Natives least informed, most at risk for AIDS

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George Poitras has a red ribbon pinned to his chest as a show of support and solidarity with those across the planet who have died or are dying from AIDS.

His goal is to help reduce the alarming spread of HIV -- the precursor to AIDS - seems more elusive these days.

Poitras is especially concerned about the aboriginal population in Canada, which he believes is most at risk but the least educated on the subject.

"Native communities here are very much impacted and infected," he said. "We know our people are at risk. We just don't know yet how bad it really is."

Poitras, director of the Feather of Hope Aboriginal AIDS Prevention Society in Edmonton, said it's important to go right to the source to pass on the words of warning.

"Look -- it's no longer just a homosexual disease. It's among the transients, the inner city dwellers, the drug users. It's among the prostitutes."

"All this points to the aboriginal population being the most at risk," he said in an intense but somewhat casual conversation from an exhibition booth he had set up for a recent Native youth conference in Edmonton.

More than 500 Native students from Indian and Metis schools from across Canada attended the three-day conference at the Coast Terrace Inn to learn spiritual teaching methods and talk with mainstream industry and business recruiters.

Poitras, an Indian from Fort Chipewyan, said there is a chance of preventing the spread of AIDS if junior high school-age Natives are given the right information and warnings.

"This couldn't be a better group to catch," he aid in an interview during a conference break. "They're just experimenting right now. And they could be convinced

to be careful (with sexual intercourse and intravenous drug use)."

Poitras said they should be given other guidance as well.

Sexually transmitted diseases like herpes and syphilis have been wide-spread among aboriginal people since they were first introduced in North America by European settlers more than 200 years ago, Poitras explained. And aboriginal communities have never had the proper tools or insight to combat the problems.

"We're talking about the poorest health care system there is," he said with disgust. "It's ignorance."

The first case of AIDS was diagnosed in California in 1981. By the end of 1991, 5,647 cases of AIDS were reported in Canada, including 3,432 deaths.

The last statistics concerning AIDS among aboriginal people were released by the Federal Centre For AIDS in Ottawa in 1988.

But Poitras dismisses government studies about the number of aboriginal AIDS victims in Canada. "I just won't use them," he said. "The figures are not indicative of the problem. The problem is worse, and we know it."

The federal government estimated there were 50 reported cases of HIV infection among aboriginals in Canada. Poitras argues that the constant flow of Natives to the urban areas makes it virtually impossible to identify Natives with HIV.

"It's the low-income, hetero-sexual communities which are the most vulnerable. It's the Native community in a nutshell.," Poitras said. And the most painful reality about AIDS prevention in the aboriginal community, he added, is that Natives don't understand it.

Emdonton native David Janvier stopped by Poitras' information booth to share a story about a friend of a friend who has contracted HIV.

He described how the Indian male is now being shunned by his community because he is infected with "The White Man's" disease.

"People don't even want to sit next to him," he said. "Man, that's not the Indian way."

Ray Fox, Alberta spokesman for the Joint National Committee on Aboriginal AIDS Education and Prevention, said Native leaders are understanding that there is a widespread problem. But it is still going to be difficult to get prevention programs in all the Native communities.

"They're becoming more familiar with the term, but it's still tough to talk about," he said.

Fox's group was developed three years ago by Health and Welfare Canada to hlp establish AIDS prevention and education programs on reserves and Metis settlements.

"We are trying to sensitize Native administrations about this problem. People are starting to understand what it is we're talkiing about...but there is a long way to go."