Category: Health

Engaging Men to Say NO MORE to Violence Against Women and Girls

By Lynn Rosenthal, White House Advisor on Violence Against Women, June 21, 2013

This week, men across the country united to say NO MORE to violence against women and girls by engaging in online trainings, workshops, and community dialogues. These activities were led by NO MORE , an alliance of service providers, awareness organizations and supporters in the private sector that have come together to advance the movement to end domestic violence and sexual assault. The focus of NO MORE Week has been on the role of men as fathers and mentors in teaching our children about safe and healthy relationships built on equality, respect and trust. This includes having honest conversations about abuse and sexual assault. As President Obama has made clear, sexual assault is shameful and disgraceful and a crime—in the armed forces and everywhere.

We applaud the men who are taking a stand against abuse. This includes fathers, brothers, cousins, and friends who are supporting the women and girls in their lives and teaching young men about healthy relationships. Fathers can find specific resources on talking to sons about the importance of treating women with respect from the coalition of organizations that comprise NO MORE.

Since his first day in office, President Obama has made combatting violence against women and girls a priority through multiple fronts.  The establishment of the first-ever White House Council on Women and Girls, and the appointment of the first White House Advisor on Violence Against Women, are just two examples. Here in the Office of the Vice President, we are continuing to champion Vice President Biden’s hard work to prevent and respond to domestic violence since he authored the first Violence Against Women Act in 1994.  Through the 1is2Many campaign, we are combatting dating violence, abuse, and sexual assault by raising awareness and providing practical tools, like the Circle of 6 iPhone app. But we know that we cannot do this work alone.  We know that so much of this hard work is being done by organizations of advocates like NO MORE, through its efforts to break through the silence surrounding these problems and to get parents, especially men, to talk about the issue.

And this all starts with a conversation, which is why NO MORE Week has promoted a national dialogue to engage men in discussing these difficult topics.  Bringing these issues to light is good for our children, good for our families, and good for our country—and should be discussed not only during NO MORE week, but every week.

HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius Statement for National HIV Testing Day 2013

Department of Health & Human Services

Do you know your HIV status? On June 27, the nation will observe the 19th annual National HIV Testing Day. This year’s theme is “Take the Test. Take Control.”

HIV testing is so important because it gives you the information you need to make good decisions about your health. If you test negative, you can take steps to stay that way (which may include periodic testing if you engage in high-risk behaviors). If you have HIV, there are medications that will help you stay healthy and live longer. These medications—known as antiretroviral therapy (ART)—also make it significantly less likely that you might pass the virus to someone else.

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) has already expanded access to free HIV screening for many people. For those living with HIV/AIDS, the healthcare law will help to ensure they get the care and treatment they need. That is good news, and the ACA has more in store. On January 1, 2014, many of the ACA’s most important provisions will begin increasing access to healthcare for millions of Americans, including those living with HIV/AIDS. To prepare, as of October 1, 2013, people can begin enrolling in ACA-mandated Health Insurance Marketplaces to find affordable health insurance.

Since the mid-1990s, the number of people who are diagnosed with HIV each year has remained relatively stable at about 50,000 infections per year.[1] Certain groups, including African Americans, Latinos, and gay and bisexual men of all races/ethnicities, continue to be disproportionately affected by HIV. We are particularly concerned by a significant increase in new infections among young gay and bisexual men. Between 2008-2010, this group of young men (ages 13-24) had a 22 percent increase in new infections—and young black men in that group now account for more new HIV infections than any other subgroup by race/ethnicity, age, and sex.[2] That news is deeply troubling.

Fortunately our latest data also show there is some good news. Between 2008 and 2010, new HIV infections among African American women declined by 21 percent. This is an encouraging decrease in new infections among black women; however, we will need more time to see if this noteworthy trend continues. In the meantime, we will continue working to eliminate the health disparities that affect racial/ethnic and other minorities and increase their risk for HIV infection.

It is important to stress the long-term benefits of HIV testing, care, and treatment. HIV testing gives us an opportunity to connect people living with HIV to treatment and give them the support they need to remain in care and to take their medications appropriately. Currently, nearly three out of every four people living with HIV in the U.S. do not successfully navigate the stages of care (also known as the “treatment cascade”), which are: HIV testing and diagnosis; actively linking those who test positive to care; retaining them in care over time; providing ART; and achieving “viral suppression” by using treatment to keep HIV at a level that helps individuals stay healthy and reduces the risk of transmitting the virus to others.[3]

Identifying and reducing the obstacles along that path are the keys to achieving the goals of the President’s National HIV/AIDS Strategy and a major focus of our work.

