Tobacco.org

Tobacco culture not native  

Within his lifetime, Stephen Yellowhawk has fought stereotypes about his Native American culture and heritage. When a recent art contest opened with a theme asking how the use of commercial tobacco had impacted the Lakota culture, traditions and values, it resonated with Yellowhawk's personal goal to keep youths healthy and tobacco-free.

For the first-time art contestant, the Black Hills Center for American Indian Health's "The Oniyan Wakan" ("Sacred Breath") art contest offered an opportunity to display his skills at beadwork and the cultural knowledge he wanted to share.

"It all fell together," he said. . . .

According to Henderson, the tobacco industry has long targeted Native Americans as a subgroup for its products, using Native American images and names to market its products while also sponsoring tribal rodeos, athletic tournaments and powwows with money and handing out cartons of cigarettes.

"It worked," she said of industry hooking its target.

Commercial tobacco today is not what native tribes introduced to the colonists, she said. Cigarettes and other tobacco products are saturated with 4,000 different chemicals . . .

Afraid of Lightning said it was a contradiction to his tribe's value system and a misconception that tobacco was part of the Lakota culture.

"Tobacco doesn't grow around here, and it never has. What was traditionally used for tobacco was taken from the bark of the red willow tree. … It was never smoked for pleasure or addiction," he said. . . .

"The tobacco companies are tricking us; cigarette smoking is not traditional in any way," he said.

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