2023 Native American Heritage Month
Please join the Office of Diversity, Inclusion, and Community Engagement (DICE), Geisel Association of Native American Medical Students (ANAMS), Gold Humanism Honor Society, the Office of Alumni Engagement, Dartmouth Health Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) Employee Resource Group in celebrating Geisel Native American Heritage Month!
Please join us for the 2023 Geisel Native American Heritage Month Celebration, on behalf of the Geisel School of Medicine’s Office of Diversity, Inclusion and Community Engagement and the Office of Alumni Relations and Dartmouth Health’s BIPOC Employee Resource Group! Our theme this year is, “We are STILL Here!” We look forward seeing you at all of our events as we highlight our culture, resiliency and our contributions! EVERYONE WELCOME!
We will identify the connection between land and food sovereignty to mental health and substance use disorders in Native Americans. With a focus on the Indigenous peoples of the Northeast, we will discuss food, land, and plant medicine for mental health treatment and prevention. Soil, microbiome, water, nutrition, and traditional foods and herbal medicines will be discussed as it relates to mental wellness.
For the hands-on medicine making workshop at 6:30 pm, participants will make fire cider which truly embodies food as medicine, as well as a tea blend for mental wellness.
Tlakuilkoatl (Mateo Silva)
What Kind of Guest Will You Be?, 2023
Acrylic on canvas
Artist’s Description: This land is N’dakinna — the traditional ancestral homeland of the Abenaki and Wabanaki Peoples, past and present. This painting is a tribute to the Abenaki and Wabanaki people. An Abenaki woman gathers corn against the backdrop of Upper Conneticut River Valley hills at sunrise. Her hair features a wampum belt and highlights the often-overlooked role of spirits — ancestors, present-day individuals, and the land itself — in Indigenous medicine and culture. The design of the wampum belt signifies the cooperation between an Indigenous community and a non-Indigenous community. It encourages the Dartmouth community to see that they are a guest in someone's home and consider the kind of community it aspires to be.
Gift of the Arnold P. Gold Foundation, the Geisel Gold Humanism Honor Society via Project HEAL (Health, Education, Art, and Lives), the Dartmouth Department of Native American and Indigenous Studies, and the Gordon Russell ’55 Academic Enrichment Fund.
Dr. Cassandra Rendon, MD is a Dartmouth ‘09 and Geisel ‘18, currently practicing pediatrics at Sanford Health in Bemidji, MN. Originally from North Dakota, she is an enrolled member of Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians and Oglala Lakota descendant. She completed her pediatric residency at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, WI. While attending Geisel, she was president of ANAMS.
This is an exciting opportunity to learn about the cultural importance of Native American beading and create your own beaded keychain or lanyard.
Native American Heritage Month Archive at Geisel School of Medicine