About TPP

Over the past three years, the Tribal Youth Ambassadors for Tobacco Control Project has created educational materials, tools, and resources to help Native families in Sonoma, Lake, and Mendocino Counties have smoke-free homes and revitalize healthy practices such as using traditional tobacco and medicines. Community members have been participating in the Project at many levels to ensure the Project resources serve our Native communities in the best way possible. 

Our primary project message is that commercial tobacco does not replace sacred/traditional tobacco. Native Peoples have many strengths, including rich knowledge about our places, relationships with plant relatives, and longtime practices contributing to our health. Our strengths offer us pathways to wellness. 

We face challenges, too. As the Project draws upon our strengths, it also recognizes colonization’s long history and impacts on Native peoples and communities. The hurt and stress we experience in our past and present may be associated with higher rates of commercial tobacco use by Native peoples. In addition, the commercial tobacco industry continues to profit from Native peoples’ use of commercial tobacco while using Native symbols and imagery to entice others into thinking using commercial tobacco is healthy.