Native American Historical Trauma:
The Rise of Depression
Considered the first humans in North America, Native Americans have been embroiled in a long and destructive relationship with European settlers. Ever since the arrival of European settlers and the establishment of the United States of America, the Native Americans have suffered through disease, war, and cruel treatment. They were introduced to smallpox, measles, and other foreign diseases that could not be cured with their herbs and shamanistic rituals. They fought in the French and Indian War in order to drive out the British settlers who wanted their land. Following a series of treaties and policies from the United States government, many of the Native American tribes were
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The past oppression by the United States, their continuing poor socioeconomic status of the present, and the cross-generational historical trauma have caused the Native Americans to develop several mental illnesses including depression.
History of Oppression of Native Americans in the United States
In 1492, Spanish sailor Christopher Columbus sailed to west of the Pacific Ocean in order to find a direct trade route to India under the sponsorship of the King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain. After 2 months at sea, his ships landed in the Bahamas, he and his crew were greeted by the aboriginal population. Noticing that the aboriginals had gold jewelry, he returned to Spain to speak about the treasures of the New World. With his stories of wealth, the King and Queen sent him back to claim the riches in the name of Spain. Coming back to the Bahamas, he burned down the villages, enslaved the aboriginals, forcing them to mine for gold and build settlements for the European travelers. This was the beginning of the perilous relationship between European settlers and Native Americans.
As more and more European countries came to the Americas, they began to push the Native American tribes towards the West. What was originally small English settlements soon became a fledging nation called the United States of America. With the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the nation soon doubled in size and turned its attention to
When Columbus landed in the Bahamas in 1492, he thought he reached Asia. He has made himself believe that he has found the New World and that he was the first to inhabit the land. This was not the case as an Indian Tribe, the Arawaks, was swimming to their boats with excitement. As Columbus’s crew arrived on the shores, he was shocked from the Indians hospitality. Columbus was carrying iron swords as the tribes brought gifts, food and water.
Christopher Columbus came thinking he found Asia when in fact all he found was the Americas. The ship they were in was called Saint Maria. The first place they landed was Cuba. They were in search for gold mostly, which Columbus promised the king and queen in Spain. He took the Arawaks Indians as slaves when it was hard for him to find gold. When he arrived in Haiti he created the first military base called Navidad which means charismas. Columbus then traveled to the Hispaniola and his thoughts was he arrived in China. He described the Indians as naive and willing to share. Indians did not believe in marriage. To them people may choose who are their mates and if
The Native American’s were the first known settlers in North America, ten thousand years before Columbus came to the continent. Their origins completely unclear, anthropologists believe there were three to five million Native Americans in North America in the year 1492 (Hoxie and Iverson, 1997). As early as the Revolutionary War in 1775, European settlers started taking note of the Native Americans. Unfortunately, the Native American population plunged significantly in the first decades after their first contact with Europeans. Native Americans were now unprotected and exposed to deadly diseases like smallpox, influenza, and measles which did not previously exist in their society (North American Natives, 2016).
The continuous trauma that they endured has negatively affected the mental health and physical health of the population. Native Americans are at higher risk for depression, physical/sexual abuse, domestic violence, substance abuse, and mental health issues (McLeigh, 2010). Native American youth are three times more likely to commit suicide than the average population. Native Americans in general are twice as likely to be diagnosed with depression and five times more likely to have alcoholism. Colonization not damaged natives mentally, but also brought harm to their physical health as Europeans brought diseases (measles, chicken pox, smallpox, etc) to America (McLeigh, 2010). In order for this population to be served to treat their many medical and mental health issues brought on by years of trauma, policies must be implemented to help Native Americans specifically. However, the reality is that natives mental health needs are often ignored (Gone, 2004). There have been policies that have attempted to meet the needs, but much more is needed. In the most recent action towards improving mental health services for natives, the Affordable Care Act of 2010 permanently gave authorization to the Indian Health Care Improvement Act (Ross, Garfield, Brown, & Raghavan, 2015). This policy will be discussed and analyzed to examine further needs for services in this
Columbus started out on his first voyage in the middle of 1492. It turned out to be a great success and he won Spain many places in South America. The king, queen, and the people of Spain were pleased with Columbus. Isabella immediately ordered him to sail again. On this second voyage, he formed the first European settlement in the Americas. Colonists that accompanied him began to criticize Columbus and his adventures. However, Isabella continued to support him.
In the year 1492, Christopher Columbus sailed the Atlantic hoping to land in Asia, but ended up in the New World. The world where he met Native Americans and called them Indians. Hoping to find spices, he found enough to trade between continents that ended up being called the Columbian Exchange. His rediscovery marked a new chapter in textbooks which many are still arguing whether it makes him a hero or villain. Christopher Columbus should be remembered as a villain because his encounter, with the intention of taking advantage of Native Americans, lead to many deaths.
