Amanda Carlow, left, participates in annual swim to Alcatraz. Photo from Facebook
Pine Ridge swimmers at 12th Swim from Alcatraz
By Talli Nauman
Native Sun News
Health & Environment Editor SAN FRANCISCO –– Nakina Mills and Amanda Carlow of Pine Ridge Indian Reservation are among American Indian health activists from South Dakota, Washington and California states, taking part in the annual PATHSTAR Alcatraz Swim Week, Oct. 5-13. Mills, a five-time participant, and Carlow, a first-timer, joined colleagues in preparing for the culmination of a year-long program, the 12th annual Swim from Alcatraz Island to the South End Rowing Club on the San Francisco Shore. Mills is back for the sixth year with Shaidiem, her three-year-old son, who was just nine months old when he first came with Nakina in 2011. The eight-day event is part of an effort to encourage wholesome nutrition and a stay-active lifestyle among American Indians and Alaska Natives who have the highest rates of obesity and diabetes of any race or ethnicity in the United States, according to the American Diabetes Association. The program began in 2003, when two Pine Ridge Oglala Lakota novice swimmers, Richard Iron Cloud and Armando Black Bear, made the frigid crossing from Alcatraz Island to San Francisco. “The Lakota message ‘Oyate kin nipi kte: So that the people will live’ seems a perfect sentiment for this event,” information officer Rory Dean told the Native Sun News. Participants have engaged in a busy week of fitness activities, nutrition, and other educational opportunities, with an emphasis on authentic traditions and healing, he said. For the program, PATHSTAR founder Dr. Nancy Iverson encourages a communal setting that includes gardening, shopping for whole foods, and preparing meals. Additional activities range from visiting urban community gardens, farmers markets, and Bay Area farms to meetings with lifestyle coaches, yoga and Pilates instructors and trainers from the South End Rowing Club. Special swim guides from the club work closely with each swimmer in preparation for and during the frigid swim across San Francisco Bay. Swim Week activities in 2014 have included working with life coaches Emily Wikman and ultra-marathon runner Johann Wikman, daily swim training and Pilates with Joey Levinson at the rowing club, yoga with Yofe Johnson, health education with Dixie James, an Alcatraz tour with “Rock n’ Roll” Ranger John Cantwell, hikes at Golden Gate Bridge and Golden Gate Park, touring at Spice Ace, gardening and cooking with children Grades 1-3 at E.R. Taylor School, and sessions with sports psychologist Marvin Zauderer. 2013 Swim Week Cherokee participant Ne/Jenda Rublico said the experience “was life changing and the swim itself was transcendental.” Like the other participants, she said her follow-up task was to “go out and teach what I’ve learned about nutrition and exercise … be a catalyst for change in other people’s lives.” Swim Week participants serve as year-long ambassadors for health through incorporating healthy changes into their own lives, developing community programs, and sharing their experiences and successes with family, friends, and their home communities. Alumni have gone on to establish public and school vegetable gardens, coach high-school sporting events and work on anti-obesity initiatives, as well as fitness and diabetes prevention programs throughout the United States. The PATHSTAR (www.pathstar.org) mission is to promote “sustainable health and well being practices within Native American communities by providing support and advocacy in overcoming geographic, economic, and political obstacles regarding food availability, eating habits, methods of food preparation, and lifestyle choices.” With an initial focus on Pine Ridge Reservation, the organization offers experiential learning opportunities for mentoring and role modeling that reinforce the benefits of meeting challenges and inspiring healthy change to Native communities throughout North America. The impacts are multi-generational. “Our group is excited that this year will include our first mother-son participant line-up,” Dean said. “We’ve had father-son, father-daughter, and mother-daughter but not yet mother-son.” Here for the week, Theresa Bessette of the Colville Confederated Tribes in Washington State was back for the second year with her son, Travis, who cheered his mom on for the swim last year, Dean said. Since starting with PATHSTAR, Bessette has lost 122 pounds; she has quit smoking, and her HgbA1C dropped from more than 14 to 4.7. Chrystal White Eyes, who has participated twice before, when she lived here in the East Bay, has moved to Hot Springs, South Dakota, but she was in the Bay Area visiting and spent the day with the 2014 group on Oct. 7, Dean said Other participants from the Colville reservations are Shelli Martinez, on her fourth year; Joey Cohen, a two-time previous participant; and Elizabeth Best, who was set to make her first crossing of the icy waters. (Contact Talli Nauman at talli.nauman@gmail.com) Copyright permission Native Sun News
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