By BROOKLYN BROWN
One Feather Reporter
CHEROKEE, N.C. – On the morning of Thursday, Feb. 5, Dinilawigi (Tribal Council) voted unanimously to name Dr. Lisa Lefler an Honorary Member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI). The resolution was submitted by Secretary of Community, Education, and Recreation Sky Sampson and can be viewed here.
The resolution reads in part, “Dr. Lisa Lefler has dedicated over two decades to serving the Cherokee community, advancing health and wellness in collaboration with the PHHS Division, Cherokee Indian Hospital, WCU Cherokee Center, the Cherokee Studies Program, and the Institutional Review Board (IRB), as well as being a member of the Cultural IRB (CIRB) since 1998. Her research on historical grief and trauma has positively influenced many EBCI members through initiatives such as the Cherokee Choices Program and, subsequently, the Culturally Based Native Health Certificate Program.”
Dr. Lisa Lefler, center, is shown with her supporters following Dinilawigi’s (Tribal Council’s) unanimous decision to name her an Honorary Member of the EBCI on the morning of Thursday, Feb. 5. (BROOKLYN BROWN/One Feather photo)
Dr. Lefler is the director of the Culturally Based Native Health Certificate Program at Western Carolina University (WCU). She is also the director of the Center for Native Health. As a professor in the WCU College of Health and Human Sciences, Dr. Lefler has taught medical anthropology, psychological anthropology, applied research methods, Appalachian studies, Cherokee studies, and Native American studies, and works as a researcher in alcohol and drug studies with American Indian populations, American Indian fatherhood, applied Indigenous knowledge, and Native Health.
Dr. Lefler also worked in U.N.I.T.Y Healing Center for several years with Dr. Tom Belt. After decades of research and work at WCU and in the Cherokee community, the pair wrote a book, “Sounds of Tohi: Cherokee Health and Well-Being in Southern Appalachia.”
Belt supported the resolution, as did Tommy Cabe, Sarah Thompson, Frieda Saylor, Angelina Jumper, Sheena Lambert, Tina Saunooke, Patty Grant, Louise Goings, Robin Bailey-Callahan, Driver Blythe, Sky Sampson, Roseanna Belt, Brett Riggs, Onita Bush, Vicky Bradley, Tyson Sampson, Casey Cooper, Sonya Wachacha, and Paxton Myers.
EBCI member Driver Blythe, one of Dr. Lefler’s former students, said during the Dinilawigi session, “She has been a key ally, and her rigorous study and her tenure through Western Carolina University and all other educational avenues that she has participated in has done nothing but to better the Eastern Band and other tribes that she has worked with.”
EBCI elder Onita Bush added, “She is one powerful woman, she is one powerful leader, and it is an honor for me to even be close to her because she’s also mine and my husband’s sister. We adopted her as our sister because we love her so much…It is an honor to have her as an honorary member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.”
