Tribal member wants to help fight diabetes

By Nicole Montesano

Smoke Signals staff writer

Tribal member Orien Fiander has made a fortune with his chain of health clubs and fitness centers. Now, he wants to turn his attention to helping fight the nationwide Tribal struggle with diabetes while he’s still invested in that business.

“We as a Native people are leading the United States substantially in obesity and diabetes - almost 60% of our population are obese and over 50% of our people are pre-diabetic,” he said.

Those statistics are calling him to action.

“I will be 50 this year,” he said. “I’m looking for what’s next.”  

Fiander said he has a team from his Native Fitness business arm that provides consultation services to Tribes about how to improve their recreation centers in order to better attract and serve Tribal members, in addition to selling exercise equipment to Tribes.

Fiander said he wants to create a nonprofit arm of the business, to  focus on improving recreation centers on reservation lands across the country.

Fiander said the Indian Health Service has poured millions of dollars into fighting diabetes since 1997 but has yet to actually make progress.

“If you look at the stats, we have never moved the needle in terms of lessening the number of people getting diabetes,” he said. “They’ll show a 15% decrease, but only because from 2013 to 2017, we had an actual increase, then dropped back down. But we’ve never dropped below 1997 levels.”

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, in 2023, “American Indian/Alaska Native adults were 1.5 times more likely than non-Hispanic white adults to be diagnosed with diabetes,” down from more than twice as likely, in 2020. It said that 13.2% of American Indian/Alaska Native people 18 or older had an official diagnosis of diabetes in 2023, the most recent year statistics were available.

According to the National Institutes of Health, diabetes among AI/AN people increased significantly by nearly 30% between 1990 and 1997. That year, Congress created the Special Diabetes Program for Indians to combat the growing threat. It provided $30 million per year for prevention and treatment.

According to the National Indian Council on Aging, health outcomes among Tribal people with diabetes increased significantly, creating “an almost 40 percent reduction in diabetes-related complications.”   

 “The diabetes care has increased substantially,” Fiander said. “So, the care of fixing us after we’re broke is great. But we’re operating on a broke-fix it mentality.”

His solution is to encourage more people to exercise regularly. He said the key to that is recreation centers that truly invite Tribal members in and make them feel welcome. Socialization is a part of that, he said, and so is personal attention.

“We need a place to gather, where Elders come and visit, a place for kids to go,” he said.

Small changes, such as expanding the hours the centers are open so people working full-time can still access the equipment, are helpful.

 “Usually even if it is a fitness center, it’s open 9-5 and it’s stuck in a hole in a corner,” he said.

Fiander said he also believes that the position of recreation center director “should be one of the highest paid positions the Tribe has to offer. Their job is to proactively go out, reach out to our people, follow up on them and actually care what goes on in the facility.”

He advocates actively reaching out to invite people to the center and creating activities to attract attention. For example, in Grand Ronde, Fiander suggested, the Tribe could create an annual commemorative event for the Rogue Trail of Tears, in which participants would walk a total of 263 miles, the distance from the Table Rock Reservation in southern Oregon to the Grand Ronde reservation, that took 33 days during the 1856 forced march. 

“Culture and pride are huge with our people,” Fiander said.

By integrating the Tribe’s history into wellness events, he said it could both remind members of their ancestral strength and resilience, while attracting people to participate who might otherwise not be drawn to use a gym.

In addition, Fiander said it’s important to keep track of who is using the facilities and how often to help decide which programs need to be changed or to determine who might need a phone call with a personal invitation to an event.

“Just seeing their face, having them seeing our face, that’s healing also,” he said. “There’s so much more to wellness than just fitness.”