Author Archives: Melba Newsome

Melba Newsome is an award-winning freelance writer with more than 20 years' experience reporting on news and features. Her feature credits in many prominent publications including the New York Times, Bloomberg Businessweek, Oprah, Playboy, Reader’s Digest, Time, Good Housekeeping and Wired. Melba also is a frequent contributor to such online sites as NBCNews and Healthline.

Thanks to a Crisis Reporting grant from the Pulitzer Center, she will be reporting extensively on the physiological, emotional, and societal impact of the novel coronavirus for NC Health News.

the front of a hospital as the sun is setting. It's the hospital that treats Americna Indian overdoses for the Eastern Band of the Cherokee

Substance Use

Native Americans look for ways to stop soaring overdose deaths

by Melba Newsome February 9, 2022August 31, 2022

By Melba Newsome In September 2018, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI) made it onto a list they probably would have preferred to avoid. The Office of National Drug Control Policy identified the Qualla Boundary, the Eastern Band’s 56,000-acre homeland just south of Smoky Mountains National Park, as one of 10 “high intensity drug […]