So, in observance of National HIV Testing Day, I hope you will “Take the Test and Take Control.”

You can see the video PSAs Secretary Sebelius recorded for National HIV Testing Day here and here. For more information about NHTD, or to find an HIV testing location near you, please visit AIDS.gov. For resources on HIV prevention, please visit Act Against AIDS. For more information on the ACA, please visit healthcare.gov.

Emergency meeting on June 27 to discuss state budget impacts on Snohomish Health District operations

Source: Snohomish County Health District
SNOHOMISH COUNTY, Wash. — In the absence of a state budget, the Snohomish County Board of Health will convene for a special emergency meeting at 1:30 p.m. Thursday, June 27 in the Snohomish County Council Chambers, 8th floor of the Robert J. Drewel Building, 3000 Rockefeller Ave., Everett, Wash.
 
The state has made clear that local agencies will not be paid for state-funded services during a shutdown.  In order to continue most Snohomish Health District programs, the Board will be asked to approve spending from reserves for the first two weeks of July. A state shutdown will cost the Health District about $30,000 a day.  As a result of the shutdown, state-issued checks to purchase healthy foods through the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) nutrition program will not be issued, however other WIC services will continue to be provided.
 
Should the state budget impasse continue, the Board will consider convening a regular meeting July 9th to determine program reductions and service suspension.     
 
If a state budget is approved prior to the Health Board emergency special meeting, the session will be cancelled immediately. Notice of cancellation will be posted at the county council chambers, at Health District offices in Everett and on the Health District’s website at www.snohd.org.
 
The Snohomish County Board of Health sets countywide public health policy, enacts and enforces local public health regulations, and carries out other duties of local boards of health specified in state law. These duties include enforcing state public health statutes, preventing and controlling the spread of infectious disease, abating nuisances, and establishing fee schedules for licenses, permits and other services.
 
For additional information about the board meeting or to request reasonable accommodations, please contact Lorie Ochmann, 425.339.5210; relay 711; lochmann@snohd.org
 
Established in 1959, the Snohomish Health District works for a safer and healthier Snohomish County through disease prevention, health promotion, and protection from environmental threats. Find more information about the Health Board and the Health District at http://www.snohd.org.

Rethinking Plastics Campaign

Consequences of Convenience

Green Sangha, www.greensangha.org

We’re addicted to plastic, especially plastic bags.
If you are like 95% of US shoppers, whenever you purchase anything, it ends up in a plastic bag.  In the grocery store, most of us put our vegetables and fruits as well as bulk items into single-use plastic produce bags, and all those bags end up in a single-use plastic check-out bag.

Shoppers worldwide are using 500 billion to one trillion single-use plastic bags per year.
This translates to about a million bags every minute across the globe, or 150 bags a year for every person on earth.  And the number is rising.

“But plastic bags are so convenient!”
It depends on how far you are looking.  A plastic bag may be convenient for a minute or two when you carry something out of the store, but consider these costs:

  • Plastic bags are made from a non-renewable resource: oil!
    An estimated 3 million barrels of oil are required to produce the 19 billion plastic bags used annually in California.
  • Greenhouse gas emissions
    Plastic manufacturing’s air pollution contributes to “global weirding” (extreme weather of all sorts).
  • Non-biodegradable
    Plastic is food for no one.  It never completely breaks down.
  • Litter
    We see bags hanging on trees, along the roadside, slipping down the storm drain, and floating in the ocean.  Even when we do put them in the garbage, they don’t always make it to the landfill.  47% of landfill blow-away trash is plastic.
  • Toxicity
    Manufacturing plastic releases toxins in the air, as does recycling plastic.  The additives used in plastic are often toxic and can leach into our food.  The surface of plastic is chemically attractive to some of the worst toxins in our environment (e.g., PCBs and pesticide metabolites).
  • Harm to Marine Life
    An estimated 100,000 marine mammals and turtles, one million seabirds, and countless fish worldwide are killed by plastic rubbish each year.
  • Choking the ocean
    Beaches on every continent are littered with plastic scraps and particles.  In a 2008 surface trawl of the North Pacific Gyre, 46 pounds of plastic were found for every pound of zooplankton.
  • We’re eating plastic
    Fine particles of plastic are taken in by filter-feeders in the ocean.  These plastic-laden creatures are then eaten by larger animals and plastics work their way up the food chain, all the way to our seafood menu.

