At ClearWay Minnesota, we partner with several tribal grantees to support their efforts to improve health, restore tradition and reduce commercial tobacco use among their people. This past week, our friends at White Earth Band of Ojibwe in northwestern Minnesota were highlighted in an article in Scientific American. In the article, White Earth health specialist Gina Boudreau discusses how reclaiming sacred tobacco practices is helping move Native people away from harmful behaviors like cigarette smoking. We are proud of our association with White Earth and with Minnesota’s other tribal communities as we jointly work to keep tobacco sacred.

The Fight to Keep Tobacco Sacred 

This month, ClearWay Minnesota staff published a paper in Tobacco Control on the misappropriation of American Indian imagery and culture for commercial tobacco marketing. American Indian people have traditional tobacco practices that are sacred, but historically, the commercial tobacco industry has always disrespected their culture and turned their traditional medicine into a deadly recreational product.  Authored by ClearWay Minnesota Senior Research Program Manager Joanne D’Silva, Senior Community Development Manager CoCo Villaluz and Senior Research Program Manager Dr. Erin O’Gara, the paper raises awareness of this problem, and discusses how restoring traditional ways can help reduce smoking and improve health in Indian Country.

Tobacco Industry Misappropriation of American Indian Culture and Traditional Tobacco

ClearWay Minnesota^SM and the Center for Prevention at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota are seeking a qualified vendor to conduct a qualitative evaluation of the impact of menthol policies on youth. Applications are due March 1, 2018. 

Please direct questions regarding this RFQ to ClearWay Minnesota Senior Research Program Manager Joanne D’Silva, M.P.H., at jdsilva@clearwaymn.org.

Demonstrating the Impact of Menthol Policies on Youth RFQ

Forms

Happy New Year from ClearWay Minnesota! We are pleased to share our Annual Report for Fiscal Year 2017 (covering July 2016 through June 2017). The report highlights our activities in areas of public affairs, community development, cessation, research, and marketing and communications. These highlights include:

• Policy advocacy around raising the tobacco sales age, limiting the places menthol tobacco products can be sold, and keeping tobacco prices high;
• A new TV documentary on tobacco use (both traditional and commercial) among Minnesota American Indians;
• Our free QUITPLAN Services and the quit-smoking QuitCash Challenge contest;
• Our Community Engagement grants, which fund organizations to connect low-income smokers with quitting help;
• Notable research dissemination by our staff members and grantees;
• Our new advertising campaign, Stop the Start; and
• Reflections from our Board Chair.

Also included are a full roster of Board Members for 2016-2017 and statements of our financial position and activities.

2017 Annual Report