Through the eyes of our people
Comprehensive Research Paper
Andrea (Whipple) Headbird
ECE527: Observation and Assessment, Cohort 2329
April 27, 2015
When thinking about the word trauma, what comes to mind is a deeply, distressing or disturbing experience. According to Dr. Maria YellowHorse-BraveHeart (2003): “Cumulative emotional and psychological wounding over the lifespan and across generations, emanating from massive group trauma.” These effects have changed how Native Americans have been treated in the past and how they are dealing with historic trauma now. Even though this is the seventh generation, our communities are suffering. Through this research, early childhood educators will be able to gain a better
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This was taking away as early as the fur trade industry began. This change the way of life known to the Native Americans. In 1830, President Andrew Jackson made into law "Indian Removal Act" Where Native Americans were forcibly removed from their homes and way of life. According to Carlisle-Penna Pratt (1879) “Kill the Indian and save the man was the goal and the beginning of the boarding schools era.” When the children no longer could fit in their culture or any other, they became depressed, lost, confused, a deep sense of grief and loss. Which impact subsequent generations. This damage from that early abuse, loneliness and lack of love is being seen as a major factor in the illness that plagues tribes today. It has been passed on from one generation to the next and manifesting in high rates of poverty substance abuse, domestic violence, depression and suicide. These facts are what historic trauma is associated with brain development: The emotional stress, anger, anxiety, depression, substance abuse, grief, abuse, neglect, shame, this also has created poor health problems that also effect brain development. Diseases such as alcoholism, diabetes, cancer, heart disease and suicide is what affects children 's today.
Raising and Disciplining the Children
Everyone helped raise the children in the family. Grandparents were an important resource in child-rearing. Grandfathers gave advice on raising boys, and the Grandmothers gave advice on the girls. Everyone
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
government, thought Westward Expansion would positively impact Native Americans. President Andrew Jackson felt that Indian Removal would protect the Native Americans and give them more freedom. He also thought that, eventually, the influence of European Americans would guide them to become a more “interesting, civilized, and Christian community” (Doc 9). Additionally, government believed that boarding schools would be very beneficial for children, teaching them valuable skills, and helping them become more civilized “ladies and gentlemen” (Doc 8). However, these people were blinded to the impact it had on the lives of Native American by their own desire for land and power. The mass slaughter of buffalo robbed the Native Americans of their most valuable resource and the source of all their daily necessities. Forced assimilation killed Native American culture and identity, and uprooted their lifestyles. By taking away and selling Native Americans’ land, the U.S. government was constantly driving Native Americans of their homes, onto undeveloped, cramped land, making it nearly impossible for them to sustain themselves and their way of life. How is someone positively affected by having their means of survival, identity, and home taken
Through callous developmentalism, European colonists brought about multiple forms of violence which had not existed previously in Aboriginal communities. In post-genocidal settings, talk of trauma is ubiquitous. (Citation 2 Genocide). Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is present in nearly all residential school survivors; the number of First Nations people who suffer from PTSD is far higher than the widely publicized PTSD rates in the Canadian military. The Journal of Aboriginal Health published research in 2009 which showed a study on British Columbia residential school survivors with 64% of survivors having PTSD. Many believe these rates are far higher in some First Nation communities. A high contrast is seen through studies that compare the Canadian military PTSD rates with PTSD rates in Aboriginal communities. While between 2% and 10% of Canadian soldiers suffer from this disorder, it is believed that up to 90% of Aboriginal people are afflicted with PTSD (Citation 3 Vancouver Sun). Aboriginal people who experience PTSD experience it because of the horrible way in which they were treated. The Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council has done a vast study based on the effects that residential schools have on their people. From a total of 96 people surveyed, the council found that 30% to 83% of people indicate that they were victims of abuse, and over half specified that they maintain some
According to the author of an article entitled “Shattered Hearts,” violence and human trafficking against Native American women is deeply rooted from the colonial history of oppression. The U.S. Government’s extermination policies, religious persecution, resulted in the establishment of Native American reservations and the movement of Native children to boarding schools. These actions created an ongoing wave of new traumas in the lives of both native children and their families. Native Americans continue to carry
I am writing you today as a young woman concerning the lack of attention towards the violence against women in retrospect to the Native American population. The fear of being a victim of assault as a young women is prominent within the society in which we live today. However, there is some relief in the fact that there are resources available at my disposal if I was to experience assault. Yet, there is a large portion of women that do not have that reassurance, and the likelihood of them experiencing assault is even greater than my own. This portion of the women population is Native American women. I will admit that the severity of the issue in concerns with the native population is something that I just recently became aware of. et I have
Historical trauma is a concept that refers to the wounding of generations due to traumatic experiences such as boarding schools, forced displacement, and genocide. Responses to this distress manifest in a number of social issues. For example, alcoholism and substance abuse could be recognized as attempts to numb unresolved grief. Other manifestations of emotional responses to this trauma include abuse, depression, domestic violence, and suicide. A framework for understanding the effects of historical trauma on communities is provided by Evans-Campbell (2008) in her article, “Historical Trauma in American Indian and Native American Communities”. These three levels include individual-level impacts, family-level impacts, and community-level impacts.
