Health Archives - Page 56 of 91

Traveling ‘Native Voices’ Health Exhibit Opens Today in Anchorage

© Howard Terpning Courtesy of The Greenwich Workshop, Inc., Courtesy National Library of MedicineBlessing from the Medicine Man, Howard Terpning®, 2011 — © Howard Terpning Courtesy of The Greenwich Workshop, Inc., Courtesy National Library of Medicine
Blessing from the Medicine Man, Howard Terpning®, 2011

The traveling exhibit “Native Voices: Native Peoples’ Concepts of Health and Illness” opens June 9 in Anchorage.

Starting at the Dena’ina Center, the exhibit will debut with a noon luncheon ceremony featuring the Southcentral Foundation, the Alaska Native Heritage Center and the National Congress of American Indians.

The exhibit will remain open for visitors of the Conference of the National Congress of American Indians until June 12, and then it will open to the general public at the Alaska Native Heritage Center from June 13 through mid-September.

Oral history and the wisdom of medicine men are recognized in the traveling exhibit, which made its grand debut at the National Institutes of Health’s National Library of Medicine in Bethesda, Maryland with a blessing ceremony on October 5, 2011.

Some of the most revered native healers were interviewed for the project, plus tribal educators, curators and others. “One of the major goals is to share from the native community and in their own words and own descriptions what is important to them in terms of native concepts of health, healing and illness,” Fred Wood, a National Library of Medicine curator involved with the project’s development, said. “We’re doing our best to make that in their words, not someone else’s interpretation.”

Topics featured in the exhibition include: Native views of land, food, community, Earth/nature, and spirituality as they relate to Native health; the relationship between traditional healing and Western medicine in Native communities; economic and cultural issues that affect the health of Native communities; efforts by Native communities to improve health conditions; and the role of Native Americans in military service and healing support for returning Native veterans.
Indian Health Service Director, Dr. Yvette Roubideaux, a featured speaker at the opening ceremony, said the concept for the exhibition grew out of meetings with Native leaders throughout the nation, “and reflects the Native tradition of oral history… This wonderful exhibit is helping to make Native voices and cultural perspectives seen and heard, and to promote understanding and appreciation of Native cultures.”

For web browsers all over the world, photos and summaries on the web site pull out specific aspects of the exhibit, such as the healing properties of certain plants. The introduction to the “Medicine Ways” section states that “[m]any traditional healers say that most of the healing is done by the patient and that every person has a responsibility for his or her proper behavior and health. This is a serious, lifelong responsibility. Healers serve as facilitators and counselors to help patients heal themselves. Healers use stories, humor, music, tobacco, smudging, and ceremonies to bring healing energies into the healing space and focus their effects.”

Ceremonial drums, pipes and rattles from Upper Plains tribes are displayed in one section on healing. Another explores ceremonies that traditional healers performed to give relief to returning veterans who suffered from combat-related stress. “Because physical and spiritual health are intimately connected, body and spirit must heal together,” says printed material in the exhibit, on “The Key Role of Ceremony.”

Another section explores Native games “for survival, strength and sports.” Surfing figures big here, as the exhibit pays tribute to Duke Kahanamoku, Native Hawaiian Olympic medallist who is credited with reviving surfboarding as a sport. In the lobby of the library is a 10-foot model of the Hokule‘a, a traditional Hawaiian voyaging canoe. It is intended to show visitors “how the mission of the Hokule‘a has spurred a Hawaiian cultural and health revival.”

40 Powerful social issue ads that make you stop and think

Advertising Agency: Terremoto Propaganda, Curitiba, Brazil

Check out more advertisements here, @ boredpanda.com

Many people complain about advertisements as an obnoxious way for companies to invade our everyday lives and cram their products down our throats, but that’s not all that advertisements are good for. The advertisements on this list are excellent examples of effective advertising strategies for social issue campaigns that let their voices be heard.

A well-made advertisement is designed to grab your attention and to remain in your memory long after you’ve left it behind, and that is exactly what many of these social causes need. Getting people to think and worry about various social and environmental issues (or even simply getting them to be aware of them) is important for raising public supporting and affecting meaningful changes. A few of these ads are, in fact, commercial ads, but it’s still nice that they champion socially or environmentally aware causes/products.

