Nature's Way Circle

By Amy Agnello
Issue 107, July/August 2001

Breastfeeding is the cornerstone of the early mothering experience, building an inextricable bond between parent and baby. By nursing, we create a sense of peace and safety for our babies, providing refuge and establishing a foundation upon which healthy and happy futures are built. This is just one of many reasons why a group of American Indian women in one Minnesota community are making a concerted effort to return to breastfeeding. Breastfeeding is a part of traditional Indian parenting; but a number of factors, including the ubiquitous promotion of formula, enforced assimilation into the larger culture, and the marginalization of indigenous people, have contributed to significantly reducing the practice.

The impact of more than 400 years of genocide continues to be felt in Indian America. Indian people have been pushed to the margins and to near invisibility by the dominant culture. Yet in rural areas and urban centers throughout this country, Indian communities continue-some thriving, some struggling, raising families and looking to future generations to carry on language, culture, and religious traditions.

As a result, there is a tremendous need for culturally relevant services, resources, and support for Indian families. Breastfeeding can help establish and restore families; it deepens a mother's confidence in her ability to meet her family's needs while she relies on the integral support of other family members to maintain the nursing relationship. The involvement of community is a vital part of this connection. In 1999, Sara Brave Heart, a woman of Cherokee descent living in St. Paul, Minnesota, saw this ad in a weekly American Indian newspaper: "Seeking native women to provide breastfeeding support to other native women." A certified La Leche League leader, longtime political activist, and advocate for Indian issues, natural parenting, and breastfeeding, Brave Heart responded by joining forces with two other women: Artie Thompson, a breastfeeding peer counselor and doula (professional labor support assistant), and Mary Rose, a community health nurse. Together, the three formed a breastfeeding advocacy and support group to serve Indian women and their families in the Minneapolis/St. Paul metropolitan area. They called the group Nature's Way Circle. The "Twin Cities" are home to more than 20,000 Indian people, most of them from tribes spread throughout Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, and the Dakotas. Nature's Way Circle provides outreach and education to urban Indian mothers through home and hospital visits, informational materials, a breast pump loan program, and a biweekly support group. In the interview that follows, Sara Brave Heart discusses Nature's Way Circle, a return to traditionalism in the urban Indian community, healing families and communities, and grassroots organizing as a means to social change.

What was the inspiration for Nature's Way Circle?
A woman named Joan Dodgson, who was working on a master's thesis at the University of Minnesota that focused on her work as a nurse with communities of color, talked with Indian women in Minneapolis about breastfeeding and found a lack of resources for them. She placed an ad in The Circle [an American Indian newspaper] asking for native women interested in supporting other native women who wished to breastfeed. At the time, I was getting my certification as a La Leche League leader, and my primary interest was to get breastfeeding information and bring it back to the Indian community. I answered Joan's ad, and we began meeting in June 1999 with community health nurses, people from the Indian Health Board and the Minnesota Indian Women's Resource Center, and others. One of the women at the meetings was Artie Thompson, a doula and breastfeeding peer counselor in the African American community. Like me, Artie was a stay-at-home mom. We also met Mary Rose, a community health nurse at the American Indian Family Center in St. Paul. The three of us produced a brochure, did publicity at powwows and other cultural events, and then launched our monthly daytime meetings. We've recently expanded the program to include a monthly nighttime meeting.