HSLIC is delighted to announce the inaugural winner of the Patricia V. Bradley Native American Health Research Award, Taylor Russell. Taylor is a 3rd year medical student at UNM with a passion for researching traditional medicines used by Navajo Nation elders. She is Tachii’nii (Red Running into the Water Clan), born for Bit’ahnii (Folded Arms Clan) and grew up in the Nenahnezad chapter community.
Taylor became interested in traditional medicines and their current usefulness after seeing for herself the positive effects of pinon sap on psoriasis. She immediately began researching the anti-inflammatory properties of pinon sap (“jeeh”) using online resources, but found even more inspiration from talking with her grandmother, who confirmed that it was a traditional remedy for lesions and cuts. This set Taylor down a path of investigating her family’s legacy of herbalism, the ability to use local plants as remedies.
Taylor is collecting information on plants and traditional remedies used on the Navajo Nation by photographing and documenting each traditionally-used plant she learns about. She also details how the plants were prepared for use and for which illnesses or injuries. Though she continues to learn about traditional remedies from her grandmother, she has also begun to see other resources, such as books and resources written by Native authors that might also discuss Navajo herbal remedies. She is already speaking about her work at local chapter houses across the Navajo Nation, as well as at herbal medicine conferences and medical seminars. With this award, Taylor plans to continue to build an archive of information on local herbal remedies, with a planned educational pamphlet to provide additional information to practitioners and patients.
Taylor’s research fits the aims of the Patricia V. Bradley Native American Health Research Award perfectly, by stimulating and support research on Native American health or well-being. It is an honor to bestow this award to Taylor in recognition of HSLIC’s former faculty member, Pat Bradley, also a proud member of the Navajo Nation. Pat was born into the Bit’ahnii (Folded Arms People Clan), born for Kinyaa’áanii (Towering House Clan). Pat's career in medical librarianship spanned more than 40 years in places that included the Navajo Health Authority in Shiprock and the Gallup Indian Medical Center (Indian Health Service). As the Native and Distance Services Librarian, Pat was our colleague at the Health Sciences Library and Informatics Center for 15 years. Pat passed away in 2019 after a brief illness.