Tionantati: Native Tobacco People

Tobacco, used to make smoke, is one of the most sacred of plants for Native people. Lawrence Shorty, a Navajo and Choctaw, has dedicated his life to bringing Native grown tobaccos back to American Indian people. Mr. Shorty has been supplying his family's tobacco to American Indian ceremonialists since 1979 when he was eight years old. Mr. Shorty's grandfather asked for tobacco, "nat'oh" in Navajo, for his use in Native American Church ceremonies. Since then, Mr. Shorty has been developing his knowledge about the use and growing of tobacco with guidance from his grandparents and other Native tobacco people.

The result is Tionantati: Native Tobacco People Farm, a 100% owned Native enterprise. This enterprise has made available a product that is specific for Native uses. Utilizing no federal, state, or tribal funds, Mr. Shorty established Tionantati: Native Tobacco People Farm to grow tobacco in a sacred way, re-establishing the bonds between himself and the earth, sky, plants, and animals. Traditional, sacred methods are utilized in preparing the earth and the seeds. Tionantati: Native Tobacco People Farm raises its tobacco on family land and produces different species that are indigenous to the Americas.

None of the tobacco raised by Tionantati: Native Tobacco People Farm is used in the production of commercial products like cigarettes, cigars, pipe tobacco, or dip tobacco. Mr. Shorty asserts that Native people need to provide for themselves, especially where ceremonial items are concerned.

"Purification and working with a clear mind and heart are essential in asking the land to provide for people," Mr. Shorty says. He says this is keeping with the Native belief that if you do things in a good way, good things will follow. "If careful attention is not established, the result will not be as good."

Tobacco use has been linked with many different diseases, especially of the oral and respiratory systems. Smoking has been found to cause leukoplakia, cancers of the oral cavity, gingival recession, hypertension, and nicotine dependence. One third of all continuous cigarette users will die of tobacco related disease. Tobacco is also vastly important to the indigenous population of the Americas. This often presents a problem with health intervention programs designed to curb cigarette or other tobacco use because of tobacco's sacred value to Natives. The genus Nicotiana has many species which have been, and are still used by Indigenous people. Native people have used tobacco to heal illnesses, make alliances, and to pray. In many instances, the availability of real tobacco, the traditional tobacco used by a group, is low or non-existent. As a result, the utilization of commercial tobacco is substituted. This has resulted in all forms of tobacco, not just real tobacco but commercial as well, being made sacred, hampering intervention programs.

An intervention program that makes the distinction between real and commercial tobacco, encourages community involvement, and makes available the sacred plant, is needed to facilitate health efforts. Tionantati makes the clearest distinction between commercial and real tobacco. This distinction, allows health education/disease prevention efforts to have greater access to communities while maintaining and promoting Native values, including the sacred use of the plant given us to make smoke. Tionantati is a Native concept for Natives, with the following purposes:

1. Provide culturally specific tobacco interventions for youth and adult through education and the sharing of Native ways.
2. Promote cultural pride, health, and well-being using Native teachings and Native plants.
3. Provide curriculum development assistance.
4. Provide Native plants for ceremonial use, pow-wows, and other Native gatherings.