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Nominations are now open for the Henry J. Kaiser Foundation Native American Health Policy Fellowships for the year 2001. Fellows will spend twelve months in Washington D.C. studying national health and welfare policy and working with congressional committees and executive branch offices. To be eligible, an applicant must be a Native American Indian who is an enrolled tribal member, has at least three years experience in an area of Indian health care, and be willing to commit to relocation to Washington D.C., beginning January 2001 and ending December 2001.

Past Fellows have represented the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, Narragansett Tribal Nation, San Carlos Apache, and the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin. In each of the past two years, a member of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma has won a Kaiser Fellowship.

"I was exposed to the policy making process at the congressional level", said Melissa McNiel, a 1999 Kaiser Fellow and a Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma's Executive Officer. "I got to take part in the process of how things work, and that experience and knowledge has been a tremendous help to me", McNiel said.

Candidates may be nominated by the senior official of their organization or may self-nominate with the agreement of a sponsoring agency. The Fellowships are administered through First Nations Development Institute. The deadline for submitting an application is August 31, 2000.

Interested persons may contact Wanda Lord, Special Projects Officer, First Nations Development Institute, Fredericksburg, Virginia, at 540-371-5615, or send an e-mail message to: wlord@firstnations.org