Sacred Life. Lakota Youth Camp to Plant Sacred Red Willow (Ćaŋśaśa) Seedlings at Next Camp. Promoting Smoke-Free Lifestyles in Indian Country

Transcription

1 Sacred Life Promoting Smoke-Free Lifestyles in Indian Country A p r i l Special Points of Interest: Lakota Youth Camp to plant Sacred Red Willow (Ćaŋśaśa) Seedlings at Next Camp Lakota Youth Camp to Plant Sacred Red Willow (Ćaŋśaśa) Seedlings at Next Camp Relay for Life Pennington County Ćaŋśaśa Keep Tobacco Sacred Upcoming Events New Health Educator Community Champion I n s i d e t h i s i s s u e : Youth in Prayer Circle Before Camp Lakota Camp to plant Ćaŋśaśa at next camp Lakota Camp, cont. Relay for Life Ćaŋśaśa Sacred Tobacco Red Willow Upcoming Events New Health Educator Community Champion The Toll of Tobacco in the US Liquid Nicotine in E- cigarettes Rising Cause of Weight-Control Myths Keep Many U.S. Women Smoking Become a Coalition Member! What Happens When You Quit Smoking In wake of the nine tragic suicides on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, a meeting was hosted by Tasunke Wakan Okolakiciye, Mila Yatan Pika Pte Oyate Okolakiciye and Oaye Luta Okolakiciye. An intense desire and need to help the youth and their families suffering from the impact of this epidemic, Tiospaye Sakowin was born and a strategic plan developed to continue to provide healing services to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. These organizations are the first of seven families to align in this effort to promote Lakota Cultural Healing and Education. They were quickly joined by Sung Nagi Okolakiciye (Spirit Horse Society) from Manderson, SD. Research suggests that cultural awareness and strengthening the individuals selfesteem, cultural identity and language are key elements in preventing suicide, truancy problems, alcohol and drug use, abuse, teen pregnancy, and reducing health risk factors. There is an urgent need for increased cultural awareness and cultural activities that promote healthy lifestyles for all age groups. The need for cultural activities is critical due to the nonexistent programs and services geared toward helping the entire family, as well as the shortage and over expended health education, prevention, and service programs located within the Pine Ridge Reservation and other Indigenous communities. Tiospaye Sakowin Educa- tion and Healing Center is now gearing up for the first Lakota Koskalaka Wica Yuwita Pi - Lakota Young Men's Gathering of This event will be hosted the weekend of June 3rd through the 6th on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. At this camp, the youth participants will be planting Sacred Red Willow (Ćaŋśaśa) seedlings to harvest in the future. When the people followed the Lakota life ways and laws, the people flourished. Therefore, Tasunke Wakan Okolakiciye promotes the rebirth of the Lakota life ways and laws through education, healing, and collaboration. Youth participant qualifications include being members of or having tribal ties to the Dakota, Lakota and

2 Nakota Sioux nations as the camp s foundation is based on Lakota Life Ways, culture and most importantly spirituality. Being between the ages of years of age, and a desire to receive cultural interventions. At the end, the youth camp effort is hosted over 75 participants who include the youth, their families, volunteers, mentors, spiritual leaders and security and it is anticipated they shall have as many young new participants in the June camp. Many local programs, schools and organizations supported the youth camp, as well as many individual donors nation-wide. Donations included clothing, food, supplies as well as monetary donations. Tiospaye Sakowin Education and Healing Center will be hosting additional Camps this summer which include the Teca Woasniye Wicoti (Youth Healing Camp) that happened in April, Wakanyeja Wicoti (Children s Camp) in July, Wikoskalaka Yuwita Pi Lakota Gathering of Young Women) in August and the Lakota Wopila Tanka Iciciyapi from Camp Participants Koskalaka Wica Yuwita Pi (Lakota Young Men's Gathering) times two in June and November As this organization depends greatly on charitable donations from well-meaning companies here in the United States; they ask you to please consider donating to their organization as you will be eligible for a charitable contribution for donating to a registered 501c3 organization. Please visit ww.villageearth.org for more information or medicinehorsesociety@gmail.com. The center invites you to be one of their partners in the successful implementation of these programs that will address the needs of the Pine Ridge Indian reservation in a much more culturally appropriate, positive and healing perspective. For more information or to assist in starting the healing process for our youth, please go to ra4v4cz4v to donate or for more information! Please join us in making this dream a reality for our youth. Wopila Tanka Iciciyapi, Tiospaye Sakowin Board, Staff and Volunteers! Relay for Life of Pennington County P a g e 2 Date: Friday, June 12, 2015 Event Time: 6:00PM Location: St. Thomas More High School Contact: Staci Miller staci.miller@cancer.org Why Participate in a Relay for Life Event? Participating in a Relay for Life Event is imperative because by raising funds and walking in the American Cancer Society Relay for Life event, you will help save lives from cancer. It s overwhelming to think that millions of people will be diagnosed with cancer this year. It might be someone close to us...or you or me. A Relay for Life event is not only a way to join the community to fight back against cancer, but it is also a way to inspire hope by raising funds and cancer awareness to help those facing the disease. Why Should I Fundraise? Relay participants all raise funds because we ve been affected by cancer in some way and because a Relay for Life event gives you the power to fight back. This is your opportunity to honor the cancer survivors in your life, remember friends and family you have lost, and help raise funds to support the American Cancer Society s life-saving mission. Why Support the American Cancer Society? Everyday, the American Cancer Society helps people take steps to reduce their risk of cancer or find it early, when it is easiest to treat. They provide free information and services to cancer patients throughout their journey. The organization is investing in crucial research to prevent, treat, and ultimately, cure all cancers. Sign up to fundraise and walk in the local Relay for Life event. We hope you will consider joining a team or making a donation in support of the Relay for Life efforts. Together, we can finish the fight!

