Social and Environmental Justice

The staff of the Native American Community Board/Native American Women’s Health Education Resource Center has a unique understanding of where social issues and environmental issues intersect and it is this understanding that drives our work forward. Much of the work that we do on environmental issues focuses on ways we can reduce our carbon footprint on Mother Earth, while dealing with the unique social issues that we address. A current example of our work on social and environmental issues is the recent solar heating panel installation, done for the transitional housing that we have for women and their families seeking to break the ties of domestic violence.

More on the solar panel installation: Video #1, Video #2, Honorearth.org.

Our work also includes organizing community members, especially our youth, to take a stand on such issues as the right to clean drinking water, clean air, and in general a safe environment.




Another example is the recent planting of two thousand indigenous fruit trees and bushes throughout the Yankton Sioux Reservation over the past five years to preserve our traditional life-ways.