Download or read book Alaska Native Perceptions of Food Health and Community Well being written by Melanie Lindholm and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Alaska Native populations have undergone relatively rapid changes in nearly every aspect of life over the past half century. Overall lifestyles have shifted from subsistence-based to wage-based, from traditional to Western, and from self-sustainability to reliance on Outside sources. My research investigates the effects of these changes on health and well-being. The literature appears to lack concern for and documentation of Native peoples' perceptions of the changes in food systems and effects on their communities. Additionally, there is a lack of studies specific to Alaska Native individual perceptions of health and well-being. Therefore, my research aims to help identify social patterns regarding changes in the food that individuals and communities eat and possible effects the changes have on all aspects of health; it aims to help document how Alaska Native individuals and communities are adaptive and resilient; and it aims to honor, acknowledge, and highlight the personal perspectives and lived experiences of respondents and their views regarding food, health, and community well-being. I conducted interviews with 20 Alaska Native participants in an effort to document their perspectives regarding these changes. Many themes emerged from the data related to subsistence, dependency, and adaptation. Alaska Natives have witnessed what Western researchers call a "nutritional transition." However, Alaska Native participants in my research describe this transition as akin to cultural genocide. Cut off from traditional hunting and fishing (both geographically and economically), Alaska Natives recognize the damage to individual and community health. Studies attribute rising rates of cancer, heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and mental illness to the loss of culture attached to subsistence lifestyles and subsistence foods themselves. Alaska Natives report a decrease in cultural knowledge and traditional hunting skills being passed to the younger generations. Concern for the future of upcoming generations is a reoccurring theme, especially in regard to dependence on market foods. When asked what changes should be made, nearly all respondents emphasized education as the key to cultural sustainability and self-sufficiency. The changes sought include means and access to hunting and fishing. This is seen as the remedy for dependence on Outside resources. From a traditional Alaska Native perspective, food security cannot be satisfied with Western industrial products. When considering Arctic community health and cultural sustainability, food security must be considered in both Western and Indigenous Ways. Control over local availability, accessibility, quality, and cultural appropriateness is imperative to Native well-being. Many participants point to differences in Western and Native definitions of what is acceptable nourishment. Imported processed products simply cannot fully meet the needs of Native people. Reasons cited for this claim include risky reliance on a corporate food system designed for profit with its inherent lack of culturally-appropriate, nutrient-dense, locally controlled options. Respondents are concerned that junk food offers dependable, affordable, available, and accessible calories, whereas traditional foods often are not as reliably accessible. Based on these findings, I named the concept of "nutritional colonialism." Respondents expressed a desire to return to sustainable and self-sufficient subsistence diets with their cultural, emotional, social, spiritual, and physical benefits. Although they expressed concern regarding climate change and environmental pollutants, this did not diminish the significance of traditional foods for respondents.

Download or read book Indigenous Food Sovereignty in the United States written by Devon A. Mihesuah and published by University of Oklahoma Press. This book was released on 2019-08-02 with total page 387 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Centuries of colonization and other factors have disrupted indigenous communities’ ability to control their own food systems. This volume explores the meaning and importance of food sovereignty for Native peoples in the United States, and asks whether and how it might be achieved and sustained. Unprecedented in its focus and scope, this collection addresses nearly every aspect of indigenous food sovereignty, from revitalizing ancestral gardens and traditional ways of hunting, gathering, and seed saving to the difficult realities of racism, treaty abrogation, tribal sociopolitical factionalism, and the entrenched beliefs that processed foods are superior to traditional tribal fare. The contributors include scholar-activists in the fields of ethnobotany, history, anthropology, nutrition, insect ecology, biology, marine environmentalism, and federal Indian law, as well as indigenous seed savers and keepers, cooks, farmers, spearfishers, and community activists. After identifying the challenges involved in revitalizing and maintaining traditional food systems, these writers offer advice and encouragement to those concerned about tribal health, environmental destruction, loss of species habitat, and governmental food control.