Green Sangha’s Work

Since 2006, our actions have included:

  • Co-leading a successful campaign to ban plastic check-out bags in Fairfax, California
  • Working with markets in the SF Bay Area to reduce or eliminate plastic produce bags, saving an estimated 8 tons of plastic per year
  • Giving over 280 presentations to over 8500 citizens
  • Publishing articles in local newspapers and magazines
  • Showing our plastics display in scores of festivals, conferences, and other public gatherings
  • Testifying before elected councils and boards

What You Can Do

  1. Be the Change
  2. Share
  3. Join the Campaign. Sign up for our Email Newsletter to read about current actions and starting one in your community.
  4. Support Our Work. Donate to help us spread the word and produce more videos, raising awareness and catalyzing real change.

Working Together

Tell us your ideas and wishes for your locality, and we can multiply our results. We can speed the “Great Turning” away from the model of industrial waste and pollution, and instead move toward sustainable communities.

Administration renews commitment to American Indians and Alaska Natives

Final policy makes an exemption from the shared responsibility payment available to individuals eligible for IHS services.

Source: Indian Health Service

The Affordable Care Act permanently reauthorizes the Indian Health Care Improvement Act, provides new opportunities for health insurance coverage, eliminates cost sharing such as copays and deductibles, and provides special monthly enrollment periods for members of federally recognized tribes who enroll in health plans offered through the Health Insurance Marketplace.

Today, the Obama administration issued a final rule allowing all American Indians and Alaska Natives who are eligible to receive services from an Indian health care provider to receive an exemption from the shared responsibility payment if they do not maintain minimum essential coverage under the Affordable Care Act.  Prior to development of the final rule, only a portion of the American Indian and Alaska Native population – members of federally recognized tribes – would have access to an exemption from the requirement to maintain minimum essential coverage under the law.  The final rule reflects comments and feedback received from Indian Country through rulemaking and the tribal consultation process.

“The administration is taking steps to honor our historical commitment to the rights of American Indians and Alaska Natives and ensure that individuals protected under the Indian Health Care Improvement Act benefit from the special provisions in the Affordable Care Act,” said Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. “Today, we continue to fulfill our responsibility to consult and work with tribal communities.”

Today’s final rule adds a hardship exemption category for American Indians and Alaska Natives who are eligible to receive services through an Indian health care provider, such as the Indian Health Service (IHS) or tribally-operated facilities and Urban Indian clinics.

“We appreciate our tribal partners who advocated to ensure that all American Indians and Alaska Natives eligible for IHS can receive an exemption from the penalty for not having insurance coverage,” said IHS Director Dr. Yvette Roubideaux.

As a result of this final regulation, all American Indians and Alaska Natives who are eligible to receive services from an Indian health care provider will have access to an exemption from the shared responsibility payment.

The final rule is available here: https://www.federalregister.gov/public-inspection

Sorry, Jared, Subway food can be just as bad for you as McDonald’s

Sarah Laskow, The Grist, www.grist.org

Yes, sure, fine, it is possible to get a somewhat healthy sandwich at Subway. It will have watery, shredded lettuce on it, and peppers, and maybe avocado. It will taste like nothing. And let’s be real: That is not what people are ordering at Subway. They are ordering the foot-long Italian sub, with its layers of (relatively) delicious, fatty meat. Or they are ordering the Big Philly Cheesesteak.

The result of these choices is that, despite Subway’s enormously successful advertising campaign pitching it as a healthy fast-food alternative, the chain is feeding just as much crappy food to people as McDonald’s is. Or, as the New York Daily News reports:

“We found that there was no statistically significant difference between the two restaurants, and that participants ate too many calories at both,” public health scholar Dr. Lenard Lesser, who led the study, said in a statement.

The study sent 100 kids to McDonald’s and to Subway and tracked what they bought. The calorie count for the McDonald’s meals came in ever so slightly higher — but not enough to make a real difference. And, even without a side of salty, salty fries, Subway meals had higher sodium content.

