Minneapolis’ Native community will get improved access to mental, physical and spiritual health care when a new Indian Health Board clinic opens on Franklin Avenue in May 2027.
The facility at 2027 E. Franklin Ave., called the Menaandawiwe Wellness Campus, will blend Western medicine with Indigenous wellness practices and serve as the centerpiece of a growing health campus near Franklin Avenue, the cultural hub of Minneapolis’ Native community. Menaandawiwe means “a place where healing happens” in Ojibwe.
“It’s about recognizing Indigenous knowledge as legitimate and essential to health,” Dr. Patrick Rock, CEO of the Indian Health Board of Minneapolis, said in a recent interview that includes the Q&A below.
The board broke ground for the nearly $24 million clinic, which will also provide dental care, in late May. Its design features Ojibwe florals and a three-story-tall image of a jingle dress dancer visible in an atrium facing the street.
The Indian Health Board now operates three sites, all within the East Phillips community, serving 4,800 patients annually, including 2,400 identified Native Americans. In 2020, the board purchased a building used for recovery services that stands across from an old Taco Bell site on Franklin and Minnehaha, near the building housing the clinic’s counseling and support services.
The Indian Health Board opened in the East Phillips neighborhood in 1971 after an Ojibwe woman named Gloria died due to lack of access to health care and medication. In the decade before Gloria’s death, activists had begun to push back against medical discrimination and negligence, inspiring the formation of a number of advocacy organizations, including the Indian Health Board, according to the board’s website.
Minnesota has some of the nation’s largest health care disparities between white residents and people of color, especially Native Americans, according to the Minnesota Department of Health. Clinical care in Minnesota contributes around 10% towards health disparities, with the main factors linked to socioeconomics, education, mobility and housing.
The Native community continues to experience those challenges, and others. The new clinic’s May groundbreaking, like other Indigenous events planned for that month, was delayed after four members of the community were lost to gun violence.
Rock, who has worked for the Indian Health Board for 28 years, spoke recently with Sahan Journal about the decision to open Menaandawiwe, and the state of Native health care in the Twin Cities. The interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Q: When did the idea for Menaandawiwe begin?
A: We’ve been working on this plan for eight to 10 years. We needed a newer facility with easier access. As long as I’ve been here, it seems like access has been diminishing. We used to have a bus stop right in front of the [original] clinic, but that went away. Even with the light rail nearby, we felt we needed to be closer to where people actually are and to stay connected to [the] Little Earth [housing complex] and the Native corridor.
[And we believed it] would be great to be able to improve access and make an investment in the organization’s future, in its ability to carry out its mission effectively, efficiently and hopefully [to] a wider group of Indigenous people and communities in the neighborhood. So over the years, we’ve been slowly adding pieces of property.
Q: How will this new building reduce health disparities within Minneapolis communities?
A: It really comes down to the intersection of access, traditional healing and community investment. Access is key — being able to physically get to a place where you can receive care, whether by bus, light rail or walking. We need to improve access. [For instance,] we actually set up a satellite clinic out in St. Paul; there was a smaller community there, an Indigenous community that also needs access.
And so it was like, well, how do we do that [here]? We had an opportunity to purchase some property, the former Blue Nile restaurant site on Franklin Avenue. We made a purchase there close to the light rail on Franklin Avenue, and it definitely continues to be close to the Little Earth neighborhood. [We wanted] to be able to improve access and make an investment in the organization’s future. So over the years, we’ve been slowly adding pieces of property.
Some of the work that we actually took to the state has been the payment for reimbursement for traditional health care services in the state of Minnesota. That just went through in the last Legislature and was approved. So that was a bill that we supported at the Indian Health Board, not just for the board, but it’s really for Minnesota. So Medicaid we’ll hopefully get through a waiver system that every service has to go through in the state. We’ll be able to get reimbursed. The privilege of getting reimbursement for traditional health care service is important to recognize. We helped push that legislation forward, not just for us, but for all Native communities across this state.
It’s about recognizing Indigenous knowledge as legitimate and essential to health. We’re launching a family medicine residency program rooted in the community. Training happens right here, so we’re not just serving people, we’re growing our future workforce from within.
Q: How do you blend Indigenous traditional medicine with Western health care, and how will this new building continue that practice?
A: Even on the academic and research side, this area is a challenge. In an urban center you have a very heterogeneous population. It’s not just one [Indigenous] tradition. There’s not one way of doing things, and not everyone agrees on which way is “right.” Maybe it’s a Dakota way, or maybe it’s an Ojibwe way. You need trust to actually carry out a service. It’s not something you get a referral to, like [being sent to] a heart doctor or endocrinologist. That’s not the way it happens in our community. You have to have a system that does that. One [way] is having elders help you build a system that can deliver something that people can trust and access, so that is a challenge. I wouldn’t say we’ve solved it; I would say we’ve encountered it. Sometimes we’ve made mistakes. You learn something and apply it. We engage the community in what kinds of services they want to see. It has to be built from within.
Q: What excites you the most about the new building?
A: I think about it this way: People need to be proud not just of a building, but of an organization that is making a long-term investment in its health. That’s really a key thing.
Fifty years is a short period of time when talking about Indigenous people in America. We are not a small part of the fabric, we are the fabric of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Some people will overlook us, but [Menaandawiwe] is meant to highlight things like the Native corridor. At the pinnacle of the corridor will be this beautiful building that represents our Indigenous work toward wellness and health.