Download or read book Wellness Through the Lens of Gathering Gardening and Grocery written by Shannon Busby and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 98 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The food environment in rural Alaska has undergone a rapid transition as communities have gone from subsistence to cash based economies. As this nutrition transition continues and is further impacted by climate change, rural Alaskans need diverse food sources to maintain health and improve resilience. The objective of this research was to assess the role cultivated and wild plants play in wellness, and to understand current perceptions of gardening as a source of vegetables and improved wellness in Barrow, Alaska. A mixed methods approach was used, the qualitative component consisting of seven focus groups, 60 minutes each, which were audio recorded. Following each focus group, a questionnaire was administered to all participants. Focus group recordings were transcribed and coded in Atlas.ti for themes. Questionnaire data were compiled in Microsoft Excel and analyzed using descriptive statistics. Alaska Native adults were recruited to participate through snowball and convenience sampling. The study found that gathering played a strong role in wellness, in particular as it relates to nutrition, connection to the land, traditional foods, culture, and medicine. However, participants also reported lacking knowledge about plants from the tundra. The overwhelming majority of plants consumed were from the grocery store. In contrast to gathered plants, participants’ perceived that plants from the grocery store only address one dimension of wellness--dietary health. Gardening was perceived as a valuable new local source of fruits and vegetables. These results provide insight into the role that plants play in wellness in an Alaska Native community that is experiencing a nutrition transition. This study found that fruits and vegetables from the garden, grocery store, and tundra each play important, but different roles in wellness. This is consistent with previous studies and highlights the importance of considering each source when addressing wellness in Alaska Native communities. In addition, having a diverse food portfolio that includes fruits and vegetables from all three sources, especially local sources, is key to achieving food security and sovereignty.

Download or read book COVID 19 Impacts to Health and Wellness among Native American Native Hawaiian Alaska Native Peoples and Indigenous Groups throughout the World written by Rene Begay and published by Frontiers Media SA. This book was released on 2023-09-28 with total page 130 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book With the Wind and the Waves written by Ray M. Droby and published by University of Alaska Press. This book was released on 2020-10-15 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In With the Wind and the Waves, psychologist Ray M. Droby tells a story of treatment and learning, drawing on experiences ranging from an ocean journey he took on the Bering Sea while serving in a Alaska Native community to his clinical work as a psychologist in rural Alaska. Like negotiating an ocean, Droby moves “with the wind and the waves” while working with substance abuse disorders and mental health issues superimposed on intergenerational trauma and internalized oppression. He captures positive momentum in work aimed at facilitating self-determination with Alaska Natives and their communities while discouraging historical dependency and colonizing patterns of thinking and doing for mental health workers. Sensitive to the history of non-Native outsiders imposing their own culture on Native land, Droby presents here principles, combined with cultural and therapy considerations, that are designed to help people avoid replicating this history of harm. Recognizing the strengths of Alaska Natives and their communities, and the stages of change human individuals and communities undergo, Droby shows how to exercise a nonjudgmental presence as a mental health worker in rural Alaska.

Download or read book Health Promotion and Substance Abuse Prevention Among American Indian and Alaska Native Communities written by and published by . This book was released on 2001 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Balancing Life written by Cecilie R. Ebsen and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ten years ago CANHR (Center for Alaska Native Health Research) asked Yup'ik men and women of all ages how they would define health and wellness; that is, what it means to be well and happy. The answers were largely centered on living a subsistence lifestyle, eating subsistence foods and respecting natural spirits and lands. Today a new generation of young Yup'ik women has emerged. A generation that has grown up in villages and cities with store-bought food available next to subsistence food, TV, and Internet. In this study young adult Yup'ik women's perceptions of health and their use of dancing as a practice of health are investigated. This study looks at how this new generation of young adult Yup'ik women understand health. Young adult Yup'ik women's perceptions and practices of health, such as dancing, are examined to determine what these women consider important to stay healthy and how the notion of health itself can be understood. Ideas of what it means to the subjects comprising the study population to be healthy are crucial to understand before conducting any kind of health research. How people interpret, navigate and understand the very notion of health must be uncovered in order to work with them on any and all health issues. As such the notion of health cannot and should not be conceptionalized as the mere presence or absence of disease but includes instead a wide network of social, spiritual, physical, mental, and emotional factors. Consequently, this study approaches health from a holistic perspective implementing a wide network of factors in the investigation of young, adult, Yup'ik women's perceptions and practices of health.

