Project Red Talon

Helping Native Youth Thrive

Project Red Talon’s goal is to promote sexual health and wellness for AI/AN people by disseminating and implementing effective programs.
_{Source: Project Red Talon}

It has been said that when an Elder walks on, knowledge as vast as a library is lost. Although this is true, when Native youth are healthy, balanced, and well-tended to, they can become bearers of their Elders’ wisdom, carriers of their peoples’ stories, and embodiments of their cultural teachings.

At present, though, some of our young people are in need of our tending. National data indicate that, in 2015, 20% of new HIV infections were among 13–24-year-olds. Despite this, HIV testing rates remain low. Just 22% of sexually active high school students and 33% of 18–24-year-olds have been tested for HIV (MMWR, 2017) and few seek sexual health care for STIs.

Project Red Talon works to prevent human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and Hepatitis C virus (HCV). The project has provided training and technical assistance to tribes and tribal organizations throughout the U.S. on implementing and evaluating culturally appropriate sexual health and STI/HIV prevention programs since 1988. The project is funded by the IHS HIV Program and Minority HIV/AIDS Fund.

The primary goal of Project Red Talon is to promote sexual health and wellness for AI/AN people by disseminating and implementing effective programs from a socio-ecological framework, addressing systems, communities, organizations, individuals and policies. The quality improvement project works with partners across the nation to:

Improve STI/HIV/HCV testing, screening, treatment, and reporting practices within NW tribal clinics.
Strengthen the capacity of tribal health educators, program managers, and clinicians to provide STI/HIV/HCV prevention services to their local community.
Increase community awareness about SIT/HIV/HCV.
Increase AI/AN representation in regional and national STI/HIV/HCV workgroups.

Project Red Talon works to prevent human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and Hepatitis C virus (HCV).
_{Source: We R Native}

To gather HIV/STI resources for your youth, check out:

We R Native – a multimedia health resource for Native youth, by Native youth. We R Native offers holistic sexual health content via www.weRnative.org, a text messaging service (Text NATIVE to 94449), and social media channels, including a Facebook page, a YouTube channel, Twitter, and TicTok.
Healthy Native Youth –a one-stop-shop for educators and health advocates seeking to expand age-appropriate sexual health-related learning opportunities for AI/AN youth (www.HealthyNativeYouth.org).
Safe Spaces Campaign for 2SLGBTQ community members at https://www.npaihb.org/wysh
Indigenized Love Toolkit – Two Spirit, LGBTQ and sexual identity lesson plans:

Native STAND 2.0 – Safe Sex Lesson Plans Safe Snagging, STIs, HIV/AIDS

Talking is Power – Text message for parents and caring adults, covering sexual health, pregnancy, STDs, and consent

Do you have a STD initiative or success story of your own? Need STD technical assistance or capacity building? Please reach out to jleston@npaihb.org.

Success Stories

Helping Native Youth Thrive

Northwest Portland Area Indian Health Board
Native BOOST Project Manager

Great Lakes Inter-Tribal Epidemiology Center

Tigua Indian from Ysleta del Sur Pueblo
Good Medicine Tribal Public Health Consulting
Lead Consultant

Crow Nation
Rocky Mountain Tribal Leaders Council
Project Coordinator

CDC Foundation
Tribal Public Health Educator

Rocky Mountain Tribal Leaders Council
Epidemiology Center Director

Diné (Navajo)
Northwest Portland Area Indian Health Board
TEC-IVAC Program Manager

Kauffman & Associates
Graphic Designer

Lummi
Northwest Portland Area Indian Health Board
Maternal Child Health Programs Director
Native BOOST Project Director

Oglala Sioux
Great Plains Tribal Epidemiology Center
Epidemiology and Disease Prevention Program Manager

Diné (Navajo)
Northwest Portland Area Indian Health Board
Native BOOST Provider Expert

Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohican Indians
Good Medicine Tribal Public Health Consulting
CEO and Founder

Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium
Communication Lead

Rosebud Sioux
Great Plains Epidemiology Center
Senior Director

Seminole/Muscogee
Southern Plains Tribal Health Board
Tribal Epidemiology Center Core Program Manager

Southern Plains Tribal Health Board
Epidemiologist

Great Lakes Inter-Tribal Epidemiology Center
Communication Lead

Oglala Lakota
Great Plains Epidemiology Center
EDP Program Director

Cochita Pueblo
Albuquerque Area Tribal Epidemiology Center
Program Director for the Good Health and Wellness in Indian Country Program

Inter-Tribal Council of Arizona
Vaccine Epidemiologist

Great Lakes Inter-Tribal Epidemiology Center
Epidemiologist

	Jason Arion Butler is an enrolled member of the Ute Tribe of Fort Duchesne, Utah and is also part Mojave and Cherokee. He resides in Gibson, Idaho with his wife of 22 years, children, and grandchild who are all enrolled members of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes. He graduated from Idaho State University with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and earned his Master of Science in Family and Human Development from Arizona State University. He has spent the past 5+ years employed by the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes, Tribal Health and Human Services Department, where he spent time serving as the Recovery Service Coordinator for the Four Directions Treatment Center, the manager for the Community Health Representative program, and recently accepted the position of Behavioral Health Manager. He strives to incorporate Native culture, traditions, morals, and values into the healthcare services provided to Native communities, implementing these practices into his work with the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes and advocating for the reconstruction of healthcare practices nationally. Today he says, “I am loving life and am extremely thankful to have found a career path I love.

