Background
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The United Indians of All Tribes Foundation (UIATF) was founded in 1970 in Seattle, WA by a group of activists with the mission to provide educational, cultural and social services that reconnect Indigenous people in the Puget Sound region to their heritage by strengthening their sense of belonging and significance as Native people. UIATF provides an array of social services, including but not limited to homeless prevention, family services, preschool, new mothers and strong fathers programs, career and workforce training, a youth home for homeless young adults, a foster care program, Native Veterans program, and many other services.
In 2023, the Native Veterans Program at UIATF was awarded an RWJF research grant through Systems For Action’s Systems Alignment Innovation Hub to align service systems and improve holistic health outcomes for Native veterans and their families. American Indian / Alaskan Native (AI/AN) people in the United States serve in the Armed Forces at 5 times the national average and have the highest military service per capita of any racial or ethnic group in the country. Despite being overrepresented in the military, Native veterans utilize Veterans Affairs (VA) benefits at the lowest rates of any group, and experience disproportionate rates of chronic disease, homelessness, suicide, and mental health challenges. Our work focuses on improving access and navigation of VA benefits for Native Veterans by building culturally grounded knowledge around applying to available resources. As we strengthen alignment between Native communities and VA systems, we aim to address community-identified priorities to improve health and wellness.
Phase I: Preliminary Research
During Phase I of our project, we began with the commitment to community-led participatory action research by creating the Native Veteran Advisory Board (NVAB) to help guide project direction and lead research activities. The group is comprised of Native veteran leaders throughout the greater Seattle region, with equal representation from Male and Female veterans from various eras of military conflict. We meet monthly over dinner to discuss the direction, analysis, and findings of the project. We co-developed a survey and interview guide with the NVAB to better understand the challenges that Native veterans face when accessing or navigating through existing VA services. During Phase 1, we conducted 56 surveys and 10 in-depth semi-structured interviews.
Phase I surveys were conducted both in person and virtually, and in-depth qualitative interviews were conducted in person. Research data was analyzed by our internal Data Analysis Team, comprised of a Native Veteran, two Indigenous researchers, and a research coordinator. Each researcher conducted thematic coding on anonymized qualitative interview data and then the group met on a regular basis to share emerging patterns and create a codebook. We found that this process brought rich discussion and elevated lived experience and context for research data on military experience.
Findings indicated that the most common survey response for current service access challenges was “VA Claims / Service-Connected Disability” (36%), with general “VA benefits” (35%) in a close second. These results were supported through our interviews, as 80% of interviewees reported challenges navigating through Veterans Administration (VA) claims and other veteran benefit systems. These data reflect the pervasive challenges for accessing VA benefits and claims services among Native veterans in the Salish Sea region. Interview results further contextualize survey findings. For example, one veteran interviewee shared that “there are a lot of veterans that don't know how to ask for help and don't know what resources are available to them.” Another shared, “I didn’t even know I qualified for VA medical care until another veteran told me years later.” One participant suggested that the “VA go to ‘Indian Country’ where the Native Veterans are” to better meet the needs of community members. Based on community input, we ensured that our project objectives match the priority needs reported by Native veterans, including increasing access to, applying for, and receiving VA benefits and claims. Additionally, 31% of survey respondents indicated challenges to accessing “Traditional / Indigenous Healing.” As one interview participant stated, “We need more Native-focused mental health resources. I don’t just need meds, I need someone who understands my culture." Additionally, 29% of survey respondents experienced challenges in creating “community and belonging.”
Phase II: Pilot Project
Utilizing Phase 1 findings, we developed a pilot program to align service systems and improve holistic health outcomes for Native veterans around the Salish Sea (Puget Sound) region. The program is based on 3 primary categories:
Navigation Assistance
Our Native Veteran Resource Navigator helps clients access benefits and navigate through bureaucratic services at the VA and relevant local, state, and federal agencies. We provide warm handoffs with service partners and ensure thorough follow-through for veterans seeking assistance. We partnered with the Washington Department of Veterans Affairs (WDVA) to host a 3-part “Veteran Benefits 101” workshop series. We provide on-demand transportation assistance for veterans to get to appointments. We connect veterans to assistance for employment, legal, housing, education, and health services and provide a warm hand off to our partner organizations.
Community and Connection
We promote cultural identity and belonging via community-led events such as our annual Veteran & Family Barbecue + Wellness Fair, a November Veterans Powwow and our Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans Powwow in March. We promote and host cultural arts classes for veterans to learn skills and build relationships.
Indigenous Healing
Our Traditional Medicine Practitioner hosts a Sweat Lodge for Native veterans and their families twice monthly, and our team has been instrumental in reinvigorating the Sweat Lodge at the American Lake VA on the JBLM campus in WA.
Our Impact and Preliminary Findings
Our preliminary research findings support other prior research suggesting that community-based, culturally grounded services improve holistic wellbeing for Native people and help to increase access to complex and bureaucratic resources.
