Vol. 15, No. 1, Fall 2001

Editor's Notes

Jacquelyn Ross

Growing up, I believed we could depend on natural survival skills. I had heard the stories about the lean times when my father and uncle helped feed the family with fish and deer. There was security in knowing that whatever might happen in our lives, Dad could bring home food. Many people feel this way, don’t we? As long as there are natural places, Indians know the spots to go and we will be okay. We can always fish, we can hunt, we can gather, we can harvest. There will be something to sustain us.

Perhaps we take this for granted. Our partners in the natural world are deeply impacted by the carelessness of the human hand. Few places have the purity that our great-grandpeople knew. There are troubling environmental issues in the world. They directly impact Indian country in California and throughout the Americas. Some communities are just now coming to the realization of how deeply they are affected. Sustainability, independence, and our natural relationships with the earth are in the balance. What can we do?

There are steps that individuals can take to safeguard against or mitigate the negative impact on our personal lives. There are also good people and organizations working on environmental issues that affect traditional health. In this issue, we will bring you brief reports on two conferences held this summer: the Traditional Indian Health Gathering in California and the Indigenous Environmental Network Conference held in Penticton, British Columbia. Not everyone attends all things Indian (some people come close, though), so we will share some highlights of these summer events. There is an encouraging profile about a new Indian health center up in Humboldt County written by News editor Margaret Dubin. In addition, there are a couple of fish stories, although not the kind you may be used to hearing. The contamination of our natural foods is an unpleasant topic. It is also one that may not get discussed much in Indian country. One of the objectives of Vitamin A(yyy) is to share information that you might not readily find elsewhere. Environmental contamination potentially affects a great number of people, especially those who fish and hunt for subsistence and those who eschew commercial food sources in favor of fresh, traditional foods. If we are what we eat, we may be in for some surprises. There is a good body of information available on the topic of food contamination and we have consolidated some of the best to provide a primer using fish as an example. It is my hope that the information in these pages will spur your thinking about protecting our traditional food sources and our personal health.