This year, the Native Wellness Garden is celebrating its 10th anniversary of keeping tradition and culture alive. It’s located at 3780 S 6th Street on Milwaukee’s South Side. The garden is an extension of the Gerald L. Ignace Indian Health Center, which provides comprehensive and culturally sensitive health care for Native American children and adults living in the Milwaukee area.

Lisa Albrecht works as a health promotion and disease prevention leader at the center. She also volunteers in the garden and has seen it grow since day one. She said it’s been such a blessing for the community they serve.

Vanda Felbab-Brown speaks about the particularly devastating impact of the fentanyl epidemic on American Indian and Alaska Native communities. In the United States, Native communities experience the highest drug overdose mortality rates among racial groups, with fatalities far surpassing national averages. But the sheer numbers do not capture the totality of the devastation, such as the cultural losses and community grief. Yet federal and state responses to the fentanyl crisis among Native communities have been profoundly inadequate.