Bold action is needed to solve the American Indian health crisis

That's the title of my latest HND piece, and let me assure you..."Crisis" is no exaggeration. The article has plenty of statistics, but this one should get you going: On the Pine Ridge Reservation—admittedly about as bad as it gets—the average life expectancy is 45. Compare that to 77.9 for the American population at large.

Have I got your attention now?

I dig up a quote from way back in 1727 from a man who would eventually become the Governor of New York, and it seems eerily prophetic.

But what, alas, sir, have we Christians done to make them better? We have indeed reason to be ashamed, that these infidels by our conversation and neighborhood, are become worse than they were before they knew us. Instead of virtues, we have only taught them vices, that they were entirely free from before that time. The narrow views of private interest have occasioned this, and will occasion greater, even public mischiefs, if the governors of the people do not, like true patriots, exert themselves and put a stop to these growing evils.

I conclude that the Indian needs to reclaim the traditions of his ancestors and become a health warrior.

Read the complete article.