Moral of the story: If you want to eat healthy, it doesn’t matter which chain restaurant you go to. What matters is what you order, and you’re not that likely to order the gross salad when the salty, fatty alternative is right there.

This is what your supermarket would look like if all the bees died off

Holly Richmond, The Grist

From bee-killing companies pretending to love bees to researchers frantically trying to create a disease-resistant superbee, it’s been kind of a rough week for bees, who have already been having a rough couple of years due to dying off left and right. But why should you care? It’s not like bees are delivering your mail or making you dinner or sewing your clothes, Cinderella-style.

But bees DO pollinate a bunch of shit that you probably like to eat. Need a visual? Check out these before and after pics from Whole Foods that illustrate the amount of produce that would vanish if all the bees died off:

 

Screen shot 2013-06-13 at (Jun 13) 1
Whole Foods Market

According to Whole Foods:

One of every three bites of food comes from plants pollinated by honeybees and other pollinators. Yet, major declines in bee populations threaten the availability of many fresh ingredients consumers rely on for their dinner tables.

To raise awareness of just how crucial pollinators are to our food system, the University Heights Whole Foods Market store temporarily removed all produce that comes from plants dependent on pollinators. They pulled from shelves 237 of 453 products – 52 percent of the department’s normal product mix.

Freaky, right? At least we’ll still have chili-cheese Fritos.

Nettle Tea Time

Elise Krohn, Northwest Indian College herbalist and educator

Nettles are one of our favorite plants because they are so nutritious and so delicious.  Late spring is the perfect time to harvest nettles and dry them for tea.  Later in the summer fibrous stems can be made into strong cordage.

Description:  Stinging nettle (scientific name Urtica) is a perennial herb with opposite deep green leaves with serrated edges and tiny greenish flowers.  Stems are square like mint.  Nettle grows 3-7 feet tall.  The stalk and underside of leaves are covered with stinging hairs that rise from a gland containing formic acid.  Nettle is common in streambeds and disturbed areas with rich wet soil from the coast into the mountains.  Do not gather nettles in agricultural or industrial areas because they may absorb inorganic nitrites and heavy metals.

Nettle contains:  Formic acid in fresh plant, galacturonic acid, vitamin C, histamine, 5-hydroxytryptamine, choline and acetylcholine, vitamins A and D, iron, sodium, potassium, phosphorus, calcium, silica, trace minerals and a good amount of protein (more than beans!).

How to Harvest: Gloves or scissors are usually used to harvest nettles.  Nettles are most potent when gathered in early spring before flowering, usually from March-May.   To dry nettles, bundle them and hang them upside down in a dark dry place, or place them in a paper bag and rotate them every few days until dry.  Strip the leaves off the stem and store away from sunlight.  Stems are gathered for fiber when the plant is mature in summer to early fall.

nettledrying  nettlehanging

Historic uses

Nettles have been revered worldwide throughout the ages for food, fiber and medicine.  Many Northwest Coastal People traditionally ate nettles as a nutritious spring food.  They were also used as a dye with shades ranging from yellow to deep green.  The fiber makes strong cordage and was used for making strong fishing line and fishnets.  Two thousand-year-old nettle clothing was found in China and still remains intact.

A fascinating use for nettles is urtication, or flogging oneself with this stinging plant. Both in the Pacific Northwest and in Europe, people have stung themselves to cure arthritic joints and to stay awake and alert during battle or hunting.  Traditional knowledge is now validated by scientific research.  Compounds including histamine, acetylcholine and formic acid are injected into tissue causing an awakening of cellular responses, lymph flow, nerve stimulation and capillary stimulation.

 

Food

Nettles are impressively high in chlorophyll, vitamins, minerals, protein and amino acids. They are often called a “superfood” and are one of the highest plant sources of digestible iron.  This can be helpful for anemic conditions, menstruation, pregnancy and lactation. Gather nettles to eat fresh before they flower as old leaves contain cystoliths that may irritate the kidneys.  This compound is destroyed when the plant is dried, so gathering nettles after flowering is fine to prepare dried herb tea or powder, although leaves are most potent before flowering.  There are many ways to prepare nettles for food including:

Boil – boil nettles for 5-15 minutes.  The water can then be drunk as a tea.
Can – follow general instructions for canning spinach.
Freeze – either steam or boil nettles until just cooked, rinse in cold water, let drain and place in freezer bags for later use.
Sauté – Sauté until they look fully cooked, usually about 5 minutes.
Steam – place nettles in a colander and steam for 5-10 minutes.

