Currently a palliative care physician, associate professor of medicine, and director of Native American Health and Cultural Leadership at the Native American Center for Health Professions (NACHP), Benalee Thompson is known for her exceptional patient care and tireless mentoring of patients. It has changed countless lives. Initiatives to improve the health of Native students and Native communities. In August, Benally Thompson was named Physician of the Year by the American Indian Medical Association. The award recognizes his “exemplary leadership and innovation in this field that has significantly improved health outcomes and advocated for the well-being of Indigenous communities.”
Brett Benally Thompson
Congratulations! How does it feel to be named Doctor of the Year?
I feel humbled and honored. This award was presented to me by people who I have admired since before I entered medical school as true giants and forward thinkers in Native American health and health policy. The American Indian Physicians Association is working hard to reduce the significant disparities we face as Native Americans.
You described your journey as a “winding road.” Where did it start?
It started in northern Minnesota. Like many indigenous people in this country, I grew up in a mixed family, Swedish on my mother’s side and Ojibwe and French on my father’s side. I spent a lot of time with my father’s relatives on the Red Lake Reservation.
Describe how your White Earth Ojibwa heritage shaped your childhood.
I was a kid at a time when being Native wasn’t a good thing. My great-grandmother was sent to boarding school, and this still affects generations of my family. However, I had a great experience with my family on the reservation. Although I didn’t live there, I started learning about our culture and spirituality from my uncle and others at an early age. At that time, it was still illegal for us to practice spirituality in the United States. It wasn’t until 1978 that the Native American Religious Freedom Act allowed some of this to come back from underground.
When did you become interested in medicine?
As a child, I had plastic dolls, or models, with clear plastic skin and organs inside. I’ll try to break it down and research it. It was a somewhat advanced toy (lol). I have always been interested in science and the human body. And I heard that my great-grandparents and one of my great-great-grandparents were healers.
You didn’t aim to go to medical school right away. Which career came first?
I tried to become a cowboy, but since I was making between $175 and $250 a month, I realized I needed to go home and go back to college, which I did, but failed miserably at first. To pay for college, I joined the National Guard and served in the Army as a military police officer and an active-duty infantry officer. Then I did civilian police work for 10 years. I really loved being a police officer. It taught me a lot about other parts of our society and the less fortunate, including us indigenous peoples. I was also an emergency medical technician (EMT). I have always been drawn to the service industry.
What lessons or skills did you take away from those roles?
Police work taught me how to talk to anyone and gave me insight and experience into how life can change for the worse in an instant. Just knowing how scary life can be and trying to help people through it, whether it’s as a police officer or a paramedic, is what makes me a better palliative care doctor.
When did you finally decide to go to medical school?
One day, as I was driving my patrol car along a beautiful hilly road outside of Austin, Texas, I woke up and had this vision. I couldn’t see anything, but I heard a clear voice say, “This is not what you should do.” You were supposed to be a healer and a doctor for people. ”I was 28 years old. This meant I had to go back to school to complete the medical requirements, and I was 33 when I started my studies. After some initial disappointment, we had leadership from the AISES Council of Elders (American Indian Science Research Society), the Engineering Society, a 47-year-old national nonprofit organization that supports indigenous people in science, medicine, and technology. We coach and advance people. They told me I couldn’t quit, that our people needed me. I was 40 years old when I entered medical school at the University of Duluth in Minnesota.
What made you decide to specialize in palliative care?
I had never heard of palliative care until I interned at Providence Alaska Medical Center in Anchorage, Alaska. In my third year there, I had the privilege of rotating with the newly formed palliative care team. I became Alaska’s first Palliative Care and Hospice Medicine Fellow. Palliative care doctors see people with very serious illnesses who are very likely to die at some point in the future. Here at the University of Wisconsin, I teach compassion as part of my hospice and palliative medicine fellowship. It’s not often taught in medical school, but it should be. I think this is a must for any doctor and a very teachable skill.
What led you to attend the University of Washington-Madison?
After completing my residency, I worked for the Indian Health Service in Red Lake, Minnesota. Working in the federal and tribal systems was one of the toughest jobs I’ve ever had. My former mentor, Dr. Eric Brodt, recruited me to the University of Vienna-Madison. Like me, Eric benefited from the Center for American Indian and Minority Health at the University of Minnesota Duluth. He wanted to start a similar organization to support Native health professions students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Singing and drumming are part of Benally Thompson’s spiritual and musical tradition.
Please describe how your role has evolved.
As Eric and others started building the program, I supported and provided ideas. After it launched in 2012, I continued to be involved as a student cultural advisor. Then Daniel Yancey, director of NACHP, asked me in 2018 if I could be the principal investigator for the Indians into Medicine grant. This grant has just been awarded again, for the third time.
Why is NACPH’s mission so important?
Research shows that Indigenous health professionals are 55% more likely to return to work in Indigenous communities than non-Indigenous people. Because of the historical trauma that Indigenous people have endured and continue to be affected by, seeing an Indigenous health care provider creates a level of trust. It’s not that non-native providers don’t do a good job, it’s just that they don’t have people looking after native people the way native providers do.
I also know what disparities exist in our community when it comes to health care. These things continue to motivate me in the work I do for NACHP and regionally and nationally, including at AISES.
What accomplishment are you most proud of?
Personally, I am proud to have raised two wonderful people, my daughters, and to be part of a large, strong family. Professionally, I am most proud of my work supporting and encouraging students to succeed in their education. I have always been supported and helped by people. I spend a lot of intentional effort trying to do for others what my guides have done for me. I am also proud of our tireless efforts to improve the health of our people, both medically and mentally. We will do our best to support our spiritual way of life. Native spirituality pervades every interaction I have with my patients and with all humans. That’s what really made my life beautiful.
