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Water first to help reduce disease
by Antonia Gonzales and Sarah Gustavus
Native organizations and advocates across the United States are seeking to get young Native people to switch from drinking sugary beverages, such as soda and energy drinks, to water. The Service To All Relations School, known as the STAR School, near the Navajo reservation in Flagstaff, Arizona is one place efforts are underway to encourage students to drink water while also identifying ways to address the longstanding lack of access to clean water in their homes. Pauline Butler grew up on the reservation. She’s the STAR School’s Coordinator of Community Happiness, but many of the students know her as the water lady. The school’s drinking water is filtered, but for many students drinking water regularly is not likely a habit. Butler works to help them enjoy choosing water.
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Pauline Butler, known as the water lady, prepares infused water for students at the STAR School. (Photo-Antonia Gonzales)
“(I’m) trying to get people to get a little more healthy, stay away from SSBs, sugar sweetened beverages,” said Butler. “I don’t like the fact that a lot of the students are drinking more of the SSBs than they should be.”
Soda is banned during school hours, but sugary drink options are still widely available in the community. Butler and other educators at the school are making water more inviting to children by infusing flavors such as citrus, mint and vegetable blends. Infused water dispensers can often be found in the classroom and in the cafeteria. Young people are asked to bring water bottles to school for use throughout the day. The school received a Water First Community grant from the Notah Begay Third Foundation (NB3), which provided funds for the school to design water bottles with the words “no soda” in both Navajo and English. The NB3 Foundation, which works with grantees across the country, is dedicated to reducing childhood obesity and diabetes. Federal statistics show, by age 10, nearly 50 percent of Native American children are classified as overweight or obese. Health experts recommend moving away from consuming sugar-sweetened drinks as one step in addressing childhood obesity.
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The school created water bottles with assistance from a Notah Begay Third Foundation grant. (Photo-Antonia Gonzales)
Not only is the school working to address diseases like diabetes, students and staff are pursuing improved water quality for Navajo community members through a water filtration system on a decommissioned school bus. Most of the seats have been removed from the 70 seat yellow bus, now retrofitted with a Nano filtration unit, which scientists from the University of Arizona designed. According to the Navajo Housing Authority, more than half of households on the Navajo Nation have no indoor plumbing, which means families have to haul water for cooking, cleaning and livestock. Many people from the Navajo reservation would rather buy water to drink than consume well water, according to school officials.
“It’s a tragedy families can purchase soda much cheaper,” said STAR School CEO Mark Sorensen. He said the mobile filtration unit was designed as both a teaching tool and to improve the bad taste and smell of local well water. “We looked at what contaminants were in our wells and we got instruments to measure that so now the students can learn how to test the water that comes out of the wells,” said Sorensen. “Then we can filter the water and then they can test the water after it’s been filtered and they can see for themselves the difference.”
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Scientists from the University of Arizona retrofitted a decommissioned school bus with a solar powered water filtration unit. (Photo-Antonia Gonzales)
The unit can filter around 500 gallons of purified water a day. Plans for the solar powered mobile unit include helping families filter well water on the nearby Navajo reservation. The Pre-K through eighth grade public charter school serves students from the Southwest corner of the Navajo Nation. Educators and students decided to tackle the water quality issue to make well water more palatable. It is not just smell and taste, people know some wells in their community are contaminated. The Navajo Nation was a key place for uranium mining from the 1940s through the 1980s. According to federal and tribal studies, many water sources have shown elevated levels of radiation and heavy metals throughout Navajo land. Water is also sacred to many Navajo people, especially around arid areas of the reservation.
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The unit can filter about 500 gallons of purified water per day. School officials plan to take the bus to nearby Navajo communities. (Photo-Antonia Gonzales)
“Water is one of the primary substances we sing about and chant about in our creation and journey narrative,” said Philmer Bluehouse, a traditional Navajo practitioner and a school advisor. Bluehouse sees a value in young people understanding both the science behind water management and its cultural value. “There’s a revival among the youth, they are reconnecting with culture (at the school) here and other places on the reservation,” said Bluehouse.
Many of the students at the school have pledged to be water warriors when the bus travels to nearby communities and educators are seeing students choose to drink water through the school’s initiative. A water filtration bus may not address the water infrastructure needs on the Navajo Nation, which water experts believe are likely in the hundreds of millions of dollars on the vast Navajo reservation. Yet, people at the school including Mark Sorensen think empowering young people to see themselves as problem solvers could lead to real changes in the health and well-being of the Navajo Nation in the future.
