2005-2006 Topic: Public Health Responses to Diverse Community Needs

Native Dancer, Honor the Beat and Summer Survivor Camp: Games and Other Health Education Strategies for Native Youth

This event took place on June 7, 2006.

Audio

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Featuring guest speaker Monte L. Fox, Diabetes Project Director and Exercise Physiologist, White Earth Tribal Council, White Earth, Minnesota.

There is a worldwide epidemic of Type 2 Adult-Onset diabetes, but industrializing countries and disadvantaged populations in industrialized countries have the highest prevalence and show the largest increases.

In the United States, American Indian people are afflicted by this disease in ever increasing numbers and cross-cultural miscommunication between patients and healthcare professionals often inhibit the adoption of healthier behaviors.

Native Dancer is a diabetes education and exercise computer game designed to be culturally relevant to native youth. Unlike traditional video games that encourage sedentary behavior and physical inactivity, Native Dancer will incorporate the emerging genre of video games, like Dance Dance Revolution (DDR), that involve physical exercise.

This event is designed for community members and public health professionals and educators, faculty and students concerned about the increase of diabetes among American Indian families.

Program Objectives

• Describe the onset and incidence of Type 2 diabetes among American Indians, particularly among youth
• Identify the components of culturally appropriate health education strategies for the prevention and management of diabetes among native youth
• Describe the development and potential impact of Native Dancer

Keynote Speaker

Monte L. Fox (named Goo-Wa-Howish, meaning Man From A Far) grew up on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in the traditions of his native culture and is an enrolled Hidatsa. Having witnessed the disabling affect of diabetes and obesity in his life and the lives of many people he loves, Monte left his career as an optician to earn a degree in exercise physiology from North Dakota State University. He has researched physical activity and its physiological effects on the American Indian population, worked in numerous neurology and cardiac rehabilitation clinics, and is presently the White Earth Diabetes Project Coordinator, and owner of the Fitness Fox Company. As a national speaker, Monte inspires audiences to find the medicine bag within themselves to stop the progression of diabetes and obesity in their homes and communities, and adopt a positive outlook in moving toward a healthier lifestyle.

John R. Finnegan, Jr., PhD, Dean, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis

Debra Olson, MPH, RN, Associate Dean, Public Health Practice Education, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis

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Sponsored by

The University of Minnesota School of Public Health:
Dean's Office
Centers for Public Health Education and Outreach (CPHEO)
and
Midwest Center for Life-Long-Learning in Public Health (MCLPH)