Gambling With Our Health: Collaborations Toward a Smoke-Free Tribal Casino

Brokenleg, Isaiah

Thursday, August 16, 2012

Exhibit Hall (Kansas City Convention Center)

Mr. Isaiah Brokenleg, MPH , Wisconsin Tribes Putting Prevention to Work, Sicangu Lakota, Great Lakes Inter-Tribal Council, Lac du Flambeau, WI

Ms. Teresa K. Barber, M.Ed. , Wisconsin Native American Tobaco Network, Onieda/Ojibwe, Great Lakes Inter-Tribal Council, Lac du Flambeau, WI

Mrs. Maureen Busalacchi, BA/BS , Health First Wisconsin, Madison , WI

Learning Objectives

At the conclusion of this presentation attendees will be able to:

Explain some of the complexities of tobacco work in Indian Country (sovereignty, ceremonial vs commercial tobacco, revenue, burden of tobacco related disease, etc.).
Explain the collaborative process used to move a Tribal casino towards a smoke-free environment.
Assess survey results of casino employee and casino patron survey.

Cross Cutting Program Area(s): Increasing Diversity/Eliminating Disparities and Tobacco Control Policies

Audience: Groups that would benefit from this presentation are: American Indians and anyone working with American Indian populations, people working on smoke-free gaming or working on smoke-free policies in Indian Country, people working in tobacco prevention, and anyone interested in gaining an understanding regarding the uniqueness of tobacco work in Indian Country.

Key Points: 1) Audience members will be introduced to the complex relationship American Indians have with tobacco and tobacco work in Indian Country. 2) We will explain the process our collaborative has followed to create smoke-free environments on reservations working collaboratively with Tribal and casino management as well as other organizations. We will discuss the employee and patron survey conducted in collaboration with casino management and using their patron database. 3) We will report the survey results. 4) We will also discuss next steps we will take as we move this process forward.

Educational Experience: The audience will learn the key points via PowerPoint presentation as well as group discussion. As American Indians we like to incorporate humor into our presentations and hope this contributes to learning.

Benefits: Audience members will learn about tobacco work in Indian Country. This is important because American Indians are often left out of national/state conversations and decisions, while suffering from tobacco related disparities greater than any other racial/ethnic group. However, as sovereign nations, Tribes have the unique opportunity to control tobacco within their jurisdictions. We’ll share our lessons learned with you.

334 Gambling With Our Health: Collaborations Toward a Smoke-Free Tribal Casino