Tag Archives: sports

Native America: Tell Diabetes to go Kick Rocks!

Diabetes Is Not Our Way

A few months ago, I researched films related to Native American athletes and sports for a chapter entitled “Building a Library Collection: Fifty Years of Native American Athletes, Sports and Games on Film” which was just published in The Native American Identity in Sports: Creating and Preserving a Culture ( edited by Frank A. Salamone, Lanham: Scarecrow Press, 2012). In the chapter, I write about all types of sports as well as non-athletic games like the Hand Game. I also include a few films on the mascot controversy. There are a number of famous and lesser known talented athletes that any aspiring athletes out there can draw inspiration from.

Today, though, I’m writing to all the rest of you. Those of you who think you don’t have an athletic bone in your body and who may be struggling with diseases like diabetes, which is affecting Native American communities in large numbers. A few months ago, I briefly wrote about the film Good Meat, which is an inspiring story of how far a more active lifestyle and a change in diet can go in fighting this disease. The film references some of the obstacles to good nutrition, like the commodity system implemented by the federal government.  In that post, I referenced some health-related resources like the exercise video RezRobics and the animated Eagle Series, which explains the importance of an active lifestyle and good nutrition to children (see the episode “Tricky Treats” below). Today I learned of a new video series called Diabetes Is Not Our Way, created by the people at The Cheyenne River Youth Project (CRYP). Please check it out and share it with your community.

If you are not athletic, please don’t let that stop you. Start by walking. I personally know a number of women who walk dogs a few times a week at a local animal shelter and have dropped 15-30 pounds just by doing that. If you’re  having trouble finding motivation to get active, finding something personally meaningful like this might be your way of staying the course. Consider doing a walk-a-thon or running even a short race for a charity that’s important to you. You don’t have to be fast. You just have to do it.

Let me know how it goes. I’ll be rooting for you!

 

Eagle Book “Tricky Treats” episode

Get Smokin’ and Movin’!

Smokin’ Fish trailer

For those of you in Sitka (AK), Whitehorse (Canada), Plymouth and Palm Springs, there’s a new documentary called Smokin’ Fish coming to a theater near you. The film revolves around Cory Mann, a Tlingit man, who returns to Alaska to smoke salmon the Tlingit way and it sounds like it covers a lot more besides. Tickets at the Plimouth Museum in Plymouth MA include a tasting, are $25 or $40 for couples. If you go, let me know how you like it! (It may be a while before I get a chance to see it since I missed the NYC screening in November and don’t see one on the upcoming screening list.)

I also just noticed that @nativemedia tweeted that Good Meat will be playing on air in Alaska this Sunday at 8pm. Good Meat follows an Oglala Lakota man as he returns to a traditional Lakota diet as a way to regain his health. Let me know what you think about both. If you are interested in more Native American books and films about diabetes and health, check out my recent tweets about the Eagle Series (also an animated series) and RezRobics!

 

Good Meat trailer

Upcoming documentary: “Off the Rez”

Hello folks! I’ve been gone for a while but this past weekend was the Native American Film and Video Festival here in NYC so I’ll have some posts about that soon.

In the meantime, I just read about a documentary called “Off the Rez” that will debut at the Tribeca Film Festival. It  centers around female high school basketball  star Shoni Schimmel. It will be screened on April 26, 2011 and April 30, 2011. If you are interested in sports-related films, check out my reviews of the documentary Chiefs and feature Edge of America.

Chiefs

I aw the documentary Chiefs a few days ago and enjoyed it. It deals with the Wyoming Indian High School basketball team’s efforts to win the state championship. The film follows the young men from this Wind River Indian Reservation team both at school and at home where they balance academics, sports and home life, including some of the young men’s interests (rodeo) and native cultural practices (sweat lodge).

The directors did a nice job of capturing subtle and not-so-subtle instances of discrimination. I also thought the scenes that dealt with the young men’s future prospects were particularly impressive. For some young men, basketball is their way out of the reservation and yet, all too often, young men leave only to come back without having accomplished what they set out to do when the left. This cycle seemed like it merited a film unto itself.

If using this in a class, it might be compared and contrasted with the feature film Edge of America about a female basketball team. While the team does not have as successful record as the Chiefs, the feature deals with some similar issues.

Weaving: “Skins” and “Edge of America”

A few weeks ago, I saw Skins again after a long time and also caught Edge of America. Both are Chris Eyre films. I like his work. His films tend to deal with poignant issues in nuanced ways, incorporating drama and humor, Western and Native culture, and sometimes, just when you think that there’s about to be a cliché, you see the potentially righteously self-righteous one get schooled on why their kettle is black.

Skins is the story of two brothers, played by Graham Greene (Rudy) and Eric Shweig (Mogie), who have taken divergent paths and their journey towards finding harmony, in one case within himself (from the native perspective, his imbalance is symbolized the trickster, personified as it were, by the spider who follows him) but also with each other. Around this story of family bonds, Eyre weaves context: the reality of living on the Pine Ridge Reservation, which includes a large rate of alcoholism. He does so in a subtle way, including news clips but also social commentary by the characters. I always tell folks that for me, a good presentation at a conference is based on humor. If you can make me laugh, you can make me enjoy what you’re telling me and I’ll know you’re going to hit me with some bright stuff. In a similar way, when movies make you laugh even about serious topics, you learn without it being preachy and, like a Facebook friend recently said, “I like the kind of humor that makes you laugh for a minute and think for ten” (or something to that effect; dang Mafia Wars status updates are so friggin’ long I couldn’t re-check the exact quote). Anyway, the Eyre movies I’ve seen always add humor to serious topics and they go down easier and stay with me longer. So, if your class is looking at family, the effects of alcohol on native communities, and native religion/spirituality and politics, I think this movie would be good to check out.

Edge of America would also be good to look at for its treatment of religion/spirituality as well as alternative perspectives and ways of dealing with issues that affect young people. Just as a story is woven above, one character in this film is an actual weaver and teaches the professor, and us, about certain key differences between western and native perspectives. It is also an interesting and funny look at race relations between minorities, in this case between the black English professor who comes to the community and ends up coaching the girls’ basketball team, and the Navajo community who he encounters and who encounters him. This was pretty cool to see because there is usually so much emphasis on white -minority relations and not as much on minority -minority relations. I thought the dialog, the incremental steps at mutual understanding and the humor made it a pretty cool film. So, thumbs up for these two films. I think you may enjoy them.