Stringing nettle soup

 

Cooked nettles can then be used in quiches, casseroles, meat pies, egg scrambles, etc.  Dried nettles can also be added to soups and other foods in the same way dried herb and spices would be.  They are a delicious addition to clam chowder

Wash nettles, cut finely with scissors and set aside.  In a large soup pot, sauté onions and garlic in olive oil or 3-5 minutes.  Add water, potatoes, corn and nettles, then bring to a boil.   Simmer until potatoes are tender, about 10 minutes.  Blend all ingredients in a blender or a food processor (optional).  Add lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste.

 

Nettle Pesto

Try tossing this with pasta, potatoes or cooked vegetables.  It can also be spread on crackers or fresh vegetables as a snack.

1 small bag (about 6 cups) of young fresh nettles, rinsed
1 bunch basil, stems removed, washed and drained (about 2 cups leaves)
½  cup Parmesan or Romano cheese, grated
1/3 cup walnuts or pine nuts
1/3 cup of extra virgin olive oil
I clove garlic, chopped
1 teaspoon lemon juice
Salt and pepper to taste

Boil nettles in water (blanch) for one minute to remove the sting.  Drain well, let cool and roughly chop.  Place all ingredients in a food processor or blender.  Blend until smooth.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Place the pesto in a clean jar and pour a little extra olive oil over the top.  Cover with a lid.  This will keep for 2-3 weeks in the refrigerator.

 

Green Sesame Salt

1 cup sesame seeds
¼ cup powdered nettles
2 teaspoons salt

Toast sesame seeds over medium heat in a dry pan.  They will pop, brown, and when done, will have a toasted aroma and deep golden appearance.  Grind with salt in a coffee grinder or blender.  Add nettle powder (this can also be ground in a coffee grinder).  Blend all ingredients and store in a glass jar in the refrigerator.   This condiment can be sprinkled on rice, sautés or soups.

 

Medicine

Nettles can help bring the body back to a state of balance.  If someone is feeling debilitated or generally worn down, nettles are a good remedy.  They are tonic to the liver, blood and kidneys.  Herbalists consider nettles a reliable diuretic that balances blood pH and filters waste from the body including uric acid.  This can be especially useful for arthritis, gout, eczema and skin rashes.  Nettles have a solid reputation as a haemostatic, or a remedy to stop bleeding.  A strong decoction is traditionally used to treat wounds and hemorrhage.  They can help build blood after menstruation, birth or other blood loss.

Many people say that nettles help to alleviate allergies.  As a preventative for hay fever, drink 2 cups of nettle tea a day starting early in the spring and continuing into the allergy season.  When nettles are fresh, tinctured or freeze-dried they have anti-histamine qualities that may be effective for acute allergic reactions.  Nettles are both astringent and anti-inflammatory, which helps with the symptoms of allergies and many other complaints.  Rosemary or horsetail with nettle are made into a tea and used as a hair rinse to make the hair glossy and stimulate growth.

nettleteacrop

 

Tea:  Use 1 tablespoon of dried nettles per cup of boiled water.  Steep 15 minutes to several hours.  Drink 1-3 cups a day.  You can make a large batch of tea and keep it in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.  It is fine to drink the tea hot or cold.  Nettle blends well with mint.

 

Fiber

Nettle fiber is renowned for it’s durability and has been used for making fishnets, ropes, clothing, and even bed linens.  Cut stems at the base and strip the leaves from the stem (wear thick gloves).  If you are working with fresh nettles, split the stems in half, cutting length-wise with a sharp knife.  Take a rolling pin or round stick to flatten the half-stems.  You can even beat them with a stick or a flat rock to help separate the outer fiber from the inner woody stem.  Carefully separate the outer fibers, trying to keep them long.  Let these fibers dry in a basket or a paper bag.  If you are working with dry nettle stems you can soak them to make them easier to work with.  Continue as above by splitting the stems, flattening them and carefully removing the fiber.  The fiber can then be braided or twisted and made into strong cordage.

Brennnessel / Stinging nettle

 

 

The Plight of the Honeybee—and How You Can Help

Darla Antoine, Indian Country Today Media Network

Honeybees are holy. They are matriarchal powerhouses, spiritual catalysts . . . and they’re dropping like flies.

