Lakeport >> Out of thousands of essays submitted from across the country, two of the strongest stories came from Pomo natives, athletes and Clear Lake High School freshmen Rodrigo Lupercio and Tj Keeya Talamoni-Marcks.
The two are among the 30 students chosen to participate in the sixth annual Native Youth Health Summit held in Washington D.C. by the National Indian Health Board in September. Its theme is “Youth Advocacy: Telling Your Story to Create Change.” Students will learn tips and techniques to spread the word about tribal health issues through digital storytelling workshops.
“It is a way to express their feelings, to create awareness of what’s really going on, the struggles of the different types of diseases,” said Kristin Amparo, Lake County Tribal Health Consortium youth lifestyle coach. “These are things that they see every day, that impact them every day.”
A record number of teenagers applied to participate in the five-day summit in which the winners will get the chance to share their personal experiences with White House officials as well as the Senate Committee of Indian Affairs.
Native Americans across the country have a staggeringly higher rate of alcohol and drug abuse, diabetes, liver and heart disease than any other demographic in the country.
“I feel that the abuse from drugs and alcohol has taken away from our traditional beliefs,” Lupercio, a member of the Pomo Tribe of Big Valley Rancheria, said in his essay. “As well as demolishing our community by tearing each family apart due to this disease. I know it has within mine.”
In his essay, Talamoni-Marcks, a member of the Habematolel Pomo of Upper Lake Tribe, mentions seeing people suffer from dehydration “because of their poor choice of what they are putting into their own body, like alcohol over water.”
Getting access to health services can be difficult. Almost a third Native Americans lack any type of health insurance, relying solely on the federally funded Indian Health Services, according to the Center for Native American Youth (CNAY) at the Aspen Institute, founded by Byron Dorgan, a former Democratic U.S. Senator who chaired the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs.
Even getting a ride to a doctor’s appointment sometimes presents a barrier, Lupercio and Talamoni-Marcks said many people on the reservation don’t have cars.
More than a quarter of Native Americans live in poverty, and the unemployment rate is at almost 15 percent — more than twice the Lake County figure, the CNAY states.
All of these factors have left today’s native youth desperate for a way out, too many times it’s through suicide. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, American Indian and Alaska Native youth ages 10 to 24 have a suicide rate that is nearly double that of the overall rate for that age group in the United States.
Data from the CNAY also shows that 75 percent of Native Americans 12 to 20 have a violent ending to their short lives, with causes including intentional injuries, homicides and suicides.
But Lupercio and Talamoni-Marcks don’t need statistics to tell them that their people need help. That drugs and alcohol abuse are common issues among their own community or that too many times they lack the educational resources to overcome their struggles. All they have to do is look around. Sometimes, they don’t even need to step outside of their own homes.
“The health issues that we face as native youth are many things, such as, drugs, alcohol, suicide, and diabetes. The negative affects these lead to are: chronic disease, early death, poor relationships, and violence,” Lupercio said in his essay. “These problems are tearing our community apart and it needs to be stopped.”
The boys both have family histories with such abuses and deteriorating health because of lack of access to care, but even so, inspiration to move forward comes from those same people.
“I want to help get them off their drugs, get them off what they think they need to have,” Talamoni-Marcks said.
He admires his mother’s resilience, and finds encouragement seeing how she’s dealt with her own health issues after being diagnosed with a rare disease seven years ago.
“Witnessing my mom going to and from the doctors weekly, sometimes even on a daily basis, has hit me hard,” he wrote.
Still, “She always has us where we need to be, and she always has the best style of clothes, shoes, and even food for us. We always look good and are very well taken care of, on top of her sickness. She’s a fighter,” Talamoni-Marcks continued. “She gets up every morning and surprises me how strong of woman that she is, taking care of her family like she does. As the oldest child I feel that it is my duty to care for her as well as she takes care of us.”
And it’s not just his mother he wants to help, but his tribe as a whole. Ultimately, what both boys want to see is better access to housing, education and treatment, such as a rehabilitation center, a wellness center or a charter school on the reservation. The proximity alone would help the youth get access to educational and preventative resources they would otherwise miss out on.
“With positive leadership in our community, I could only hope that the abuse of these substance would be lowered,” Lupercio wrote.
Having the chance to meet some of the leading officials in Native American affairs, Lupercio and Talamoni-Marcks are well on their way to developing their voices and becoming the leaders they want to see bring about such change.
