Dear John,

As we celebrate National Native American Heritage Month, I'm excited to share a thought-provoking new video interview with Dr. Patricia Nez Henderson, incoming president of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco (SRNT) and a member of the Diné (Navajo) tribe. 

After a long fight led by Dr. Nez Henderson, the Navajo Nation recently passed historic legislation protecting its citizens from secondhand smoke – making all indoor workplaces and public places, including casinos, smoke-free on Navajo land.

We discuss this new law, and we cover a wide range of topics including the commercialization of tobacco, the tobacco industry’s history of targeting Indigenous populations, the obstacles to reducing commercial tobacco use among Indigenous peoples, and what we can do to fight back against the industry.

"Commercial tobacco products not only harm the inner essence of who you are but everything around you — and that’s what the industry has done."

This interview is the latest installment of The Take Down: Unfiltered Conversations About Tobacco – part of our Campaign for the Culture, an initiative focused on uniting, empowering, educating and engaging people of color and other targeted communities around critical healthcare and human rights issues connected to tobacco use. Learn more >>

Sincerely,

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