Traelene Fallis often heard stories about her grandfather’s kindness and compassion for animals growing up, particularly his connection to a herd of horses he tended. It’s a bond that remained even after he passed. 

“We brought him back home to his resting place. All his horses came to the fence, and I believe helped him on his way back to the ancestors,” she says. “I believe his connection to animals was passed onto me, and I am proud to have learned throughout this life to have his gentleness and his forever-loving heart.”

Fallis is now a third-year student at the University of Minnesota (UMN) College of Veterinary Medicine (CVM), but her journey looks much different from many of her peers. She is a descendant of the Dakota Nation (hunkpati) and Blackfeet Nation (pikuni) and grew up on the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe reservation in South Dakota. Resources and opportunities for school and veterinary experiences were harder to come by, and misconceptions—like she would automatically receive scholarships for being Native American—were common. 

The challenges don’t end now that Fallis is in vet school. She’s pursuing a career in a field that remains one of the least diverse professions, with data from the American Veterinary Medical Association indicating only 0.4 percent of veterinarians identify as Indigenous. 

It’s a similar story in academia for Roger Faust, a postdoctoral fellow in Environmental Studies at Carleton College in Northfield, Minn. Faust is an enrolled member of the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska and grew up off-reservation in Omaha. While pursuing a PhD at UMN, he was advised by CVM Associate Professor Tiffany Wolf and contributed to research efforts conducted by the college’s Minnesota Center for Prion Research and Outreach and assisted the Student Initiative for Reservation Veterinary Services (SIRVS) with community clinics. 

Throughout his time as a student and now an instructor, he’s rarely encountered other Indigenous academics. That’s because the National Center for Education Statistics estimates that less than one-half of a percent of postsecondary faculty (e.g., professors, associate professors, and assistant professors) identify as American Indian/Alaska Native.

“As a Native American in academia and research, one of the most significant challenges I’ve faced is the lack of representation and role models who share similar experiences,” Faust says.  “There are very few Native Americans in academia. This can sometimes lead to feelings of isolation and the additional burden of having to explain or justify the importance of incorporating Tribal perspectives in research and decision-making.”

Both Fallis and Faust have sought to forge connections with other Indigenous people through their classes and by joining organizations such as Natives in VetMed and SIRVS. They hope to inspire more members of Tribal communities to consider careers in healthcare and science fields. 

Connecting for change

Fallis and Faust are not alone in their mission and have found a community with the Indigenous Health Professionals Alliance at the University of Minnesota—a grassroots group of faculty, staff, and administrators from various health professional schools across the University system. 

“By working together, we can amplify our collective impact, build stronger networks, and better advocate for the needs of future generations,” Faust says. “It’s also an opportunity to build solidarity and create a sense of belonging among Indigenous professionals, fostering a supportive environment where we can lift each other up.”

Founded by Mary Owen, associate dean of Native American health at UMN–Duluth Medical School and director of the Center for American Indian and Minority Health, the group’s overarching goals are to increase the numbers of Native (American Indian, Native American, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander) health professionals in the Upper Midwest by 2035 and increase knowledge of Native populations. Currently, the group is serving a more immediate goal of building community among currently enrolled UMN Indigenous health professional students and supporting the mentors and allies who support them. 

Among IHPA’s members and allies are faculty, staff, and students from the College of Veterinary Medicine. Joining in January 2023, the CVM cohort notes that the group’s goals align with the college’s own of increasing Indigenous representation.

As part of its involvement with IHPA, the college hosted an engagement event in November 2024. More than 40 people attended the event, participating in a panel, small group discussions, and tours of CVM facilities. Fallis and Faust attended the event alongside CVM allies such as Lauren Bernstein, assistant professor of community medicine. 

“I feel grateful to be welcomed into a community of scholars, future leaders, and doers who share their historically undervalued ideas and perspectives so openly and vulnerably,” Bernstein says. “Each conversation reminds me of how much veterinary research and medicine are missing because of how homogenous our profession is.”
 

Inspiring the future

The underrepresentation and dismissal of Tribal perspectives are something Faust has witnessed firsthand and is part of his inspiration for pursuing a career in academia. 

Growing up in an urban setting, he says he experienced the challenges of staying connected to his Tribal identity while navigating spaces where Indigenous cultures were often misunderstood or overlooked—particularly in conservation efforts that were often dominated by groups like state agencies or anglers and hunters, leaving Tribal voices underrepresented in environmental decision-making. 

Fallis also has faced ignorance and misconceptions from peers and others about situations and topics they may have never faced or have no lived knowledge of, noting many in her local communities and across Tribal nations face a lack of compassion regarding their struggles and the unique challenges they contend with.

She, Faust, and others are uniting under initiatives like IPHA to amplify Native voices and inspire the next generation to pursue careers in healthcare, environmental sciences, and beyond.

Faust plans to continue mentoring students at Carleton College, supporting their academic journeys, and advocating for the inclusion of diverse voices, especially Tribal perspectives, in shaping the environment’s future. 

After graduation, Fallis plans to be a mixed-animal practitioner and provide veterinary services in her home community and other Indigenous communities, where she hopes to make an impact not only by increasing accessibility to these services but also by encouraging young people to pursue careers in fields such as veterinary medicine.

“My success is not my own but my family's and the people I come from. I carry my journey and my people in my heart in everything I do. I am nothing without them,” Fallis says. “Every opportunity and experience are there because I had people in my corner who believed in me and saw my potential. The experiences and adversity are something that I bear to make things easier for the next person who comes who is like me.”