Cherokee Nation Coalition Action Network - The Cherokee Nation Coalition Action Network (CAN) serves the Cherokee Nation reservation in northeastern Oklahoma. The CAN’s primary population of focus is Native American youth, age 12-18, who attend school in Cherokee County, Oklahoma, with an emphasis on students, grades 7-12, who attend or are planning to attend Cherokee Nation’s Sequoyah High School (SHS) in Tahlequah. At just over 300 students, the student demographic of SHS is 100% Native American.
Regional alcohol and prescription drug misuse data demonstrate a need for early intervention with youth. According to Oklahoma Prevention Needs Assessment data, alcohol use rates rise steadily as students get older, with a particularly big jump between 8th and 10th grades. The dramatic difference in alcohol use rates between 8th and 10th grade is concerning, particularly when combined with the negative consequences we are seeing such as a lower graduation rate among Native American youth (75% nationally as compared to 90% among White youth), as well as negative mental health indicators such as suicide rates among American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) youth ages 10–24 are nearly three times higher than their same-aged peers in the U.S. general population. Rates of prescription drug misuse show a need for early intervention and support in junior high, providing scaffolding that continues throughout high school.
These data tell us not only that many of our children have started to use and misuse substances, but also that we have an opportunity to prevent the onset and interrupt the progression of misuse. We believe that connecting young people to their culture, and fostering relationships and knowledge across generations, is a key prevention strategy. The CAN will leverage lessons and successes of the last grant cycle to bolster the transmission of cultural knowledge between our carriers of wisdom and middle and high school students in Cherokee Nation, specifically in Sequoyah High School. Native youth deserve support, guidance, and hope as they navigate adolescence. The CAN will respond to two significant and connected risk factors- underage substance use and cultural disconnection- by teaching, modeling, and fortifying culturally centered practices in service of balance and wellness.