3 Ćaŋśaśa - Keep Tobacco Sacred, Honor Your Health & Your Nation P a g e 3 Ćaŋśaśa is used to pray to the 4 directions and Tunkasila. It is used on tobacco ties as an offering to the spirits for asking them to do something for whoever is praying. They are burned so that the Spirits can receive the Ćaŋśaśa. When Ćaŋśaśa is smoked, whoever smoking should think about their prayers and when they exhale their prayers are carried up in the form of smoke. The proper way to gather Ćaŋśaśa is smoked, whoever is smoking should think about their prayers and when they exhale their prayers are carried up in the form of smoke. The proper way to gather Ćaŋśaśa is during winter time, after the first thunder or before the Thunder Beings come. Between the months of December and March is when the sap is in the roots and when Ćaŋśaśa tastes its best. Before Ćaŋśaśa is gathered, it should be offered tobacco and a prayer if you are going to use the Ćaŋśaśa in the pipe. In some tribes, they hold Red Willow Tree harvest ceremonies for their tobacco. Ćaŋśaśa is found along the creek beds with the trees. It is a deep red. Elders have said that it got its color because of the people s skin, so it would be easy to find. When cut properly, the root will be left intact. If the root is taken out, it destroys the plant and won t grow back. Only the bigger branches are to be cut, so the smaller ones can grow to be cut later. First, the outer bark should be shaved off. It should come off in a nice, long strip. On the inside, there should be a green film, and that should be stripped off. Afterwards, the pile of shaving from the green wood should be dried. There are different ways to do this either by hanging it up or laying it out to dry. Some elders prefer to dry it slow. So they let it dry in a cool, dark place to maintain it s quality. When harvesting Ćaŋśaśa, it is a great way to bring those you love together. It allows peers to work together and helps form a bond. In past times, Ćaŋśaśa was harvested by certain people so it was protected. It would be identified by females, and men were instructed how to pick Ćaŋśaśa and how to prepare it. Females were seen as the caretakers of all medicine. Ćaŋśaśa should be offered to many things in everyday life such as: animals, drums, when praying, or anytime they are being asked for something. It is used as a gift of appreciation and acknowledgement. It s rarity makes it like gold. When offering Ćaŋśaśa to spirits or when praying, the individual that is praying needs to say their prayer and present the tobacco or smoke it. The prayer is delivered through the smoke that is exhaled and carried up to Tunkasila. The thing that keeps praying with Ćaŋśaśa sacred, is that it is not inhaled. It is intended to savor in the mouth as a person is praying. When offering Ćaŋśaśa to animals, the Ćaŋśaśa should be prayed with in hand and then set aside for whatever oyate is being prayed for. Lastly, when Ćaŋśaśa is being offered to the drum, many people go by different protocols. Some say that it is ONLY for the drum and not the singers and some believe it should be gifted to both. Most believe that Ćaŋśaśa should be gifted to the drum and singers and NOT commercial tobacco. Commercial tobacco is not a traditional tobacco and when the singers smoke it, it affects their singing. When the Ćaŋśaśa is given to the drum, a prayer should be said and the Ćaŋśaśa can be touched to the drum, sprinkled on it, or laid down on it. Source: Sacred Willow - Keep Tobacco Sacred Honor Your Health & Your Nation. Rapid City, SD: Great Plains Tribal Chairmen's Health Board, n.d. Print. Ćaŋśaśa after it is prepared

