This paper is a summer of chapter 10 in Trauma: Contemporary Directions in Theory, Practice, and Research (Ringel & Brandell, 2012). This chapter review the cultural and historical trauma among Native Americans. In this chapter, when referring to Native Americans, its include hundreds of diverse tribes. According to Ringel and Brandell, each tribe has its own specific cultural rules, beliefs, and practices, appearing in United States these days. Millions identify themselves as Native Americans or Alaska Natives, which makes Americans Indians to be the smallest racial minority in the country. This despite of the fact that the majority of Native Americans that grow up in the reservations live outside of the reservations, and numerous live in …show more content…
To be consider experiencing trauma, the individual have to react to the traumatic event with deep fear, helplessness, or horror. According to the DSM-5 trauma must include three parameters: re-experiencing, avoidance, and arousal (pp. 192-193). In the same way, a whole coulter could be traumatize as well. External factors could set pressure on the culture. An unexpected pressure could overwhelm the cultural structure, inability to cope, and resulted by cultural trauma (p. 191). Native Americans experienced individual and cultural trauma that overwhelmingly influence their lives, in the individual aspect as well as in the communal aspect as well. In addition this trauma is a transgenerational trauma. The influence of past trauma merge together with contemporary trauma, which resulted in collective trauma (p. 192). The phenomena of passage of trauma through the generations called transposition. Some critic of this term suggest that generations suffer from dysfunctional parenting as a result of the trauma, more than the direct trauma itself (p. 198). Native Americans are in high risk for facing trauma, violence, stress-elevating situations. Understanding the way that historical trauma form these experiences and continue to inhibit recovery is the key for culturally focused intervention progress as well as clinical work (p. …show more content…
Native Americans are reclaiming their diverse cultures for empowerment in order to promote recovery and revival for the future generations (p. 213). Efforts to repair a culture should be done on as soon as possible after a culturally traumatic event to support well coping and diminish the effect of traumatic stress and likely culturally destruction. Ringel and Brandell present some steps to minimize the trauma: employ remaining culture in order to assist mange the trauma, facilitate rituals and customs that promote feelings, form self-help opportunities, legitimize the sorrow, establish order and continuity into the posttraumatic period, combine rituals and spaces to transport them out into rehabilitation, rebuild symbolic places, and establish traditional social relationships. Understanding cultural trauma and its influence is vital toward understanding the complex effect of continuing increasing historical trauma (pp.
This paper will discuss the Native American culture and briefly review their history, some beliefs and roles in society today. A short description into their culture with References will be used to show how Native Americans have been affected throughout hundreds of years. The trauma this culture endured has created many barriers, yet one often seen today is their extreme problem with the disease of Alcoholism. The Native American culture has gone through endless struggles, which has cost them to lose so much and still continues to impact them today. They are slowly moving back toward getting benefits that should have been available long ago, but in today’s world Native Americans still battle with many barriers not only in society, but in getting appropriate treatment for mental health or addiction issues.
... Joyce Dorado. "Who Are We, But For The Stories We Tell: Family Stories And Healing." Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, And Policy 2.3 (2010): 243-249. PsycARTICLES. Web. 2 May 2014.
suffering the Native Americans are plagued with as a result of the lack of acceptance towards
Throughout the 1925-1975 period, the Native American population of the United States has faced many obstacles. Just a few years before, they had been suppressed by the federal government’s “Anti-Long Hair” policy for all Native American males. This would set the stage for future cultural restraint on the Indians. However, they continued to fight for equality. All through this time period, the experience of the Native American culture has been a struggle for equality in their homeland.
Aside from what I was taught in school, and how I loved the colors they incorporate into their traditional attire, and how beautiful I thought the women were, I never understood the struggle and the widespread discrimination that they faced. The feelings of physiological distress that any have felt because of the historical trauma definitely makes me view them in different light. Jack Lawson also mentioned that all Native American are affected by alcoholism because of many cultural loss and problems relating to economic issues. This statement definitely encouraged me to do my own research on how and why these statics is so almost thing group of
Historical trauma has brought psychological effects on the Native American community. Many suffer from alcohol and drug abuse, depression, and poverty. I wondered why they do not get help from the government and after watching the documentary California’s “Lost” Tribes I began to understand that in any reservation the tribe is the government, so they do not have the same rights as a city outside the reservation. Many of the the reservations were placed in areas where they could not do any form of agriculture, so they did not have a source of income. Many of this reservations have to find ways to get themselves out of poverty and many of the reservations within California have found a way to get out of their poverty by creating casinos
During World War II, there was a Holocaust that the world will never forget. The word “Holocaust,” means the destruction or slaughter on a mass scale, especially caused by fire or nuclear war. Because of what the Germans did to discriminate the Jews, Jewish people developed trauma which impacted generations. The Germans caused to future generations of Jews, obesity, schizophrenia, certain fears, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and a handful of other things can be passed down to the children. Trauma can be passed to the next generation because it has been proved in scientific research on the Holocaust, testing on mice, and the effects of this post war DNA change today.
