Native American LifeLines Boston

Native American LifeLines Boston Native American LifeLines is a contracted Urban Indian Health Program serving Baltimore and Boston

Native American LifeLines, a Title V Urban Indian Health Program (IHS), is a 501(c)(3) non-profit with offices in Baltimore, MD and Boston, MA. Native American Lifelines is a Title V Urban Indian Health Program funded by the Indian Health Service. We provide medical case management, health education, cultural programming, behavioral health care and dental services to eligible American Indians and Alaska Natives. To be eligible, you must be an enrolled member of a federally recognized OR state recognized tribe, or a descendant of an enrolled member. Please call us if you have questions about our services or eligibility requirements.

The Department of Urban Indian Affairs (formerly known as the Office of Urban Indian Health Programs) plays a critical r...
11/22/2025

The Department of Urban Indian Affairs (formerly known as the Office of Urban Indian Health Programs) plays a critical role in ensuring that American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) people living in cities and metropolitan areas have access to culturally-competent health care, supportive services, and advocacy. Since about 70 % of Native peoples now live in urban settings, this federal-tribal partnership fills a vital, often overlooked gap in the U.S. health-care system.

As Francys Crevier, CEO of the National Council of Urban Indian Health, has stated: “The trust responsibility for Native people extends beyond the Indian Health Service.” This reminds us that urban Native communities are an essential part of Indigenous health and sovereignty—just because someone lives in a city doesn’t mean they are cut off from tribal identity or the federal trust obligation.

This Native American Heritage Month, let us remember that health equity for urban Indigenous peoples is about more than clinical care—it’s about culture, connection, identity and community in the places we live, work, and raise our families.

Marx Cassity is an enrolled citizen of the Osage Nation (with Kaw, Saponi, Susquehannock and European heritage) and a po...
11/21/2025

Marx Cassity is an enrolled citizen of the Osage Nation (with Kaw, Saponi, Susquehannock and European heritage) and a powerful Two-Spirit / Indigiqueer artist whose music fuses acoustic folk/rock, ancestral sound, and authenticity. Their album 2Sacred explores Indigenous LGBTQ+ resilience, trauma, healing and self-expression.

Through their art and life, Marx reminds us that identity is not a limitation but a source of power and community. They invite Indigenous youth and all listeners to embrace wholeness: spirit, culture, and creativity.

With Tuscarora, Taíno, Black, and Scottish ancestry, Pura Fé stands at the intersection of Indigenous resilience, musica...
11/19/2025

With Tuscarora, Taíno, Black, and Scottish ancestry, Pura Fé stands at the intersection of Indigenous resilience, musical innovation, and cultural activism. As founding member of Ulali, she helped elevate Native women’s voices in harmony, hand-drum rhythms, and ancestral song—creating a bridge between Indigenous tradition and mainstream music.

Her solo career dives deep into Native blues and slide guitar, drawing attention to how Indigenous and African American musical traditions intertwine. Pura Fé’s work invites us to listen differently—to hear the songs of our ancestors, the beat of community, and the power of storytelling in every note.

Hey Relatives! Our 2Spirit and Indigequeer Talking Circle has been RESCHEDULED for next Tuesday, November 25th. This spa...
11/19/2025

Hey Relatives! Our 2Spirit and Indigequeer Talking Circle has been RESCHEDULED for next Tuesday, November 25th. This space is created by us and for us, a place to connect, heal, and share with community. You can join us in person or online, and food will be provided for those attending in Baltimore.

Registration is required. Sign up at www.bit.ly/talktome2s
(link in bio for IG users).

If you have any questions, reach out to Mercia at Mercia@nativelifelines.org She will direct your questions to our Talking Circle leads.

We hope to see you there!

Hey, Relatives! Today is our 2Spirit and Indigequeer Talking Circle, and we are excited to gather with you. This space i...
11/19/2025

Hey, Relatives! Today is our 2Spirit and Indigequeer Talking Circle, and we are excited to gather with you. This space is created by us and for us, a place to connect, heal, and share with community.

Join us in person or online. Food is provided for those joining us in Baltimore.

Registration is required. Sign up at www.bit.ly/talktome2s
(link in bio for IG users).

If you have questions, reach out to Mercia at Mercia@nativelifelines.org. She will direct your questions to our Talking Circle leads.

We hope to see you there!

Robin Wall Kimmerer is an enrolled citizen of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, and a distinguished botanist and professor ...
11/18/2025

Robin Wall Kimmerer is an enrolled citizen of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, and a distinguished botanist and professor of environmental biology at the State University of New York’s College of Environmental Science and Forestry. Her bestselling book Braiding Sweetgrass blends Indigenous traditions, plant-ecology science, and memoir to invite readers into a world where humans and nature live in reciprocity—not extraction.

Kimmerer’s work reminds us that Indigenous knowledge is not a footnote—it is a vital way of understanding our relationship to land, plants, and each other. Her call to “listen with both eyes”—science and story—offers a powerful model for Native American Heritage Month: honoring the many ways Indigenous people have kept the world alive and showing how our shared future depends on that living wisdom.

Join us for our monthly 2Spirit/Indigequeer Talking Circle on third Wednesday of each month. This space, created by us a...
11/18/2025

Join us for our monthly 2Spirit/Indigequeer Talking Circle on third Wednesday of each month. This space, created by us and for us, is a place to connect, heal, and share while addressing the challenges and triumphs within our community. We host in person and online!!