	Carrie Sampson-Samuels is an enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation located in Eastern Oregon. Carrie has an early background in nursing providing patient care in long term and clinical care settings. Carrie then furthered her education in community health and health studies at Portland State University, later advancing her education in healthcare management at Oregon Health and Sciences University while serving in leadership and executive management for a Tribal health organization as the Community Health Director. Carrie has served Tribes from Oregon to Montana and the Treaty 7 Blackfoot Confederacy in Southern Alberta. As the Community Health Aide Project Director for the Northwest Portland Area Indian Health Board, Carrie has provided leadership, advocacy and project management for expansion for the Behavioral Health Aide and Community Health Aide Program under the umbrella and direction of the Tribal Community Health Provider Project. This work has led to the expansion of Tribal Community Health Providers in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. Carrie is responsible for leading partnerships with the education institutions, key Tribal partner sites, contract experts and advisory workgroups. This includes development of education infrastructure, education curriculum, recruitment strategies, tools for integration of providers into tribal health organizations, and working with state partners to develop policy and infrastructure for provider reimbursement. Carrie manages and writes multiple grants that support all aspects of this work and provides technical assistance support to the Portland Area CHAP Certification Board. Carrie is the proud mother of 4 daughters and resides on a small ranch on her Tribal homelands.

	Dr. Liu is a generalist OB/GYN at Gallup Indian Medical Center. In addition to her medical degree, she holds a PhD in Health Policy. Among other publications, she served as the chief editor for the 2019 Oxford University Press book: “50 Studies Every Obstetrician and Gynecologist Should Know.” She has formal training in Quality Improvement processes through the Partners Clinical Process Improvement Leadership Program (CPIP), which she utilized to implement emergency contraception at Massachusetts General Hospital. During her six years at Gallup Indian Medical Center she has primary responsibility for preparing and reporting of metrics related to the delivery of obstetric care, and serves on the Continuing Medical Education committee.

	Dr. Hoover is from Chicago, where he grew up and went to medical school, at Rush University, on Chicago’s diverse West Side. He was trained in Urology at Boston Medical Center in Boston’s beautiful South End neighborhood. Dr. Hoover went on to pursue fellowship training in voiding dysfunction and laser prostate surgery at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Dr. Hoover is a Board-Certified Urologist, by the American Board of Urology, having achieved this honor in 2018. Dr. Hoover has several peer-reviewed publications, including research studies and medical illustrations. His family is happy to call Gallup home since the end of 2017. In their free time they like to explore New Mexico’s wilderness and go camping. Now that their two girls are growing up, it’s also imperative that we catch Pokemon wherever we go.Dr. Hoover is the only Urologist in McKinley County, New Mexico, and in any of the surrounding counties– it’s just him between Albuquerque and Flagstaff. He’s happy to continue seeing established patients, and is accepting new patients from the entire region. Dr. Hoover believes in communication, candor, and compassion as essential tenets of patient care. Dr. Hoover is an expert in general Urology, male and female voiding dysfunction, kidney stones and kidney stone surgery, BPH and laser prostate surgery, erectile dysfunction, vasectomy, prostate cancer, bladder cancer, kidney cancer, testicular cancer. Many of the procedures he do as a Urologist are done in the office including: cystoscopy, vasectomy, urodynamics, treatment foroveractive bladder, and many others. Please call/text or email and let him and his staff know how they can help you.

	Eric Wortmann, MD is the former Director of Emergency Medicine at Chinle Comprehensive Health Care Facility. Besides patient care, Eric has a deep passion for mentoring aspiring physicians and health care providers. He was the Education Director of Emergency Medicine at Chinle as well as Adjunct Faculty for the US Army teaching Special Forces Medics. He has been a visiting professor of Emergency Medicine in Haiti and has worked in the Dominican Republic since 1989. Eric has a long-time passion as a mid and long-distance running coach. He has lived on Kauai for 30 years. Currently he divides his time between Northern Italy and Hawaii. Recently he was accepted into Doctors without Borders USA and is awaiting his first assignment.

	Corey Detlefs, MD, FACS, is the Trauma Outreach Director and an Associate Professor of Surgery at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix