article

The nutritional history of the Havasupai Indians of northern Arizona: dietary change and inadequacy in the reservation era and possible implications for current health

Nutritional anthropology26 (1-2) • Published In 2003 • Pages: 1-10

By: Benyshek, Daniel C..

Abstract
Over the last 120 years, the diet of the Havasupai Indians of northern Arizona has gone through two distinct transformations. The first came when the diet changed from one based on a variety of remarkably diverse and energetically adequate pre-reservation foods to a meager and monotonous 'frontier diet' in the early 1900s. The second transformation occurred in the last quarter of the twentieth century when most Havasupais adopted a high-calorie 'Western diet' -- a change currently reflected in the 700 member community's prevalence of obesity and type 2 diabetes -- which are some of the highest in the world. Using evidence from U.S. government and tribal documents, archival sources, ethnographic materials, and recent dietary surveys, general trends in Havasupai nutrition over the last 120 years are identified. Historical accounts are used to demonstrate how the Havasupai diet changed in content and quantity during the earliest years of the reservation. In addition. Sufficient economic and nutritional data are available from 1913 to the 1960s to calculate rough estimates of minimum quantities of staple foods consumed during this period. Diet comparisons are then made with published Havasupai diet surveys conduced in the early 1990s. These analyses suggest that in addition to significant changes in diet content, the quality and quantity of reservation-era foods were insufficient for many tribal members during much of the twentieth century . These finding are especially significant given recent experimental and epidemiological research that indicated that the etiology of types 2 diabetes and other metabolic disorder may be at least partially rooted in prenatal, maternal malnutrition (p. 1).
Subjects
Descriptive somatology
Nutrition
Morbidity
Labor supply and employment
Income and demand
Gratification and control of hunger
Diet
culture
Havasupai
HRAF PubDate
2010
Region
North America
Sub Region
Southwest and Basin
Document Type
article
Evaluation
Creator Type
Ethnologist
Document Rating
4: Excellent Secondary Data
Analyst
John Beierle; 2010
Field Date
no date
Coverage Date
ca.1850-1997
Coverage Place
Northern Arizona, United States
Notes
Daniel C. Benyshek
Includes bibliographical references (p. 9-10)
LCCN
sv 99000315
LCSH
Yuman Indians