We are all responsible for recognizing and respecting Native lands.
Our LAW is Land, Air, and Water.
The COVID-19 pandemic is hitting Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities hard. Indigenous community members are experiencing high per-capita pandemic infection rates.
This pandemic is part of an ongoing public health crisis. Environmental contamination has been contributing to high rates of chronic diseases for decades.
Community-led initiatives have been responding rapidly to address some of the immediate resource needs within Indian Country. But further analysis and action is needed to better understand and address the underlying relationship between environmental contaminants and public health within Indigenous communities as well as other impacted Communities of Color. Dr. Tommy Rock (Dine’) collaborates with a team of Indigenous scientists, storytellers, traditional health practitioners, organizations and governments to gather human, air, soil and water health/contamination data and address impacts through water access and soil remediation initiatives.
By donating and/or joining us by awareness and fundraising as a solidarity skater, you support holistic health projects that:
• Center intergenerational Indigenous-led and community-based solutions
• Build critical water infrastructure for improved access
• Further longer-term goals of reducing environmental contaminants
• Honor sovereignty and Indigeneity
• Respect Indigenous Knowledges
We are all responsible for recognizing and respecting Native lands.
Our LAW is Land, Air, and Water.
The COVID-19 pandemic is hitting Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities hard. Indigenous community members are experiencing high per-capita pandemic infection rates.
This pandemic is part of an ongoing public health crisis. Environmental contamination has been contributing to high rates of chronic diseases for decades.
Community-led initiatives have been responding rapidly to address some of the immediate resource needs within Indian Country. But further analysis and action is needed to better understand and address the underlying relationship between environmental contaminants and public health within Indigenous communities as well as other impacted Communities of Color. Dr. Tommy Rock (Dine’) collaborates with a team of Indigenous scientists, storytellers, traditional health practitioners, organizations and governments to gather human, air, soil and water health/contamination data and address impacts through water access and soil remediation initiatives.
By donating and/or joining us by awareness and fundraising as a solidarity skater, you support holistic health projects that:
• Center intergenerational Indigenous-led and community-based solutions
• Build critical water infrastructure for improved access
• Further longer-term goals of reducing environmental contaminants
• Honor sovereignty and Indigeneity
• Respect Indigenous Knowledges
We are all responsible for recognizing and respecting Native lands.
Our LAW is Land, Air, and Water.
The COVID-19 pandemic is hitting Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities hard. Indigenous community members are experiencing high per-capita pandemic infection rates.
This pandemic is part of an ongoing public health crisis. Environmental contamination has been contributing to high rates of chronic diseases for decades.
Community-led initiatives have been responding rapidly to address some of the immediate resource needs within Indian Country. But further analysis and action is needed to better understand and address the underlying relationship between environmental contaminants and public health within Indigenous communities as well as other impacted Communities of Color. Dr. Tommy Rock (Dine’) collaborates with a team of Indigenous scientists, storytellers, traditional health practitioners, organizations and governments to gather human, air, soil and water health/contamination data and address impacts through water access and soil remediation initiatives.
By donating and/or joining us by awareness and fundraising as a solidarity skater, you support holistic health projects that:
• Center intergenerational Indigenous-led and community-based solutions
• Build critical water infrastructure for improved access
• Further longer-term goals of reducing environmental contaminants
• Honor sovereignty and Indigeneity
• Respect Indigenous Knowledges
Your skate is an opportunity to stand together with disproportionately impacted communities and spread the message of how to recognize and respect Native Lands in your community. Not a skater? Walk/run/roll/stroll with us to help improve awareness and raise funding!
Sign up to do a Rollin’ for Rock’s Research Solidarity Skate!
Dr. Rock
Dr. Tommy Rock is a member of the Navajo Nation from Monument Valley, Utah. His clans are the Salt clan, born for the Manygoat clan; maternal grandfather’s clan is the Bitterwater clan and paternal grandfather’s clan is the Reed People clan. Disproportionate health and environmental disparities impacting Dr. Rock’s family motivated Tommy to focus his education and career on Native Lands and Public Health.
Tommy earned a doctoral degree from School of Earth Science and Environmental Sustainability at Northern Arizona University. His research has been funded by both the National Institute of Environmental Health, and the Environmental Protection Agency. Dr. Rock testified before congress as a leading expert in uranium contamination on the Navajo Nation.
Tommy employs a Native American perspective and multidisciplinary approach to solving complicated issues such as sustainability in the Southwest. His work integrates issues of health, environment, and culture with informed decision-making on tribal lands.
Read about Dr. Tommy Rock's personal connection to his research.
The Skaters
Daisy, a former faculty member and current leader of an equity collective, roller skated over 2,000 miles in 2020 from the Navajo Nation in Arizona past the Eastern Band Cherokee Nation in North Carolina. She embarked on this endeavor to support the work Dr. Rock is engaging. The response was overwhelmingly positive, and the need to continue support remained. In 2021, Melissa Skeet took the lead in skating across the Navajo Nation to raise awareness and funding, and to honor her relatives who were forcefully removed along The Navajo Long Walk.
On April 5-9, 2022, Daisy, Melissa and Bonnie Thunders are rollin’ for Rock’s research along the Coast-to-Coast trail and in Florida beginning on the west side trailhead near St. Petersburg at 7:00 AM. Please join all or part of our 38 mile skate day!!
“Rollin’ from Mesas to Mountains” to support holistic health in Indian Country
Promote awareness of disproportionate health issues due to environmental contaminants exasperated by COVID.
Fund a mobile research lab, media lab, and team housing unit with clearance to access essential rural locations
Resource water infrastructure projects that improve regulation and access to clean water sources for community members, their livestock and their crops.
Primary Investigator Dr. Tommy Rock (Dine’) focuses on root causes, and works within Indigenous communities to identify feasible solutions.
Make a donation.
A recent Harvard study on long-term exposure to air pollution and COVID-19 mortality in the United States Conclusions found that a small increase in long-term exposure to fine particulate matter leads to a much higher COVID-19 death rate. In Indian Country, the links between various diseases and exposure (or proximity) to environmental contaminates have been well documented. These toxins are exacerbating the COVID-19 pandemic in Communities of Color.
We are all responsible for recognizing and respecting Native lands. The holistic health of Indigenous Peoples and Places is critical everyone’s wellbeing.
