Forced Sterilization of Native American Women

 

Genocide: is an act committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, of a national, ethical, racial, or religious group.

Acts of Genocide:

1)      Killing members of that group

2)      Causing serious bodily or mental harm to the group

3)      Deliberately inflicting condition of life meant to bring about the destruction of the group in whole or in part

4)      Imposing measures intended to prevent birth in the group

5)      Transferring Children of the group to another group

Prior to WWII the United States actively practiced force sterilization on anyone considered unfit for reproduction. This generally included people who were mentally retarded, mentally ill, deaf, blind, people with epilepsy, and physically deformed. The idea of forced sterilization was purposed by Eugenics. Eugenics is the bio-social movement which supporters the use of practices aimed at improving the genetic composition of a population.  Eugenic policies have been divided into two categories. Positive Eugenics: encourages reproduction among the genetically advantaged. Possible approaches include financial and political stimuli, in vitro fertilization, egg transplants, and cloning. Negative Eugenics: aimed at lowering fertility among the genetically disadvantaged. This includes abortions, and sterilization. After learning that many of the Nazi practices sprung from American Eugenics, the US abandoned its practice of forced sterilization on the feebleminded.

The last evidence of legally sanctioned eugenics started in 1970 when concern about overpopulation in the United States became official Federal policy under the Nixon administration. On March 16^th 1970 President Nixon signed the Family Planning Act into law. The purpose of this law was to make family planning information and services available on a voluntary basis to those who may not be able to afford them. What it really did was create a financial incentive to sterilize deceptively. The Family Planning Act quickly became a means of population control which targeted poor minorities. With a large majority of Native Americans living below the poverty line this act would affect them the most.

The Indian Health Services or IHS is responsible for providing medical and public health services to members of federally recognized Tribes and Alaska Natives. In 1970 the IHS initiated its sterilization campaign, paid 100% by federal funds.  Between 1970 and 1998 40% of Native American women were sterilized at these health services. Most of these women were sterilized without their knowledge. They would come into the IHS for other medical reasons such as having their tonsils removed only to have their ovaries removed. In an attempt to get consent for sterilization some Native Women faced threats that they would die or lose their welfare benefits if they had more children.

Below are some stories of Native women who suffered from forced Sterilization:

In 1970 welfare case workers removed Norma Jean Serena's daughter and 2 sons from her home claiming she was an unfit mother and must consent to a tubal ligation. Three years later Serena sued for the return of her children from foster care. During trial, attorneys for Serena questioned the "evidence" on which welfare case workers had decided to take her children and recommend her sterilization. The main "problem" seemed to have been the fact that black friends of Serena visited her home, as reported by anonymous tipsters in the neighborhood who emphasized fear for their own children. While one caseworker described Serena's apartment as "dirty and unkempt," and her children as "undernourished and dazed," unable to walk, speak, or hold eating utensils, a doctor who examined the children shortly afterwards found them "alert and in good health."

In 1970 a Native American woman entered the office of a Los Angeles physician seeking a "womb transplant" because she had been having trouble getting pregnant. The doctor told the woman that her ovaries had been removed and it cannot be reversed. The operation had been performed under false pretenses.

This is only a few of many stories of Native women who had been forced into sterilization. The General Accounting office whose study only covered 4 of the 12 IHS regions states that between 1973 – 1976 3,406 Native Women were sterilized under the Family Planning Act. This is undoubtedly a crime against Humanity and a form of Genocide. 40% of the Native population is unable to have children. Considering how few Native Americans were left after European/American colonization it is unconceivable that this was done to them in the 20^th century.

Lauren Percy

Sorces:

www.ehow.com

www.paratical.org

Movie: The Canary Effect

As we have focused on the violence against Native communities in our previous blogs, we would now like to post something more positive that is helping Native communities in the Northwest region.  The Native communities in Portland have something they call:
Portland's Native American Community
Making the Invisible Visible:
http://www.oneskycenter.org/documents/MakingVisible_FINAL.pdf
Despite everything fighting against Native communities, this organization works to develop heritage and traditional values within their community.  In addition to this, One Sky Center (http://www.oneskycenter.org/) works to help and fight substance abuse within Native communities.

While structural violence and historical trauma are things that cannot be taken back at this point in time, there is help in several places.

Portland has one of the largest Native communities in the country.

Mt. Hood, Oregon

http://beautifulplacestovisit.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/Mount_Hood_Oregon1_Trillium_Lake1.jpg

Bailey Silver, Emily Thomas, Molly Dietz

Studying Historical Trauma Effects on Native American Children

The University of Minnesota completed several studies focusing on children’s mental health in relation to trauma. The studies were created to improve the understanding of students studying social work or welfare. The studies are most helpful to these students because the increasing number of white students studying social work need to understand the past and present of the diverse population of people they will be working with.

