MANY PLAINS NATIVE AMERICANS EITHER SMOKE AS A HABIT, EXPERIMENT WITH SMOKING OR KNOW SOMEONE WHO DOES SMOKE. THIS SECTION DEALS WITH LUNG CANCER AND THE FACTORS THAT ARE CONNECTED TO SMOKING. HERE ARE SOME QUOTES FROM A FEW NATIVE AMERICAN TEENAGERS AROUND MONTANA:

“From time to time, I smoke cigarettes. It is not a habit to smoke cigarettes. Sometimes when my elders or friends offer me a “smoke,” I will take it, and out of respect, I will smoke with them. An ignorant person may not know why, so I just tell them that it was the way I was told. For me, I use tobacco in a good way not every day.”

Many Native American youths use an excuse like the example up above to start or experiment with smoking cigarettes. The peer pressure, the smoking environment of the family and accessibility of smoking can all be risk factors for future development of lung cancer. A young adolescent may think that they are invincible to anything that comes their way. However, the younger a person starts smoking, the higher the risk they have for developing the very deadly lung cancer.

“I remember when I first tried a 'cig,' it was the bomb. Well, at least I thought it was, because I was there with all my friends and they were just trying it also. Many of us thought we were tough by trying to hold it in and not cough. Eventually we all grew weak and gave up our “toughness” by coughing. We all thought it was funny, and we smoked and laughed, smoked and laughed. The next day, I went to cross country practice, and the slowest guy was keeping up with me. I didn’t know why I was running so slow, I was breathing heavy and my legs felt like rubber. Then I remembered, I smoked three cigarettes the previous day with my friends.”

This pattern may not affect a lot of athletes right away, but as they keep up the cycle of smoke and run, their lungs will begin to suffer from the effects of smoking, either by making them cough, feel sick or feel tired. If that athlete smokes…runs…smokes…runs…smokes, then their body will wear down to the point of exhaustion and sickness. This is the point where the body is most vulnerable to get sick or give lung cancer a big lead in determining how long the body will survive. How many cigarettes a person smokes, what age they started smoking, or how long they have been smoking will determine their chances of getting lung cancer. Living with lung cancer is nearly impossible. Once a person has it, they really have no chance of surviving.

“Sometimes when my friends smoke, I feel that I should be right in there with them, so that they do not think that I am being “too good” for them. Even though I do not like smoking, it's all I can do just to pass the time. It is boring on the reservation, and I have to do something.”

Many reservations have children, teenagers and young adults who smoke regularly, day in and day out. When asked about why they smoke, they say it was just something that they were around. They also said that they enjoyed when they first started smoking because they liked the feeling of nicotine hitting their body. They also added that it made them relax and not be so hyper, even though the nicotine from a cigarette is a stimulant that makes a person wake up and not relax. Many of these children do not know what they are doing to themselves and their lungs. Though they may just be experimenting with it, a lot of reservation kids get addicted because they are bored, they want to be grown up or they just don’t care about what they do to their bodies.

Lung cancer not only develops from smoking cigarettes, it could also develop from breathing second hand smoke, smoking marijuana or inhaling certain toxic chemicals. Of all the factors involved, smoking is the #1 cause of lung cancer among all races, including Native Americans. Also, many Plains Indians smoke regularly, and are at higher risk of lung cancer. Although there is a lack of information on smoking among Plains Indians, we do know that lung cancer can affect anyone, and the more smoke you inhale, the more vulnerable you are for developing lung cancer.

Figure 1: Inside of a Lung with tar from a cigarette.