Siletz
Community
“Cha-may weeya ”
Medicine Talk
Lane Applauds STYLE Prevention
Efforts, Encourages More
Welcome back, DeAnna. Are you
also going to have anything to do with
tobacco prevention or American Legacy
Foundation and the video project? Are
you and Apples going back East in
the future? Hope all works out for the
tobacco prevention team that made
the video.
Hope that you people are still work
ing on promoting the video and its
message so it may reach adolescents
who may otherwise take a first puff
before knowing the facts of what
tobacco usage does to you. Some kids
think, “Oh, my mom or dad have
smoked for 20 years and they’re still
alive.” But what they don’t know is if
their mom or dad received education on
the effects of smoking before they took
their first puff, they may have
considered what smoking may have
done to them before they took the first
puff of a cigarette.
The video sends a positive message
on the plain truth about the effects of
smoking and I think if I was in junior
high and had seen this video before
I reached high school, I would have
reconsidered taking the first puff of
a cigarette.
I was drawn to the cigs for 32 years
before I noticed that it was killing me
and in those last two years, I smoked
very rarely. But smoking was hard to
quit because of the smell of burning
tobacco. I was sick every time I smelled
it and I knew it would eventually cause
me to die before my time if I didn’t say
no once and for all. If someone had told
me it kills you when I was young, I
would never have touched it and
smoked all those years.
When I started smoking at age 18,
smoking was fashionable and made
you feel and look more grown up.
Everyone in the movies did it. People
smoked while they shopped in stores,
in public rest rooms, in restaurants, at
schools and in public buildings, on
commercial airplanes and trains, and it
was widely accepted.
Now we know the rest of the story,
that it’s really deadly and a slow death
eventually. I really liked the video and
brochure. I hope you folks still can take
it to the Indian Education conferences
for youth and it should be seen in
treatment centers for American Indians
because we have so many youth there.
If you ever get your hands on an
extra video, will you save one for me?
I’ll even pay for it if we are supposed to.
Apples is a relative of mine and she’s in
college now. I want my older sons, who
Veterans take part in the weekly welcoming ceremony at Siletz Valley School,
which on Nov. 3 was followed by the traditional Veterans Day ceremony.
Students in each grade presented poems and songs to men and women who
have served in our Armed Forces.
Health
Clinic
Moms and Babies Breastfeeding Circle
< unlcdruied Inbe* of Silera tedian* o( Orrfon Brra>ttMduig Pr^raiu
2nd Tuesday of each month
6 p.m. -7:30 p.m.
Housing Department
Conference Room
You’re invited to come eat,
visit, and learn about
the many benefits of
breastfeeding.
"ture your baby
Nurture yourself
—.
Contact i^uira Duarte or Harhan Danna. KN. at Ml-444 1030 or I M00-MX (M4M
Sponsored by Siletz Tribal Diabetes Grant
are 32 and 31, to see the video. They both
smoke and have since their teen years.
Take care.
Pam Lane
Editor's note: The projects funded
by the American Legacy Foundation
media project grant were completed in
August 2003. The group of young
people who worked on this project
recently received $5,000from the Siletz
Tribal Charitable Contribution Fund to
cover their expenses when they present
their video, Web site, brochure, and
posters to the Warm Springs and Grand
Ronde tribal councils, as well as attend
the next Oregon Indian Education
Association conference.
Tooth Talk
by Linda Kreutzer, RDH
The History of the Toothbrush
The earliest record of the “chew
stick,” considered to be the primitive
toothbrush, dates back in Chinese
literature to about 1600 B.C. Chew
sticks, made from various types of tasty
woods by crushing an end and
spreading the fibers in a brush-like
manner, are still used today by many
Asian and African people.
It’s thought that chew-sticks also
were used in early Native American cul
ture as the original American toothbrush.
According to the American Dental
Association (ADA), the first docu
mented bristle toothbrush was created
in 1498 by a Chinese emperor who had
hog bristles embedded in a bone handle.
The hog (hair) bristle toothbrush
came to Europe in the 17"' century, and
soon was widely used. Because of its
expensive cost, poor families often shared
the same brush. In 1728, French people
were using horsehair toothbrushes.
The first mass-produced toothbrush
was made in England in the mid-1800s.
The first American to patent a tooth
brush was the Wadsworth Company in
1885. It wasn’t until 1938 that DuPont
introduced nylon bristles as a replace
ment for pig hair, making oral health
care much more affordable and desirable
among the masses.
It’s hard to believe, but most
Americans didn’t brush their teeth until
soldiers brought the Army’s enforced
habit back from World War II. New
nylon toothbrushes were easy to afford
and for the first time, preventing tooth
decay was a realistic expectation.
Power toothbrushes came into use
in the 1960s. Today, power toothbrush
use has reached new levels because
almost everyone can afford one. Prices
range from a $5 “spin-brush” to a nearly
$100 top-of-the-line Sonicare.
What does the future hold for the
toothbrush? Maybe a whole mouth
toothbrush, a large power contraption
that cleans all of the teeth at once! Who
knows, but it’s clear that toothbrushes
have come a long way since the days
of wooden chew-sticks.
December 2003
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Siletz News
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