Food will be provided for those attending in person.

You can join the Talking Circle either in person at our Baltimore office or online, but registration is required.

Visit www.bit.ly/talktome2s (link in bio for IG users) to sign up.

If you have any questions, please reach out to Mercia at Mercia@nativelifelines.org. She will forward your questions to the Talking Circle leads or put you in direct contact with them if you prefer.

Passed in 1978, the American Indian Religious Freedom Act (AIRFA) declared that Native peoples have the right to access ...
11/17/2025

Passed in 1978, the American Indian Religious Freedom Act (AIRFA) declared that Native peoples have the right to access sacred sites, hold ceremonies, and use traditional ceremonial objects without government interference. Yet its limits became clear when courts failed to uphold those rights.

In 1994, after continued advocacy, Senator Daniel K. Inouye helped advance an amendment explicitly protecting the sacramental use of pe**te by the Native American Church. Together, AIRFA and its amendment marked a turning point in U.S. recognition of

Indigenous spiritual sovereignty — an acknowledgment that Native traditions are living faiths, not relics of the past.

David Shane Lowry (Lumbee) is an anthropologist and author whose work examines how Indigenous identity persists—and inno...
11/16/2025

David Shane Lowry (Lumbee) is an anthropologist and author whose work examines how Indigenous identity persists—and innovates—within settler-colonial systems. His book Lumbee Pipelines (University of Nebraska Press) explores the many “pipelines” through which the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina maintains community, sovereignty, and survival. These are not only the literal infrastructures of energy and extraction that cross Native lands, but also the educational, political, and social pathways that channel Lumbee people themselves as a resource within the colonial state.

Through ethnography and cultural critique, Lowry reveals how Lumbee people both depend on and resist the systems that constrain them—repurposing them to sustain life, assert nationhood, and imagine Indigenous futures. His broader work, including research on Native mascots and representation, challenges how power, visibility, and identity operate in everyday American life.

Lumbee Pipelines asks us to look deeper at the infrastructures all around us—and to see that what moves through them is not only oil or data, but people, culture, and the enduring work of Indigenous survival.

His book can be found here:
https://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/nebraska/9781496232793/lumbee-pipelines/

Dolly Akers (1901–1986) was an enrolled citizen of the Assiniboine people of the Fort Peck Reservation in Montana. Born ...
11/15/2025

Dolly Akers (1901–1986) was an enrolled citizen of the Assiniboine people of the Fort Peck Reservation in Montana. Born in Wolf Point, Montana, she graduated from the Sherman Institute in California at age 16 and returned home deeply committed to her community.

In 1932 she ran for the Montana state legislature, won with nearly 100 % of the vote in her county despite being just 23 and a woman in a largely male and non-Native arena, and became the first Native American woman to serve in Montana’s Legislature (1933-34 session). She went on to serve for decades in tribal government—becoming the first woman elected to the executive board of the Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes, advocating for tribal self-determination, criticizing the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ control of lands and resources, and lobbying in Washington, D.C. dozens of times.

Dolly Akers reminds us that the struggle for Indigenous rights and representation often happens quietly, persistently, and in the halls of power people least expect. Her legacy opens the door for Indigenous women in politics and is a reminder: representation is not a token, it’s a responsibility.

Gregg Deal, an enrolled member of the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe, is a visual artist, performer, activist and musician wh...
11/14/2025

Gregg Deal, an enrolled member of the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe, is a visual artist, performer, activist and musician whose work refuses to let Indigenous identity be relegated to the margins. His practice spans painting, murals, performance art, film, spoken word and the high-energy punk sound of Dead Pioneers.

In his art and music, Deal challenges stereotypes, colonial narratives and appropriation. He uses his Native identity not as a label, but as a lens — interrogating history, pop culture and the ongoing reality of Indigenous communities. As one resource puts it, his work “honors Indigenous experiences, challenges stereotypes, and pushes for accurate representations of Indigenous people in art.”

Through his multidisciplinary approach—and his role in Dead Pioneers—Deal opens space for Indigenous youth (and all viewers/listeners) to see that identity, resistance, creativity and honesty go hand in hand. If you’re looking for someone who bridges tradition and rebellion in a new way, Gregg Deal is a voice worth amplifying.

Elizabeth Cook-Lynn (1930-2023) was a citizen of the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe who transformed how Indigenous worlds are to...
11/13/2025

Elizabeth Cook-Lynn (1930-2023) was a citizen of the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe who transformed how Indigenous worlds are told and taught. She was an editor, essayist, poet, novelist and academic, and became one of the foundational voices in Native and Indigenous Studies.

Her landmark essay “Who Stole Native American Studies?” argued that Indigenousness—place, culture, philosophy—and sovereignty—history, law and tribal nationhood—must be at the heart of the discipline. Through her fiction and scholarship she addressed environmental destruction, treaty violations, tribal governance and the lived experience of Indigenous people on the Northern Plains.

Cook-Lynn’s body of work reminds us that Indigenous intellectual traditions aren’t ancillary—they are integral. Her writing invites both Indigenous and non-Indigenous readers to engage in the hard work of truth-telling, accountability and reclamation.

Address

150 Mount Vernon Street , 4th Floor
Dorchester, MA
02125

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 5pm
Tuesday 9am - 5pm
Wednesday 9am - 5pm
Thursday 9am - 5pm
Friday 9am - 5pm

Telephone

+18572039680

Website

https://linktr.ee/nativeamericanlifelines

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