Native American Health Center

The Native American Health Center is a non-profit organization serving California's San Francisco Bay Area Native Population and other under-served populations in the Bay Area since 1972. [21] The Native American Health Center, Inc. (NAHC) was founded in 1972 as the Urban Indian Health Board, Inc.^[1] NAHC operates two sites in San Francisco, two sites in Oakland, one site in Richmond, and eight school based health centers.^[2] NAHC provides medical, dental and family services to Native Americans and the residents of the surrounding communities. Services include primary care, pediatrics, women’s health, nutrition and fitness, case management, HIV/HCV prevention and care coordination, behavioral health including but not limited to substance abuse prevention and recovery, family counseling, youth counseling and trauma-based services, and support for families with young children including women infants and children (WIC).^[3]

History

There have always been Native Americans in the San Francisco Bay Area. The Ohlone People, the Coast Miwok, and the Pomo People are the original inhabitants of the area.^[4] The arrival of the Europeans in the 1500s disrupted their traditional way of life and resulted in a steady decline of the Native American population.^[5] The decline continued until the 1950s, when the Federal Bureau of Indian Affairs’ relocation program moved tens of thousands of Native Americans from reservations across the country to urban centers like San Francisco and Oakland.^[6] Although the relocation program was voluntary, many felt coerced by the promise of jobs, housing, health care, and a better life. Many of these promises were kept by the Bureau of Indian Affairs who send relocated Native Americans to training schools, assisted them with a housing subsidy and provided job search and placement. However, many of these services were substandard and inconsistent, resulting in a disenfranchised community. While some of those relocated eventually returned to reservations, many stayed and formed their own community in the Bay Area.

During the late 1960s and early 1970s, the Bay Area Native American community responded to the challenges of urban lifestyle and the broader cultural shifts taking place in society. New Native American run organizations were formed to address the needs for self-determinations and self-sufficiency.^[7]

Today, the Bay Area is home to one of the largest concentrations of Native Americans in the country with a diversity of over 240 nations represented. According to 2010 Census Data, there are 66,443 Native American individuals living in the five counties of the San Francisco Bay Area.^[5]

References