Across the windy mountains and winding rivers of Wyoming, the Eastern Shoshone tribe has lit fires, ridden horses, and held ceremonies for close to 12,000 years. Generation after generation practiced such traditions as a community and called this land their home. 

But now, there is a danger of losing this sense of home, says Jenna Murray, MPH ’21, graduate of the Online/Hybrid Master of Public Health program at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth.  

“In this generation of native people, you’ll see a lot that don’t want to speak the language, don’t want to participate in ceremony. People go into the cities. They want to be successful. But many of them never come back,” Murray says. “The total loss of the culture is just so scary, and sad, and real.” 

Murray herself was not raised on a reservation. Although she spent summers on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming with her extended family, she lived most of her childhood in Las Vegas.  

Over time, Murray bore witness to the contrast of these worlds and the health disparities between them. The loss of culture and native identity—the disconnection from one’s roots—has many serious health consequences for Native Americans, Murray says. And because she is no stranger to them, her own lived experiences have motivated Murray to raise awareness of public health issues on native lands—from hospitals and community health centers to films on the silver screen. 

A Winding Path to Healthcare 

Growing up, Murray says her grandfather was “a huge inspiration to me. He had a very rough childhood and lost his caretakers and family at a young age. He really had to set himself on the right path.” 

His love for all his grandkids was also very apparent, she says. “He was so supportive and believed in all of us. He played a huge role in why I wanted to become a doctor.” 

When Murray was 16, her grandfather died from a minor heart attack. Tragically, his passing might have been easily prevented by better access to healthcare. The Wind River Reservation was too far away from a hospital for Emergency Medical Services to save his life. 

“It's almost like you have to choose between having good healthcare and remaining on your tribal lands,” Murray says. 

 

Photo: Entry point to the Eastern Shoshone tribe’s Wind River Reservation in Wyoming. Photo credit: Red Light Films/Jenna Murray. 

 

Many Native Americans today also struggle with disproportionately high rates of substance use and alcohol. In this regard, Murray didn’t just witness the health consequences—she lived them herself. By her early twenties, Murray battled addiction and mental health problems, whose provenance she ascribes to a separation from her true home and history. 

“As a kid, I knew I was native, and I was very proud. I knew a little bit about my culture,” she reflects. “But growing up, away from the res [reservation], was different. Then you get into middle school, high school, and people like to tell you who you are. ‘Oh, you’re not native. And you’re not this and that.’ I got disconnected.”  

When she began to struggle with substance use and mental health problems, at the heart of this pain was a terrible feeling of grief, loss, and isolation. 

“I remember feeling, ‘Nobody in the world could possibly feel the way I’m feeling.’ Just the amount of self-hatred. The lack of understanding. You feel insane. You’re like, ‘I know I shouldn’t do this, and this is detrimental, and my health is suffering. I’ve lost my job, I’ve lost everything, but I’m still doing this.’ I just felt so alone,” she says. “And I tried so many different programs to get sober and get into recovery, but things weren’t really working for me.”  

Now, after years in recovery, Murray is leveraging her own experiences to help others through a career in healthcare. But it’s been quite the winding path. 

 

Photo: Jenna Murray is the subject of “Winding Path,” a documentary short film selected for the 2024 Sundance Film Festival.

Jenna is photographed with her grandfather. Photo credit: Red Light Films/Jenna Murray. 

 

Community as Key to Public Health 

Murray’s interest in public health was further shaped by a study abroad experience. As an undergraduate student, she traveled to Botswana, where she saw first-hand how the poverty and lack of infrastructure of different villages mirrored those in many native communities. “There was immense geographic isolation and very poor environmental health, all of which is unfortunately common on reservations,” she says.  

Such insights led Murray to research MPH programs, and ultimately to the Geisel School of Medicine. For Murray, the “best part” of Geisel’s Hybrid MPH program “was the diversity.” Classmates were a mix of physicians, medical directors, researchers, and policymakers of all ages and ethnicities. “I learned a lot from my cohort,” she says. 

The puzzle pieces of Murray’s personal experiences and her public health education came together in her first job after graduating from Geisel. While working for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the epidemiology branch of Native American programs, within the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), she would realize the immense value of integrated programs.  

After trying many different recovery programs herself, it was not until she found one which integrated indigenous health, traditional practices, and evidence-based therapy that her life “completely changed,” she says. Through the Indian Health Service (IHS), Murray’s native therapist, who was also in recovery, would encourage her to return to the Wind River Reservation, spend time with her family, and integrate Indigenous cultural healing practices into her daily life. 

“Finding that connection is where it really started for me,” she says. “Now I’m huge on recovery communities.” 

Community, Murray believes, is key to restoring native health. Despite centuries of colonization, cultural genocide, and erasure by the US and other Western governments which led to the loss of many native communities, she says, “Now, there is an entire movement of proud natives doing incredible work for culture preservation, language restoration, and who are very culturally connected.” 

Photo: Jenna Murray, MPH ’21 (center) is currently a second-year medical student at the University of Utah School of Medicine.

Last year, Murray was selected as Change Maker for the 2023 Native Excellence Awards. Photo credit: Jenna Murray. 

 

From Educated to Educator 

Today, Murray is an MD-PhD candidate at the University of Utah, where much of her doctoral research is community-based with a focus on substance use and recovery science, which she says is particularly key for her and her tribe. “There just aren’t a lot of services available, especially in rural communities where I’m from. There’s not even a treatment center nearby.”  

For that reason, Murray is conducting her PhD research by working with a community health center owned by the Goshute, a tribe of Western Shoshone Native Americans, and an environmental health team on the Wind River Reservation. “I get to work with native people for my PhD,” she smiles. “And in clinic, too. It’s great.” 

As a future medical practitioner, Murray also wants to treat patients one-on-one with substance use. “I think my experiences have helped me be a better provider,” she says. “Unless you’ve been through it, I don’t think you truly understand.” 

Murray’s personal experiences also inspired her to help create a short documentary film,  dêtetsi vo'i oninjakan Winding Path, which translates to “multiple turns and then a less-traveled road.”  

Recently selected for the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, Winding Path honors the memory of her late grandfather. And, for Murray, it is yet one more way to educate the public about the health issues of native people, an opportunity to inspire those in recovery, and perhaps even those on their own winding paths in healthcare. 

“Every native person has at least one, if not more, stories of family members forgoing healthcare or just not having enough access,” Murray says. “If I can reach one person, I hope that I can help them see that, no matter what they’ve been through, they can always pick themselves back up. You can always recover.”  Written by: Jeremy Martin