TUPE Program Goals:

  • To educate youth about the dangers of commercial tobacco use
  • To teach youth appropriate refusal techniques to reduce the impacts of peer pressure
  • To educate youth about the historical and traditional uses of Native Tobaccos
  • To help youth analyze the cost of a commercial tobacco habit, both monetarily and physically
  • To educate youth about the dangers of second hand smoke
  • To provide resource materials on tobacco prevention and cessation efforts to local schools and Indian Education Centers

So many of our cultural ways have been lost.  We thank the Creator for all life. We offer tobaccos with respect during the most sacred ceremonies.  Our life goal is to preserve our heritage by educating our youth and teaching them traditional ways. 

Current commercial uses of tobacco are not only a great health risk to our society, but also pose a threat to our traditional uses. We strongly believe our youth’s cultural knowledge on the traditional uses of tobacco will help to curb the commercial abuse of tobacco by our youth and future generations.

Four of every 10 American Indian adults are currently addicted to some form of commercial tobacco.
These are the highest rates for any ethnic group in the United States.
28 percent of Native American youths also currently abuse commercial tobacco.
Nail polish remover, vinegar, ammonia, arsenic, butane, cadmium, wood alcohol, formaldehyde, barbecue lighter fluid, hydrogen cyanide, swamp gas, rocket fuel, & mothballs are just a few of the over 4000 chemicals found in commercial tobacco.

Each year 3000 non-smokers die from lung cancer caused by second hand smoke.

If you pay $5.00 for a pack of cigarettes, and you smoke a pack a day, you pay $35.00 a week to smoke That is $140.00 a month. Your yearly cost to smoke commercial tobacco is $1,680.00.

Each year 37,000 non-smokers die from heart disease caused by second hand smoke.

Refusal Techniques!

There are many ways to say no when someone wants you to do something harmful to yourself or other living beings. Practice saying no: "No thanks, I have better things to do with my time." or "I respect myself too much to mess with cigarettes."  What other ways can you say NO to commercial tobacco? Email your ideas to Lou Moerner lou@ncidc.org


Invest your time and your talents...
...in something besides the tobacco industry!

It takes approximately 10 minutes to smoke a cigarette. So if you smoke one pack a day, that is 3.3 hours you spend just on smoking cigarettes. Each cigarette costs about 25 cents and 15 minutes off your life. How much will you pay in one year if you have a pack or can a day habit?



    Tobacco Use Prevention Art!

    If you would like you art included on the website in the future, please contact Lou at lou@ncidc.org!