A member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, Marietta Hamill '25 completed a Senior Fellowship—an alternative to a traditional major that replaces typical senior year courses with research—studying the impact of casinos on Native American health. In Hanover, she's found a love for uplifting other students through Dartmouth's student-run Programming Board and as a cofounder of the Dartmouth Undergraduate Biology Society.
How did you decide to study the relationship between Choctaw casinos and health outcomes?
Native American nations have a long history of owning and operating casinos as a means of exercising sovereignty and generating revenue. Tribal casinos have paved the way for "casino-adjacent resources"—things that are paid for by consumer revenue like education, infrastructure, and health care. I wanted to understand whether the benefits of casino-adjacent resources outweigh the risk of the casinos themselves.
The idea for your project was partially inspired by a Dartmouth class—can you tell us more about that?
Yes. At Dartmouth, I took a class called "Neighborhoods and Health" with sociology professor Gregory Sharp. My final project for that class was the foundation of what became my Senior Fellowship, and Professor Sharp was one of my advisers. I also worked with faculty from the Geisel School of Medicine's epidemiology department and the Native American and Indigenous Studies department. It was important to me to bring together different points of view, especially on a topic as complex and nuanced as Native health.
What are the ultimate goals of your research?
I conducted interviews with Choctaw Nation residents about the health of the Nation and the relationship between the state, federal, and tribal governments. The primary goal of my project was to return that information to my tribe to help implement policies and programs. My hope is that the project will serve as a blueprint for other nations seeking to understand how tribal casinos might affect Native American health.
What are your plans after Dartmouth?
I've known for a very long time that I wanted to get my PhD and pursue research long term, and the Senior Fellowship has been a great taste of that. This fall, I'm beginning a Master of Public Health program in Public Health Genetics at the University of Washington at Seattle.
Photograph by Don Hamerman
