Catawba Nation Project: Going Back To Their Roots: Catawba Health Efforts

Recently the Catawba Indian Nation has begun efforts to resolve health issues that are plaguing their community. Some of these issues are easily fixable, such as access to doctors, but others are not so easily taken care of. These health issues have been brought to light in many ways. One such way was a 1998 survey which was conducted among members of various South Carolina counties which included members of the Catawba Indian Nation, African-Americans and Caucasians. It was found that members of the Catawba Nation had a high prevalence of diabetes, poor health, smoking, poor diet, hypertension, overweight and physical inactivity. Diabetes is the most alarming of those issues and is the one with the most action being taken to combat it. It is thought that this health disparity is partly due to unpreventable measures such as lower education and remote rural locations.

The rate of diabetes has increased from just over 13% in 1998 to 20% in 2005, obviously an extremely steep increase in such a short amount of time. The increasing rate is not all that is worrisome. Increasingly younger members of the Catawba Nation are developing the illness. Preventative measures are being taken, such as teaching the youth of the Catawba Nation to farm and to gather wild, natural foods such as those their ancestors had gathered. As well as teaching about gathering and farming the traditional foods, the youth are also being taught about cooking the dishes that their ancestors used to eat. The Nation is also implementing a new curriculum in the K-12 schools that teaches diabetes awareness. The schools are also promoting high levels of physical activity. The hope is that the children will influence their parents to live a healthier life.

Another way the Catawba are improving their health is the addition of a new clinic in 2005. Prior to 2005, the Catawba Health Clinic was located in the Longhouse where they had very little room to operate. The Catawba Health Clinic now has their own building in which to run their operation. This has allowed them to provide new services, such as child immunizations. In 2008 the Catawba Health Clinic opened an addition to their new facility to provide dental services. Previously, tribe members had to drive three hours for federal dental services. Due to all of these additions and preventative measure the health of the Catawba Nation is bound to improve, and time will surely tell the tale.