Settlement Hinges On Tribes Snuffing Smokes Indians Are Top Tobacco Users, And They Would Have To Meet Goals To Share State Bonanza

American Indians smoke more than any other ethnic group in the country, and a settlement between states and the tobacco industry would require tribes to do more to curb cigarette sales.

In return for regulating tobacco sales, tribes would get to share in the settlement money going to their respective states. Like states, tribes also would get financial help to regulate tobacco sales.

Tribes would be held accountable for meeting goals to reduce teen smoking, and they would be required to inspect each retailer 25 times a year.

“If the goals are not met, funding for enforcement could be withheld from the tribes, just as from the states,” Colorado Attorney General Gale Norton told the Senate Indian Affairs Committee on Wednesday.

But some Indian legal experts say the settlement would erode tribal powers, essentially allowing states to decide how tobacco sales will be regulated on reservations. Under the settlement, a tribe’s regulations would have to be as strict as the state’s.

“This, in effect, completely subrogates the tribal interests to the interests of the states,” said Alexander Tallchief Skibine, a University of Utah law professor.

Bret DeLang, chief of the Idaho Attorney General’s consumer protection division, said it’s not clear how the settlement would affect Idaho’s tribes.

“A portion of the money would be sent to the tribes based on the population on the reservation,” he said. “But Congress hasn’t adopted the settlement and I don’t believe there’s any legislation yet even proposing how it would all be implemented.”

Tribal governments could be expected to enforce provisions to cut back smoking by minors by 30 percent over five years, he said.

Indians use tobacco at twice the rate of the general population, and tobacco-related illnesses among Indians cost taxpayers about $200 million a year, said Craig Vanderwagen, director of clinical and preventive health for the Indian Health Service.

Indian smoking is “clearly a major public health problem of major proportions,” he said.

Among Plains tribes, 57 percent of females and 48 percent of males smoke, Vanderwagen said. Studies also have shown high rates of tobacco use among Indian children.

“If we’re serious about reducing tobacco use … we’re going to have to make a triple effort in Indian country,” said Sen. Paul Wellstone, D-Minn.

Those figures don’t surprise Chuck Matheson, a Coeur d’Alene tribal councilman whose family owns the Indian Country Smoke Shop & Fireworks north of Worley.

“Tobacco is a big part of our culture and has been for hundreds and thousands of years,” Matheson said.

But Matheson was surprised to learn that settlements may impact his business.

“I never even thought twice about it having an effect on us,” he said.

Tribal leaders also want to make sure the crackdown on tobacco sales doesn’t interfere with religious ceremonies. Norton said it wouldn’t.

“Tobacco is the first gift of the Creator,” said Jack Chambers, a traditional elder with the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians in Michigan.

Every ceremony on his reservation begins with tobacco smoke, he said. “Without the offering of tobacco, nothing can be done.”

Matheson sees the entire tobacco debate as unnecessary.

“I don’t agree with tobacco companies not being able to advertise like other businesses do,” he said. “It’s just another example of people not wanting to take responsibility for themselves.”

But Vanderwagen estimated that a fourth of hospitalizations in IHS facilities are smoking related, the same percentage attributed to alcohol, which costs the government $200 million a year.

“That’s $200 million we could be putting toward Indian education and other needs out there,” said the committee’s chairman, Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, R-Colo.

Campbell, the Senate’s lone Indian, said public health efforts so far have had little effect on reservations.

At the same time, “Joe Camel is just as seductive to an Indian youngster as a non-Indian youngster,” Campbell said.

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: TOBACCO USE Indians use tobacco at twice the rate of the general population, and tobacco-related illnesses among Indians cost taxpayers about $200 million a year, said Craig Vanderwagen, director of clinical and preventive health for the Indian Health Service.

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = From staff and wire reports Staff writer Craig Welch contributed to this report.