It’s a phenomenon that’s become known as Colony Collapse Disorder. While its causes are contested and debated, it’s largely agreed that the bees are dying from some sort of a combination of exposure to pesticides (in the field and in their hive), and of exposure to pathogens and viruses. All of which may potentially be caused, and prevented, by commercial beekeeping practices. This is a big deal because it’s estimated that we rely on bees for up to 40 percent of our food—bees are the pollinators that make our food happen!

It’s been attributed to Einstein, but someone once said that if the honey bee goes extinct, we humans will follow four years later.

FOUR years later.

So what can you do? Well you can buy your honey locally for starters. Big operation beekeepers often harvest all of the honey in their hives and give the bees high fructose corn syrup to live off of during the winter. They also buy pre-fabricated honeycombs to speed the honey-making process up and to make the slats of honey produce more uniformly. The honeycomb is where the Queen bee lays her eggs. There are generally two sizes of honeycomb in a hive: large and small. These different sizes create different kinds of bees, which lends biodiversity to the hive, creating a healthier, stronger, hive. For example: the smaller honeycombs create bees that are disease tolerant, while the larger honeycombs create bees that are tolerant to the cold. That means that if there is a sudden cold snap, some of the disease-resistant bees might die, but there would be plenty of cold-resistant bees left to keep the hive going and to help regenerate it. And vice versa.

The problem in most commercial operations is that they slip in pre-fabricated honeycombs to save time and to get the bees producing honey faster. These combs are also reusable and disposable—easier and cleaner to work with. However, these combs are also only come in one size: large. That means large commercial productions for honey have a lot of cold-resistant bees and not many disease-resistant ones, which may be one reason so many honeybees have died in the last few years. This then leads commercial beekeepers to use antibiotics and pesticides in their hives— which is bad for the bees and bad for us when we ingest their honey or use the beeswax.

Another bonus to buying your honey locally: the honey will be infused with local pollens (from the pollen-collecting process) and over time this exposure to local pollens will help reduce or eliminate your seasonal allergies.

What else can you do to help the bees out? Become a beekeeper! It’s really pretty simple and inexpensive to get into beekeeping. I recommend finding a local beekeeper and asking her for some tips on getting started. You can also check out area beekeeping organizations for classes on beekeeping and other sources for getting everything you need to get started. You can also check out websites like BackYardHive.com Also be sure to check with your city or county ordinances—sometimes you can get a property tax break for having a hive on your land.

If you’re not a beekeeper, but still want to help the little beauties out, plant a diverse selection of flowers in your garden to help attract bees and consider not using chemical applications on your plants and soil. The bees will thank you for it.

Darla Antoine on a recent visit to Washington State.
Darla Antoine on a recent visit to Washington State.

 

Darla Antoine is an enrolled member of the Okanagan Indian Band in British Columbia and grew up in Eastern Washington State. For three years, she worked as a newspaper reporter in the Midwest, reporting on issues relevant to the Native and Hispanic communities, and most recently served as a producer for Native America Calling. In 2011, she moved to Costa Rica, where she currently lives with her husband and their infant son. She lives on an organic and sustainable farm in the “cloud forest”—the highlands of Costa Rica, 9,000 feet above sea level. Due to the high elevation, the conditions for farming and gardening are similar to that of the Pacific Northwest—cold and rainy for most of the year with a short growing season. Antoine has an herb garden, green house, a bee hive, cows, a goat, and two trout ponds stocked with hundreds of rainbow trout.

 

Read more at https://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2013/06/21/plight-honeybee-and-how-you-can-help-150038

Stakeholders Talk Indian Health Research

More than 350 people attend the summit at the Sanford Center in Sioux Falls to discuss American Indian health research.Credit Kealey Bultena / SDPB
More than 350 people attend the summit at the Sanford Center in Sioux Falls to discuss American Indian health research.
Credit Kealey Bultena / SDPB

KealeyBultena, South Dakota Public Broadcasting

Partners in three states are working with Native American communities to focus on health in Indian country. A federal grant worth more than $13 million establishes a collaboration to research American Indian health in South Dakota, North Dakota, and Minnesota.

Researchers from one dozen health and education organizations meet with members and advocates of America Indian communities. It’s a break on day two of a major health summit in Sioux Falls, and a young woman chats with fellow college students at the conference.