4 P a g e 4 Upcoming Events The Northern Plains Tribal Tobacco Technical Assistance Center (NPTTTAC) will be in the following communities conducting the American Indian Adult Tobacco Survey (AI ATS) and the National Youth Tobacco Survey (NYTS): May 11, 2015 Kyle, SD and Pine Ridge, SD July 3, 2015 Sisseton, SD Participants who take the survey will be eligible for a $20.00 gift card Basic Cessation Education will be offered to anyone interested in participating after the survey is taken. An incentive will be given for participants who complete the Basic Cessation Education course. Learn about the risk factors of using Commercial Tobacco and how you can quit. For more information please contact Sadie In The Woods, NPTTTAC Manager, at sadie.inthewoods@gptchb.org or call ext You can also contact Tori Whipple, NPTTTAC/NPCCCP Health Educator, at tori.whipple@gptchb.org or call ext New NPTTTAC/NPCCCP Health Educator Tori Whipple, B.S. We are happy to introduce the new Northern Plains Tribal Tobacco Technical Assistance Center (NPTTTAC)/Northern Plains Comprehensive Cancer Control Program (NPCCCP) Health Educator, Tori Whipple. She will be responsible for assisting with the AIATS/NYTS Survey implementation, providing the Basic Cessation Trainings, assisting with data collection and the development of the Tobacco Community Health Profiles and Great Plains Community Success Stories, contacting the sub-awardees and Cansasa Coalition, and writing the newsletters. Tori received her Bachelor of Science degree from Black Hills State University in Spearfish, SD, and is currently working on her Master of Science degree from the University of South Dakota. Tori is Sicangu Lakota and an enrolled member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe. She has been in the field of Suicide Prevention for the last 4.5 years, overseeing the Wiconi Wakan Health and Healing Center and the Tokala Inajinyo Suicide Prevention Mentoring Program in Rosebud, SD. She uses her past skills and knowledge to make a difference in the lives of youth and families in our tribal communities. Tori is a welcome addition to Great Plains Tribal Chairmen s Health Board and we are excited to have her on board with NPTTTAC and NPCCCP. Welcome, Tori!

5 P a g e 5 Community Champion Spotlight Lower Brule is now Commercial Tobacco Free! Congratulations to the Lower Brule Community College for working to make the entire campus commercial tobacco free! Their policy extends to the entire campus entrances, sidewalks, parking lot, etc. They are working to be a model for a commercial tobacco free life for each other, their students, and their community. Thank you for your hard work and dedication on becoming a commercial tobacco free campus and caring for the health and well being of the students who attend. The Toll of Tobacco in the United States High school students who are current (past month) smokers 15.7% or 2.7 million [Boys:16.4% Girls: 15.0%] High school males who currently use smokeless tobacco 14.7% [Girls: 2.9%] Kids (under 18) who try smoking for the first time each day 2,800+ Kids (under 18) who become new regular, daily smokers each day Kids (3-11) exposed to secondhand smoke Packs of cigarettes consumed by kids each year Adults in the USA who smoke % [67.9% Black, 37.2% White] 540 million (roughly $1.2 billion per year in sales revenue) 17.8% or 42.1 million [Men: 20.5%; Women: 15.3%] Adults in the USA who smoke daily 13.7% Source: "Youth Risk Behavior Survey." Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report 63.4 (2014): Web. 17 Apr