Just like with commercial advertisements, having just the facts is not enough. They are important, but the ad must also appeal to the observer’s emotions. Many studies have indicated that emotion can have a powerful effect on memory formation, ensuring that memories with emotion will last longer than those without.

According to “Father of Advertising” David Ogilvy, his contemporary, Howard Gossage, said that “advertising justifies its existence when used in the public interest—it is much too powerful a tool to use solely for commercial purposes.” We definitely agree, which is why we wanted to share this list of social cause advertisements with you!

Advertising Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi, Copenhagen, Denmark

public-interest-public-awareness-ads-45-1 — Advertising Agency: Ogilvy & Mather, Dubai, UAE

First Nations Development Institute Awards $400K to 12 Native Food-System Projects

Kristin ButlerGeorge Toya, farm program manager at the Pueblo of Nambe — Kristin Butler
George Toya, farm program manager at the Pueblo of Nambe

Indian Country Today

First Nations Development Institute announced June 3 that it is divying up $400,000 in grant awards to 12 Native organizations. The grants, made possible by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation of Battle Creek, Michigan, were awarded under First Nations’ Native Agriculture and Food Systems Initiative.

The NAFSI grant program is intended to help tribes and Native communities build sustainable food systems, increase healthy food access and awareness, and stimulate tribal economic growth and development. The 12 grants range between $20,300 and $37,500 to the following tribes and Native organizations:

Bay Mills Community College, Brimley, Michigan, $37,500

The grant will support the Waishkey Bay Farm 4-H Club and Youth Farm Stand. Waishkey Bay Farm is a sustainable farm and orchard located in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. The club’s purpose is to recruit tribal youth to help grow, harvest and market fruits and vegetables.

Choctaw Fresh Produce, Choctaw, Mississippi, $37,500

The grant will be used to expand a small community garden. Food from the garden will be sold at the casino restaurant. Additionally, project organizers plan to sell surplus fruits and vegetables throughout the community via a mobile farmers’ market. The project aims to increase access to healthy food on the reservation while creating jobs and stimulating economic development.

Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, Portland, Oregon, $28,125

The grant will assist tribal fishers as they build new relationships with tribes to develop and expand market opportunities for salmon products. The project aims to increase opportunities for the fishers of the Columbia River tribes.

Diné Community Advocacy Alliance, Gallup, New Mexico, $20,300

The funds will be used to help the alliance support the Healthy Diné Nation Act and Junk Food Tax, which was vetoed by the Navajo Nation president in February 2014. The act seeks to impose a 2 percent sales tax on sugar-sweetened beverages and junk food, and eliminate sales tax on fresh fruits and vegetables.

Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwa Community College, Hayward, Wisconsin, $37,500

The grant will be used to build capacity and expand the college’s Sustainable Agriculture Research Station (LSARS). LSARS will increase healthy food access by providing a mobile farmers’ market, online and telephone food-ordering service, and EBT-SNAP purchases.

Lakota Ranch Beginning Farmer/Rancher Program, Kyle, South Dakota, $37,500

The grant will be used to establish an active gardening club on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Fruits and vegetables harvested will be sold at a local farmers’ market to promote healthier food choices.

Ponca Tribe of Oklahoma, Ponca City, Oklahoma, $28,125

The funding will build capacity and expand the local community greenhouse. The goal is to produce twice as many fruits and vegetables in the expanded greenhouse. Additionally, the funds will be used to host weekly diabetes health education and cooking classes.

Pueblo of Nambe, Nambe Pueblo, New Mexico, $28,125

The Community Farm Project will focus on expanding to create more traditional meals with locally grown, highly nutritious food items. Nambe Pueblo is a food desert with issues of access and affordability of fresh, local produce. The farm can expand with eventual creation of a marketplace on pueblo land, instituting practices such as composting and seed saving, and working to revitalize Indigenous crops, harvesting wild plants, and raising hormone-free, locally slaughtered meats.

Sac and Fox Tribe of the Mississippi in Iowa, Tama, Iowa, $37,500

The grant will build capacity and expand the Meskwaki Grower’s Cooperative. The food co-op launched in 2013 and needs to expand to include a greenhouse, seed-saving program and food-preservation workshops, as well as increasing co-op membership.

