Disease and indigenous peoples

[bbrandonsmom]

http://assets.survivalinternational.org/static/lib/downloads/source/progresscankill/full_report.pdf

I started to wonder yesterday, after watching a documentary on Hawaii, about how much was true of disease killing indigenous peoples of the Americas. I found something on the Aztecs that said perhaps it was not the common European disease, but a virus that was carried by a rodent. I'm going to keep looking, but has anyone else thought about this?
All you read about is that disease like Measles wiped out entire peoples. So then I started thinking about indigenous peoples still around today, and what is the disease impact on them? If according to history, disease killed 90% of the indigenous people of the Americas, is the same going on still?

[Momtezuma Tuatara]

While the diseases hit the traditional people's really hard, the reality is that what is killing them, is also crippling and killing everyone else as well.

One day, people will wake up and realise that there is only one principle involved, and it affects everyone but in different ways.

[Japonica]

Well, if you look at some of the epidemiological info and the studies that MT has posted over the years, you can see there's a huge discrepancy in the health of aboriginal peoples and their response to infectious disease...look at the Maori stats with regards to measles, pc disease, meningococcal...look at all the studies dealing with australian aboriginal peoples and IPD...even though they're getting jabbed repeatedly and twice as much as non-aboriginal australians, they still carry a huge proportion of the disease burden.

We hear the same thing back in Canada where being Native American is seen as a risk factor for Hib/Hia, Pc...

My perspective (as someone who is a "card carrying" Canadian aboriginal person) is that the health problems are so massive and substantial in many of the communities today...type 2 diabetes in 10 year olds, adults in their 40s dropping dead of the type of heart disease and cancer you'd expect of someone in their 70s, smoking rates twice or three times of non-native communities, rampant substance abuse, poverty, lack of clean water, and traditional diets gone by the wayside (I have relatives who live on bologna, white bread, and crisco alone), well, it's not surprising then when rates of infectious disease spike in some communities the way they do...

And there's no easy quick fix either...governments throwing money at "the health problem" is a short term solution...the programs that seem to fare the best are community-driven, community-administered, grassroots type ones, but these are also not without their problems...

[Momtezuma Tuatara]

A pilot programme here put maori people in a boot camp and returned them to their traditional diet and lifestyle with remarkable results. The families are so impressed that some (with the guts to do it) have done it for themselves.

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/39414/

Lots of people of all races, have "got rid" of their diabetes and other problems by turning their backs on bologna, white bread and crisco - but to me, part of the success has got to be understanding what it's about, and also to stop both mental and emotional muckraking. Whining about what "has been", whatever your indigenous roots, will never take you to where you want to be. And anyone whose wears the label "victim" proudly, and does nothing but talk about what a "victim" they are, will remain one.

[Japonica]

Sounds like Dr.Jay Wortman's work back in Canada:

http://www.cbc.ca/thelens/bigfatdiet/wortman.html

He has a blog too, for anyone interested in traditional diets...he's recently been kicked off a British diabetes forum and labelled a troll (LOL) for taking issue with the idea of modern diabetic diets comprised mostly of sugar augmented with diabetes meds...

http://www.drjaywortman.com/

Victim mentality, whatever your ethnic background, will keep you stuck. It's the same for anyone, anywhere who for whom dependency is ingrained and has become a way of life...whether we're talking aboriginal communities or non-Native third or fourth generation lifelong social welfare recipients. People have to be willing to even consider that there is more to life than blame, stasis, and reliance on others...I suppose my ancestors were fortunate in that sense that even as recognized aboriginal people, we were never eligible for any form of government assistance...and so a pervasive code of self reliance and being responsible for ourselves was always found in our families and communities. We still have the health problems though...the diabetes, the smoking, the lousy diets (the times I've argued with my relatives about what they're eating...I can't count that high)...folks like Dr.Wortman are making a difference...we just need more communities willing to adopt his approach and tailor it to their particular cultural traditions and current circumstances.