Videotapes encourage Indians to get up and get active

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There's a new set of videotapes on the market created to get people off their couches and involved in a more active, healthier lifestyle as a way to control or prevent diabetes.

But what makes these tapes different from all other exercise videos already out there is that they were made by Native people for Native people and are being given away, free of charge.

Rez-Robics for Couch Potato Skins and Rez-Robics?The Exercise Tape make up the two-tape set. The first tape uses humour as a way to motivate people and make them want to change the way they eat and become more active. The second tape provides them with a tool to help them reach that goal, with 70 minutes of exercises that combine martial arts with grass dance moves, all choreographed to the beat of Native music.

The tapes are the brainchild of Gary Rhine, the head of the independent video production company Kifaru Productions and the company's non-profit arm DreamCatchers Incorporated, and Pam Belgarde, a media producer and health promoter with Navajo Health Promotion.

The two first started talking about the need for videos like Rez-Robics in the early 1990s when they were both attending the one-year memorial for Winnebago Tribe Elder Reuben Snake Jr., who died due to complications of diabetes. They wanted to put together a video addressing both diet and exercise, and using humour to draw in people who wouldn't normally look twice at an exercise tape.

What Rhine and Belgarde were looking for was an Indian version of Richard Simmons. What they found was Apache comedian Drew Lacapa. They teamed him up with Elaine Miles of Northern Exposure fame, and the project that a decade ago was only talk soon became a reality.

The first video in the set includes a half-hour of comedy featuring Lacapa and Miles, followed by interviews with other people involved in the project talking about subjects like diet and exercise.

"The idea is that somebody who gets the set is probably the one who's kind of motivated already, and they can be using the exercise video. And then they can kind of use the half-hour comedy as a tool to sucker their fat, lazy cousins," Rhine said. "You know, 'Aw, I don't want to watch any exercise video.' And they say, 'No, no, no, this is a comedy. Just sit there. Here, have a Coke. Just have a soda and watch this.' And get them to watch it."

Both Lacapa and Miles are back in the exercise video as well, as part of a group being led by Belgarde and Navajo martial artist Reggie Mitchell.

Because Navajo health services was involved in putting the video together, the tapes can't be sold, so Rhine applied for some grants and is distribuing the videos for free through DreamCatchers.

To get a copy of the Rez-Robics tapes, send a self-addressed, stamped envelope or box, large enough to fit two videotape cassettes to DreamCatchers, 23852 PCH #766, Malibu, CA 90265. Envelopes should be padded to protect the tapes during shipping. The envelope must have $5 in U.S. postal stamps. The U.S. post office will not accept Canadian stamps, or metered labels.

For more information about the Rez-Robics tapes, visit the DreamCatchers Web site at http://dreamcatchers.org.