Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids to Honor Navajo Nation Air is Life Health Coalition for Passing Landmark Policies to Protect Navajo People
May 06, 2025
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids will present its highest honor, the Champion Award, to the Navajo Nation Air is Life Health Coalition for its leadership in advocating for two landmark policies to reduce use of commercial tobacco products and protect the health of the Navajo people. The Champion Award recognizes leaders who have made a significant contribution to reducing tobacco use, improving health and saving lives.
The Air is Life Coalition will be honored at Tobacco-Free Kids’ annual Youth Advocates of the Year Awards ceremony on May 8, 2025, in Washington, D.C., along with outstanding youth advocates and public health leaders from the United States and around the world. The coalition will be represented by Dr. Patricia Nez Henderson, a coalition co-founder and enrolled member of the Navajo Nation, Vice President of the Black Hills Center for American Indian Health, and a nationally recognized scientific expert on the impact of commercial tobacco products on American Indian Tribes and communities.
After 13 years of education and advocacy efforts by the Air is Life Coalition, Navajo Nation leaders in 2021 enacted the Niłch'í Éí Bee Ííńá – Air is Life Act, which prohibits the use of all commercial tobacco products in workplaces and public places in the Navajo Nation.
Then, in November 2024, Navajo Nation leaders enacted a comprehensive tobacco tax policy developed by the Air is Life Coalition, which increased the cigarette tax by $1.50 per pack and imposed a tax on e-cigarettes and other commercial nicotine products. The new revenue helps fund the Office of Traditional Cultural and Spiritual Healing within the Navajo Department of Health and provides grants to Navajo traditional healer organizations that are instrumental in teaching Navajo youth about the differences between ceremonial and commercial tobacco.
“We’re thrilled to honor the Air is Life Health Coalition and Dr. Patricia Nez Henderson for their leadership and perseverance in advocating for these historic policies that will protect youth, improve health and save lives in the Navajo Nation for generations to come,” said Yolonda C. Richardson, President and CEO of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. “The coalition has steadfastly built community support for these policies and worked with the Navajo Nation Council to enact them into law. These policies will help end the commercial tobacco industry’s targeting and exploitation of Indigenous communities and advance health equity by helping reduce high rates of commercial tobacco use in these communities.”
“I accept this award on behalf of my community, my ancestors and the many voices – past and present – who have fought to protect the health of our people,” Dr. Patricia Nez Henderson said. “The colonization of tobacco – through commercial industries – has stripped it of its spiritual role and transformed it into a product of addiction, disease and profit. Today, we are reclaiming the narrative. I am so proud to be part of the Air is Life Health Coalition – a group of Indigenous advocates, health workers and community leaders working across the Navajo Nation to end commercial tobacco use and restore the sacred.”
The Navajo Nation is the largest Indigenous territory and federal recognized Tribe in the U.S., encompassing over 17 million acres and over 400,000 enrolled tribal members.
Dr. Nez Henderson was the first Indigenous woman to graduate from the Yale School of Medicine. She has been a member of multiple federal tobacco-related committees, including the inaugural FDA Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee, which recommended the elimination of menthol cigarettes. She also served as the first Indigenous president of the Society for Research on Nicotine & Tobacco.
The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids is the leading advocacy organization working to reduce tobacco use and its deadly consequences in the United States and around the world. Through strategic communications and policy advocacy campaigns, we promote the adoption of evidence-based policies that are most effective at reducing tobacco use and save the most lives. Our Global Health Advocacy Incubator builds on the successes and lessons learned in the fight against tobacco to support civil society organizations working to tackle other critical public health challenges across the globe.