Medical licensing for providers of medical alternatives and public memberships for patients seeking for health optimization and wellness

FIRST NATION MEDICAL BOARD – MISSION STATEMENT

The First Nation Medical Board (“FNMB”) was created and organized to operate as an indigenous medical board wherein healthcare professionals can join and turn to for guidance, organization, and support for the practice of health optimization as such professionals receive no such support from their traditional medical boards and/or states. Currently, only two states (Nevada and Arizona) have “Alternative Medical Boards.” It is the mission of the FNMB to integrate medical professional–such as osteopaths, allopaths, naturopaths, chiropractors, and traditional Indian healers such medicine and women predating the arrival of Europeans–into a board dedicated to the advancement medical science while preserving effective healing therapies, products, and protocols used for centuries.

FNMB also believes that the indigenous peoples of North America and around the world have a “sovereign right” to participate, and to contribute to medical research and technological advances, as well the preservation, rediscovery and further development of natural healing traditions from centuries of effective native medicine to modern miracles of science yet to come.  After centuries of turmoil, oppression, attempted subjugation, and economic depriv­­ation, the Indian nations have slowly asserted their rights and identities, have built and rebuilt political systems in order to implement self-rule, and have begun to overcome what once seemed to be insurmountable problems of poverty  and social disarray. The foundation of this resurgence has been the exercise of self- government by the more than 570 federally-recognized tribes in the U.S. Such “Sovereign Self-Rule”  has been supported by every standing U.S. President over the last 5 decades. 

According to a March 2004 white paper from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy’s School of Business: “A combination of federal court rulings and congressional policies, tribal self-rule–sovereignty–has proven to be the only policy that has shown concrete success in breaking debilitating economic dependence on federal spending programs and replenishing  the  social  and  cultural  fabric  that  can  support  vibrant  and  healthy communities and families.1” Further, “this sovereignty is not a set of ‘special’ rights. Rather, its roots lie in the fact that Indian nations pre-exist the United States and their sovereignty has been diminished, but not terminated. Tribal sovereignty is recognized and protected by the U.S. Constitution, legal precedent, and treaties, as well as applicable principles of human rights.”

Ultimately, doing what is best for the patient is best for doctor, better for the world, and the only principle that will “cure” the current medical system that is based upon disease management, not health optimization.

1 This conclusion emanates from an extensive and growing body of research, particularly that associated with the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development. For example, on economic development, see: Cornell and Kalt (1992, 1995, 1997a, 1997b, 1998, 2000); Jorgensen (1997, 2000a, 2000b); Krepps (1992); Krepps and Caves (1994). On social conditions and health, see, for example, Adams (1999); Dixon, et al. (1998); Moore, et al. (1990); Costello, et al. (2003).