Edmund Shaftsbury, an early 1900s writer on health and human magnetism, writes about the early American Indians: “The American Indians are known to have the strongest eyes in the world. They have the closest thing to ‘telescopic vision.’ They can see objects in the far distance that the average person would need a telescope to see” (Gurki Doe, American Indian Telescopic Eye Vision, October 13, 2011).

If these accounts are true, what caused the decline of eyesight in Native America? Books. Yes, books. They require fixed and focused attention to written pages on a blank background. Native America was comprised of persons required to have flexible vision in order to hunt and gather. But that was within a context of short term, so the eyes were pliable and flexible, and could immediately focus at distances as well as close proximity.

Another cause for poor eyesight is the typical American plate. It’s filled with refined grains, processed foods, added sugars and fats, things that tend to weaken our eyesight and result in diabetes and glaucoma. Age and eye trauma are also contributors that may lead to vision impairment.

John D. Woolf, Cheyenne River Sioux, is president of Thundercloud LLC Optical Services. In 25 years of service, his company sold 50,000 pairs of glasses annually at 100 locations in 20 states.

Woolf said, “With our health history as Native Americans, we live lives that have more outdoor activities, sports, hunting, horseback riding, walking, more health issues due to diet, alcohol, violence and limited health care, so we must take better care of our eyes.” According to an Indian Health Service study in 2000, diabetes is growing at 800 percent among Natives verse non-Natives. Diabetes affects our soft tissues in the eyes, heart and extremities, and can cause loss of feet, fingers and eyes. Erectile dysfunction also often occurs.