“In diversity there is beauty and there is strength.”
Maya Angelou
My Nonprofit Work in Support of Indigenous Communities
I have spent a large part of my career living and working among indigenous communities in Mexico to provide healthcare that sustains traditional health, wellness, and medical traditions.
In 1977 I founded the nonprofit Center for Traditional Medicine (CTM) to provide direct support to indigenous communities.
I was invited to join the Center for World Indigenous Studies (CWIS) in 1996 and bring CTM into CWIS under fiscal sponsorship.
CWIS a nonprofit, 501(c)(3) organization of activist scholars devoted to the rights and resources of indigenous peoples worldwide. In addition to serving as the director of CTM, I am the research director of CWIS, where I’ve developed a portfolio of research and education projects.
Here Are Two Ways You Can Support My Work
Make a donation. That would mean the world to me.
Another way to support my nonprofit work is to buy supplements, essential oils, and nutrients from my recommended sources. I donate all proceeds to my nonprofit project Nutrients for Natives which brings health to indigenous peoples in the US and Mexico.
Click here to visit my Health Store
Hands-On Healing
At CTM, we conduct research training, and design and implement clinical programs. We develop courses and videos, including documentaries. We work with communities, tribal agencies, and non-governmental organizations.
Our work is hands-on, up-close, personal, and always a function of a request by individuals, communities, and organizations.
One example of the programs we have designed for indigenous peoples and the urban underserved is Medical Massage for the treatment of Diabetes Type 2, which afflicts more than 13 million adults in Mexico.
We utilize traditional medicine and indigenous knowledge systems — including herbal medicine, touch therapies, ancestral nutrition & mental health nutrition — to address the devastation that chronic illnesses brought by development and colonization practices can wreak.
CTM also addresses interpersonal, cultural, and historical trauma by bridging cultural wisdom with the healing arts & sciences.
Learn more about the Center for Traditional Medicine and how you can support our work
Listen to my interview with poet and cultural activist Paul Nelson about my nonprofit work and integrating traditional and modern medicine.
Part 1
Part 2
Here Are My Active Projects
Salal, Cedar and Spruce Documentary Film
A documentary exploration of the contemporary movement to revive the knowledge of traditional Salish foods and medicines in the Pacific Northwest.
Medical Massage for Diabetes Documentary Film
A project delivering diabetes-specific massage and bodywork to underserved people in rural indigenous communities.
Searching for Capomo Documentary Film
Discover this extraordinary tree, known as Capomo, or the Breadnut, and all of its gifts. The seed is traditionally eaten as a food and roasted into cafe de capomo.