Christopher Columbus is an internationally celebrated explorer, due to his voyages to Central America during the Age of Discovery, a period between the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries when explorers were sponsored by eastern countries to claim land. Columbus was an Italian explorer, on a conquest for gold and riches, who was sponsored by the monarchs of Spain, Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile, to travel to Southern Asia. Columbus proposed the idea of traveling from East to West, rather than traveling along the borders of countries and continents, such as Africa and Asia, to eastern countries for gold, spices, and other riches for the monarchs. When Columbus succeeded in landing in the New World, he believed he landed in Southern Asia, but rather he landed in Hispaniola, modern day Haiti and Dominican Republic. The “New World” was a term used for the area Columbus landed in, on October 12, 1492. When Columbus landed in the New World, it was inhabited by native people, who were used by the Spaniards to help navigate and understand the landscape of the islands and as workers to find gold. Columbus has a mixed legacy because he had positive and negative attributes; he made the Columbian Exchange, which increased biodiversity in the New World, and is an important explorer in American history, but also began the African slave trade and caused population devastation due to slavery and diseases in the native populations. The legacy of Christopher Columbus should be remembered as a villain because he was greedy for wealth and power, he introduced diseases to the New World, and enslaved and used violence against the natives.
Christopher Columbus was an Italian who worked on behalf of, King Ferdinand II and Queen Isabella I. The Spanish monarchs’ ultimate goals were to find a trade routine to India, Asia and to spread the Catholic religion to others. They financed Columbus with the Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria to find a western route to India. Thinking that it was India, Columbus found land. In his journal, Columbus described his first account of the natives as “they were very friendly to us, and perceived that they could be much more easily converted to our holy faith by gentle means than by force” (“Fordham University”). Also, he plans for them to be great servants so they “may learn our language” (“Fordham University”). He says
Native Americans had inherited the land now called America and eventually their lives were destroyed due to European Colonization. When the Europeans arrived and settled, they changed the Native American way of life for the worst. These changes were caused by a number of factors including disease, loss of land, attempts to export religion, and laws, which violated Native American culture.
My argument uses the umbrella term of systematic oppression to allow me to describe the many side effects that violence and misrepresentation has had on Native Americans. It involves suicide rates, alcoholism and how this has pushed Native Americans into the cycle of poverty that is giving rise to more stereotypes. The thesis later focuses on my counter-argument of how Native Americans denounced the two main stereotypes of “The Drunken Indian” and “The Poor Indian” because of their entrepreneurial skills and creativity. These characteristics have allowed them to come out of this intergenerational grief pattern and become more confident in their culture and identity.
October of 1492, Christopher Columbus and his men landed in the Bahamas Islands. Columbus was originally sent by the king and queen of Spain to Asia, in search for gold and spices. He was also promised a share of the profit. They were greeted generously by the natives with food and gifts by a tribe known as the Arawak. Their kindness led him to believe they would be fine servants and saw them as less than human. He immediately built a fortress. Columbus and his men went from
To begin with, Christopher Columbus should be vilified for converting Native Americans to slaves. In the diary of Columbus, Columbus wrote about his intentions to turn Native Americans into “good and intelligent servants”. Columbus turned his intentions into a reality when he brought Native Americans to Europe as servants. As well as bringing slaves back to Spain, Columbus was an active involver in the slave trafficking network between America and Europe, thus becoming the “first slave trader in the Americas”. Slavery, the cruel practice that blighted the Americas for centuries, was heavily used by Columbus. By founding the American slave industry and kidnapping several slaves back home with him, Columbus showed that he did not value the Native Americans, as he treated them as objects rather than humans. If
In August of 1492 Christopher Columbus had sailed to the New World in an attempt to gather the riches of Asia under sponsorship of Spanish royalty.^1 Upon his voyage he had discovered the island of Hispaniola, a new nation that would eventually contribute to the largest trade system among Europe and their colonies, known as the Triangular Trade system. This discovery had brought Columbus new found fame and respect as the island was believed to be the rich isles of Sheba that King Solomon had discovered, due to the amount of gold and resources that were found.^2 The riches alone were enough to send for another voyage and to begin the colonization, yet it also began the series of events that would conclude that Christopher Columbus’ arrival was
This week's required reading brought great insight towards Christopher Columbus and his accomplishments. Nevertheless, Christopher Columbus journey for exploration started on positive pretense however when King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella “agreed to award him a one-tenth share of any riches he gathered,” may have later changed Columbus’s motivation (Tindall & Shi, 2016, p. 21). To further illustrate this, when Christopher Columbus arrived in the Bahamas his first question would be to ask if any of the patrons of the country had gold. Additionally, Christopher Columbus would take slaves from the local tribes like the Arawaks as tributes to the king and queen of Spain to help motivate them to further finance his trips. Therefore, Columbus was
Historically the treatment of Native Americans has been highly problematic, especially throughout the colonization of the New World. Although, when colonising some Europeans took a merciful and sympathetic approach to the Native Americans, generally the treatment towards the indigenous people was not humane. Not only did the Native Americans die at the hand of the settlers, they also died from diseases that had been brought to the new world by explorers for which they had no immunity. In some cases diseases such as smallpox wiped out entire tribes. Together, the introduction of diseases and the actions of the European settlers had devastating effects on the Native Americans.