“I’m Courtney Rocke. I’m part of the SURE program, the summer undergraduate research experience,” Rocke says. “I’m from New Mexico; I’m Lakota and Navajo, and I’m majoring in pre-med biology.”

The University of North Dakota junior wants to be an oncologist. She’s particularly interested in cancers found in women.

“Because there’s not a lot of data right now on Native American women and cancer, and that’s a really health disparity,” Rocke says. “The average age on these reservations for Native American women is 30-45, and that’s a really big problem.”

Rocke says her culture ties her to the reservation, which is why she plans on amassing knowledge and skills in higher education to establish her practice on reservations. The future M.D. says discussions surrounding collaborative research for American Indian health inspire her, and one particular speaker unexpectedly piqued her interest.

“I never really thought about public health, but how he spoke and was like ‘We have to change public health now and IHS, and if we’re not going to change it, it’s going to stay forever and people are going to keep getting sicker. Nobody’s going to do anything about it.’ That really touched me, so now I’m looking into public health after my undergrad,” Rocke says.

The breadth of possibilities collaboration offers tribes and non-Native people is unimaginable. That’s according to educator Gene Thin Elk. He’s a Lakota man from Rosebud Sioux Tribe who says all cultures are returning to “indigeniety.” He says that may not be a real word to most people, but it is to Thin Elk.

“It’s this process of indigeniety I talk about,” Thin Elk says. “It’s that there are people actually returning back to common sense, returning back to teachings of the earth, the mother earth.”

 

“I think this is the time. It should have been the time a long time ago, when our first surgeons and our first MDs from Indian Country came out.” -Courtney Rocke

He says people recognize that embracing the lessons of the past is the way forward. Thin Elk presents at the conference, and his speech examines how tribal nations can be legitimate partners in research to identify health challenges and develop real solutions.

“Research is not new. They used to be able to look out and watch and observe and learn, and as the people observed and learned, to look at it and push in that direction so we can find the things that we need to find out. good, bad or indifferent, and we learn from those,” Thin Elk says.

Thin Elk says he’s been to 454 indigenous nations in the last three decades. His view is that teachings of American Indian culture can benefit people around the globe, but non-Native practices also prove helpful for Native communities. Thin Elk says that symbiosis is desirable – but not at the expense of sovereignty. He notes that protecting intellectual and physical property used in research, elements like genetic codes, blood and tissue samples, is a paramount value.

Russ Zephier from Pine Ridge is a committee member on the Oglala Sioux Tribe Research and Review Board.

“If there’s any individual, group, whatever wants to come onto the Pine Ridge reservation to do research in the health field or whatever it might be in diabetes or heart disease, whatever, they have to come through our board first to get our approval before they can do this,” Zephier says.

That means the Sioux people have standing to allow or disband research, that the committee has a right to know what studies researchers conduct, how they perform those trials, and what the experts find. Zephier says the tribes are open to more collaboration, but money is a significant hurdle in Native health care.

“They have something that they call contract health. If an individual is injured, if they can’t provide that service in Pine Ridge or any of the hospitals on the reservations, then they can send them out to Rapid City or Sioux Falls or wherever, but those funds are limited, so they go on priority stuff,” Zephier says. “If someone has real major issues, then they do it.”

Zephier says he hopes funding issues don’t stand in the way of research and discoveries in mental and physical Native health, particularly incidence of obesity and diabetes.

Native American educator Gene Thin Elk says that’s where the latest generation asserts itself. He says this segment of young people who’ve become educated in health practices possesses the resources for change which spreads up the societal hierarchy.

“We have this generation of elders and traditional healers who are saying, ‘Okay, we’re open to collaboration now and we’re more willing to do that,’ because we have those younger people who can articulate for us and watch out for those things, because they’ve been educated in the process,” Thin Elk says.

“I think this is the time. It should have been the time a long time ago, when our first surgeons and our first MDs from Indian Country came out,” Rocke says. “There’s more now, and it’s growing as time goes on. And we’re learning that everything we were told through assimilation and genocide isn’t true, that we can accomplish whatever we want.”

Pre-med student and Native American woman Courtney Rocke says the new research initiatives offer her cultures a chance at improving health community-wide. She says that’s because people are now actively working to change the situation instead of musing that somebody should.

Health systems, universities, and tribes from three states are part of the Collaborative Research Center for American Indian Health. Specific projects for research in Native American health are currently working through federal approval.