A 2010 study of the United States population shows about thirty percent of Native Americans in the U.S. are children. This is a higher population percent of children than any other ethnic group. Native American children are also over represented in the child welfare system in many states. With Native American children being the bulk of the Native American population, the focus of trauma really needs to be centered on the kids. Minnesota is a perfect example of a state with an over representation of Native American kids with 13% of all children in foster care, many dealing with historical trauma. A study held in 2008 showed there were 1,798 Native American children from Minnesota in out of home care. As we have discussed in class, historical trauma is pain felt across generations of a group of people. It differs from other forms of trauma because historical trauma is a shared experience, transmitted from parents to kids consciously and subconsciously.

The above population of Native American children typically suffers from historical trauma as well as microaggression. What is very interesting about trauma in children is how they exhibit the historical pain or pressure. Many kids may exhibit trauma due to similar circumstances as past generations (for example, the forced boarding school Molly discusses) but these children are also at greater risk for higher trauma when exposed to new stresses. The historical trauma felt by these Native American kids could be caused by any number of historical events their families and communities were involved in. Often, “children who have experienced historical trauma often don’t meet the PTSD diagnosis” and are diagnosed with unresolved grief, elevated drug usage rates, depression, and anxiety; which are among the many subjects social workers come across when working with this population (page 4). The article states how important it is for social work students to have a greater understanding of this specific type of trauma in order to actually help this large population of children in the Minnesota area.

Microaggression is current events that involve daily hassles, racism or discrimination targeted at a population from a diverse ethnic group. These Native American children feel Microaggression when people continuously ask ‘are you a real Indian’, act rudely about their heritage, and through verbal and physical attacks. These microaggressive actions can be suppressed on an instance-by-instance basis but the build up and continuation of this type of action daily results in stronger negative trauma than dealing with the historical trauma alone.

Campbell and Walters, two scholars on the subject, outline how the welfare system could assist this population of Native American youth. Methods they give include learning about the pre-colonial history of the youth’s community, the need for supporting community grief ceremonies, highlighting resilience in the community, and teaching the kids about the “difference between their original culture and what was forced upon them due to historical traumatic events” (page 5).

With the current population of Native Americans being child heavy the focus of the inner community and surrounding community should be on these children. With a social work or welfare system that better understands what these children may be going through or suffering from will hopefully allow for a better personal connection with the kids and greater individual assistance with historical trauma. 

Emily Thomas

Source: http://www.cmh.umn.edu/ereview/cmhereviewOct10.pdf

Native American's Education Trauma

One of the most serious wounds to Native American success has been committed by the American Education system. Native languages and cultures are being lost, partially due to federal and state education policies over the last two centuries that called for an “Americanization” of Native students.

The government called it a solution to the “Indian Problem,” but to the Indians who went to the boarding schools, it was a time of abuse and disintegration of culture. Floyd Red Crow Westerman, a performer and Indian activist, was haunted by his days at the Wahpeton Indian Boarding School. Westerman spent his entire childhood in a boarding school away from his tribe and family. He sang about his experiences growing up: “You put me in your boarding school, made me learn your white man rule, be a fool.”

The federal government began sending American Indians off the reservation to boarding schools in the 1870s, when the US was still at war with Indians. An Army officer, Richard Pratt founded the first of these schools. He based it on an education program he developed in an Indian Prison. He described his philosophy in an 1892 speech: “A great general has said that the only good Indian is a dead one. In a sense, I agree with the sentiment, but only in this: that all Indian there is in the race should be dead. Kill the Indian in him, and save the man.”

The schools forbade its students from expressing their culture. Everything from wearing long hair to speaking a single Indian word was prohibited. Bill Wright, a Pattwin Indian, said he lost not only his language, but also his American Indian name. He powerfully stated, “I remember coming home and my grandma asked me to talk Indian to her and I said, ‘Grandma, I don’t understand you,’ ‘Then who are you?’ She said. The intent of the schools was to completely transform people, inside and out. Language, religion, family structure, economics, livelihood, the way they expressed emotion, everything was completely changed. In the 1960s, a congressional report found that many teachers still saw their roles as civilizing American Indian students, not educating them.

In 1928 it was found that Native American students were on average 6 grades behind their white peers. Today Native American students are still struggling to attain a decent education. 64% of Native Americans polled to feel discomfort being in the presence of white people because of past and present injustices. More then a half of Indian students enrolled in public schools drop out of school before graduation. The most frequent reason Navajo dropouts gave for leaving school was that they were board. January 1992 issue of the Journal of American Indian Education, Donna Deyhle quotes a Native student: “The way I see it seems like the whites don't want to get involved with the Indians. They think we're bad. We drink. Our families drink. Dirty. Ugly. And the teachers don't want to help us. They say, "Oh, no, there is another Indian asking a question" because they don't understand. So we stop asking questions.”

However, steps are being made to rectify the Native American education system in order to right the years of oppression. In December 2011 president Obama announced his Executive Order on Improving American Indian Educational Opportunities and Strengthening Tribal Colleges and Universities. The executive order focuses on lowering the dropout rate of Native students; furthering determination and ensuring that student have an opportunity to learn native histories and languages while reviving a complete and competitive education. The goal is to prepare Native students for productive careers once they graduate.

