Robert (Bobby) Pourier

Bobby is an Oglala Lakota who was born and raised on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. He currently holds the position of Program Director for the Young Medicine Movement (YMM), a suicide prevention and community-based intervention program affiliated with the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing and Aaniiih Nakoda College in Fort Belknap, Montana. In his role as Director, Bobby is responsible for developing programming and curricula for the YMM program, delivering content, and supporting the personal, professional, academic, and cultural development of youth participants. 

The Young Medicine Movement is a collaborative effort involving several organizations, including the Fort Belknap Tribes, Aaniiih Nakoda College, and the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing. They have come together to address the issue of youth suicide on the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation in Montana. The reservation, which is home to the Aaniiih and Nakoda Tribes, has faced alarmingly high rates of suicide. The partnership aims to improve mental and behavioral outcomes for Aaniiih and Nakoda youth between the ages of 10 and 24 through a comprehensive, culturally sensitive approach that incorporates Indigenous methods.