Sust’ainable Molokai, Kaunakakai, Hawaii, $37,500

The grant will be used to launch the Molokai Food Hub, which will give the Native Hawaiian farming community better access and control over its local food system. The Food Hub will help accurately manage orders and monitor product quality.

Taos County Economic Development Corporation, Taos, New Mexico, $37, 500

The organization will lead and coordinate the Native Food Sovereignty Alliance (NAFSA), including coordinating board meetings, proactively recruiting and growing the membership base, and moving the organization toward achieving its 501(c)(3) nonprofit, tax-exempt status. The organization will also coordinate development of a three-year strategic plan and a priority list of policy areas to be addressed.

Waimea Hawaiian Homesteaders’ Association, Kamuela, Hawaii, $32,825

The grant will continue to fund the “Farming for the Working class” project and will enable another 10 Native Hawaiian homestead families to start actively farming their fallow land. The program consists of hands-on farm training, paired with classroom-based learning and business training.

Monsanto Set to Sue Vermont for Requiring GMO Labeling

OccupyReno MediaCommittee/Flickr Creative CommonsA Monsanto protest in Reno, Nevada — OccupyReno MediaCommittee/Flickr Creative Commons
A Monsanto protest in Reno, Nevada

Indian Country Today

On May 8, Vermont set history by becoming the first state in the country to require genetically modified (GMO) food to be labeled.

When Gov. Peter Shumlin (D) signed the bill into law, he released the statement: “We believe we have a right to know what’s in the food we buy.”

But one hurdle still stands in the state’s way: a likely lawsuit from Monsanto, the world’s largest GMO producer.

According to a recent report on labeling requirements from the nonprofit Council for Agricultural Science and Technology, at least 25 states are considering similar legislation, but with trigger clauses like Connecticut and Maine that require multiple other states to pass GMO labeling laws before theirs take effect.

“If Vermont wins, it might not be long until the entire country mandates GMO labeling, giving consumers the information to make their own choices,” states a petition by the SumOfUs community (sumofus.org) that urges people to sign to protest Monsanto suing Vermont for its decision to label GMO foods.

Attorney General Bill Sorrell told Vermont Public Radio in May that he would be “very surprised” if Monsanto doesn’t sue the state, reported the Washington Post. State officials have even guarded against a lawsuit with a copy.5 million legal defense fund, which would be paid for with settlements won by the state.

Among Monsanto’s outlandish claims is that a labeling requirement would be a violation of the company’s freedom of speech. In recent years, Monsanto has even gone as far as to partner with DuPont and Kraft Foods to grossly outspend and defeat supporters of similar laws in California and Washington, explains sumofus.org.

Sign the SumOfUs petition here.

Report: US births up for first time in 5 years

By Mike Stobbe, Associated Press

NEW YORK — The baby recession may be at an end: After a five-year span in which the number of children born in the United States dropped each year, 2013 saw a minute increase.

According to a new government report, the number of babies born last year rose by about 4,700, the first annual increase since 2007.

It’s a “very, very, very slight” increase, said the lead author of the new report, Brady Hamilton of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Experts have been blaming the downward trend mainly on the nation’s economy, which was in recession from 2007 to 2009 and wobbly for at least two years after that. Many couples had money problems and felt they couldn’t afford to start or add to their family, they believe.

Now the economy has picked up and so has child-bearing, at least in women ages 30 and older — the teen birth rate dropped sharply once again, and birth rates still fell for women in in their 20s.

Falling deliveries was a relatively new phenomenon in this country. Births were on the rise since the late 1990s and hit an all-time high of more than 4.3 million in 2007. Then came the drop attributed to the nation’s flagging economy.

Both the number of births and birth rate fell fairly dramatically through 2010. Then the declines became smaller. In 2012, the number of births was only a few hundred less than in 2011.

Last year’s tally was a little under 4 million.

The nation also may be seeing a more pronounced shift to having children a bit later in life, said Rob Stephenson, an Emory University demographer focused on reproductive health. That follows a trend western Europe experienced more than a decade ago, he said.

