Please visit the Choctaw Scleroderma Foundation at http://www.choctawscleroderma.org.

Members of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma are three times more likely to suffer from scleroderma, a rare disease that affects the skin and tissue, than the rest of the population.

No one knows for sure why Choctaws have such a high rate of scleroderma, known for causing the skin to harden. But there is a genetic and familial link: a 1998 study of 18 Choctaws with the disease turned out to be distant relatives.

The study showed that all of the 18 cases could be traced to five Choctaw families prior to their removal to Oklahoma by the federal government.

To better understand why the disease afflicts Choctaws, Alicia Seyler founded the Choctaw Scleroderma Foundation. Syler's grandmother suffered from scleroderma.

Get the Story:
Genes may lead to rare disorder (The Oklahoman 6/23)
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Louis Gray: Rare disease stalks Oklahoma Choctaw Indians (The Native American Times 6/20)

Relevant Links:
The Scleroderma Foundation - http://www.scleroderma.org
Scleroderma infoirmation, National Institutes of Health - http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/scleroderma.html