The Tribal Connections website is no longer being updated.

Begun in 1998, the website was a project reporting and outreach tool for Tribal Connections projects that assisted 16 American Indian and Alaska Native tribes and villages in the Pacific Northwest. Each community was awarded funding from the National Library of Medicine to improve Internet connectivity and access to web-based health resources. The Tribal Connections web site published reports about activities and accomplishments achieved by each community. As it matured, the website added a news component, and published articles by Native journalists and health professionals on Native health, wellness and lifestyle.

The most recent phase of Tribal Connections is being conducted in the Southwest region of the country, called Tribal Connections Four Corners (TC4C). One outcome of their work is a publicly accessible wiki to provide a collaborative space for health information initiatives with Native peoples (American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians). See the Outreach Connections: Native Health Information Wiki at http://native.outreachconnect.info/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page.

Also, the National Library of Medicine continues to support a web resource on American Indian Health at http://americanindianhealth.nlm.nih.gov/. This resource is designed to bring together health and medical resources pertinent to the American Indian population including policies, consumer health information, and research. Links are provided to an assortment of documents, web sites, databases, and other resources.

Keep connecting
It's been exciting to be an active part of improved access to health information and care for Native communities, via the Tribal Connections projects.

The widespread benefits from the Tribal Connections projects include increased communication and awareness regarding Native health issues among health professionals, as well as awareness of and access to health information and education resources in Native communities.

Thank you for continuing to spread the word about online health resources for Native communities. Other projects you might be interested to know about include:

• http://www.arctichealth.org/ - The Arctic Health Web site is a central source for information on diverse aspects of the Arctic environment and the health of northern peoples.
• http://www.reznetnews.org/ - Reznet is a Native American and American Indian news, information and entertainment Web site that also trains and mentors Native American college students around the country as they prepare for journalism careers.
• http://harley.med.und.nodak.edu/tcl/ - Linking Native Americans to Health Information (history of past projects).
• http://www.uihi.org/ - The Urban Indian Health Institute provides centralized nationwide management of health surveillance, research, and policy considerations regarding the health status deficiencies affecting urban American Indians and Alaska Natives.
• http://www.aaip.org/programs/nnayi/nnayi.htm - Association of American Indian Physicians, Patty Iron Cloud national Native Youth Initiative.
• RezKast.com - A Native music and video sharing site.