The Native American education history in the US is an extensive example of historical violence and its subsequent historical trauma. Native Americans were systematically denied of a proper education because of their race and culture. The effects of the boarding schools have been felt through the generations, with a loss of identity and loss of history. Furthermore, discrimination of Native Americans is still a significant issue and the feeling of persecution is still engraved in the native collective memory.

Molly Dietz

Historical Trauma/Structural Violence Leading to Interpersonal Violence of Native Women in America

http://professorjc.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/violence.jpg

Structural Violence: “A form of violence where some social structure or social institution harms people by preventing them from meeting their basic needs.  Institutionalized elitism, ethnocentrism, classism, racism, sexism, adultism, nationalism, heterosexism, and ageism are some examples of structural violence as proposed by [Johan] Galtung.  Structural violence and direct violence are said to be highly interdependent, including family violence, racial violence, hate crimes, terrorism, genocide, and war.” (Pena ppt, Anth 211, Week 6)

Intergenerational Historical Trauma:

1.      Cumulative emotional and psychological wounding, over the lifespan and across generations, emanating from massive group trauma experiences.

2.      May include substance abuse as a vehicle for attempting to numb the pain associated with trauma.

3.      Often includes the other types of self-destructive behavior, suicidal thoughts and gestures, depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, anger, and difficulty recognizing and expressing emotions.

4.      Historical trauma is an example of intergenerational trauma, which is the general idea that a trauma an individual experiences in an earlier generation can have effects that reach into the lives of future generations.

(Pena ppt, Anth 211, Week 6)

The former two definitions are a prevalent part of Native cultures.  Historical trauma and structural violence are highly interlocked in the way the two feed off of each other and the way the two interact.  Structural violence and historical trauma promotes interpersonal violence which stems from the displacement of Native people.  Aside from the fact that displacement is still happening, and whether or not a person themselves has been physically displaced, the effects of the trauma can be felt for many generations to follow.  In the case of many native cultures, there is no word for “individual” nor is there a word for “I” and to follow that, there also is not a word for “relocate”.  To relocate in native cultures is to die.

Survivors of interpersonal violence also become perpetrators of the same type of violence.  Are they to blame?  Is this something that can be prevented from an individual sense?  Is this something that can just stop happening?  The answer to the previous questions is NO.  Interpersonal violence is a result of structural violence which denies people their basic needs in order to live a well-balanced life.  In this country, we have a preconceived notion as to what is socially acceptable and what is personally acceptable.  We fail to take in to account the type of lifestyle that a person WANTS to live and we often fail to take in to account what a traditional type of lifestyle is for any given group or individual.  In an article written by Edna Steinman on the report of Maria Yellow Horse Brave Heart’s research she says, “Historical trauma generates such responses as survivor guilt, depression, low self-esteem, psychic numbing, anger, victim identity, death identity, thoughts of suicide, preoccupation with trauma, and physical symptoms, Brave Heart said.” (http://www.umc.org/site/c.gjJTJbMUIuE/b.928147/k.CB36/Native_Americans_suffer_from_historical_trauma_researcher_says.htm)

All that being said, the focus on Native women specifically, is often overlooked.  The  amount of interpersonal violence Native women face is a high percentage and what has happened if often more dramatic than one could think.  According to www.pbs.org/indiancountry/.../trauma.html 65% of urban Indian women living in New York City had experienced some kind of interpersonal violence in their lives.  Within that statistic, 28% have experienced childhood physical abuse, 48% have experienced rape and 40% have a history of domestic violence.  The math on these statistics adds up to over 100% which means that most women within the 65% category have experienced multiple traumas of this nature. 

All of these factors being taken into account, how can we help Native American women and Native Americans in general?  Like every other community, an increase of communication and an increase of self-worth will always help a person and their community be more confident.  Again from Steinman’s report of Brave Heart’s research she suggests a solution for helping not only Native American women but the Native community in general by saying, “The positive outcomes needed to overcome this intergenerational trauma are a reduction in shame, a better feeling of self-worth, an increase in joy and health, a stronger sense of parental competence, greater use of traditional language, an improved relationship with children and the extended family, and increased communication, she said.” (http://www.umc.org/site/c.gjJTJbMUIuE/b.928147/k.CB36/Native_Americans_suffer_from_historical_trauma_researcher_says.htm)

Even though the fix for Native communities will not come overnight, there are many things society can do in order to help their neighboring people.  While the government can never replace the land they took, they can start by reevaluating the structures they have set in place.  If we can begin to fix the structural violence that is current in our everyday lives, then we can begin to make the intergenerational historical trauma right. 

http://www.calbarjournal.com/Portals/1/images/2011/NativeAmeriWomen-c.jpg

Posted by: Bailey Silver 2/23/2012