“Four Little Indians: Tobacco Addiction as an Indian Killer and the Integration of Native American Studies Topics and Public Health Advocacy,” is the topic of a free lecture Thursday, Feb. 24, from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. at the University of New Mexico, Mesa Vista Hall, rm. 3080.
Lawrence A. Shorty, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Fellow at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, is the guest speaker. UNM’s Native American Studies and the NAS Indigenous Research Group sponsor the talk. A reception follows at 4:30 p.m.
Shorty, who is Dine/Choctaw, received his master’s in public health from UNM. He is currently working on a project for the North Carolina Tobacco Control and Prevention Branch.
“Today, 40 percent of adult American Indians and Alaska Natives are smokers, or four of 10. Similarly, four little Indians refers to the percentage who will die from a tobacco related illness. American Indian extinction is one topic with which tobacco addiction can be linked,” Shorty said.
“The characterization of ‘tobacco addiction’ and the way it manifests itself in native communities – linked with Native American Studies topics – may be a powerful tool to help people understand this problem and create an activist movement to address it,” he said.
Shorty was one of nine in the country to be selected a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Fellow in 2001. The Fellows Program builds a bridge between the leaders of today and tomorrow through mentoring. Each fellow spearheads a program to cultivate awareness of substance abuse and attempt to curb its pervasiveness in society.
“The fellowship helped me advance my agenda of using topics from the Native American Studies discipline to address the impact of tobacco on American Indian communities. I used funds to get media development training, to purchase historic tobacco marketing materials and to create short documentaries about American Indians willing to share their truth about the impact of tobacco on their health,” Shorty said.
Contact: Laurie Mellas Ramirez, (505) 277-5915
Posted by scarr at February 22, 2005 12:32 PM