Group therapy offers 'Freedom from Smoking'
By Paige Willett, Citizen Potawatomi Nation Public Information Department
While rates have decreased by approximately two-thirds in the last 50 years, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported in 2019 that 34.2 million Americans smoke cigarettes. Its prevalence among American Indians/Alaska Natives remains high at 1.5 times the national average, or 26 percent of all Native Americans.
“Back in 2001-02, Oklahoma tried to get the tribes more involved, and so they created a coalition, the Native American Tobacco Coalition, and I was one of the ones who was part of that original group representing (Citizen Potawatomi Nation),” said CPN Behavioral Health Therapist Ray Tainpeah.