There's a new energy,' says Chippewa Ann Bullock, the medical consultant for the Health and Medical Division of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, in Cherokee, N.C. Improved access to health care, nutritional counseling in schools and businesses, school mentoring programs and community farming are among the programs making headway. Individual efforts as well as government grants are helping. A number of communities in recent years have taken on diabetes with a vengeance and are reaping healthy results. Though the number of diabetes cases in tribal communities is daunting, it's not the end of the story, say many tribal members and health care workers. Thousands of scientists are gathering this weekend in Orlando for the American Diabetes Association's 70th scientific sessions, an annual conference that focuses on advances in diabetes research and the needs of patients, including high-risk groups such as Native Americans and African Americans. That's almost twice the rate of diabetes as whites. Of the 3.3 million American Indians and Alaska Natives in the United States, about 16 percent have diabetes, most of them type 2, says the Indian Health Service, part of the Department of Health and Human Services. Seven members have been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, he says.

Pond, whose roots are with the Assiniboine tribe in Montana, comes from a family of nine. 'It is the exception,' says Gerald Pond, general manager of the Ute Mountain Casino Hotel and Resort. Finding a Native American in Towaoc, Colo., who does not have diabetes or know someone with diabetes is rare.

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