For stories of life in our changing world, subscribe here to the global health newsletter.LUMBERTON, N.C.— Soybean fields surround Angie Lowery's home on a plot of rural land in southeastern North Carolina's Robeson County.
Dozens of antique gas station signs, 20 feet tall, dominate her front yard.A framed re-creation of The Last Supper, Lone Ranger posters, and a 3-foot-wide tobacco harvesting basket adorn the walls of her home.
A collector, Lowery over the years has amassed remnants of her region's past.But behind the house, the 44-year-old's backyard garden showcases her goals for the future, one that involves a long, healthy life with her kids: collard greens, bell peppers, onions, tomatoes, red and white potatoes, kale.Like Lowery, many in the small towns of Lumberton and nearby Pembroke are citizens of the Lumbee Tribe who have dealt with heart conditions.The mother of four struggled with obesity and had to take insulin pills and shots daily.
But when her first grandchild was born, in 2024, Lowery imagined her own life ending the way her biological father's did: Daily insulin shots for diabetes.Kidney dialysis treatments at home.
Dead of a heart attack at 63.She wanted her grandkids to remember her."If I don't get this weight off me, if I don't change my eating habits, it's going to take me over," she recalled thinking.So, she expanded her garden.
She cut fatty foods and sugary drinks out of her diet, stopped eating fried and fast food, and started moving more.She lost 120 pounds in two years and weaned herself off the daily insulin pills.The Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina late last year became the 575th tribe to secure federal recognition as a sovereign nation, a milestone that leaders and citizens celebrated in tears.
The designation provides federal funding for an array of services, including for healthcare.John Lowery, chairman of the tribe and a state representative, declared that "the biggest benefit" would be access to the Indian Health Service...