Photo by Leola Paquin
Working on water resource and environmental issues, often in support of Native communities, is at the heart of what drives Dr. Lani Tsinnajinnie, Diné. Now an assistant professor in the Department of Community and Regional Planning at the University of New Mexico (UNM), she grew up in the remote community of Na’Neelzhiin, N.M., where she saw firsthand the need for clean drinking water for rural residents. “Although the house I grew up in had running water, nearly half the households in Na’Neelzhiin did not,” she says. “As a college student, I would attend chapter meetings where community members would plead with our chapter leaders and ask them when the infrastructure would be provided to bring running water to their homes.”
Supporting Indigenous communities in developing plans for secure access to water is Dr. Tsinnajinnie’s ultimate career goal. “One way I’m trying to achieve this is by helping to build the expertise of community members. I teach graduate and undergraduate students about underlying environmental and water resource issues as well as current and developing strategies to address them,” she explains. “Several of my students are Native and have goals of addressing these issues in their home communities.”
Dr. Tsinnajinnie’s interests are wide ranging. In areas like education, climate change, and water resource and watershed planning, she collaborates in several research projects — projects that engage with Native schools and communities to develop strategies. “I love being able to work with others who care about addressing water issues facing communities,” she says.
Her background makes Dr. Tsinnajinnie an ideal fit for teaming with colleagues on research initiatives as well as teaching and mentoring students. At UNM she earned a BA in Native American Studies, a BS in environmental science, and a master of water resources (MWR) with a concentration in hydroscience. She went on to earn a PhD in hydrology at New Mexico Tech.
I love being able to work with others who care about addressing water issues facing communities.
Most of Dr. Tsinnajinnie’s research has focused on the interactions of groundwater and surface water resources in mountainous regions and the impacts of climate change on those resources. Her work has concentrated on the Chuska Mountains in the center of the Navajo Nation along the Arizona and New Mexico borders. Since 2009, she has collaborated with the Navajo Nation Water Management Branch investigating how snow, groundwater, and streamflow interact in those mountain watersheds. “We are looking at how these interactions might change or are changing,” she says. “This research has been used to support how the Navajo Nation monitors snowpack as well as how surrounding communities approach watershed planning.”
Her involvement with AISES, which she joined as an undergraduate, led her to the AISES Lighting the Pathway to Faculty Careers for Natives in STEM Program. The program provides career guidance, support, and mentoring to students who want to teach at the college level. “The program opened my eyes to the possibility of becoming faculty,” she explains. “During the final year of my doctorate program, I applied for the position I currently have at UNM. It felt like a good fit, and the idea of a faculty position at my alma mater — and close to my home community and family — was really enticing.”
Guidance from her family has played a significant role for Dr. Tsinnajinnie. Her father’s family lived nearby, and her grandmother, Iola, was an educator and community leader in Na’Neelzhiin. “She instilled the importance of education in my dad, aunts, uncles, siblings, and cousins,” says Dr. Tsinnajinnie, whose mother grew up in Hawaii, where much of her family lives.
When it came to career choices, she says her older sister and brother have been her most supportive mentors. Her sister earned a PhD in education at UNM, where she teaches Native American studies. Dr. Tsinnajinnie’s brother earned a PhD in mathematics from the University of Arizona and works for an education consulting firm. “I’ve always looked up to both of them,” she says. “They have helped me navigate my educational and professional journeys.”
For Dr. Tsinnajinnie, her academic career has found many pluses. “Being able to work with motivated students gives me a lot of energy and inspiration to work on water and environmental issues that can sometimes be discouraging,” she explains. “I also enjoy the collegial atmosphere among Native and water-focused faculty, as well as working for a university and department that value collaboration and engagement, particularly with Indigenous communities in New Mexico.”
— Kimberly Durment Locke
In 1984 the Navajo Nation adopted a comprehensive Water Code that covers water resources on the expansive tribal lands. The code exerts the sovereign power of the Navajo Nation to provide a “uniform and coherent” system of regulation.
