World Ark Magazine - May/June 2008 - (Page 33)

Paul Smith, director of Heifer’s Indigenous Peoples Initiative, is working to raise awareness of diet-related illnesses among Native Americans and to educate them about the role a more traditional diet can play in prevention. North America’s Indigenous Peoples Look to the Past to Find a Healthier Future hen you meet Oneida tribe member Paul Smith, you might suspect his white gym socks with sandals mean he’s making the most of Wisconsin’s last warm autumn days. In truth, his footwear hints at something ominous. “Among native peoples, that’s how you know someone is having trouble with his feet,” said Smith, director of Heifer International’s Indigenous Peoples Initiative. like many people in the Oneida community around Green Bay, the 56-year-old Smith suffers from type 2 diabetes. This manageable but incurable disease affects the body’s ability to process sugar, and in its later stages can cause kidney failure, retinal damage and blindness. It can also cause infections in the extremities due to poor circulation, which can lead to amputation. Healthy-looking and trim with a grey ponytail, Smith hardly cuts the figure of someone suffering from a potentially deadly disease. “This is our world,” he said, shaking a plastic bag of pill bottles he takes everywhere, along with his compact insulin testing kit. By “our,” he means his family. Smith’s six brothers and sisters all have type 2 diabetes. So do his four children, who all developed the disease in their early 20s. Diabetes killed Smith’s mother at the age of 52. By “our,” Smith also means the Oneidas and the entire North American indigenous community, which has seen the rates of diabetes and other dietrelated illnesses skyrocket in recent years. The disease is becoming so commonplace that the attitude within the native communities is often one of resignation. “They accept it,” Smith said. What was once a relatively rare disease in the Native American community has become, during the last 50 years, epidemic. Among the Pima tribe in Arizona, where diabetes rates are the highest in the country, about 65 percent of tribe members over age 40 have the disease. Among Native Americans as a group, the rate of type 2 diabetes is estimated to be more than twice as high as among whites. researchers believe that type 2 diabetes has a genetic component, as rates are higher among fullblooded Native Americans. Indigenous populations become more vulnerable as fast food and convenience foods edge out more wholesome, traditional diets. The disease is taking a toll on the health of native peoples around the country as they struggle with amputations and dialysis. The toll is also “social, mental and spiritual,” said Beverly Scow, Smith’s partner and a member of the kwakwakawak Nation of British Columbia, Canada. For native peoples, diet is more than the food one eats, she said. ©iStockphoto.com www.heifer.org WOrlD Ark 33 http://iStockphoto.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of World Ark Magazine - May/June 2008

World Ark Magazine - May/June 2008 Contents Letters For the Record The Good Life Asked & Answered Why Water Matters The Carbon Hoofprint From Farm to Table Healing History Mixed Media Heifer Spirit Heifer Bulletin World Ark Market Calendar First Person

World Ark Magazine - May/June 2008

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