“Maybe the new norm is having children in your 30s,” he said.

The birth rate for women in their early 30s inched up in 2012 for the first time since 2007. It rose again in 2013, by 1 percent. The birth rates for women in their late 30s and early 40s rose by 3 percent and 1 percent, respectively.

Some of these older moms probably were women who put off having kids a few years ago, when money was tighter, but now are responding to their biological clocks, said John Santelli, a Columbia University professor of population and family health.

“At some point, you can’t wait any longer,” he said.

But he also agreed that it’s become more common for women to pursue education and career goals through their 20s and delay starting families until later.

The CDC report is based on a review of more than 99 percent of U.S. birth certificates from 2012. The government released the report Thursday.

Other highlights:

—The number of births rose a little for both white and black women. It stayed the same for Hispanic and Native American moms. And for some reason experts can’t explain, it fell 2 percent for Asian moms.

—The birth rate dropped less than 1 percent, to just under 63 births per 1,000 women of child-bearing age. That’s the lowest it’s ever been, according to U.S. health records.

—The total fertility rate also fell, by 1 percent. That statistic tells how many children a woman can be expected to have if current birth rates continue. The figure was 1.87 children last year. Experts say 2.1 is a goal if you want to keep the population at its current size.

—A little under 33 percent of births last year were delivered through Cesarean section — a slight drop from the rate over the previous two years. C-sections are sometimes medically necessary. But health officials believe many are done out of convenience or unwarranted caution, and in the 1980s set a goal of keeping the national rate at 15 percent.

—There was a continued decline in the rate of births delivered at less than 37 weeks into the pregnancy. The preterm birth rate, as it is called, fell to about 11 percent in 2013. It has been declining since 2006.

—The teen birth rate fell 10 percent from 2012, the largest decline since the 10 percent drop between 2009 and 2010. Birth rates for teen moms have been falling since 1991 and this marks yet another historic low. The number of babies born to teens last year — about 275,000 — is less than half the peak of nearly 645,000 in 1970.

Experts attribute the decline to a range of factors, including less sex and more use of contraception. But they admit being stunned by the velocity of the drop.

“Everybody’s wondering why, but everybody’s really excited about that,” Santelli said.

—

Read more here: http://www.theolympian.com/2014/05/28/3153620/report-us-births-up-for-first.html#storylink=cpy

Tulalip’s 2nd Annual Community Wellness Conference, June 10-11

Could Diet Soda Really Be Better Than Water For Weight Loss?

By Allison Aubrey NPR.ORG

May 28, 2014

Answering the question of whether diet soda helps or hinders dieters’ efforts to lose weight has been the focus of much research. And buzz.

Unfortunately, the answer is still murky.

On one hand, as we’ve reported, long-term studies suggest that some diet soda drinkers’ efforts to lose weight are stymied when they compensate for the zero-calorie beverages by eating more food. Call it the Diet Coke and french fry conundrum. Or perhaps artificial sweeteners mess up our metabolisms, as some have theorized.

But there’s also research showing that when people swap sugary drinks for zero-calorie options, they lose weight. And, when people combine a diet drink habit with an overall healthy pattern of eating, the combination seems to work to lower the risk of metabolic syndrome, according to research.

Better than water for losing weight? A study funded by the beverage industry says yes.

Now a new study, funded by the American Beverage Association, suggests that diet drinks might be more effective than water alone in helping dieters shed pounds.

We had to ask: Really?

The study, published Tuesday in the journal Obesity, included about 300 overweight participants, all of whom were enrolled in a weight loss and exercise program. As part of the intervention, each participant was randomly assigned to one of two groups. One group was told to avoid all diet drinks and drink mostly water. The other group was told to consume a combination of zero-calorie drinks (for example, diet soda or artificially sweetened teas) and water.

At the end of three months, the participants in the diet-drink group had lost about 13 pounds on average. That was four more pounds than the average of nine pounds lost by those in the water group.

“We were kind of surprised by the findings that showed that diet beverages actually did a little better than water” in the outcome, John Peters, one of the study authors, tells The Salt. He’s the chief strategy officer of the University of Colorado’s Anschutz Health and Wellness Center.