Courtesy image
Tenacious, dedicated, determined — those characteristics begin to describe Dr. George Blue Spruce. He is the first Native American dentist, an AISES elder, and for eight decades a relentless advocate for dental education and services for and by Indigenous people. Now 92, Dr. Blue Spruce has no intention of retiring. He currently serves as the assistant dean for American Indian Affairs for A.T. Still University–Arizona School of Dentistry and Oral Health.
Dr. Blue Spruce, Laguna and Ohkay-Owingeh Pueblos, chose a career in dentistry after a frightening and painful first dental experience and a contrasting later experience with a kind and patient dentist. On his path he encountered cultural barriers from an early age and worked persistently to counter racist attitudes. After graduating from high school as valedictorian, he earned his degree in dental surgery from Creighton University in Omaha, Neb., and an MPH at the University of California, Berkeley, and logged extensive hands-on training under some of the profession’s leading instructors.
Credentials in hand, he set out to provide skilled dental care, generate awareness of the importance of dental services among Indigenous communities, and underscore the need for Natives in dental careers. To achieve those goals, Dr. Blue Spruce helped establish and advance professional organizations aimed at supporting Native dentists and encouraging students to pursue careers in dentistry and other health-related fields. He is a founder and president emeritus of the Society of American Indian Dentists, a national organization that has addressed the unique needs of Indigenous dentists since 1990.
When he started with the IHS, there were few dental clinics, mostly in out-of-the-way corners of medical facilities where dentists typically served several reservations.
He has also taken leading roles with public entities where he could promote quality care for Indigenous communities. After serving two years in the Navy providing care aboard the world’s first nuclear-powered submarine, he forged a 28-year career with the Public Health Service, spending 21 of those years with the Indian Health Service. Dr. Blue Spruce went on to become assistant surgeon general and director of the IHS Phoenix Area Office, serving 42 tribes throughout Utah, Nevada, and Arizona.
When he started with the IHS, there were few dental clinics, mostly in out-of-the-way corners of medical facilities where dentists typically served several reservations, often with large populations. “Dental care was not an integral part of the Indian Health Service before it became part of the Public Health Service,” he says. “Most American Indians never had an opportunity to receive any dental care at all.”
The oldest of three children, Dr. Blue Spruce was raised at the Santa Fe Indian School in New Mexico, where his parents were on the faculty. His parents emphasized education, and the children paid attention — his brother became the first Pueblo physician and his sister, the first Pueblo ballerina. Dr. Blue Spruce recalls that all three children developed close ties with their extended families, where they absorbed rich cultural traditions.
Beyond dentistry and advocacy, Dr. Blue Spruce excelled in the world of tennis. He was assistant coach for the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy tennis team and captain of teams at both Creighton University and the Mare Island Submarine Base. He won the singles title at the American Indian Tennis Championships in 1977 and gold medals in the Phoenix Senior Olympics in 1983 and 1984. In 1996, he became the first male tennis player inducted into the American Indian Athletic Hall of Fame.
In 1990, Dr. Blue Spruce received the highest AISES honor, the Ely S. Parker Award. He has also earned numerous distinctions from tribal leaders and many professional and civic organizations. In 1984, he received Creighton University’s highest alumni award, the Alumni Achievement Citation. Dr. Blue Spruce was especially honored when “Dr. George Blue Spruce Day” was declared by the governor of New Mexico on April 14, 1974, and by the mayor of Cincinnati, Ohio, on June 22, 2017.
At least a thousand years ago, ancestors of the nearly 8,000 members of the Pueblo of Laguna arrived at their homelands outside Albuquerque, where they established a sophisticated government and a way of life based on agriculture. Today the community of six villages includes a National Historic District, part of which dates from the 1400s.
For more on Dr. Blue Spruce, see “Cultivating Indigenous Resilience” in Notebook. You can find a detailed account of his life in his book, Searching for My Destiny, as told to Deanne Durrett. To hear his story in his own voice, listen to his interview at the “Perspectives of Change” oral history project at Harvard Medical School, in the video above.