pushes students to produce not just one monolithic dissertation, but multiple outputs: manuscripts, policy briefs, evaluations, community-driven products.
The applied track emphasizes community-relevant deliverables. Many students choose it. Walking between worlds invites tension. It demands humility, reflexivity, translation, and, above all, respect. But such tension can yield richer, more honored and effective outcomes — research that doesn’t just speak about Indigenous peoples, but speaks with them.
Roots, Reach, And Unfolding Promise
These first four graduates walk a bold path, but they are far from alone. The UND program now lists 60 students, gathering momentum and attention across Indigenous communities.
In early 2025, UND doctoral students used participatory photography (PhotoVoice) to capture their journeys — weaving story, image, land, and narrative in public exhibitions.
Moreover, media outlets have begun to amplify this work. CNN’s feature on the UND graduates highlights how these scholars are stepping into the breach of health inequity in Indian Country.
While this story is rooted in the U.S., its resonance crosses borders. Indigenous communities worldwide grapple with colonial legacies, health disparities, cultural erasure, and research frameworks configured externally. The UND model offers a new template — one where Indigenous self-determination, equity, rigor, and relational science can co-exist.
Challenges Ahead And Hopeful Directions
No transformative path is easy. The challenges are real:
- Funding & Resources: Because travel, summer seminars, community work, and Indigenous mentoring all incur cost, financial support for students remains a hurdle.
- Institutional Inertia: Universities steeped in Western research paradigms may resist curricular shifts that validate Indigenous knowledge as equal, not supplemental.
- Bridging Scales: Ensuring that doctoral work translates to on-the-ground programs — not just academic prestige — is vital.
- Sustaining Community Trust: For many Indigenous communities, research has been extractive and exploitative. These new scholars carry the weight of restoring accountability and care.
Yet the promise outweighs the barriers. As these scholars advance into policy, academia, tribal health leadership, and community programs, they will bring a new generation of research grounded in dignity, culture, interdependence, and healing.
In that small August ceremony, something deeper happened than caps were tossed. A quiet vow was made — that Indigenous knowledge would not be sidelined in health research; that those most impacted by ill health would help lead the inquiry; that the academy could widen its gates without losing integrity.
The first four graduates are trailblazers. They remind us that healing is not just a matter of science, but of story, care, presence, and partnership. In walking between worlds, they light a path forward — one where Indigenous health is not an afterthought, but central to the future of public health.
