News from Indian Country
Page 9
SpilyayTymoo
July 19, 2007
W ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊtÊÊM
Ancient methods supplement health care
T he soldiers, w ho are p art o f
A N C H O R A G E , A lask a
(AP)—A ncient Alaska Native th e la rg e st A laska N a tio n a l
healing te c h n iq u e s, will soon G uard deployment since World
supplement m odern-day treat War II, have been gone for al
m ents fo i m ental h ealth ail m ost a year. T he unit represents
m ents afflicting A laskans r e 81 different comm unities and
tu rn in g fro m service in th e more than a half dozen cultures,
Middle East.
inclu d in g E sk im o s, T lingits,
Many Alaska National Guard Haidas, Aleuts and Athabascans.
I t can be easy f o r people
soldiers come from isolated vil
lages. Few have doctors; fewer yet w hose lives have been so dis
have mental health professionals. rupted to slip into depression,
So traditional healers like alcoholism o r crime. ‘W e need
Kenny Timberwolf will use talk to have a healing process that
have/
la b e ls,”
ing circles, steam houses and d o e s n ’t
subsistence hunts to help Native T imberw olf said.
N ative healing m ethods—
soldiers relieve their stres s.
“Honoring them and welcom ranging from placing hands on
ing them home as a veteran isn’t a person’s body in a therapeutic
enough,” said Kenny Timberwolf touch to participating in Native
jan Alaska Native shaman. “It has songs and dances— can do that,
to go a lot deeper” .,
said traditional healing tribal
Tim berwolf said like others, d o c to r Lisa D olchok, o f the
som e Native veterans will have Alaska Native Medical Center.
They are part o f the holistic
problems, readjusting to life at
¡home w hen they return in O c approach thatis a common thread
tober, and Bush communities, to trad itio n al healing, w hich
because o f their extreme isola teaches people that they are re
tion, need to start preparing now sponsible for their own recovery.
to r their arrival.
“T raditional healing fo r us
“T hat lingering feeling o f be in:this state is th e no rm , and
ing in com bat is going to be. W estern m edicine is new to
us,” she said.
th etb /’ he said.
Talking circles and other tra
ditional counseling techniques are
the most accessible options for
many returning soldiers because
o f the extended families found in
many villages, said Dr. Ted Mala,
director o f the center’s Traditional
Healing Program.
“I think there are many dif
ferent roads to health,” he said.
“Traditional healing is important
because w e take th e healing
that’s come from our ancestors
and hand it down.”
O n the Yukon-Kuskokwim
Delta, an area the size o f Oregon,
109 Guardsmen from 25 villages
were deployed last October with
the Alaska National Guard’s 3rd
Battalion, 297th Infantry.
“W e’re p re p a rin g fo r o u r
troops to come hom e with our
existing staffing and funding,”
said Danielle DiZon, a spokes
w o m a n fo r th e Y u kon-
Kuskokwim Health Corp. “It’s
such a massive area, we can only
provide so much.’’:-
There are 25 tribal health cen
ters across the state. Only about
half o f them have doctors, said
Chris Mandregan, Alaska area di
rector for the Indian Health Ser
Creek name change
considered after complaints
■ C ED A R RAPIDS, Iowa
(AP)^—-Linn County conserva
tio n officials will consider
whether to change the name o f
Squaw Creek and Squaw Creek
Pads after receiving a complaint
from som eone w ho was of
fended by the use o f the word
“squaw”.,.,
y t Craig« «Van/jB erkuraa-iy«a n
American Indian from Las Ve
gas, wrote a letter to county of
ficials a few weeks ago saying
he was attending fa family
function at the park and was
surprised to see that it was at
a place called Squaw Creek
Park, s.aid D ennis Goemaat,
d’e puty county conservation
director.
H e said Van Berkum, who
once lived in Pella, said he
found the name offensive.
Goemaat said his office re
ceives about one complaint a
year about the name o f the
park and creek
T he county conservation
board will consider changing.
the name at a meeting on Mon-««
day, he said/ 1 i;
. “We want the board to be
aware o f the recent letter and
get some sense o f how to ap
p ro ach it,” G o em aat said.
“F rom the standpoint th at
parks should be inviting to ev
erybody, we are serious about
i t ’’
vice, a government agency. The
rest make due with midlevel pro
viders: physician’s assistants and
nurse practitioners.
•
There are 176 small villages
across the state that have clinics,
he said, but those are staffed by
people who complete at least oiie
six-week training course in basic
medical care, similar to an EMT.
Behavioral health aides are be
ginning to show up in some vil
lages, but services remain limited.
“Recruitment and retention
is very, very difficult ill some o f
these areas,” Mandregan said.
