Website offers Native Americans diabetes forums

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) – Two Native American professors living in Kansas say Type 2 diabetes has ravaged their race for so many years they felt compelled to help spread information and hope for those battling the disease.

Rhonda LeValdo and Teresa Trumbly Lamsam said they hope the Native American tradition of storytelling will help combat the spread among Native Americans of Type 2 diabetes, a chronic blood-sugar disease often triggered by obesity.

“It seemed inevitable,” said Lamsam, 50, a visiting journalism professor at the University of Kansas who grew up on an Osage reservation in Pawhuska, Okla. “You're going to get older. You're going to get diabetes because you're Indian. When I saw complications, I used to think, `I wonder how long before they lose their feet?' Amputations were so common.”

Diabetes also ran in the family of LeValdo, 37, a member of the Acoma Pueblo from New Mexico. LeValdo is a media instructor at Haskell Indian Nations University and president of the Native American Journalists Association.

In response, the two women launched WellboundStorytellers.com, a website that originally invited Native American journalists to discuss their health struggles and successes, The Kansas City Star reported (http://bit.ly/LZXbI9 ). Within days, Native Americans across the country were asking that the site be opened to bloggers too.

“We have a Hawaiian guy who is working on the website. I have an educator and filmmaker who say they want to be part of it,” Lamsam said. “They are all on health journeys and they want to share and receive support.”

Diabetes is only one of several health problems among Native Americans and Pacific Islanders, who rank at or next to the bottom of nearly every health category among all races.

“Diabetes, obesity, heart disease, cancer, suicide rates,” said Darryl Tonemah, a Native American health psychologist of Kiowa, Comanche and Tuscarora descent who is a board member of the American Diabetes Association.

Lamsam said the website originally was part of journalism research she was doing on the mainstream media's coverage of a federal initiative known as the Special Diabetes Program for Indians, which has spent about $1.5 billion over the last 15 years battling diabetes in Native American communities.

During the research, LeValdo's uncle died from complications from diabetes, and she and Lamsam decided to start the website.

“We thought we needed to be role models,” Lamsam said.

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Information from: The Kansas City Star, http://www.kcstar.com