So, what explains the findings? How could diet drinks potentially lead to more weight loss?

“We did see that people in the diet-soda wing of the study reported less hunger during the trial than those in the water group,” says Peters. But he emphasizes that this is just speculation. “We can’t determine mechanism from this trial.”

That speculation doesn’t fly with some experts, who question using diet soda as a tool to curb appetites. “Studies suggest that consumption of diet soda makes people continue to crave sugar, thereby making it harder to quit,” says Laura Schmidt, a professor of health policy at the University of California, San Francisco.

Peters tells me he’s aware that people are questioning the results. And he’s surprised by that reaction to the study so far: “I’m kind of amazed how much people are trying to find a reason not to believe these findings.”

It’s possible that many people are still leery about the safety of artificial sweeteners such as aspartame, despite years of studies aimed at establishing safety. “There’s always some lingering question: Are these good for you or not?” Peters says.

Or it could be that once people hear about the industry link, they’re just dismissive of the findings. But Peters says he and his colleagues carried out the study completely independently at their academic research sites.

“We responded to a [request for proposal] that was put out by the ABA to the scientific community” to study the effects of diet drinks, he says.

But, Peters explains, he and the other researchers made an agreement with the industry group in advance that whatever the findings — positive or negative — the results would be submitted for publication.

As industry funding of nutrition research has become more commonplace, there are protocols in place to keep separation between funders and scientists. But a 2007 meta-analysis in PLoS Medicine found that industry funding increases the odds of results favoring the industry’s position.

Beyond the study’s ties to the diet soda industry, other researchers say the new research doesn’t provide any closure to the murky science of diet sodas. “This paper is fatally flawed, and leaves us with little science to build on,” Purdue University researcher Susie Swithers tells us.

She points out that the paper does not include detailed information about what participants consumed in lieu of diet soda beyond the water they were told to drink. So it’s hard to know how many calories they consumed from other beverages. “Did they switch to regular sodas? [Did they] add sugar instead of artificial sweeteners to their coffee or tea?” Swithers wonders.

All in all, “this paper tells us nothing about the long-term health consequences that should be our real focus,” Swithers concludes.

$100,000 Food Security Award American Indian Elderly

First Nations Development Institute Awards $100,000 to Support Food Security for American Indian Elderly in Arizona, New Mexico, North Dakota and Wisconsin

by Native News Online Staff / Currents / 23 May 2014

LONGMONT, COLORADO — First Nations Development Institute (First Nations) announced it has awarded four grants to American Indian communities in Arizona, New Mexico, North Dakota and Wisconsin that will address hunger, nutrition and food insecurity among senior populations. The grants come as part of First Nations’ Native American Food Security project, which is generously supported by AARP Foundation.

These 2014 grants expand work that began in 2012 when AARP Foundation first partnered with First Nations on the food security project. Under the first phase, First Nations awarded funding to successful projects at the Ponca Tribe of Oklahoma, the Pueblo of Nambe and Santo Domingo Pueblo in New Mexico, and Sipaulovi Development Corporation (Hopi) in Arizona.

The four organizations receiving $25,000 grants for 2014 are:

Painted Desert Demonstration Project / The STAR School, Flagstaff, Arizona. This project will devise and demonstrate a model that links community-based farms with local schools and senior centers. The goals are to provide elders a local source of nutritious, traditional foods at senior centers and intergenerational gatherings; decrease social isolation of elders through monthly celebrations featuring traditional Navajo foods, elder storytelling and cooking demonstrations. The project will serve the Navajo communities of Leupp and Tolani Lake, Arizona.
Pueblo of Tesuque, Santa Fe, New Mexico. This project will connect youth and elders through a healthy traditional foods program that concentrates on honoring and preserving elder knowledge regarding food, seeds and agricultural traditions. Elders and youth will work together to prepare and store seeds, cultivate traditional gardens, harvest in traditional ways, and preserve and prepare traditional foods. The program will include an educational component for both youth and elders, and will provide healthy foods and preparation instructions for families.
Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, Fort Yates, North Dakota. The Nutrition for the Elderly Program will further develop and enhance current tribal food initiatives such as the Senior Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program and the tribe’s Native Gardens Project. Community gardens will provide freshly grown fruits, vegetables and herbs for meals and nutrition education courses will expand knowledge of healthy food preparation and eating.
College of the Menominee Nation, Keshena, Wisconsin. The Gardens for Elders project will benefit elders from the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin, located on the Menominee Reservation in Keshena. Gardens for Elders is an intergenerational, community-based project that focuses on helping elders grow fresh, healthy food sources in their own yards with assistance from youth in various tribal programs. The college intends to build a sustainable elder food-system model that brings together multiple community resources to ensure Menominee elders have locally grown, healthy food sources readily available to them.

