Fewer than 1% of last year's U.S. medical school graduates were Native Americans

DULUTH, Minn. (AP) — Medical student Fred Blaisdell has a few months to go before anyone calls him doctor, but the Oneida Nation tribal member has already learned one lesson around the importance of Native physicians serving Native patients.

During a recent psychiatry rotation at a Minneapolis clinic, he introduced himself to a patient who lit up when she heard him speak Ojibwe.

“After that, the patient really opened up and started to talk about a lot more things that she hadn’t really engaged with us before,’’ recalled Blaisdell, 27, who is from the Detroit area but chose the University of Mi...