For example, 100% of surveyed attendees at our “Veteran Benefits 101” workshops responded that the classes were either “helpful or very helpful” in connecting them to VA benefits and services. Anecdotally, one veteran told us “I am learning to trust people again (because of your program’s help),” and another reported, “My healing only really started when I joined the veterans group at Daybreak Star (United Indians)”. In just the first 12 months of our Resource Navigation program, we have helped 7 veterans to connect to and apply for VA healthcare and benefits. In this time, we have also learned how long the trust-building process takes, and what it would take to conduct a longitudinal study with Native Veterans. These veterans have indicated that they may not have known how to apply or may not have gone through the trouble of applying for benefits if not for our assistance. Our intervention works directly with VA partners to develop training and information sessions that are culturally resonant and informative for Native Veterans, helping them learn how and why to access available resources and services. We continue to conduct continuous quality improvement efforts to evaluate our activities and ensure that our services are acceptable and impactful in our community and that we are able to expand our reach and methodology for greater impact.
Systems Alignment
Much of our pilot project has been focused on breaking down barriers and silos within service systems for Native veterans. We have partnered with federal, state, and local partners to ensure that vital resources and information are accessible, culturally resonant, and informed by our community. We received an official Letter of Support from the Washington State Department of Veterans Affairs (WDVA) and are partnering with them on activities such as the “Veteran Benefits 101” workshop series and our numerous resource fairs. Additionally, we are working with the WDVA’s Veteran Training Support Center (VTSC) to produce a 90-minute-long training presentation for care providers in Washington State on improving care for Native veteran patients and clients.
As of July 2026, we have hosted four community resource fairs, with two more planned by the end of the year. These resource fairs bring together veteran-, Native-, and community-serving organizations to provide resources to event attendees and promote utilization of vital services amongst community members. We are also working hard to increase access to traditional medicine for Native veterans within the VA healthcare system. Our Native Veteran Resource Navigator leads a monthly sweat lodge at the American Lake VA south of Tacoma, WA, and our program is collaborating closely with the Native Veteran Advisory Council at the American Lake VA to promote Indigenous healing for veterans seeking care at the VA hospital.
We were chosen to participate in a RWJF Health Policy Workshop in Washington, DC in June 2026. Two delegates from our NVAB Native veteran community presented to RWJF Health Policy Fellows and met with legislators to advocate for increased access to traditional medicine and healing for Native veterans within the VA healthcare system. We aim to build on this momentum and continue our advocacy to ensure that current medical, public health, and social service systems prioritize the cultural and spiritual needs of Native veterans.
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Additionally, our research abstract was accepted for an oral presentation at the American Public Health Association’s Annual Meeting and Expo in November 2026 in San Antonio, TX. Our abstract is titled, “Service is ceremony: Evaluating a community-led approach to align service systems and improve holistic health for Indigenous veterans,” and we will be presenting on Tuesday, November 3rd at 8:30 am in the session: “Indigenous Public Health Systems, Structural Determinants, and Community Responses: Structural inequities, Indigenous public health systems, social determinants, and systems transformation". Come stop by and learn more about our research! We will appreciate your support.
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Multimedia Research Dissimination and Collection
As part of our efforts to conduct community-based research, we identified different storytelling methods to capture and promote participant experiences. We developed the Native Veterans Podcast in partnership with Daybreak Star Radio, a 24/7 Indigenous radio station. In this podcast miniseries, we aim to showcase veteran stories and collect qualitative data on various participant-identified topics, such as building community, finding healing, and managing transitions in life. These episodes are currently being recorded and edited, and will be released throughout the summer and fall 2026. Our first episode drops on July 30th! Check it out on https://daybreakstarradio.com/
In addition to the Podcast, we have also produced a short documentary about the Native Veteran Sweat Lodge and the impacts of traditional medicine on Native veteran participants. dedicated to increasing access to Traditional Medicine and Indigenous healing practices for our community members. We host a Native Veterans Sweat Lodge on the first and third Saturday of the month. The co-ed sweat is open to veterans and family members of veterans as a safe space for personal growth and healing. Glen Pinkham (Yakama) is our Traditional Medicine Practitioner and leads our Sweat Lodge. His son, Dallas Pinkham, is a filmmaker and produced this short documentary to showcase the importance of sweat for the healing journey of Native Veterans. The 5 minute promo video for the sweat lodge documentary is included here. These multimedia projects help participants to have ownership and sovereignty over data collection and feel empowered in community-based research activities.
Building on Our Momentum
Our current priority is to identify and implement strategies to improve intercommunity trust between Native veterans and service systems, and intracommunity support within the local Native veteran community. We aim to build upon our current momentum and create more opportunities for community and cultural connection, such as through an intertribal, urban “Native Warrior Society” to promote social support and community belonging through a peer support model. We aim to recruit and conduct interviews and surveys with participants to identify strategies to provide robust and effective peer support to Native veterans. Our mission is to increase benefit enrollment and service engagement, connection to traditional medicine, and a sense of belonging to the local Native veteran community. Project development will ensure strategies for bidirectional support for priority groups such as Female, Two Spirit, LGBTQ+, Elder, and recently discharged veterans. We then aim to implement a peer support network for Native veterans and measure the impacts of peer support on various behavior change indicators and identified outcomes. We are currently working to secure additional funding and sponsorship opportunities to help us continue our research activities, build on our system alignment successes, and expand our impact. If you have any questions or opportunities for funding or collaboration, please contact veterans@unitedindians.org. Keep up with us and sign up for our quarterly newsletter here: https://tinyurl.com/NVPnewsletter