6 P a g e 6 Liquid Nicotine in E-Cigarettes Rising Cause of Poisonings: CDC The number of calls to poison control centers for nicotine poisoning from e-cigarettes has risen dramatically in recent years, U.S. health officials reported Thursday. Calls related to poisoning from the liquid nicotine used in these devices were running at a rate of roughly one a month in 2010, but jumped to 215 in February of this year, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Even more troubling, more than half (51 percent) of the poison calls involved children aged 5 and younger, while 42 percent involved people aged 20 and older. "The time has come to start thinking about what we can do to keep this from turning into an even worse public health problem," said Dr. Tim McAfee, director of the CDC's Office on Smoking and Health. He added that many people are not aware that liquid nicotine is toxic. "We need to make sure we can avert the possibility of an unintended death from nicotine poisoning," he said. "We have not had an unintentional poisoning death from e-cigarettes yet in the United States that we know of, but the potential is there given the amount of concentrated nicotine in these solutions -- it would not take a lot for a child death to occur," McAfee noted. CDC director Dr. Tom Frieden noted in a news release that e-cigarettes are particularly attractive to kids because they come in candy and fruit flavors. Dr. Vincenzo Maniaci, an emergency medicine specialist at Miami Children's Hospital, agreed that the danger to children is real. "The concentration of nicotine in these solutions is significant and they need to be made childproof and regulated," Maniaci said. Filling an E-cigarette with Nicotine Especially for kids under the age of 5, this amount of nicotine can be fatal." McAfee noted that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is planning to propose regulations for e-cigarettes. He added that he hopes these regulations will include how the product is packaged, including childproof caps and warning labels. "These things can be hardwired into these products, rather than being left to the whim of the manufacturer," he said. In the meantime, McAfee advised keeping these devices, and their refills, out of the reach of children. "These should be treated with the same caution one would use for bleach. In some ways, this is more toxic than bleach," he said. Poisoning from the liquid nicotine in e-cigarettes can happen in one of three ways: by swallowing it; inhaling it; or absorbing it through the skin or membranes in the mouth and lips or eyes, McAfee said. Once it is in a person's system, nicotine can cause nausea, vomiting, or seizures. If those symptoms are occurring, the patient will typically be told to go straight to the emergency room, said Amy Hanoian -Fontana, from the Connecticut Poison Control Center. If there are no symptoms, then the patient will be told to stay home and the center will call again in a few hours to see how the patient is doing. If liquid nicotine was spilled on the skin, the person should wash his or her skin in lukewarm water for about 20 minutes, Hanoian-Fontana added. "We want to know what happened, when it happened and if the person is having any effects from the liquid nicotine," she explained. "Then we are going to make a determination whether this is something we can keep at home, or if they are having severe symptoms we may recommend that they go into the emergency department. It's very case-based, depending on the situation." McAfee noted that the nicotine poisoning problem may be even bigger than the CDC report indicates. "All we are reporting is calls to poison control centers. There are many people who had an episode, but didn't call a poison control center. This report also doesn't include people who had such severe symptoms that they called 911 or went to an emergency room," he said. "The remarkable thing about this is that e-cigarettes account for less than 2 percent of tobacco product sales," McAfee said. The number of calls per month about regular cigarettes did not increase during the same period. The most common way regular cigarettes cause a problem is when a child eats one, the researchers said. That more than half the calls were about children is very concerning, said Dr. Robert Glatter, an emergency medicine physician at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. "That's a warning for parents who use these products. They need to keep them locked in a secure place, and it argues for tamperproof caps on these liquid nicotine products to prevent kids from getting into them," he said. "These can be deadly -- the risks are real." Source: Reinberg, Steven. "Liquid Nicotine in E- Cigarettes Rising Cause of Poisonings: CDC WebMD." WebMD. WebMD, n.d. Web. 13 Apr

7 Weight Control Myths Keep Many U.S. Women Smoking P a g e 7 Become a Coalition Member American women who believe smoking helps control weight are less likely than other female smokers to try quitting in response to higher cigarette prices and anti-smoking messages, a new study finds. We found that concerns about weight are a significant barrier to quitting among U.K. smokers and U.S. female smokers who believe smoking helps them manage weight, lead author Ce Shang, of the University of Illinois at Chicago, said in a university news release. Researchers analyzed data from about 10,000 smokers in the United States, Canada, and Australia, and the United Kingdom who took part in surveys conducted between 2002 and A 10 percent increase in cigarette prices was associated with a 6 percent rise in attempts to quit among female smokers in the United States who did not believe that smoking helps control weight. But no significant increase attempts to quit was seen among those who thought smoking keeps weight down, the findings showed. And a 10 percent increase in exposure to anti-smoking messages was associated with a 12 percent increase in attempts to quit among female U.S. smokers who did not believe that smoking helps control weight, but no increase in quit attempts among those who thought smoking helped control weight. Similar patterns were seen among smokers in the United Kingdom, but not among male or female smokers in Australia or Canada, according to the study published online recently in the journal Tobacco Control. Policymakers should take weight concerns into account to enhance the effectiveness of existing policies that promote quitting smoking, said Shang, a senior research specialist in the University's Institute for Health Research and Policy. Shang pointed out that heavy smokers are more likely to be overweight than those who smoke less, so the idea that smoking helps control weight is really unfounded. Source: University of Illinois at Chicago, news release, April 6, 2015 The Northern Plains Tribal Tobacco Technical Assistance Center s Coalition is committed to enhancing and increasing awareness for tobacco control and prevention for American Indians in the Great Plains by providing a forum for input, advocacy, education, collaboration, planning and action along the tobacco prevention continuum. To become a member, please call , ext. 121, or sadie.inthewoods@gptchb.org. Smoking does not manage weight

8 P a g e 8 Great Plains Tribal Chairmen s Health Board 1770 Rand Road Rapid City, SD (p) (F)