Clinic
Health
CHA-MAY WEEYA - MEDICINETALK
Siletz
Community
A Warrior Among Us
by Carol Blomstrom
There is a true warrior who walks
among us. His name is Bobbie Bayya.
Bobbie has fought the battle of can
cer once and won. Now he fights it again.
He shares his kindness willingly
and is strong in his beliefs. He needs to be
told how much we respect his courage.
He is a messenger. He coura
geously speaks out on the issues of
cancer and more particularly on the
issue of early detection and screening
for cancers concerning men.
You young people who are putting
drugs and alcohol into your body, stop
and give him a thought. He works to
survive day to day and you work to
destroy your body. Somewhere the
message was lost.
To be healthy and reach your goals,
you need to remain strong and healthy
by treating your body as a gift from the
Creator. Bobbie is here to carry the mes
sage of courage, healing and survival.
We need to be there for each other
during our trials. We can fight the can
cers that come upon us by talking, call
ing and sending letters to loved ones
and attending support groups to help
each other cope with the trials of can
cer. With love, prayers and togetherness.
Bobbie, you have my prayers and
praise.
Be Sure to Make an Optometry
Appointment
If you know of Any tribal members
or tribal or casino employees who need
eye appointments, please encourage
them to call us.
They can make appointments as early
as one week in advance on average.
Since we now have two doctors, the
wait time has decreased dramatically.
For those patients who are students,
elders or diabetic, it’s important that
you be seen every year to maintain
your eye health. Your CHS funds renew
every year.
For those patients who are not stu
dents, elders or diabetic, it’s also im
portant for you to be seen at least ev
ery two years. Your CHS funds renew
every two years.
For those patients who have VSP
insurance (employees of the tribe and
casino have this), VSP will cover an
eye exam and new lenses every year,
and new frames every two years.
If you have questions about when
you were last seen or about your avail
able CHS funding or VSP insurance,
call us in Optometry at 541-444-9630
or 1-800-648-0449, ext. 1630. Em
ployees can GroupWise either
Kathleen Furgason or Darcy Jimenez.
/
Tooth Talk
Siletz Community
Cancer Support
Group
by Mary Ellen Volansky, RDH, MS
Oral Health Is Not a New Practice for Tribal People
This subject arose from efforts
to learn about traditional tribal oral
health practices, especially Siletz Tribal
practices.
The main question: What oral health
practices did Siletz Tribal people uti
lize prior to Western medicine/
dentistry? The overall study of a
culture’s uses of plants is called ethno
botany. In this case, it’s called Native
American ethnobotany.
These efforts were in preparation for
this year's Culture Camp, held a couple
weeks ago. The dental clinic worked
to collect information and samples,
examples of Siletz and general tribal
plant uses for oral health treatment.
Preparations were made for the
kids to participate in making a memory
quilt (paper squares with teeth for in
dividuals to place messages, each
square tied to the next with floss). Tribal
words for smile/teeth/mouth/etc. were
woven into the quilt.
First, oral health was a natural part
of the life of the Siletz people and tribal
people in general. Tribal people ate
high fiber/gritty and unrefined foods1
that tend to cause wear on teeth but not
necessarily decay.
Not long ago, the dental profession
spoke of “nature’s toothbrushes,” foods
like carrots and apples. The fibers of
these hard fruits and vegetables brush
against our teeth as we chew and re
move plaque from the tooth surfaces
the food touches as we bite and chew.
Siletz people and other tribal people
were doing this ... well, forever.
The disadvantage of large quanti
ties of high fibrous foods is wear to
teeth, which leads to shorter and shorter
teeth. Today we have wear to our teeth
as well, but it’s not caused by the foods
we eat because we consume too many
processed foods.
Today’s wear can come from
bruxing or grinding of our teeth
whether awake or asleep, triggered by
the stresses in our lives while awake.
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Siletz News
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Many plants common to most of us
(cow parsnip, salal, Oregon grape,
echinacea root, white oak leaves/bark,
etc.) were utilized for medicine and other
uses by Siletz and other tribal peoples.
Daniel E. Moerman, in his book
Native American Ethnobotany, docu
ments Native American uses of 4,029
kinds of plants with a total of 44,691
usages.
