Potawot Health Village opened in 2002 to serve Yurok, Tolowa, Wiyot, Hupa and Karuk Indians who live within in a 5,000-square-mile territory encompassing most of northern Humboldt and Del Norte counties
Photo by Bob Weisenbach
To walk into the central gathering space of the Potawot Health Village in Arcata, a multi-tribal health clinic, is to be made instantly aware of the concept of traditional native food as medicine. “Got Acorns?” reads a poster. “Got salmon?” “Got seaweed?”
Built, administered and owned by American Indians, Potawot is at the front line of a national resurgence among native peoples to address the link between the loss of ancestral native foods and disproportionate rates of diabetes and other chronic diseases.
