Blogger's Note: Here's an article I wrote recently, which appeared in the Gallup Independent.
Isleta Pueblo, NM…. Anselm Roanhorse’s eyes grow
large when he talks about his childhood onthe Navajo reservation, herding
sheep. “As a boy, I was out there
for days, by myself, chasing sheep, protecting them, covering miles and miles
of terrain,” he recalls. Now the
Director of the Navajo Division of Health, Roanhorse explained to an obesity
summit here in June that exercise was part of the traditional Navajo lifestyle,
not an “add-on.”
“Our grandparents were not recreationally-oriented,”
said Paul Pino, the chair of the health committee at Laguna Pueblo, a smaller
settlement of Native Americans near Albuquerque. “But they were active, digging ditches for irrigation, plastering
adobe walls or putting a new floor in the kiva, the center of traditional
ceremonies. “
In as little as fifteen years, all that has changed.
For Native American youth, digging ditches and
herding sheep has been replaced by video games and chillin’ in front of the TV.
Double Whoppers and Big Gulps,
sold at local fast food outlets, have replaced fresh fruits and
vegetables. The results of the
cultural shift are dramatic.
“We’re seeing teens with kidney failure and heart
attacks, and families struggling with dialysis and amputations,” says Dr.
Alfredo Vigil, who was a family physician in Northern New Mexico before he
became Secretary of the NM Department of Health.
“It is shocking and unacceptable,” Vigil says, “and
the death and suffering is right here in front of us.”
On the sprawling Navajo reservation, for example,
Roanhorse says 23,000 (out of
approximately 250,000) Navajos are now affected by diabetes; in 1940 there was
only one documented case.
In
Jemez pueblo one in two children is overweight or obese, according to Kristyn
Yepa, a registered nurse at the pueblo, which has just obtained a grant from
the Center for Disease Control to tackle the obesity problem.
Overall in New Mexico, Native Americans have two to
three times the rate of obesity and diabetes than the overall population. Indian youth are consistently more
overweight than young people in the US.
And most alarmingly, Native Americans here have the highest death rate
from diabetes-- over three times the rate for Whites. The high death rate is
particularly perplexing since American Indians are more likely to receive
recommended screenings through the Indian Health Service.
At San Ildefonzo Pueblo, outside of Santa Fe, the
Pueblo’s Governor, Perry Martinez, has issued at 5-2-1-0 challenge that has
tribal members eating 5 fruits or vegetables per day, logging less than 2 hours
of screen time, 1 or more hour of physical activity and 0 sweetened
drinks. It’s part of
“Keeping Po Woh Healthy—One Child at a Time.” The program uses garden mentors, walking trails and
native language to deliver the message to children and their parents.
Felice Lucero of San Felipe Pueblo has started a
growers market near the tribe’s Casino Hollywood that attracts tourists on the
way to Santa Fe as well as 154 tribal farmers.
At Santa Clara Pueblo elders are teaching kids how
to identify medicinal plants, as well as edible ones. There’s a running club, and lessons on how to prepare
nutritious food. Fry bread, a
native favorite, is not included. A mobile health clinic out of the University
of New Mexico brings health screening opportunities, and diabetes monitoring is
done via cell phone. A wellness
center is on the drawing board.
“Most important,” says Chris Tafoya, Lieutenant
Governor of Santa Clara, “I can tell the kids what not to do, and how I am trying to change. “ Tafoya, himself a
diabetic, holds up his glucose monitor, which hangs around his neck on a cord,
along with his turquoise beads. “It’s not too late for them.”
“We have to lead by example,” he tells the crowd of
health advocates and tribal leaders assembled at the Isleta Casino by the
Milbank Memorial Fund June 28-29.
A more massive assault on problem is underway on the
Navajo reservation where approximately 10,000 participated last year in “Just
Move It,” a series of runs and walks that depart each week from chapter houses
spread out through New Mexico and Arizona. Between 30 to 150 participate in each event. The fun-runs complement a more
coordinated approach to school health in Northern Navajo schools.
Shaundale Gamboa, a health promotion specialist with
the Navajo program, says it is important to remember the emotional aspect of
obesity, which, for kids can involve bullying, stress, substance abuse and even
suicide. (Native Americans have
the highest suicide rate in NM, a state that consistently ranks among the
highest for this problem nationwide)
Gamboa’s own daughter is obese, she said, a fact
that she copes with on a daily basis.
With fast food and high sugar drinks immensely
popular in New Mexico (the country’s number one Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet
is in Shiprock NM, in Gamboa’s home town) native American leaders know it takes
strength to combat what some feel has become a new addiction to high-salt,
high-sugar fast food.
“Our resilience, our faith and the strength of our
communities has brought us thus far, “ said one of the tribal leader, “and we
will continue.”
For Native Americans and others confronting the
obesity problem, it may require more than faith. Citing escalating health care costs for the public, a number
of states and local governments have attempted to use the same tactics against
the junk food lobby that were used against Big Tobacco. New York and California
now require food labeling for fat and sugar content echoing FDA’s warning label
on cigarettes.
In the past few years, Arkansas and Washington state
have taxed soda pop. Earlier this
year, New York was the scene of a
battle between health advocates and the industry over a soda tax. After a huge
advertising campaign, the industry won, citing a fear of overregulation, unfair
penalties for fat people, and the need for personal responsibility.
In New Mexico, beverage taxes present a particular
challenge due to tribal sovereignty issues, which can cause a dual tax
structure on and off reservations. It’s a challenge that the state and tribes
overcame when the state raised tobacco taxes by 75 cents per pack starting in
July. The new tax applies both on and off the reservation. It could serve as a
model for a sweetened beverage tax.
Meanwhile, tribal and community efforts continue,
with friends in high places. First Lady Michelle Obama has taken up the obesity
cause, encouraging community gardens and even planting heirloom Native American
seeds in the White House garden.
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