In the wake of a gruesome history of displacement and mutilation of sacred customs and beliefs, native adolescents struggle with cultural and internal identity crises. When European nations discovered an already inhabited territory, capturing, raping, and murdering tribal members, the peace and tranquility of native tribes were dismantled and smothered in colonialism destruction. Native Americans enabled and guided the settlers to thrive, explore, and prosper on the flourishing land, while they were gifted in return forced relocation, stripped of their long indigenous hair, plagued with disease, and required to learn and practice European customs.
In this article, Professor King says loss of culture, land and language all play a part in poor health. Having an identity, he says, is especially important for mental health. As for example, many native children in Canada were taken from their families and sent to live at the residential schools. They were educated in the european system, they never had a normal chance to develop a cultural identity. The schools’ so-called purpose was to provide education for native children. But the real purpose was to eliminate native culture from Canada. As Reverend A.E. Caldwell of his school in 1938 said “The problem with the Indians is one of morality and religion. They lack the basic fundamentals of civilized thought and spirit, which explains their childlike nature and behavior. At our school we strive to turn them into mature Christians who will learn how to behave in the world and surrender their barbaric way of life and their treaty rights, which keep them trapped on their land and in a primitive existence. Only then will the Indian problem in our country be solved.” Caldwell view of aboriginal culture and how they should be assimilated to the european culture is how most ministers of the schools thought about native culture. Students were forbidden to speak their language or practice their culture, and were often punished for doing so. All these awful acts at residential schools made natives suffer loss
The Native Indian history of violence and debasement changed their views and self-image as well. This change later affects how they adapt to American culture and education after being dissuaded from embracing their own for so long. The violence and indifference shown towards the Native Americans during the “Trail of Tears” contributed greatly to this change. In this dreadful journey, Natives of all kinds were forced off
The relationship between Native Americans and the United States has always been troubled; moreover, when white settlers expanded westward, Native American’s life style was forever changed. Violence occurred when the Mormon settlers encroached onto Indian land, causing a chain of events that lead to the horrific Bear River Massacre. Along with violent interactions, the US government wanted to integrate the Indian tribes into the American way of life. One way the government tried to civilize the Indians was through boarding schools where children were forced from their homes to learn how to be a white person. Even though children were mistreated, they learned life skills in their classes and how to be independent.
Historical trauma, as Maria Yellow Horse Brave Heart expressed, is being carried on the genes of Native people without being notice, is something heavy that cause pain and unconformity that it is slowly killing them. As the article refer that historical trauma is “the cumulative emotional and psychological wounding, over the lifespan and across generations, emanating from massive group trauma experiences.” Meaning that the things that happen in the past are still hurting people now, and it needs a great attention and cultural focus. It is really important to show a true respect to Native American culture, so it will be able to accurately help Native Americans from the roots of the problem. A lot of people will argue that what happen to the Native American community happened long time ago, but according to this article, Healing the American Indian Soul Wound, actually is something that kept on happening not so long ago, for example, “it was only in 1994 that native peoples were allowed to practice some forms of religion without fear of reprisal by state and federal government policies” (p. 345). It is surprising that this was still happening in 1994, which is so recent, and it shows a lot of immaturity from the government on the topic of respecting others as human beings. I actually argue with people that cultural genocide over Native Americans is something that I will not doubt is still happening now. I have a strong belief that
The reading material from my textbook aligns with the issues presented in the video on Mental Health of Native Americans. The video talks about reconnecting adults and youths back into their culture. One issue is that American Indians have a low success rate academically. American Indian children often distrust European American which makes it difficult for cross cultural counseling. According to Baruth & Manning (2012), American Indian adolescents will end up being counseled by European American counselors because there are few American Indian counselors. The video states that there is high use of substance abuse, suicide, and dropout rates for American Indians. The textbook list suicide, alcohol abuse and other substance abuse, and high school and college drop-out rates as being potential problems American Indian adolescents may experience
Trauma occurs when a child has experienced an event that threatens or causes harm to her emotional and physical well-being. Events can include war, terrorism, natural disasters, but the most common and harmful to a child’s psychosocial well-being are those such as domestic violence, neglect, physical and sexual abuse, maltreatment, and witnessing a traumatic event. While some children may experience a traumatic event and go on to develop normally, many children have long lasting implications into adulthood.
Children were taken away from their homes and told everything they knew was wrong. They were sent to boarding schools to change their culture. These boarding schools were run by the United States government. The government's goal was to civilize Native Americans. They sent children to these schools against their will. Native American children were educated like Americans and they had to change their native ways to be more like whites (Cayton 266). Teachers abused their students and beat their native ways out of them. They were not allowed to see their families so they would try to escape, but their attempts were unsuccessful. The United States government’s Boarding Schools of the mid-late 1800s irreparably changed Native American culture.
“Trauma is a fact of life. It does not, however, have to be a life sentence.” - Peter A. Levine, Ph.D. In Sherman Alexie’s collection of short stories, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, we read stories of Native American struggles for survival in an American society designed to keep Native Americans locked in the cycle of intergenerational trauma. Alexie illustrates the importance of rejecting intergenerational trauma as a method of survival, by isolating the two main causes intergenerational trauma becomes inescapable and giving examples that showcase the impact of attempting to survive the cycle. Through the interpretation of multiple sources, it becomes clear that the inescapability of intergenerational trauma is the outcome of internalized oppression and pessimism.