The Red Earth Tobacco Program was designed to educate Native American young people and adults on the issues of tobacco use. It is designed to build youth empowerment to develop peer leadership in the hopes that this would stop the initiation of tobacco products among Native American young people and elders. It is our aim to decrease second-hand smoke exposure and to increase smoking cessation programs and cessation support programs, so that we all can live a healthier tobacco-free lifestyle.

Our approach in dealing with this issue is to recruit young Native Americans between the ages of 10-19, and to form a Native American Dance Troupe. Through dance interpretation, these young people send out anti-smoking messages in order to explain the difference between ceremonial tobacco and commercial tobacco. As the young people dance, they ask themselves “why do I dance?” The answer is: “I dance to stomp out commercial tobacco addiction, and I pray with sacred tobacco to give me strength! You can beat it if you try, but if you don’t, you’ll just die!”

Native American people gave Europeans the sacred gift of tobacco. The Europeans enjoyed the tobacco and began to sell it around the world. Through the commercialization of tobacco, chemicals were added to preserve and enhance its flavor. Today, commercial tobacco contains thousands of chemicals. Forty of these chemicals are carcinogenic and include ammonia, formaldehyde, and cyanide. Sacred tobacco has remained chemical free.

The use of ceremonial tobacco has been passed down from generation to generation. According to studies done by the University of Columbia, there is no conclusive evidence that smoking sacred tobacco used only at ceremonies is addictive. On the average, sacred tobacco is used four times per month, or 48 times per year. In comparison, an average commercial tobacco smoker that smokes two packs of cigarettes a day, will smoke 14,400 cigarettes a year containing harsh chemicals that lead to serious health problems and addiction.

The Native American community has the difficulty of living in two worlds. Teaching our people the importance of knowing the difference between the commercial world of tobacco and the sacred world of tobacco is the goal of the Mishquock Wuttamauog – Red Earth Tobacco Dancers Program.