Native Americans and Their Contributions to the Advancement of Health and Medicine

With the data presented in this paper, it is clearly demonstrating that the Indigenous Australian continue to experience major disadvantage on health and social-emotional well being outcomes than other Non-Indigenous Australian. The cultural factor and the effects of unfairly social determinants of health are clearly contribute in poor physical and psychological health experienced by numerous Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. It is important for both health organisation and individual health professional delivery a culture safety care, help Indigenous people to improve the capacity of the mental health workforce, and working together with them to closing the gap between Indigenous and other Australian population.

Indians, pressured by the land-hungry whites and ravaged by European disease, struck back in 1622.

development was the method of getting quinine from cinchona tree bark to treat the disease

The Native American culture is the original culture of the United States. Members of Native American tribes live throughout the country. “There are an estimated 4.9 million persons, in 565 federally recognized tribes who are classified as American Indian or Alaska Native (AI/AI), alone or in combination with one or more other designated racial classifications. This demographic group compromises 1.6% of the U.S. population” (Horowitz, 2012). Wisconsin is home to the Ho-Chunk (Winnebago), Ojibwa (Chippewa), and the Potawatomi tribes (“American”, 2014). It is important for nurses within this state, as well as any other state, to understand the Native American belief system in order to provide a quality healthcare experience. Nurses are the primary point of contact in the healthcare setting. Client advocacy is one of the nurse’s major roles. Therefore, the nurse should have the highest level of diversity understanding for the cultures within the local region.

Early European colonists that came to North America found a sparsely inhabited coastline which gave them opportunities to settle and succeed where others had previously failed. Since many of the pilgrims were in search of religious freedom they saw a land their god had prepared for them by wiping out the natives through pestilence and disease. The fact is that the plague of disease that wiped out more than 90% of the original inhabitants of the northern east coast was brought by European fisherman around 1617, who were fond of the cod in the Massachusetts Bay area. These fishermen would come ashore for firewood, freshwater and to kidnap the occasional native to sell into slavery, and unknowingly leave behind

Native American medicine is an umbrella term that encompasses the healing beliefs and practices of all the indigenous people of North America. Its' therapeutic approach combines spirituality, herbalism, and magic in treating a wide range of physical and emotional ailments from the common cold to depression.

Aboriginal Indigenous people are the true owner of this country before the British colonisation, but they also experienced large scale of death and different kinds of sickness like cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and some cancers in contrast to non-Indigenous people. As according to (Stewart, J. M et. al, 2012) these disease are generally from smoking, excessive drinking of alcohol, high blood pressure, over weight and cholesterol. Because of this they created an exclusive health centre that focuses on their concerns about their cultural rights and practices.

It is truly said that improving health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders is the longstanding challenge for the Government (Australian Human Rights Commission 2007). Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders experience poor health, they are more prone to get cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, physical inactivity and obesity as compared to non-indigenous Australians (Department of Health and Ageing 2012, p. 6). The gap between the health status of indigenous and non-indigenous people is relatively high, therefore it has been identified as a concern for the community and the Government (Australia’s Health 2014). Social determinants play an important role for the community, for both indigenous and non-indigenous population (Australian

Indigenous Australians perceive health as a multifaceted term that includes not only physical, yet social and emotional health of whole communities. Inequalities in health status between Indigenous Australians and the total Australian population are highly prevalent in each of these areas. Improving the overall health and wellbeing of the Indigenous is a longstanding challenge and whilst there have been some improvements, the progress has been slow and inconsistent. Indigenous Australians are more likely to live in rural locations than their non-Indigenous counterpart (AIHW, 2014). This geographical location increases the likelihood in partaking in risky health behaviours such as alcohol abuse, illicit substance use and high rates of tobacco

Everyone gets sick and throughout generations they find ways to handle the symptoms. The ways that people define and decide to treat their illnesses depend on their culture. The Native Americans have developed their own ways to handle their illnesses. Their techniques should be incorporated more into modern medicine; this would improve the way modern medicine is practiced.

There are a number of key health aspects that must be reinforced and improved for Indigenous Australians over the following five years. Education is commonly seen to be a major aspect in improving the health of Indigenous individuals. Education has improved over the years with participation rates increasing and a greater percentage of Indigenous people achieving a non-school qualification. In spite of these improvements, education for Indigenous people still remains below the educational level of non-Indigenous individuals (ABS & AIHW 2005). As stated in the 2005 Social Justice Report, “Poor education and literacy are linked to poor health status, and affect the capacity of people to use health information” (Australian Human Rights Commission

Mind, body and spirit are the foundation of the Navajo community. The Navajo culture is known to be very primitive and reserved. This could cause some complications in the health care field. Their basic lifestyle may lead to several health complications, belief in prayer and evil spirits is prominent, they believe that the role of a physician is to be a partner in their healing, there are several nursing practices that need to be considered when caring for a Navajo patient, and as a nurse it is important to treat these people with respect even if their ways may seems unorthodox.

In the nineteenth century, the shift in population from rural to urban areas that accompanied industrialization and immigration led to overcrowded living quarters with inadequate or nonexistent waste disposal and public water systems in many American cities. These conditions promoted general ill health and repeated outbreaks of disease. By the early twentieth century, government officials made many efforts to improve sanitation conditions on local, state, and federal levels, which included the establishment of numerous public health departments and the employment of trained sanitarians, sanitation engineers, and public health nurses. Even with all of this government attention, by the middle of the twentieth century it is clear that the response

Throughout the years there has been a consistent need for people to reach out to help the Native American community. This is due to the fact that statistics tell us that there are many Native Americans who abuse drugs and alcohol. This sometimes leads to addiction and the consequences they have to deal with are, losing their families, becoming addicted, or hurting their families. It should be taken into consideration that although there are many things Indian country needs to work on, there are also many ways we can help create better spaces for these people to heal from such traumatic experiences. There are many programs available for those going through such circumstances and they should look for help when needed. I believe it is important

erosion of the Aboriginal culture.(chp.2). Restrictions placed on the cultural practices of the Aboriginal people ultimately led to the abatement of the Aboriginal traditional medicines.(p88). Losing their freedom to practice traditional therapeutics, the Aboriginal people eventually had to adapt to the culturally inappropriate ways of western medicines. The purpose of this paper is to examine the advantages of Aboriginal healing methods for the Aboriginal people, as well as to explain why these traditional methods continued to persist long after western style medicines were introduced.