“You come from a proud line of capable people. Native people,” said youth mentor Clarence Thomas, warming to his speech. He’s a compact, understated man, but on this topic he grows increasingly animated. “You may think you can’t do what you need to do. You may think it’s too hard. But you can do it, and you will do it. You can and you will. You can! And you will!”
By the final exclamation, Thomas had the undivided attention of his audience, 16 Fort Washakie School 4th graders. Had he told them exactly what it was he believed they could do, they might not have been so receptive.
Thomas is one of many community leaders on the Wind River Indian Reservation engaged in untangling the jumbled knot of challenges that produce striking health disparities for Wyoming’s Native community.
Experts agree that improved childhood health is the key to population-wide success, but a tight focus on young people does little to simplify the problem.
A professional working to reduce childhood trauma, for example, quickly finds his issue firmly tethered to those of substance abuse, history, and economics. Economic policy experts can’t go very far before running into education and institutional ineffectiveness as limiting factors. Educators, meanwhile, are held back by the challenges of poverty and, bringing it full circle, poor childhood health. Anemic political power, cross-cultural miscommunication, racism, corruption, distrust and dozens of other elements are also woven through.
[For more of this story, written by Matthew Copeland, go to http://www.wyofile.com/special...-reorder-status-quo/]
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