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UNPFII 2026.
Ensuring Indigenous Peoples’ health, including in the context of conflict.
April 9, 2026
Shiprock, New Mexico
As it marks its 45th year of service to the broader Native American Church community, the Native American Church of North America – State of New Mexico, Inc. (NAC-SNM) continues to honor and carry forward the legacy of its founders. Incorporated in 1981 after formative discussions in the early 1970s, NAC-SNM has remained committed to caring for the Medicine and has exercised steward leadership through local, regional, and national engagement. Grounded in this mission, NAC-SNM focuses on cultural preservation, ceremonial medicinal plants protection (as foundational elements of Indigenous systems inseparable from relationships to land, territory, culture, and traditional knowledge), and the defense of traditional knowledge as fundamental human rights.
 On April 20, 2026, the NAC-SNM will join representatives of the National Congress of American Indians, the Native American Rights Fund, the Cherokee Nation, the Navajo Nation, U.S. tribal representatives, and the University of Colorado Indian Law Program in NYC at UNPFII 2026. The Permanent Forum theme this year is Ensuring Indigenous Peoples’ health, including in the context of conflict.
Leading up to the 25th Session of the Permanent Forum a Study [1] was issued by a former Permanent Forum member that closely aligns with and supports NAC-SNM’s work. Building on its prior work and the recently released Study, the NAC-SNM plans to submit interventions during the 25th Session of the Permanent Forum that Indigenous plant medicines is a core component of Indigenous health systems, embedded within relationships to land, territory, and traditional knowledges, and that restricted access to Indigenous plant medicines constitutes a direct harm to Indigenous health. Below is more information about the United Nations Study issued in May 2026. The Study: Indigenous Health, Indigenous Plant Medicines and Traditional Knowledge
Healing within Indigenous communities is deeply rooted in sustained relationships with land, culture, community, and spirit. Within this context, Indigenous plant medicines operate as part of a holistic health systems that understand well-being as a balance among physical, emotional, mental, spiritual, and environmental dimensions of life. Accordingly, plant medicines are not used in isolation but are practiced alongside Native American and tribal ceremonies, teachings, language, and spiritual traditions. These practices are passed down through generations and are part of living knowledge systems, continuously strengthening connections between people, their ancestors and the natural world. For these reasons, Indigenous health cannot be fully supported by modern medical systems alone.
In addition, Indigenous plant medicines are foundational elements of Indigenous health systems, and are inseparable from relationships to land, territory, and traditional knowledge. Continued access to these plant medicines depends directly on the health of the lands and ecosystems in which they grow. Consequently, when development, environmental degradation, or inadequate conservation damages the places in which they grow, Indigenous health is directly and measurably harmed. Further, when access to medicinal plant habitat is denied or restricted—particularly when these landscapes fall under private ownership or state control—this restriction causes further harm. In such cases, Indigenous health is weakened at its very foundation, because plant medicines, their ecosystems, and traditional knowledge that sustains them are essential to Indigenous well‑being.
At the same time, the Study concludes that colonization has inflicted profound and lasting harm on Indigenous healing systems. Through forced relocation, land dispossession, and laws that prohibit Indigenous ceremonies, communities were deliberately separated from their medicinal plants, their natural habitats, and the knowledge necessary to sustain these practices. Compounding this harm, government health systems have frequently dismissed Indigenous medicines as unscientific, thereby disregarding the authority of traditional healers and elders whose knowledge is grounded in community responsibility, trust and lived experience.
Finally, the Study affirms that advancing Indigenous health depends on the simultaneous protection of land, culture, and self‑determination. Environmental, conservation, and climate policies play a decisive role in the safeguarding medicinal plants, the lands on which they grow and thrive, and traditional knowledge connected to them. Where Indigenous governance and land stewardship are recognized and respected, traditional healing systems remain resilient and communities experience stronger health outcomes. Protecting Indigenous plant medicines; then, is not solely an act of cultural preservation, rather, it is a human right obligation, an environmental responsibility, and a vital component of building a healthy and sustainable future for all.
[1] United Nation Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, Restoring Indigenous health by connecting systems through the Indigenous determinants of health: local to global evidence, E/C.19/2026/5, May 19, 2026.
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