More than half of these usages are
medicinal and the breadth of Native
American plant knowledge is shown by
the listings of 11,078 uses for foods,
2,567 for fibers, 607 for dyes, and 5,494
for a rich assortment of other uses such
as ceremonial and magical items,
cleaning agents, containers, fertilizers,
fuels, incense and fragrance, insecti
cides, jewelry, lubricants, musical in
struments, preservatives, smoking and
snuff, soap, water-proofing, tools, toys
and weapons.2
Ocean spray, a plant native to the
Northwest, is a wood that did not burn
easily and has branches that grow
straight. Ocean spray also is called
creambush. It has a growing range
from wet coastal forests to drier, cooler
mountains further inland or chapperral.
Ocean Spray tends to grow in ar
eas dominated by Douglas fir. It tended
to be the first green shoot to spring up
in an area recovering from a burn.3
Today, scotch broom is replacing that
plant’s natural habitat.4
The whole Ocean Spray bush had
practical and medicinal uses. The flow
ers are edible.5 The bark was boiled as
a tea taken as a tonic for convalescents
and athletes.6 Poultices were made from
flowers for treating sore lips.7
Long branches were used for arrows.8
The branches, cut into sticks, were used
for chewing and brushing of teeth.
Ocean Spray wood also doesn't burn
well, so it had uses as cooking tools.
Just chewing would have a natural
brushing effect. I suspect that the
chewed stick was moved about the
teeth in the same manner that a tooth
August 2007
brush is moved on our teeth today. Any
type of wood sticks could be utilized,
as long as the flavor was agreeable to
the individual.
The ubiquitous California poppy
has a history of its leaves being utilized
for oral pain.9 In 1846, one doctor ob
served that creosote bush, larrea
tridentata, was used for toothaches.10
Another source recommended ap
plying this plant topically to “treat
toothache and may be effective at pre
venting cavities." Creosote as manu
factured today is considered by some
to be a toxic substance causing burn
ing mouths and much more.12
Native American ethnobotany may
be giving us another example of circles
spiraling back as Western medicine re
turns to its origins.
Dr. Terry Maresca, a Mohawk In
dian who trained in Western medicine
at the Albert Einstein College of Medi
cine in New York, represents a new
kind of Native American healer.
Her training as a physician allows
her to bring the best of the scientific
method, modern diagnostic tools and
healing technologies to her healing
practice, while her knowledge of In
dian ways and medicinal plants brings
the wisdom of her culture to the pro
cess. But she would not call herself a
traditional healer.
“I think it’s important to point out
that there is a big difference between
an American Indian or Alaska Native
physician who’s been trained in a West
ern way versus what I could call a tra
ditional healer,” she says. “They’re not
the same.”13
My apologies for the lack of more
specific information on Siletz traditional
healing or what Western medicine calls
ethnobotany. Sources for this effort
were limited by printed materials found
on the Web.
I will continue my search and get
back to you. Until then, check out the
Memory Quilt in the clinic made by Siletz
children at last month's Culture Camp.
A
Meets the third Tuesday each
month: Aug. 21 and Sept. 18
Siletz Library Community Room
Noon to 1 p.m.
Community members who are
directly or indirectly affected by
cancer are invited to attend -
cancer patients, survivors, family
members, support people, and
care providers.
For more information, contact
Sandra Hahn at 541-444-9627 or
l-8(X)-648-0449, ext. 1627; or
De Anna Pearl at 541-444-9659 or
1-800-648-0449, ext. 1659.
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Journal of Dental Research, “Con
cerning Defects in Enamel of Teeth
of Ancient American Indians,”
Bodecker, CF, 1930
Native American Ethnobotany by
Daniel E. Moerman, Timber Press,
sixth printing 2006, pl 1
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Creambush
www.paghat.com/oceanspray.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Creambush
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/
pacificnw/2001/1014/plant.html
Native American Ethnobotany by
Daniel E. Moerman, Timber Press,
sixth printing 2006, p268
Native American Ethnobotany by
Daniel E. Moerman, Timber Press,
sixth printing 2006, p.268
Native American Ethnobotany by
Daniel E. Moerman, Timber Press,
sixth printing 2006, p228
The Boston Medical and Surgical
Journal, Vol. XXXIV, Feb. 4. 1846,
Pl
Secrets of Native American Herbal
Remedies by Anthony Cichoke,
D.C., PH.D, 2001, Avery, p59
www.atsdr.cdc.gov'tfacts85.html
www.tribalconnections.org/health
news/features/oct2003.html