Download or read book Traditional Food Guide for the Alaska Native People written by Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium and published by . This book was released on 2015-04-01 with total page 168 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The second edition of the Traditional Food Guide represents itsdifferent uses by recognizing that the guide is an important toolfor healthy living for the youngest child to the oldest elder who enjoy Alaska's wild foods. It isalso a guide to help people with diseases like cancer, diabetes orheart disease learn more about nutrition and eat better foods. The food guide includes sections on nutrition, food safety and food sources from the land and sea. The food pages reference theAlaska Native names, history and preparation information andinclude personal stories. Since there are different names for manytraditional Native foods, the guide tries to address the differencesby noting the more commonly known names rather than focusingon specific foods from each Alaska region.

Download or read book American Indian and Alaska Native Children and Mental Health written by Paul Spicer and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2011-09-22 with total page 425 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This unique book examines the physical, psychological, social, and environmental factors that support or undermine healthy development in American Indian children, including economics, biology, and public policies. The reasons for mental health issues among American Indian and Alaska Native children have not been well understood by investigators outside of tribal communities. Developing appropriate methodological approaches and evidence-based programs for helping these youths is an urgent priority in developmental science. This work must be done in ways that are cognizant of how the negative consequences of colonization contribute to American Indian and Alaska Native tribal members' underutilization of mental health services, higher therapy dropout rates, and poor response to culturally insensitive treatment programs. This book examines the forces affecting psychological development and mental health in American Indian children today. Experts from leading universities discuss factors such as family conditions, economic status, and academic achievement, as well as political, social, national, and global influences, including racism. Specific attention is paid to topics such as the role of community in youth mental health issues, depression in American Indian parents, substance abuse and alcohol dependency, and the unique socioeconomic characteristics of this ethnic group.

Download or read book Indigenous Justice and Gender written by Marianne O. Nielsen and published by University of Arizona Press. This book was released on 2023-05-02 with total page 201 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This new volume offers a broad overview of topics pertaining to gender-related health, violence, and healing. Employing a strength-based approach (as opposed to a deficit model), the chapters address the resiliency of Indigenous women and two-spirit people in the face of colonial violence and structural racism. The book centers the concept of “rematriation”—the concerted effort to place power, peace, and decision making back into the female space, land, body, and sovereignty—as a decolonial practice to combat injustice. Chapters include such topics as reproductive health, diabetes, missing and murdered Indigenous women, Indigenous women in the academy, and Indigenous women and food sovereignty. As part of the Indigenous Justice series, this book provides an overview of the topic, geared toward undergraduate and graduate classes. Contributors Alisse Ali-Joseph Michèle Companion Mary Jo Tippeconnic Fox Brooke de Heer Lomayumtewa K. Ishii Karen Jarratt-Snider Lynn C. Jones Anne Luna-Gordinier Kelly McCue Marianne O. Nielsen Linda M. Robyn Melinda S. Smith Jamie Wilson

Download or read book Native American Perceptions of Community and Social Problems Affecting Health and Well being written by R. K. Piper and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Communities in Action written by National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2017-04-27 with total page 583 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the United States, some populations suffer from far greater disparities in health than others. Those disparities are caused not only by fundamental differences in health status across segments of the population, but also because of inequities in factors that impact health status, so-called determinants of health. Only part of an individual's health status depends on his or her behavior and choice; community-wide problems like poverty, unemployment, poor education, inadequate housing, poor public transportation, interpersonal violence, and decaying neighborhoods also contribute to health inequities, as well as the historic and ongoing interplay of structures, policies, and norms that shape lives. When these factors are not optimal in a community, it does not mean they are intractable: such inequities can be mitigated by social policies that can shape health in powerful ways. Communities in Action: Pathways to Health Equity seeks to delineate the causes of and the solutions to health inequities in the United States. This report focuses on what communities can do to promote health equity, what actions are needed by the many and varied stakeholders that are part of communities or support them, as well as the root causes and structural barriers that need to be overcome.