Partly for those reasons, his
organization tries to incorporate
traditional healing practices-—
acupuncture, steam houses, ma
n ip u la tio n o f join ts, prayer,
smudging and healing herbs—
in to co n tem p o rary m edicine
where possibly he said. 1
Mandregan said he thought
traditional healing could be o f
particular use because some N a
tives remain distrustfulof West
ern medicine, he said.
“They’re nervous about it, and
they’ll often consult with a tribal
healer first,” he said.
Western Shoshone
leader dies at 87
REN O , Nev. (AP) — Corbin Harney, a spiritual leader o f
the Western Shoshone w ho challenged the federal govern
m ent — and once his own tribe — to oppose nuclear weapons
on aboriginal land has died at tiie age o f 87.
Harney, a fixture at anti-nuclear rallies, died Tuesday o f
complications from cancer near Santa Rosa, Calif., where he
had hoped to finish a book, according to his family.
“We have truly lost à lot,” said his nephew, Santiago
Lozada, w ho was w ith him w hen he died,
“Corbin was a World War II veteran and was known around
the world for his activism against radioactivity , and nuclear
weapons,” said R obert Hager, Reno-baSed lawyer for the
Western Shoshone tribe. “H e's irreplaceable to the Western
Shoshone nation.”.
“H e was som eone w ho just had this gentle spirit b u t a
steely resolve that people should dô thé right thing,” H ager
said.
H ager recalled that Harney bucked his own tribe when
the federal governm ent in the 1950s unearthed remains o f
Western Shoshone ancestors during digging for nuclear test
ing at the N evada Test Site north o f Las Vegas.
“H e picked up the remains and gave them a decent burial,”
H ager said. “H e took a lot o f flack from Western Shoshone
leaders w ho said he should have nothing to do w ith the U.S.
government. But I always respected Corbin for doing what,
to the Western Shoshone, was n o t politically correct b u t in
his m ind was the right thing to do.”
Ian Zabârte, secretary o f state for the W estern Shoshone
National Council, said H arney “was always steadfast in try
ing to prevent the proliferation o f nuclear weapons and guard
the people against the threats that nuclear technology poses."
Alcohol ban mostly lifted for North American Indian Days
B R O W N IN G , M o n t.
(AP)— T he Blacjkfeet Tribe’s
ban o n alcohol sales during
N o r th A m e ric a n In d ia n
Days, in effect since 1999, has
been mostly lifted, pleasing
som e business ow ners b u t
stunning tribal substance-
a b u se c o u n s e lo rs w ho
pushed for the alcohol ban.
tto ffFibas* ?sdts iue baekfabciut
10 y ears,” |S a id 1' H e rm a n
Whitegrass, counselor at the
C rystal C reek L odge, th e
tribe’s chemical dependency
center.-
C o u n c ilm a n
Rodney-
Gervais said bars, restaurants,
lodges and the Glacier Peaks
casino will be allowed to. sell
alcohol o n site during the
four-day powwow, which starts
Thursday, v
“I ’ve heard a lo t o f negative
com m ents a b o u t1 the alcohol
ban, so this w ould. be a very
w e lc o m e th in g ,” .said W alt
Kochansky, general manager o f
the St. Mary Lodge and Resort.
Selling packaged alcohol will
be allowed from. 6 p.m.. until 2
^.m^frtServais^aidl ' i
“But- our cultural areas are
completely o ff limits to any al
cohol, and that includes the In
dian e n cam p m en t,” G ervais
said. “ We’ve hired 40 additional
security (guards) to enforce it on
the campgrounds.”
Jtine Tatsey was one who lob
bied for the alcohol ban during
the four-day event, which includes
drum and dance conteste and tra
ditional sporting competitions.
“We w anted safety o n our
reservation for our youth,” she
said Tuesday. “We had auto ac
cidents for five weekends in a
row that were killing our teen
agers/’. f
T he first alcohol-free pow
wow was held in 1999 and court
statistics sùggested the ban was1
effective in deterring crime, with
fewer citations for open contain
ers, disorderly conduct arid pub
lic intoxication than the previ
ous year.
G ervais said th e business
council looked at different sta-
tistics.
‘W e found that the death rate
goes up by 8.8 percent, accidents
go up, and the suicides go up
by 47 percent on dry reser
vations,” he said.
D arrell N orm an, ow ner
o f the Lodgepole Gallery in
Browning, said the business
council has been under a lot
o f pressure to change the
law.
. “P eople said- you could
drive to E ast Glaciers or-co1
C ut B ank to g et alcohol,
w hich only leads to m ore
drunks on our highways,” he
said.
Gervais said the ban on
selling alcohol on the reser
vation during N o rth Ameri
can In d ia n .D ays sim p ly
didn’t work.
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