A long family tree of mistreatment and undue suffering in addition to present lack of resources and poverty has resulted in considerable distress among tribal members and families living within the majority of reservations today. As a result of such distress and despair, many Native American families living in reservations have been torn apart as alcohol, drugs and family violence have become rampant within their communities. Furthermore, the inaccessibility of most reservations combined with lack of resources proves challenging to provide proper housing for families. In addition, the American Indians make up a minority of the least educated, sickest and poorest people within our country. Suicide is the 2nd leading cause of death for Native American youths in the 15-24 age group and 2.5 times the national rate.
“Trauma is used when describing emotionally painful and distressing experiences or situations that can overwhelm a person’s ability to cope” (John A. Rich, Theodore Corbin, & Sandra Bloom, 2008). Trauma could include deaths, violence, verbal and nonverbal words and actions, discrimination, racism etc. Trauma could result in serious long-term effects on a person’s health, mental stability, and physical body. Judith Herman, from Trauma and Recovery, said “Traumatic events are extraordinary, not because they occur rarely, but rather because they overwhelm the ordinary human adaptations to life” (John A. Rich, Theodore Corbin, & Sandra Bloom, 2008). Trauma does not involve the same experiences for everyone; each individual is unique in that they, and only they, can decide what is traumatic for them.
Despite many problematic dynamics that perpetuate stereotypes of Native Americans or fail to fully and accurately portray them, the audience is provided with a different insight of the actual history regarding Native Americans and white settlers that invoked violence, as the real savages amongst these tribes who resided
Often used as a coping mechanism to deal with PTSD, alcohol abuse throughout modern Aboriginal culture proves to be a major cause for concern. According to a report by Health Canada (2003), 79 percent of individuals in First Nations communities suffered from alcohol abuse, and 59 percent from drug abuse. Additionally, a study conducted by the National Native Addictions Partnership Foundation (2002) found deaths due to alcohol consumption among Aboriginal population to be 43.7 per 100,000, twice the rate of the general population (23.6 per 100,000). Staggering figures when compared to the overall population of Canada, the statistics indicated portray the extensive damage caused by residential schools. The phenomena of historical trauma and Residential School Syndrome are large contributors to the social and cultural epidemic of alcohol abuse in Native communities. With a strong correlation to PTSD, alcohol is also used also to cope with issues beyond that of mental illness, including economic and social hardships, which are not directly related to residential schools. Yet, even when not related to mental illness, alcohol abuse is still the result of interaction with European culture. Prior to the arrival of European colonists in North Ameri...
Native American healing is a general term that combines faith, spirituality, herbal medication, and rites. These healing beliefs and practices are used to care for people with medical and emotional conditions. Granting to the Native Americans, medicine is more about healing the person because they believe that illness arises from spiritual problems. Native American healing might not be capable to heal cancer, but can bear some worthwhile physical, emotional, and spiritual benefits. Religion and healing in Native America are a rich and nuanced discussion of Native Americans views on physical health, storytelling, history, and the future direction of Indigenous learning and discussion.
into the Native American way of life and some of the hardships that can befall the victims
Reinholtz, R. H., Mueklenard, C. L., Phelps, J. L. & Satterfield, A. T. (1995). A review of cultural perpetrator, victim, and situational variables. Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, 5, 91-122
In life, many things are taken for granted on a customary basis. For example, we wake up in the morning and routinely expect to see and hear from certain people. Most people live daily life with the unsighted notion that every important individual in their lives at the moment, will exist there tomorrow. However, in actuality, such is not the case. I too fell victim to the routine familiarity of expectation, until the day reality taught me otherwise.