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

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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. 

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Posted by: Bailey Silver 2/23/2012