First Nations/Native Americans and Religion: Bibliographic Conversation and Recommendations

A quick search using the subject “Indians of North America – Religion” in Bridwell Library’s catalog retrieved 130 results out of a collection of about 490,000 volumes. This suggests (a) The Library of Congress may want to consider revising some of its subject headings (but that is a topic for another time), (b) religious and spiritual practices among native North Americans/First Nations are not widely studied by our students. While there are certainly exceptions, likely this situation is not unique among theological libraries. This session represents an effort to rectify this by sharing and inviting colleagues to share recommendations of resources on spirituality and religious beliefs and practices of various native North American/First Nations groups and their relation to the faith traditions that are more broadly represented in our collections.

OPREVENT (Obesity Prevention and Evaluation of InterVention Effectiveness in NaTive North Americans): Design of a Multilevel, Multicomponent Obesity Intervention for Native American Adults and Households

ABSTRACT Obesity prevalence is high in Native American (NA) adults, and there is a critical need to establish and implement evidence-based social, behavioral, and policy interventions that are theoretically informed. The use of multilevel, multicomponent (MLMC) interventions has been shown to be an effective strategy for comprehensive health behavior change; however, there is little guidance available in the literature to facilitate implementation in this underserved and understudied population. To decrease obesity and related comorbidities in NA adults, an MLMC intervention called OPREVENT (Obesity Prevention and Evaluation of InterVention Effectiveness in NaTive North Americans) was implemented in 5 rural NA communities to modify the food-purchasing environment, improve diet, and increase physical activity (PA). Five NA communities across the Upper Midwest and Southwest United States were randomly assigned to Immediate (n = 3) or Delayed (n = 2) Intervention. OPREVENT was implemented in Immediate Intervention community food stores, worksites, schools, and media over 1 y. A community-randomized controlled trial was used to evaluate intervention impact in adults at the individual and institutional levels, with individual-level data being collected on diet, PA, and psychosocial variables at baseline and follow-up; and institutional-level data being collected on food stores, worksites, and schools, media, and process measures. The OPREVENT intervention was one of the first MLMC obesity interventions in this population and provides evidence-based practices for future program development. The purpose of this article is to describe the design, implementation, and evaluation of OPREVENT. This trial was registered at isrctn.com as ISRCTN76144389.

Owls, Climates, and Experts

The cognitive research of Atran and Medin (2008) plus preliminary cross-cultural inquiry about owls permitted the formulation of a hypothesis: Inhabitants of cold-climate societies were likely to be, in relative terms, “experts” on owls. Subsequent cross-cultural study (N = 56) affirmed that in cold-climate societies, in contrast to others, the habits and characteristics of owls were more frequently noted, these birds were more often used functionally (especially for feather-ornamentation), and the human inhabitants of cold-climate areas manifested fewer negative supernaturalistic interpretations of owl behavior. For the sample as a whole, however, some form of magico-religious belief — usually negative, such as association of owls with witchcraft — exceeded all other practices and concepts, including functional uses and ethnozoological descriptions of owls. The importance of taking affective factors into account in cross-cultural cognitive research was emphasized. Exploratory analysis also revealed that owls were of extraordinarily high interest to Native North Americans, and reasons for this regularity were considered. The paper concludes with discussion of the relation between ecological setting and cultural conceptions of the natural world.