American Indian/Alaska Native Issues

The Federal Government is committed to raising the physical, mental, social, and spiritual health of American Indians and Alaska Natives, and Macro works directly with Federal agencies to make comprehensive, culturally acceptable personal and public health services available and accessible to this group. With more than a decade of experience working with diverse communities across the United States, we have mastered methodologies that focus on using cultural, historical, and traditional beliefs and approaches to identify problems in specific communities. We develop culture-specific training institutes to coach American Indians and Alaska Natives to create positive change, reduce risky behavior, and build stronger communities and make recommendations that affect constructive change for specific ethnic groups. In addition, our considerable expertise in research and evaluation, developed over many decades of conducting thousands of research projects, enables us to effectively assess the efficacy of programs that serve this special population. Macro's experiences with American Indian/Alaska Native issues can comprise elements of larger projects that incorporate American Indians and Alaska Natives as well as projects that are exclusive to American Indian/Alaska Native issues.

American Indian/Alaska Native Trust Fund Recommendations
American Indians, Alaska Natives, and the U.S. Congress recently faced the reform of the American Indian Trust Fund, valued at $2.4 billion. Macro provided consultation and survey services to the Office of the Special Trustee (OST) in the development of a comprehensive series of reports and recommendations that verified and expanded their Strategic Plan and Budget for reform. Macro recommended several reforms of the American Indian Trust system, including establishment of a single organization's responsibility for the trust fund; the adoption of commercial trust system software and a "service bureau" transaction processing and reporting subsystem; the installation of systems and equipment upgrades; the development of a communication network; and increased training. The recommendations were adopted by the Special Trustee, budgeted, and presented to the Department of the Interior and the U.S. Congress.

Head Start Distance Learning
Macro conducted an evaluation of an innovative project to deliver training via satellite to Head Start teaching teams, primarily in rural and isolated areas. American Indian/Alaskan Native Head Start programs were one of the prime targets for a distance learning demonstration to train teaching staff in areas where traditional training methods were not feasible. Macro project team members visited a combined total of 15 American Indian reservations and Alaska Native villages to collect classroom observations and interview Head Start teaching staff about the effectiveness of this initiative. We provided both a formative evaluation to consider the needs of a diverse set of learners with different learning styles and to aid in program improvement and a summative evaluation to assess the effectiveness of the training. The evaluation focused on knowledge gained, personal attitudinal changes, and changes in classroom teaching behavior.

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