摘要：American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) scholars in the fields of mental health and HIV face formidable barriers to scientific success. These include justifiable mistrust of historically oppressive educational systems, educational disparities, role burdens within academe, the devaluation and marginalization of their research interests, and outright discrimination. Research partners can work to dismantle these barriers by embracing indigenous worldviews, engaging in collaborative research partnerships, building research capacity within universities and tribal communities, changing reward systems, and developing mentoring programs. At the individual level, aspiring AIAN scholars must build coalitions, reject internalized colonial messages, and utilize indigenous ethical frames. The creation of a cadre of AIAN researchers is crucial to improving the health of AIAN peoples. “We must develop expert Indians instead of Indian experts.” —Beverly Pigman, institutional review board officer, Navajo Nation MULTIPLE FACTORS IMPEDE successful research in American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) communities, as in other ethnic minority groups. 1 – 6 These obstacles include community mistrust because of former scientific exploitation, linguistic and cultural dissimilarities, lack of culturally grounded theory and methods, and limited or selective access to community members. As a group, AIAN researchers have distinct advantages in addressing each of these challenges. Specifically, AIAN researchers who conduct research in their own communities often exhibit high levels of interest, a sense of responsibility, and motivation to listen to community-identified needs, all of which can operate to overcome community mistrust. 1 – 5 These investigators may be fluent in a community's language and culture, thereby smoothing relations and increasing the validity of their work. 6 , 7 Finally, because they generally have greater access to the community, ability to identify community stakeholders, and experience dealing directly with tribal infrastructures and their HIV or mental health programs, AIAN researchers have the potential to increase participation and optimize retention of a broad cross-section of community members. 1 – 9 These advantages may better position AIAN researchers to identify key cultural constructs, appropriate theories, and acceptable intervention strategies in HIV and mental health systems of care. Acknowledging these benefits as well as the dearth of health data on American Indians/Alaska Natives, the United Nations, World Health Organization, and National Institutes of Health (NIH) have called for increased culturally relevant research partnerships with tribal communities and the involvement of AIAN investigators. 10 – 13 Despite these calls, the representation of American Indians/Alaska Natives remains negligible. 6 , 9 Indeed, of the 35 000 NIH grants awarded in 1999, only 9 went to AIAN principal investigators; by 2006, the total was 24. 14 – 16 Ultimately, the dearth of AIAN researchers renders AIAN communities vulnerable to insensitive or irrelevant research and may deprive them of the benefit of culturally appropriate and empirically supported health promotion interventions. Mental illness and HIV present great challenges to AIAN communities and require acute sensitivity from researchers. Yet, barriers to academic and professional success prevent AIAN scholars from doing relevant research with these populations. Decolonizing strategies may dismantle these barriers by “indigenizing” the academy. Given the limited research on HIV and mental illness in AIAN communities, we chose to present recommendations based on anecdotal evidence from our com-bined 30 years of experience in this field.
