Strengthening AI/AN Children · Research · Education · Development

Healing carried forward across seven generations.

A health research center reducing the mortality gap facing American Indian & Alaska Native children, care givers, and families.

SACRED logo featuring a hummingbird at the center surrounded by a braiding of sweetgrass and circles of rose colored triangles and text that reads, Strengthening AI/AN Children Research Education and Development
News and Articles

News

September 8, 2026

New Website Coming Soon

Our website is currently undergoing some updates as our organization changes and a new, updated version will be coming soon.

November 25, 2024

OU Health Sciences Receives Federal Grant to Recognize Descendants of American Indian POWs Incarcerated at Fort Marion

The University of Oklahoma Health Sciences has been awarded a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to engage with the descendants of American Indian individuals who were incarcerated at Fort Marion in Florida during the 1870s.

Read the full article on OUHSC.edu

Photo of Dr. BigFoot and former members and partners of ICCTC standing alongside members of the Smithsonian Institution outside the front of a Smithosonian Institution building.
Who we are

An American Indian and Alaska Native health promotion and mortality-reduction center, committed to healthy children, parents/caregivers, and communities.

SACRED — Strengthening AI/AN Children through Research, Education & Development — is a Native maternal and child health research center at the University of Oklahoma Health Campus and is collaboratively leading Cancer Prevention Research with the Native American Center for Cancer Health Excellence/NACCHE within the Stephenson Cancer Center. We advance AI/AN child well-being, maternal and paternal health, and family wellness through evidence-informed approaches that strengthen relationships, promote healthy behaviors, and prevent cancer and other chronic diseases. We do so through conducting rigorous culturally-grounded, community-engaged research, health interventions, and trainings.

Our Mission

Strengthening American Indian and Alaska Native children and families across generations (past, present, and future): promotes health and reducing mortality and cancer risks through advancing AI/AN child, maternal/paternal, and community health through research, education, and development.

Our Vision

A future where healing and love can be effectively carried seven generations forward for AI/AN families to thrive across generations, while viewing each as sacred as worthy of health- as rooted in cultural and holistic wellbeing.

Our Lineage

Our lineage: SACRED carries forward the work and portfolio of the Indian Country Child Trauma Center (formerly ICCTC), building on decades of validated Native child and family healing and moving forward through innovative and rigorous research, education, and development.

Our Programs and Research

Our portfolio connects community-led research, Indigenous sciences, clinical training, prevention, and implementation.

Learn more about our programs →
Training in Treatment of Child Physical and Sexual Abuse

Project Making Medicine Training

Planned trainings will resume in the spring of 2027.

Please contact us to let us know you are interested and we will get in touch once registration is open.

Our people

Led by Native scholars and storytellers.

A team spanning research, community practice, and storytelling — building a center as accountable to community as it is to science.

Photo of Dr. Michelle Johnson-Jennings standing against a brick wall

Dr. Michelle Johnson-Jennings

Principal Investigator & Executive Director

 Photo of Felipe Contreras standing in front of a blurred backgroun

Felipe Contreras

Programs & Research Director

 Photo of Dr. BigFoot standing in front of a white, textured wall

Dolores Subia BigFoot, PhD

Advisor

 SACRED team photo

Our growing team

Coordinators, researchers & community partners

Partner with us

Building the future of
Native health, together.

We welcome partnership with tribal nations, funders, researchers, and communities who share our vision.

Get in touch