After arriving Monday evening, her Tuesday schedule brought her to the Tohono O’odham nation to promote the fight against cancer and learn more about the special challenges tribal nations face.
President Joe Biden has promised what he calls a cancer moonshot–an attack on cancer with the same resources and drive that put us on the moon. Tuesday First Lady Jill Biden came to the San Xavier Health Clinic of the Tohono O’odham Nation to look at where the Native American nations fit into that project.A blessing asked for the Creator’s guidance for the administration but also called for help for the people displaced by war in Ukraine.
Tohono O’odham Chairman Ned Norris Junior told the First Lady there are 22 tribes in Arizona and 560 in the entire U.S. He says the Tonono O’odham live in a vast reservation of small, often remote villages—and that can interfere with access to health care. She says the Cancer Moonshot is part of a commitment she and the President made after one of their sons died of cancer,
Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra accompanied the First Lady on this trip and other tripsworking on the Cancer Moonshot. He says research has already improved cancer survival rates but there’s much more to do.