Understanding The Lakota Sioux Tribe

For the Lakota Indians, stories were passed down through the generations as a way of teaching lessons. Their creation story places an emphasis on maintaining a balance between man and nature. This balance was broken for the Indians when, after violating the Dawes Act, a treaty that gave them full rights to their sacred land, white men pushed them out of their homeland and forced them into a society that they never wanted to be a part of. In doing this, their culture was greatly diminished, along with their hope of a better future. Today, the Lakota Indians face poverty and other challenges that all stem from a time when their rights were violated, peace broken, and stories forgotten.

The Lakota tribes environmental wisdom and spirituality grew to stabilize among years of conservation and concern for the earth. All animals were respected like humans and the rivers and trees were cared for because the nature was well alive like the humans that existed in it. The Lakota tribe lives on the Northern Plains of North America and are often referred to as Sioux. The Lakota tribe of the Great Plains is very much rooted to the earth and place a huge emphasis on it being their home. In their culture the world was not savage, nor were the animals wild because on earth all spirits resided in nature. They defined their culture and continue to strengthen their values like kinship, courage, and wisdom in their community through rites of renewal/passage, dance, and their style of clothes.

The family life of Native Americans today is defined as a nuclear family. This consists of the mother, father, and offspring. The parents are the leaders of the household and work together in making all major decisions. This leaves both the mother and father equally in charge especially when it comes to their offspring. As the child is growing up the parents take primary responsibility in directing their child’s life. When they become a young adult they are presumed to become independent and are expected to leave home. Overall Native American families are nuclear, with both parents having equal input in decisions as well as with regard to their children.

When one typically thinks about a Native American, they picture this ideological representation of a Native American as depicted by popular culture. Native Americans are underrepresented on television, in books, in news, and all other forms of media. We, as a society, have chosen a path of ignorance in which we have chosen not to educate ourselves or our future generations on the true culture of Native Americans. We have ignored the negative impacts of using mascots such as “Redskins” and instead let it serve as a stereotype to fill our heads with unrealistic views and understandings of Native American culture. The resulting misconceptions leave many Native American students with a feeling of inferiority and questioning their self-worth.

A history of struggle and isolation from the rest of society has led to the deterioration of Native American cultures and customs and to their rising levels of unemployment, poverty, and crime on reservations. The United States government has had a major role in the coming about of the struggles that persist for Native Americans to this day. As crime and poverty grip the Sioux tribe, they will continue to lose their traditional culture and move farther from who they once were as a people. I will first review how European explorers introduced alcohol to Native American tribes and how this lead to a strong prevalence of alcoholism in the Sioux tribe. Next I will discuss the U.S. government’s use of forced assimilation and boarding schools led to the loss of Native American culture and customs. This led to more anger of the Sioux tribe towards the U.S. government and to outer society as a whole. Third I will analyze the living conditions and complacency felt by the Sioux tribe as seen through the photographs and interviews conducted by journalist Aaron Huey. Lastly, I will assess the efforts taken by the elders and leaders of the Sioux tribe to combat the prevalence of crime on their reservation. The people of the United States and their government have caused many struggles for the Sioux tribe since their existence in America. For these problems to be resolved, the United States needs to take an active role in acknknwoldeging the problem and allocating the necessary resources

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

For the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, water is sacred, and if an oil pipeline is built it will damage sites that have great historical, religious, and cultural significance to the tribe. Aside from the desecration of sacred sites, the environmental hazards caused by the pipelines and the possibility of a spill will be catastrophic. The US does not need another oil pipeline robbing innocent people of their culture, and threatening a source that keeps us alive.

People often go through life without knowing what it’s like to be in another person’s shoes. Many outsiders view the United States today, as an undemanding country- with its citizens being able to have jobs and money whenever they need it and living life to it’s fullest. This is the commonly depicted idea of America, though this is not the lifestyle for many living here. Specifically, the Native American community has it the hardest currently. Native Americans have been consistently struggling with life since the Removal Act of 1830- causing mass groups of Natives to be forced onto reservation, ‘till the modern world of today- the 21 century. In the novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, articles “Why Are Indian Reservations So Poor? A Look At The Bottom 1%” by John Koppisch,“The Absence of Native American Power” and “Drinking Behavior and Sources of Alcohol: Differences Between Native American and White Youths” they explain what the average Native American has to go through. Today, being Native American means to constantly struggle with poverty, alcoholism and loss of to try and get by in life.

Historical trauma has had an impact on the mental health of members of Native Americans/First Nations communities. There is a prevalence of suicide, substance abuse, and depression, and the internalization of oppressive beliefs about their own community (Grayshield, et al., 2013). As a result, there is a mistrust of the majority culture (Sue and Sue, 2013). In turn, a Native Americans/First Nations client may unwillingly choose to open up about personal problems to a counselor in the

The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe currently fights to save its only water source from natural gas and oil contamination. This troubling current event has a somewhat forgotten historical analogue where very similar themes presented themselves. The Kinzua Dam Controversy, which took place in the 1950’s and early 1960’s, resulted in the displacement of over 600 Seneca Indian families and the acquisition of a large tract of traditional Seneca Land for dam building. Additionally, the acquisition of Seneca land represented a breach of “The Treaty with the Six Nations of 1794,” which explicated prevented such action by the US Government. The dam and its construction, which primarily benefitted Pittsburg, inspired a heated discourse concerning the ethics of native relocation.

While the relationships of the Oglala Sioux are not so different from the modern family relationships we see today, the relationships between adults and children, as well as men and women, were very strong and close given that each relationship affected members by helping them in different ways. This was shown in the teachings passed from parents to children, in the compassion of the Oglala Sioux in all of their dealings, the respect of all members towards each other and nature, and finally, in the love exhibited by members of the entire tribe during their tribulations.

Over the decades, the Sioux tribes have been forced out of their lands and treated unfairly, they were strictly permitted to a certain amount of land called reservations; therefore, they have a different point of view on society. In the article The Fighting Sioux: The End of a Legacy, Brittany Bergstrom, a graduate from the University of North Dakota, writes about the controversy between the University and the Sioux tribe over the nickname, “Fighting Sioux”. The American Indians are offended of how they are being portrayed, they want people to learn about their culture, lifestyles, and see them as peaceful, rather than violent and abusive; “Accordingly to the tribes, the term “Fighting Sioux” and the Indian head logo are disrespectful and,

Poverty and addiction damage the Native American's mental health as they suffer from abuse, addiction, and high self-harm; because they experience abuse, they develop addictions and unfortunately have to cope with self-harm and suicide. High rates of self-harming is an outcome for the Native American’s because of the poverty and addiction that they are forced to cope with. The poverty Native Americans struggle with determines their emotions; they lack self-esteem and therefore believe they are “stupid and ugly” (Alexie 22). This lack of self-esteem affects their motivation, which then limits their ability to earn money, making them even more poverty-stricken. One source claims that many Native Americans start “cutting themselves at the age

The Standing Rock Sioux tribe believes in the importance of tradition, and protecting their history; The Developers of the DAPL believe in progress, expediency, and the law. These are two way of thinking that are not going to be compatible when it comes to the cooperation and development of the DPAL. Even though much cooperation from other tribes has been conducted and alteration of development has been facilitated so to reach a compromise with the effected tribes. The ultimate want for these tribes is that the pipeline simply does not exist, this unfortunately is not a possibility considering much development, time, and resources have been put into the project. Only so much compromise can be made but there must come a point when no more mitigation

“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.