The BEAR Project: Strong medicine for Indians with AIDS-traditional -- HIV/AIDS INFO AND UPDATES

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Date Posted: 17:37:51 05/15/02 Wed
Author: Anonymous
Subject: The BEAR Project: Strong medicine for Indians with AIDS-traditional

LAME DEER, Mon.--The road to Lame Deer begins in Seattle, in the home of Robert Free (Galvan), where American Indians are battling the loss of lives and happiness to HIV/AIDS.

Free, a veteran of Alcatraz and Wounded Knee, is part of an informal group
of AIDS activists guided by spiritual elders the past 12 years.

In his living room, surrounded by Northwest coast art, Leonard Peltier posters, and photos of his children, Free says it's not just the disease that's killing Indian people, but fear and ignorance of the disease.

Robert Free, at home in Seattle, helped launched the Tribal BEAR Project for Indians with AIDs. Remembered for the teepee he pitched on Alcatraz during the occupation, he stands beside his teepee poles at home on a pine-covered hill. Photo Brenda Norrell.
"There are new miracle drugs," he says. Though HIV/AIDS has no cure, modern medicines taken in "cocktail" form are so effective that doctors often cannot detect the virus in an infected person.

There's more good news for American Indians with AIDS. Grassroots workers in the Tribal BEAR (Building Effective AIDS Response) Project are delivering medical and spiritual assistance at home on tribal lands.

"Bear is medicine to both the coastal and Plains tribes," Free says. Working with federal funds out of a University of Washington office, Free helped launch a project to bring traditional healers and modern doctors together.

On May 3, Northern Cheyenne traditional healers and physicians from Seattle met for the first time to give an AIDS workshop in Lame Deer.

Speaking to nurses from the region, healers and doctors talked of easing the pain and suffering when patients are ready to cross over to the Spirit World.

"It is the Creator who does the healing," said traditional healer Lee Lone Bear, who explained how healers use prayer and medicine roots in ceremonies.

"There are miracles," Lone Bear said. But it's also important to know when it's time to let people cross over, he noted--not to hold them here only to suffer needlessly.

From Seattle, Dr. Anthony Bock, a cancer specialist, and Dr. Randy Curtis,
a specialist in respiratory disease, described medicines used to treat acute pain.

Then traditional healer Bernard Red Cherries told how a Cheyenne healing
ceremony brought back a young boy hovering near death on life support.

When he awoke days later, the boy described hiding as the medicine man
performed the ceremony. "I was running from you," he said. Though the boy is in a wheelchair today, he survived and is attending college.

Traditional healers and doctors said it's important to know how to work
together and when to consult each other. They expressed a desire to learn more about how modern medicines and healing plants interact.

After the workshop, the Cheyenne healers and medical staff from Seattle visited the nearby Deer Medicine Rocks. They wanted a reminder of where they came from and where they're going.

After a workshop for the Tribal BEAR Project serving Indians with AIDs,
Robert Free, center, stands with Northern Cheyenne traditional healers Bernard Red Cherries and Lee Lone Bear and Seattle medical staff at Deer Medicine Rocks near Lame Deer, Montana. Photo Brenda Norrell.
Here, in the red hills on Rosebud Creek, Sitting Bull called together Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapaho in 1876 as General George Crook was slaughtering Indian people.

Beneath the rock marked with a blue streak where lightning struck, Sitting
Bull dreamed and prayed for strength for his people. Before 15,000 followers, he fulfilled his promise to Wakan Tanka and began his Sun Dance, offering 100 pieces of flesh from his arms.

Sitting Bull had a vision of soldiers coming down like grasshoppers, with their heads down and their hats falling off. This vision inspired the warriors, giving them the confidence to rise against their enemies. The vision became a reality when General George Armstrong Custer made his last stand near Lame Deer.

Now Free and the other unsung heroes of the Tribal BEAR Project are fighting another enemy taking Indian lives.

Three thousand American Indians have AIDS and several times that number
have HIV. An unknown number are infected but undiagnosed. The disease is transmitted by exchanging body fluids: blood, semen, or saliva. About 60
percent of those infected got the virus from unprotected sex between males
or needle users. The other 40 percent got it from unprotected heterosexual
sex.

"Prevention didn't happen," Free says. "Now you have HIV/AIDS."

Besides fear and a lack of knowledge, HIV/AIDS services are expensive: $6,000 to $10,000 annually for the medications and lab work.

The Ryan White Care Act distributes federal funds for AIDS projects, but it largely leaves American Indians out of the formula. Indian health care facilities are eligible only if they can prove they're operating without funds.

States receive federal money based on their Indian populations, but fail to
deliver dollars or services to Indians with HIV/AIDS.

Meanwhile, many Indian communities hesitate to apply for grants or accept
services.

"It is front-line work that no one wants to do," Free says. "It gets my blood going. It brings up all the issues of racism and bureaucracy, but it is also an area open to creativity."

One Washington tribe declined thousands of dollars in grants and didn't apply for a $1 million grant. "It is easier to pretend the factors that lead to HIV don't exist on a reservation," Free says.

"Most doctors on reservations have decided not to work with AIDS patients."

Taking the medications presents another problem. "It comes with a price," Free observes. "You can't miss taking them or the HIV virus will mutate and become immune to the medications."

The Northwest AIDS Education and Training Center in Seattle, where the BEAR Project is based, serves Alaska, Washington, Montana, Idaho, and Oregon. It's among the 14 centers responsible for bringing the latest HIV/AIDS care training to providers nationwide.

Besides the Northern Cheyenne, the Tribal BEAR Project works closely with
Skokomish and Nisqually communities in the Northwest.

After the struggles over Alcatraz, Wounded Knee, Puyallup fishing rights, and the Trail of Broken Treaties, Free says HIV/AIDS is another battle front for Indian warriors.

Along with spiritual leaders across the country, Red Cherries said incurable diseases were foretold. "We were told in our prophecies that there would come a time when there are diseases for which there is no cure."

While there is no cure yet, there is hope. Back in Seattle, in Free's living room, are stacks of a BEAR Project video titled "Community Support Is Strong Medicine." To the sound of powwow drums and songs, American Indians with AIDS tell their stories.

One woman from Montana relates how she promised the Creator to abstain from alcohol and drugs if her young son could live free of HIV/AIDS.

Eventually he tested free of the virus.

Free tells of an Indian diagnosed with AIDS and given three months to live. The man sought out traditional healers.

"They gave him the spiritual strength to take on this disease. Now, eight years later, this individual travels the country talking about HIV and AIDS."

Free has still another story to tell, of how Buddhist monks come to the U.S. to spend time with American Indians.

"They are told that anyone who can survive the machinery of America--the cause of so much death and destruction of the people and land--and are still able to maintain their ceremonies and their culture must have great strength."

"Go learn from them," is what a Buddhist master told his monks.

For more information, contact:

Robert Free
Tribal BEAR Project
robtfree@earthlink.net

Kentucky Indian Affairs
The Native American Advocate

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