By GREGG HARRISON, Vice President of Clinic Administration at NACC
South Minneapolis is facing a persistent crisis: opioid addiction and homelessness often go hand in hand. Many in our community live without housing because of addiction, and this is not new. These challenges stretch back generations, rooted in broken treaties, land theft, boarding schools, and other traumas that stripped Native people of family, culture, and place. The 1950s “relocation” policy, aimed at uprooting Native Americans from reservations and assimilating them into cities, further isolated families, disrupted traditions, and laid the foundation for today’s struggles. You can see the roots of our current crisis in these failed policies.
Since opening our doors in 2003, we at the Native American Community Clinic (NACC) have worked to address these harms, guided by an understanding of history and a belief in culture as medicine. This perspective shapes how we respond to today’s crisis. We began providing medication for opioid use disorder in 2017, knowing that treatment must go beyond prescriptions. Our approach combines clinical tools with spiritual care, access to ceremony, and traditional medicine, because healing must also restore connection, dignity, and culture.
We offer long-acting buprenorphine injections that reduce cravings and prevent withdrawal. These medications can ease people onto buprenorphine without triggering precipitated withdrawal. At NACC, we use Brixadi to provide an immediate bridge, delivered either weekly or monthly. From there, we work with patients to transition onto long-acting injections through their insurance or daily buprenorphine if that’s a better fit. By keeping cravings under control, Brixadi lowers the risk of overdose and gives people the space to focus on their health, relationships, and stability.
What makes our program unique is how treatment is part of a culturally grounded, harm-reduction model. We help patients navigate insurance and provide care regardless of ability to pay. We provide access to ceremony, our behavioral health teams provide counseling, and our staff connect patients with housing and community resources. In this way, treatment becomes part of a larger circle of care, rooted in the belief that health and culture cannot be separated.
If you or someone you know is navigating opioid use, Brixadi and our approach can help. For more information, call NACC’s Medication-Assisted Treatment program at 612-843-5945.