“We are excited to expand work focused on ending senior hunger in Native communities,” said First Nations President Michael E. Roberts. “This year, First Nations received over $1.1 million in grant requests under the Native American Food Security project. We’re able to fund only about 10 percent of that amount now, which illustrates the critical need for additional support for Native American food security projects.” The Native American Food Security project assists Native American tribes or organizations working to eliminate food insecurity among senior populations.

National statistics document that Native Americans continue to experience high rates of poverty, contributing to significant food insecurity in many Native American communities. According to the most recent American Community Survey, about 26 percent of American Indians live at or below the poverty line. The same survey indicates that roughly 12 percent of all Native Americans living in poverty are age 55 and older. Other studies conducted by the National Resource Center on Native American Aging note that Native American seniors suffer from higher rates of obesity, diabetes and other negative health indicators when compared to other senior groups in the United States.

“We are confident that these new programs will continue to value the contribution of elders to Native communities, focused on solutions to combating senior food insecurity,” said Roberts.

Tulalip’s 2nd Annual Community Wellness Conference, June 10-11

By Alison Bowen

This year’s conference will focus on healthy relationships. Whether you struggle with your relationships or have a fantastic relationship with your partner, family or children, you will enjoy and learn a great deal from this conference. Presenters will provide helpful strategies to make all your relationships more stable, meaningful, caring and loving.

On June 10^th , Sheri Gazitt will speak about “Communicating With Your Teen.” Ms. Gazitt is a teen educator who works for Seattle’s TeenWise. In her presentations, she delves into difficult topics that parents and teens face every day. You will leave the presentation with a refreshing outlook and some new tools for parenting your teen.

On June 11th, Drs. John and Julie Gottman, world renowned experts on marriage, relationships and family will present on “How to Make Relationships Work” and “Raising an Emotionally Intelligent Child.” Dr. Gottman and his wife, Dr. Julie Schwartz Gottman are the founding co-directors of the Gottman Institute, the Relationship Research Institute and the Gottman Institute’s Relationship Clinic. The Gottman’s presentations will help you realize that there is hope for every relationship!

Board member Deborah Parker attended one of the Gottman’s presentations. “It was a great experience! The speakers are sensible, practical and down-to-earth about relationships. They also put humor in their work. I encourage all tribal members to attend this conference!”

Our families are the center of our community. We would do anything to keep our families together. They are very precious and important to us. These great presentations can provide information that will be helpful in keeping our relationships stable, secure and together. We look forward to seeing you at this important conference.

For more information please contact Ashley Tiedeman, 360.716.5719

Marijuana: menace, medicine or moneymaker? Tulalip tribal leaders hold community meeting on the decriminalization of marijuana

By Andrew Gobin, Tulalip News

With the legalization of marijuana for recreational use in Washington State an ongoing discussion has emerged on the Tulalip Indian reservation about how the law will affect the Tulalip Tribes, if at all. Currently, marijuana remains illegal on the reservation in all forms, in accordance with federal policy. More than 100 people attended a community meeting on May 16, urging Tulalip to review its stance on marijuana, and consider whether the financial and medical benefits outweigh the potential risks that could jeopardize the tribes’ relationship with the federal government. A panel of experts made presentations at the meeting, speaking about the pros and cons associated with marijuana. The experts were; former Seattle Police Chief Norm Stamper, a proponent for legalizing or decriminalizing, and Officer Patrick Slack of the Snohomish County Drug Task Force, who gave a testimony to the use of marijuana in our community today.

