wfn.org | 'Try something' to help Native Americans, speaker urges

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

Oct. 4, 2001 News media contact: Tim Tanton*(615)742-5470*Nashville, Tenn.
10-34-71B{444}

By Donna Fisher*

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (UMNS) - Native Americans and non-Indians must develop
better cross-cultural relationships to address the problems facing native
people, according to speakers at a High Plains consultation.

Native American leaders, United Methodist bishops and others who work with
American Indians met to address concerns and explore issues of healing
during Gathering 2001, Sept. 27-29. The biennial event was sponsored by the
High Plains American Indian Initiative of the United Methodist Church's
Dakotas, Nebraska, Rocky Mountain and Yellowstone annual conferences. It
brought together 130 participants from 14 states and a score of tribal
affiliations.

The Rev. Martin Brokenleg, a professor at Augustana College in Sioux Falls,
urged participants to reach out to native people. "Do what you can do," said
Brokenleg, a Lakota and an ordained Episcopal priest, in the keynote speech.
"You have to try something. You can't just let people hurt."

A trainer and teacher, Brokenleg also directs Reclaiming Youth at Risk, an
educational foundation. He documented the physical and mental suffering of
indigenous peoples and offered practical advice for interaction. 

He told his audience to listen and learn. "Be a friend before there is a
need."

Caregivers need support in developing cross-cultural skills, he said. He
urged United Methodists to help educators, pastors and caregivers be truly
involved in communities where they serve, and to avoid mere cultural
tourism. "Learn and use the rituals and symbols from the culture."  

Non-Indians must work through historic distrust in cross-cultural
relationships, he said. "You represent all white people who have ever lived;
you're not just yourself. That pause before the native person decides to go
on with the relationship - it's not personal, so don't take it personally.
Just maintain your human contact and the relationship will take off."

The theme of the High Plains gathering was "Strengthening the Circle of
Life," and native healers created circles of prayer, information and
relationships.

"Something happens when human beings get together in a circle, start with a
prayer and then talk," said Lorelei DeCora, a Nebraska Winnebago and a
registered nurse. "In the context of the circle, (we) get rid of the pain,
then people can really hear and the healing begins. Whatever you do in a
good way on behalf of the people, there's no stopping what it's going to
accomplish." DeCora is the founder of the Porcupine Clinic on Pine Ridge
Reservation and director of the Native American Diabetes Project.

She and others urged United Methodists to raise voices in advocacy for
better physical and mental health care for American Indians. Traditional
healing practices and extended family networks should be integrated with
typical medical treatment plans, they said.

"The path to healing must begin in the past to create the future for our
children," DeCora said. "Traditional western approaches to behavior change
do not work for us; the spiritual tradition must be part of the solution."

Ray Buckley, director of the United Methodist Church's Native American
Communications Office, shared his introduction to the power of community
prayer as a child growing up on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. 

When his sister Joanna's leg was crushed in an accident and medical care was
miles away, the elders did not wait for help, he said. "All they knew to do
was pray. When before their eyes, the almost severed leg came together and
she rose to walk, most of the faces of the elders were not amazed. I saw the
faith and knew we were people of prayer."

DeCora described the historically under-funded and short-staffed health care
providers who face overwhelming problems on the reservation. The behavior
changes that are necessary, particular treating diabetes, require
non-traditional methods of health education, she said. 

Citing research studies, Brokenleg said Native Americans have experienced a
staggering 42 percent increase in Type II diabetes since 1992. A
heavy-carbohydrate diet of potatoes, white flour and white rice - typical
commodity foods -- and lack of exercise common among high unemployment
groups exacerbate the problem.

In addition to diabetes and alcoholism, Native Americans suffer high rates
of problems ranging from tooth decay to HIV/AIDS, speakers said. Recent
federal budget cuts particularly affected mental health providers and health
education services in rural areas where Native Americans live.

Buckley showed how disregard for cultural traditions and disruption of
families, particularly through boarding schools, have contributed to the
current lack of parenting skills and of spiritual roots. "Whole populations
felt 'My story is not a good story', " Buckley said. Such psychic pain,
particularly among rural Native Americans, contributes to the high rate of
alcoholism. Since 1992, the suicide rate among rural Indian youth has risen
60 percent, to a level 72 percent greater than the national average, Buckley
said.

Youth in all areas experience conditions that put them at risk, and their
minority status shapes how they see themselves, Brokenleg said. "Racism
chips away at your spirit until you are not the person you were meant to be.
Racism has done a number on everyone." 

The emotional abuses of racism plus the stresses of poverty and physical
abuse lead many Native Americans to alcohol. According to Brokenleg, 70
percent of all native people have genetic tendencies for high production of
dopamine, a chemical reaction to alcohol that creates the magic escape from
pain and leads to addiction. 

Ongoing state and tribal conflicts, rapid population growth, exploitation of
natural resources on reservation lands, and continuing "outmigration" and
urbanization also pose problems for American Indians. While cross-cultural
awareness and relationships offer real hope for healing and wholeness,
Brokenleg urged his listeners to try to influence public policy on important
issues. "Legislators tell us that 20 letters on an issue is the magic
number," he said. "Wear them suckers down." 

Buckley made a similar plea. "Sometimes we volunteer to do (mission)
building projects, but we don't volunteer to become involved in the lives of
people," he said. "If we choose to be committed to be involved with native
peoples in our private lives, we might not have as many people serving on
committees, but we might change the world."

During the closing service of reconciliation, two United Methodist bishops
emphasized the importance of sensitivity to Native American traditions and
people.

"If only missionaries had listened first, they could have tied the
proclamation of the Gospel to the inherent truths in the native
spirituality," said Bishop Rhymes Moncure of the church's Nebraska Area.  

"To live as a white person is to live with privilege," said Bishop Michael
Coyner, who leads the Dakotas Area. "The fact that we don't know this is
evidence of how true it is. We (today) are not guilty of what happened at
places like Wounded Knee, but what happened there is part of what ensured my
white privilege, and for that we should apologize and seek reconciliation."
# # #
*Fisher is editor of the Dakotas Connection, the newspaper of the United
Methodist Church's Dakotas Annual Conference.

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United Methodist News Service
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