FOR FEATURE STORY HEALTH NATIVES, 2001-07-24 (photo)

Dr. Mark Butterbrodt (R), a white doctor on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota and speaks the Lakota language, checks a young Native American boy at the Porcupine Clinic. Butterbrodt says regarding an ongoing report thats states more than 50 percent of Native Americans over the age of 45 are diabetic, the sedentary reservation lifestyle combined with a consistent supply of food that's high in sugar has turned what was once a positive into a deadly negative. "Sadly, a lot of our children and teenagers are not very physically active," says Dr. Butterbrodt. He knows many parents who sequester their children indoors fearing gangs, stray dogs and the broken glass that litters the Great Plains reservation. "It's no coincidence that in Arizona, diabetes is known as the television disease". Photo Taken June 26, 2001. AC