Where Discovery Creates Hope - November 2021
our work
The University of Minnesota Medical School’s Memory Keepers Medical Discovery Team wants to understand why memory loss and dementia disproportionately affect rural and Indigenous communities, and find ways to treat it.
At the heart of their efforts is the need to preserve the stories, songs, medicine and other traditions for future generations.
To do this, the team has enlisted the help of community members who can build trust with the elders they work with.
One of those community members is January Johnson, who is from the Red Lake Band of Chippewa. Through her work on the team, Johnson has an opportunity to connect with elders in her community, who she calls “knowledge keepers.”
