Its know secrete that there is an obesity epidemic in the American Indian community. The obesity epidemic began when american Indians were placed on settlements and there way of life changed. The Cherokee tribe stated off as hunter gathers but slowly moved into a sedimentary lifestyle as the need to be hunter gathers diminished. As the American society as a whole turned to high fat sugar filled foods so did the Cherokee. Soon the Cherokee Indians diet changed into a diet alot like ours and they saw the repercussions from it. Diabetes is also on the rise in Cherokee tribes as well as the United states.

 However these side effects of a high fat diet and sedimentary lifestyle seen to be even worse for the Cherokee and American Indian society,According to http://ajcn.nutrition.org/ the satics for obesity and diseases is even worse for american Indianan.

"The overall health status of American Indians has been, and continues to be, poorer than that of the general population by most indicators (3–5). The leading causes of death in American Indians, as in the entire US population, have changed over the past 40 y. Since the early 1950s, the rate of mortality from infectious disease has decreased substantially. But mortality related to behavioral or lifestyle factors has increased, and chronic diseases such as diabetes mellitus, heart disease, and cancer are among the leading causes of death in adults (3–5). "


Not only did we do the wrong of infecting the Cherokee people with diseases when we first got here, but we are also inflicting diseases on them now by setting up their new lifestyle and introducing them to a poor diet. The problem with the American Indian diet start with the overall diet of Americans in general and we need to work on changing both of these diets.