Pfawnn Eskee | 2021 National Crime Victims' Service Awards Tribute Video

PFAWNN ESKEE: I work in the community of Montezuma Creek. It's very small, very rural. We are on the Utah portion of Navajo Nation, high poverty levels, high levels of drug abuse, and things like that. But that makes coming here and working worthwhile, because mental health is very needed around here and all across Navajo Nation. 

Growing up, I didn't have a therapist around that looked like me, that could understand, you know, my background and the struggles that we go through, you know, not just me, but my communities. We always talk about intergenerational trauma within our Native American communities. A lot of people I've seen, especially in treatment, have just never told anybody their trauma experience. And so just having me as a therapist believe them and talk about how we can overcome those things does make them better. 

A lot of my work has been based around sexual violence. When I first started, I saw about five victims within a month who had been raped or sexually abused. So I started asking why we didn't have sexual assault nurse examinations here at our clinic. 

And then I, along with some of our nurses, decided to, you know, get together as a group and start that for our clinic. 

So now we have multiple SANE nurses, we have a SART team. So if we're able to heal one person, it doesn't become an ongoing cycle. 

When I came back to the reservation, I thought, you know, it's hard to find information here. So part of my time is also running the website WeAreNavajo.org. We include things like Navajo traditional cultural stories, traditional recipes. It's just become a hub of tons of information. 

Whatever the situation that they're in, we're always here to help. In our Navajo culture, we're all based around our family and our community. If one person or one family thrives, then we're all thriving. It's not just about me. It's about all of us. We want everybody to get better and be better as a whole. We want our nation to thrive and be successful.