“I do subscribe to the idea that the reefer madness propaganda of the 1930s created an unnecessary fear of marijuana,” began Norm Stamper, giving a brief historical overview of marijuana in America.

He said, “Marijuana prohibition has, in my view, done more harm than good. It causes more crime. Anyone who traffics in marijuana is a criminal, anyone who buys it is a criminal, and anyone who grows it. Sellers will arm themselves to protect their investments. We force people to seek out dealers, and they won’t card, they will sell to children. All too often they sell marijuana laced with harder drugs to cultivate a future customer. If it is legal, it can be controlled. We can regulate it, sell it, and use the money to fight it.”

That idea was well received at the meeting, as people spoke highlighting other drugs that plague the Tulalip community.

“It helps people stay away from that other stuff [meth and heroin]. We have a store out here, if we sell it we would have more money to treat other people that are on that stuff,” said tribal member Richard Jones.

An overwhelming majority of people in attendance echoed the potential use of marijuana as a safer means for addicts to get clean and stay clean, as well as the medical benefits marijuana users enjoy.

Patrick Slack did not take a stance on the matter, though he shared his experience with marijuana through his years on the police force which gave great insight to the history of marijuana culture and what it has become today.

He said, “There are many cannabinoids in marijuana that are beneficial. In my experience, most people smoke marijuana for the psychoactive experience, not the health benefits. Tetrahydrocannabinol, THC, is the psychoactive cannabinoid that gives users that signature euphoria from marijuana consumption.”

Historically, the THC in marijuana averaged less than two percent. According to Slack, what is being taken off the streets today ranges between twenty percent up to the mid-thirties. Something becoming more prevalent today is hash oil; also called dabs or budder. Through a reduction process using butane or octane (gasoline), people can pull more of the THC out of marijuana.

“The hash oil averages about ninety percent pure THC. It gets you very high, very fast, and is potentially dangerous to use because the effects last longer,” Slack explained.

Tulalip councilman Marlin Fryberg Jr. said, “For me as a leader, who looks out for the youth? That’s my responsibility. If legalizing marijuana will have a negative impact on them, then I can’t support it.”

Stamper noted, “People like Richard Nixon, JFK, Bill Gates, even Barack Obama have tried marijuana. Those people, had they been caught as a result of their youthful indiscretions, as Nixon called it, would not have enjoyed the careers they did, and we would not be enjoying the benefits of their success.”

Slack addressed the difference of underage use today than in Nixon’s time, and the implication from Initiative 502, the ballot measure that legalized marijuana for recreational use in Washington State.

“I502 makes the consumption marijuana illegal to persons under the age of 21, specifying that there is no tolerance for underage consumption. That means if you are driving and you get stopped, if you are suspected of marijuana use, and you are underage, then you will be subject to a blood test. If cannabinoids are found in your blood, you are guilty of a DUI (Driving Under the Influence), whether or not you are under the legal limit of five nanograms. That’s a felony. And today, that limits your ability to get scholarships, go to college, and get a job.”

The legalization of marijuana is a tumultuous issue that has many potential ripple effects for tribes which would extend far beyond the business and moral aspects, should they choose to legalize. For Tulalip tribal leaders, they are torn on the issue.

Tulalip tribal councilwoman Theresa Sheldon said, “Our grants require us to be in compliance with federal policy. NAHASDA (The Native American Housing Assistance and Self Determination Act) for example explicitly says that the tribe’s program must comply with the all federal policies; that includes policies regarding drugs. Marijuana is still classified as a schedule 1 controlled substance at the federal level. It is unclear how legalization will affect our programs, but it is something that we need to understand fully before we proceed.”

“When it comes to medical marijuana, I am there,” said councilman Fryberg. “I’ve done a lot of research, and it took me some convincing, but I’m there. I don’t support the recreational use, though, and I don’t know that I ever will.”

Whether tribes decriminalize or legalize, the decision will have federal implications. The community and some tribal leaders seem to agree though, that the time has come to recognize marijuana as a medicine. What that means for regulation remains to be seen.

Andrew Gobin is a staff reporter with the Tulalip News See-Yaht-Sub, a publication of the Tulalip Tribes Communications Department.
Email: agobin@tulalipnews.com
Phone: (360) 716.4188