A clash of Indian cultures
Tobacco seen as healer and killer
BISHOP, Calif. -- Raymond Andrews picks through the foliage of wild tobacco plants on an arid, wind-swept Sierra Nevada plateau.
The 55-year-old Paiute Indian, with waist-length gray hair and a leather satchel slung over his shoulder, inspects the leaves with an expert eye. Some, he prunes and discards. Others, he saves to smoke in sacred pipes or distribute as gifts of honor.
He sets aside a portion for educational presentations at powwows and local schools, where he urges American Indians to use tobacco as a spiritual tool, not a recreational vice.
''The tobacco plant," he says, ''is a magical being, one that can give life -- or take life when abused in its commercial forms."
American Indians smoke more and die at a greater rate from tobacco-related illnesses than any other ethnic group. Antitobacco campaigns have done little to reduce the toll.
Now, antismoking advocates, including those from reservation lands and the National Cancer Institute, are trying new approaches that respect tobacco's role in American Indian rituals and traditions. The message: Skip the cigarettes and use tobacco, if you must, in ceremonial ways -- to bless marriages and cropland, to banish malevolent spirits and promote peace.
Shaping an effective antismoking message for American Indians has not been easy. Asking them to give up tobacco completely is unrealistic because it is central to their religious beliefs and culture. In addition, many tribes rely on revenue from lucrative, tax-protected reservation ''smoke shops."
Even urging tribal elders to set an example by kicking the habit is asking for trouble. They generally do not appreciate outsiders telling them what to do.
Generic antismoking messages delivered by non-Indians, such as the US surgeon general's warning, have fallen flat in American Indian communities.
So the theme that smoking kills is being repackaged in ways considered more culturally relevant.
In the support groups she leads, Jacelyn Macedo, a member of the Yurok tribe in northwest California, compares quitting smoking to weaving a basket with sticks and fiber.
Both undertakings involve motivation, a will to persist, and renewal -- all powerful themes in American Indian culture.
Billboards going up on reservations in Humboldt, San Diego, and Alameda counties encourage Indians to boycott tobacco products marketed with American Indian icons such as bison.
Such images imply that the product is culturally acceptable. ''Don't buy the lie," the signs say.
When it comes to tribal elders, antismoking forces now make special efforts to seek their advice and support from the start.
''We've got billboards up on reservation lands and along freeways," said Michael Weakee, director of the state-funded American Indian Tobacco Education Network in Sacramento. ''We're training people to give presentations that won't upset tribal leaders. We produce antismoking posters."
Andrews is a consultant for Weakee's group. He is among a growing number of American Indians who are seeking to revive ancient tribal traditions.
Steven P. Schinke, a professor of social work at Columbia University in New York and a specialist in smoking prevention, said such efforts tap into a renewal of interest among American Indians in ''things traditional." They also reflect Indians' deeply conflicted attitude toward tobacco.
''What we have here is a strange confluence of cultures," Schinke said. ''The sacred and the profane -- a plant traditionally rich with meaning for native people as a purifier, and tobacco products associated with disease and death, economic expense, and damage to the health of one's own children."
Long before Columbus reached the shores of the New World, American Indians were using wild tobacco for religious and ceremonial purposes.
After commercial tobacco products became available in 1884, they joined millions of other Americans who got hooked on cigarettes, cigars, rolling tobacco, and chewing tobacco. Eventually, American Indians began to use commercial products in their rituals.
For purists, using commercial tobacco products for such purposes is sacrilegious. A growing number of American Indians are growing their own and learning to identify native species. 