Friday, November 3, 2017
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Students and a teacher at the STAR School in Arizona take part in a water quality lesson on a decommissioned school bus, which is retrofitted with a filtration unit. School officials plan to take the bus to nearby Navajo communities to filter well water. (Photo-Antonia Gonzales)
Alaskans testify before a Senate committee for and against drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
Arizona school promotes water first and pursues improved water quality for nearby Navajo communities
Thursday, November 2, 2017
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Thunder Valley’s Second Language Coordinator Christina Giago (right) sits in on an active language use play session being taught by Grace Giago. (Photo-Jerry Matthews)
Youth Lakota language preservation effort aims to build resiliency on Pine Ridge reservation
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Wednesday, November 1, 2017
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The National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls is hearing from families, leaders and organizations across Canada. (Photo-National Inquiry MMIWG, Facebook)
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Navajo Nation lawmakers vote down legislation for development of the Grand Canyon Escalade
Tuesday, October 31, 2017
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Navajo lawmakers consider controversial Grand Canyon project
Friends of Dennis Banks recall his activism in South Dakota
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Commission to release report on missing and murdered women
Monday, October 30, 2017
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The Navajo Nation has closed on the Wolf Springs Ranch in Westcliffe, Colorado. The ranch sits near the sacred mountain of Tsisnaasjini’ also known as Blanca Peak. (Photo courtesy-Navajo Nation Office of the President and Vice President)
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Navajo Nation closes on purchase of Wolf Springs Ranch in Colorado
Friday, October 27, 2017
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Thursday, October 26, 2017
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The Upper Columbia United Tribes is hosting a premier for the film “United By Water” about the first tribal canoe journey and gathering at Kettle Falls since the 1940s. (Screenshot)
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State of Change: Grassroots community development group strives for lasting systemic change
Reporter Jim Kent and producer Antonia Gonzales
The Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, with a diverse landscape of grassy plains, hills and wooded areas, covers more than two million acres in southwestern South Dakota. It is home of the Oglala Lakota Nation. Federal statistics estimate the reservation’s population to be more than 20,000, while the tribe and various organizations on the reservation estimate the number of people living there closer to the 40,000 mark.
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The Thunder Valley Community Development Corporation mission is to build the power of the Pine Ridge reservation by creating lasting systemic change including a new housing community. (Photo by Jerry Matthews)
Statistics show rates of 85 percent unemployment and more than 90 percent poverty, and like other reservation communities across the United States, Native Americans on Pine Ridge are more likely to struggle with poor health outcomes compared to other demographic groups.
Mainstream news reports often highlight the struggles on the reservation, and statistics show the challenges facing community members. However, the Oglala Lakota people persist, and have created for themselves an organization to address a wide array of economic, health and cultural challenges. The Thunder Valley Community Development Corporation was established a decade ago by young people and young families who were reconnecting to cultural spirituality and identity through ceremony. They wanted to create lasting systemic change and work to end poverty on the reservation.
“And then that spiritual process became a call to action,” said Andrew Iron Shell, a spokesman for Thunder Valley. He explained that the organization stemmed from people venting about the various needs of the Lakota people.
“So really pointing fingers back at ourselves and asking ourselves as community people, as citizens of this tribal community, what’s our role? And what’s our responsibility?” said Iron Shell. “From those thoughts started this conversation about do we have the capacity to create change among this small circle that’s doing this complaining? When we looked around and acknowledged each other’s talents and virtues and things like that, (we recognized) let’s do something together.”
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Thunder Valley Community Development Corporation spokesman Andrew Iron Shell says the non-profit group was created as a result of a spiritual gathering called to address the needs of the Lakota people on the Pine Ridge reservation. (Photo by Jerry Matthews)
Iron Shell added that the key to Thunder Valley’s development was realizing from the start that there would be challenges with personalities, politics and available resources. Supporting each other helped in that process, recalls Iron Shell. But, understanding that change would take time and having the patience to accept that has been equally important in Thunder Valley’s success he said.
Now, 10 years later, Thunder Valley programs incorporate Lakota values and culture in workforce development, food, housing, language immersion, community development and youth leadership. Local leaders point to home ownership, several new Lakota entrepreneurs and building the capacity of individuals, and families to achieve their goals as some of the results of Thunder Valley programs.
Thunder Valley leaders believe they have arrived at a place where they finally have the capacity to build their own community – at Thunder Valley’s headquarters, where a food demonstration farm is housed and space is used for training, and across the reservation.
Thunder Valley’s momentum has created a ripple effect across Pine Ridge, said Iron Shell. He adds that Thunder Valley may be a model for the outside world to learn from and may help other rural communities address some of the challenges they face.
State of Change is a project in collaboration with High Country News and the Solutions Journalism Network. Ten New Mexico news organizations are examining the challenge of building resilient rural communities, and are looking at what some communities are doing to address a number of issues they face. National Native News is taking a look at how one group is building economic resiliency on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota through the grassroots community development corporation Thunder Valley. We’re also exploring what other rural communities across New Mexico, and the United States may learn from the organization’s programs.
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