Download or read book Traditional Food Security and Diet Quality in Alaska Native Women written by Amanda Walch and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 182 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This dissertation addresses the need for a better understanding of traditional foods, food security, and diet quality and how they collectively influence health of low income Alaska Native women receiving the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). The ultimate aims are to understand the beliefs and behaviors regarding traditional foods in low income Alaska Native women in Anchorage receiving WIC assistance and examine whether these foods moderate the relationship between food security and diet quality. Food security is a growing public health concern in Alaska, especially among Alaska Native people living in urban areas. I begin the dissertation by conducting a literature review on traditional food security research in Alaska, examining research that has been conducted in the past decades. The review yielded a total of 28 articles for the systematic review, where traditional food security was categorized into three main types of research: those that quantified traditional food intake (n=19), those that quantified food security (n=2), and qualitative articles that addressed at least one pillar of food security (n=8). The three categories were used to evaluate how traditional foods relate to the pillars of food security in Alaska and determine future research needs. I estimated the intake of traditional food among urban Alaska Native women receiving WIC assistance and examined the associations between participants’ practices, attitudes, and beliefs of traditional foods. Results indicate that participants are mixed on their opinion of the economic value of traditional foods and the healthfulness of traditional foods over store bought foods. Linear regression analysis shows that participants who ate more traditional foods are more likely to have traveled to a rural Alaska Native community in the past year (p=.001) and have a preference for traditional foods over store bought foods (p=.001). Finally I estimated diet quality and food security of Alaska Native women receiving WIC assistance who are living in an urban community in order to understand how intake of traditional foods affects these estimates. Results indicate the average intake of traditional foods is 3.7% of total calories and participants’ diet quality was lower than the national average, with a 48 on the Health Eating Index (HEI). Multivariate regression analysis with significance at P

Download or read book Indigenous Peoples Food Systems written by Harriet V. Kuhnlein and published by Fao. This book was released on 2009 with total page 396 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Today, globalisation and homogenisation have replaced local food cultures. The 12 case studies presented in this book show the wealth of knowledge in indigenous communities in diverse ecosystems, the richness of their food resources, the inherent strengths of the local traditional food systems, how people think about and use these foods, the influx of industrial and purchased food, and the circumstances of the nutrition transition in indigenous communities. The unique styles of conceptualising food systems and writing about them were preserved. Photographs and tables accompany each chapter.

Download or read book Health Promotion and Substance Abuse Prevention Among American Indians and Alaska Native Communities written by Joseph E. Trimble and published by . This book was released on 2001-08 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explores the multiple dimensions of Amer. Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) substance abuse (SA) treatment and prevention from an AI/AN community perspective. SA continues to be one of the most damaging and chronic health problems faced by Indian people. Papers: prevention of alcoholism, drug abuse, and health problems among AI/AN; prevention principles for Amer. Indian communities (AIC); prevention in Alaska: issues and innovations; using the community readiness model in Native communities; Native Amer. perceptions of the Nat. Assoc. of Native Amer. Children of Alcoholics: in their own words; and do school-based drug and alcohol abuse prevention programs work in AIC?

Download or read book Alaska Native Food Practices Customs and Holidays written by Karen Halderson and published by . This book was released on 1998 with total page 36 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Provides a look at the foods and food practices of Alaska natives to allow the professional to offer clients effective, culturally appropriate counseling and nutrition education.

Download or read book Indigenous Peoples Food Systems Well being written by Harriet V. Kuhnlein and published by Food & Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO). This book was released on 2013 with total page 450 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Throughout the 10 years of this research we have shown the strength and promise of local traditional food systems to improve health and well-being.