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Monte L. Fox, Diabetes Project Director and Exercise Physiologist, White Earth Tribal Council, White Earth, Minnesota. University of Minnesota School of Public Health Summer Institute, June 7, 2006.

There is a worldwide epidemic of Type 2 Adult-Onset diabetes, but industrializing countries and disadvantaged populations in industrialized countries have the highest prevalence and show the largest increases.

In the United States, American Indian people are afflicted by this disease in ever increasing numbers and cross-cultural miscommunication between patients and healthcare professionals often inhibit the adoption of healthier behaviors.

Native Dancer is a diabetes education and exercise computer game designed to be culturally relevant to native youth. Unlike traditional video games that encourage sedentary behavior and physical inactivity, Native Dancer will incorporate the emerging genre of video games, like Dance Dance Revolution (DDR), that involve physical exercise.

Monte L. Fox (named Goo-Wa-Howish, meaning "Man from Afar") grew up on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in the traditions of his native culture and is an enrolled Hidatsa. Having witnessed the disabling affect of diabetes and obesity in his life and the lives of many people he loves, Monte left his career as an optician to earn a degree in exercise physiology from North Dakota State University. He has researched physical activity and its physiological effects on the American Indian population, worked in numerous neurology and cardiac rehabilitation clinics, and is presently the White Earth Diabetes Project Coordinator, and owner of the Fitness Fox Company. As a national speaker, Monte inspires audiences to find the medicine bag within themselves to stop the progression of diabetes and obesity in their homes and communities, and adopt a positive outlook in moving toward a healthier lifestyle.