Diabetes in Bush spurs free bikes

Dillingham, AK — July 8, 2007

Free bikes make kids go YAY

Hundreds of kids in the Bristol Bay region will get new Trek bikes -- including front suspension and 21 speeds for the big kids -- this summer thanks to an effort by Dillingham health officials to battle soaring diabetes rates.

The Bristol Bay Area Health Corp. plans to ship 735 bikes to Dillingham and 34 area villages, said Lois Schumacher, the hospital's diabetes program coordinator. The $150,000 program is financed by a federal grant for fighting diabetes among American Indians and Alaska Natives.

In a region with 8,000 residents, that's a lot of bikes, about one for every 11 people. Some already have arrived in Goodnews Bay, west of Dillingham. Kids in other communities should get their bikes sometime this month.(more)



Native American artists use art and storytelling to bring cancer statistics to life

Seattle,WA - March 12, 2007

Native Art "Octopus Woman" designed to raise native cancer awareness

As an internist and health-care economist, Scott Ramsey, M.D., Ph.D., is used to looking at cancer statistics in black and white. Lately, however, he's been seeing them in shades of vibrant red and deep blue.

These are the predominant colors in an acrylic painting by Tacoma artist Chholing Taha that is part of an equally bold effort to educate Northwest American Indians and Alaska Natives, through visual art and storytelling, about the importance of cancer prevention and screening.

“Art and storytelling remains a very powerful means for communicating information among American Indians and Alaskan Natives and may be the best way to educate people in these communities about health behaviors related to cancer screening and prevention,” said Ramsey, a member of the Hutchinson Center's Public Health Sciences Division and a professor of medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine who is conducting research on the use of specific cancer-screening services among tribal communities in Washington, Oregon and Idaho.(more)









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