Diabetes and obesity plague people all across the country, but they affect Arizona Native Americans particularly. While health-care providers rely on modern medicine, they’re also bringing back traditional knowledge, combating new challenges with populations sometimes resistant to Western science.
Susan Levy and volunteers from wellness organization Native Health are preparing garden beds in the Phoenix ReNews project at Steele Indian School Park. She said Native American community members, some who never tried growing their own food, are getting their hands dirty.
“So they learn the basics, tilling the soil, getting the soil prepped, composting," Levy said. "How deep do you dig? What kind of seeds? Do you put them in a certain order? How far do they need to be spaced? And then they were also able to take home pots and try it at home as well.”
And while the Phoenix ReNews project accommodates several different groups, Levy points out that Valley Native cultures will make these plots unique and hopefully reflect Native farming.
“I think people come to the garden with knowledge from their own communities," said Levy. "So if they come from like Navajo or Hopi, a lot of them will bring down seeds, and are used to farming maybe up north, so I know it’s a different climate.”
With these gardens, the hope is not only provide some fruits and vegetables lacking in Native American diets, said Native Health’s Dr. Katie Carpenter, but also help reverse a disturbing trend.
“Diabetes actually affects up to 65 percent of the Native population," Carpenter said. "They are primarily genetic and based on cultural factors, diet and lack of physical activity.”
While 29 percent of Arizonans are reportedly obese, that number is 81 percent among Arizona Native Americans, the highest rate in the country.Carpenter said changing current diets is critical.
“Primarily it’s a lot of processed and packaged food," said Carpenter. "High in salt, high in calories, low in nutrients. A lot of patients that we see are on food stamps and have to try and stretch the budget as far as it will go. It’s tough to have access to fresh fruits and vegetables everyday of the week.”
But Native populations are somewhat resistant to Western science. After all, researchers say Western foods and policies are mostly responsible for these epidemics.
“Communities are faced with being introduced to and put into positions where they have to rely on some pretty un-nutritious foods," said Nicholas Reo, a professor at Dartmouth College. "But within the collective of a community, there’s understandings about how to respond to these types of situations.”
Reo explains while Western science is dependent on empirical knowledge, traditional knowledge focuses on relationships largely neglected by modern science.
“You find people in every indigenous community I’ve ever interacted with still thinking of the world and living out these relationships much like their relatives and ancestors have for thousands of years," said Reo. "It is the relationships between indigenous peoples and all the plants and animals they interact with, the land, the water, spirits, all of that. That’s what indigenous knowledge really is.”
Reo points out Western scientists have been receptive to using traditional knowledges when researching Native populations and lands, but often have mixed results.
“There's power dynamics that basically make it so it’s like force fitting indigenous knowledge into scientific frameworks and not really recognizing indigenous knowledge on indigenous terms,” Reo said.
Back at Native Health, Wellness Coordinator Evelina Maho, who is Navajo, said Arizona tribes are already bridging Western medicine with indigenous knowledge to best serve patients.
“Tribes are beginning to reintroduce traditional teachings that talk to health and well-being into their health care systems," said Maho. "We call that in Western medicine protective measures.”
Maho and Carpenter are turning these protective measures into NIH funded programs to establish healthy habits early. Carpenter describes Wellness Warriors, a program to get kids exercising.
“The primary focus is prevention, and giving them tools that they can use throughout their life and living a healthy lifestyle," Carpenter said. "So we target primarily the kids, but want them to bring that information home to their families as well.”
Maho said neither Western science or traditional knowledge alone will solve the problem.
“We do need today’s science and research," said Maho. "And if we adapt it to each community’s traditional stories, songs, practices, ceremonies, we need to embrace both and design interventions to create a system that works for us all.”
And if these programs are successful reducing diabetes in one of the most affected populations in the country, then all Americans may benefit from the indigenous knowledges of this land.
