Native American Culture Summary
There are many diverse groups within the Native Americans dealing with their history, beliefs, rituals, religion and all around culture. This is very important to understand because each different culture group will relate to different aspects of life and Social Workers need to understand this in order to engage and assess with each individual, as well as, the community. Also knowing that each different group will cope with issues in different ways, a specific example would be engaging with people out of their community. Understanding the history of the Native Americans way of life is significant because there are outcomes that have created a certain perspective about engagement within their community.
Gilbert Quintero explores the influence …show more content…
of the Europeans on the outcomes and images that label the Native American role with alcohol. Colonial knowledge has influenced the Native Americans into a different way of life, trying to change their morals and beliefs into the colonizers ideals. Alcohol was a way to “colonize the Indian people to conquer the space, culture and beliefs they have. By doing this it placed a negative bias on the Indians and represented them in incorrect way (Quintero, 2011) Social workers need to understand the true history behind alcoholism in their culture because it was not always like this. Colonizers enable the concepts of social labeling and social problems within certain communities and social workers need to be aware of these markers ad how the problems were created.
Native Americans are the highest to consider a problem within their families. Harford does not explain why, how or to what extent the prevalence of alcohol is within their families. This is a very important subject to understand because there could be other factors that would support why they are more likely to rate their families as having a problem with alcohol. History, background culture, values and beliefs needed to be accounted for because it may have not always been like this (Hartford, 1992) Understanding that Native Americans do relate their families to having an alcohol problem is also very important to understanding the correlation between Native Americans and Alcohol. The micro level, mezzo level as well as the macro level is extremely important for any social worker to understand how to work with the Natives Americans, to help resolve these issues and how to effectively engage and asses the progress that is needed. Essentially the Native American people as a whole experienced “intergenerational trauma” and oppression. Intergenerational trauma means;
Suffering and shock based in events that took placed in the past but whose pain and distress have been passed down from generation to generation because they have never properly healed. The symptoms of intergenerational trauma express themselves through harmful events taking place in the present. (1946)
With an understanding of Native American history, it is easy to see how cultural can play a key part in alcoholism among natives.
Cultural being determined by attitudes, values norms, beliefs, and customs shared by a group of people. Family for most native American tribes consist of the whole tribe, were other tribe members are considered and treated as brothers and sisters. Unlike the western family which is contrived of those living under one roof as the micro family, Native Americans do not have a micro family setting but a mezzo to macro family setting and that is how their culture has always been (Limb). Early Native American culture used altered states of mind for powers of healing, enlightenment, and the facilitation of war-making. Achieving a mind altering state was usually used to protect their people from harm. When the Europeans introduced alcohol to the natives they also taught them how to drink excessively. “Indians were exposed to persistent modeling of antisocial behavior associated with frequent high-dose drinking by soldiers” (Frank p.8). The Native Americans learned antisocial behaviors as well other socially harmful behaviors as the Europeans learned that they could use alcohol to oppress the Native …show more content…
Population.
European s strategically used alcohol as profitable trade good. They also used alcohol as a diplomatic tool in official treaties with the American natives and later it was used in negotiations as they took more land holding from them (Frank p.9). The reduction of their land was a devastating blow to the Native American culture changing their way of hunting, gathering, and all around way of life.
Anxiety, frustration, and anger can result from the personal and social encounters with oppression, social injustice and discrimination. This, along with economic instability could increase the consumption of alcohol. Poor individual treatment is also known to cause low-self-esteem, hopelessness and despair (National p.6). These negative self portraying emotions often lead people to self medication to feel better about them, which is often done through alcohol.
Alcohol is readily available to all socioeconomic groups. Wealth to low incomes, there is an alcoholic beverage for all budgets. It can be an easy escape from the things people do not like about life or themselves, and for many Native Americans it has become a way of life. It is important to look at the reason why a culture drinks, and to work on the reason behind the drinking before other options are followed. Once cultural changes are underway to relearn proper social drinking skills and overcome the oppression which the culture has endured it will be easier to look at alcoholism of Native American from different view, such as genetics.
Cultural difference play a huge role in recovering from alcohol/and or substance abuse. What works for one nationality may not necessarily work for another-pointing out that while A.A. has been very successful, it tends to devalue the differences between nationalities by “focusing on the parallels exhibited by all or most alcoholics.”(Walle, 56)
There has been increasing acknowledgement that different people benefit from specific programs that fit their needs.
Because the AA program was designed by middle class white men and the approach is not necessarily a good fit for other cultures. For example, the Hispanic culture is a very macho culture who may not feel comfortable expressing a powerlessness which is the primary part fo the Alcoholics Anonymous program. Native Americans are a private and modest people who may not feel at ease announcing their shortcomings in a public forum which is highly encouraged at AA meetings. (Walle, 56)
While there is some thought that Native Americans are particularly susceptible to alcoholism due to genetic factors the author believes that this is probably not the case. If one looks at the trauma, cultural genocide and socioeconomic revearsals endured by this culture over the last 150 years this is far more likely to be the cause. One’s culture plays a huge role in our mental health and when that is “forcefully taken away it weakens a person’s emotional well being” as noted by Emile Durkheim in Suicide.(Walle, 57-60,
62).
The Iroqois people of Western New York and Ontario are an impressive people and nation whose complex governmental structure may have been the forerunner of the US Constituition and the Declaration of Independence. They were highly skilled at usig the rivalry between the French and the British and benefitted economically from this. During the revolutionary war things began to turn and by the beginning of the 1800’s they were a beaten people. As a result alcoholism became widespread.
Handsome Lake, who at one time was an esteemed individual of the Iroqoius nation, fell into alcoholism. He became bedridden and was thought to be near death. He collapsed in front of his daughter and appeared to be departed from this world. He was in a trance state and had a vision in which he was instructed by heavenly messengers. After he came out of this trance state he devoted himself to soberness and helping his become culturally reborn.
While he encouraged his people to accept traditions he also helped shape new traditions and have viable economic pursuits-such as farming which had been traditionally a female occupation but became a male occupation- which helped the culture survive and have firmer economic foundation to respond to the changes which would come. He distilled his visions into 6 beliefs which are; 1.embrace tradition, 2.transform tradition, 3.stop alcohol, 4. Admit to errors made, 5. Do not repeat the errors of the past, 6. Heritage and recovery. These beliefs led to the establishment of the long house tradition. (Walle 61-75)
What a social worker must always consider when helping a individual is that not every treatment should be a one-size-fits-all approach and that while a person may find help from a program such as AA it could be supplemented with an alternative that fits the individual and helps them cope with distinct stresses and pressures of their particular culture.
Wellbriety as a whole is doing well helping reduce the recidivism, working in the community which is seeing increase in wellbriety events and increasing participation in groups across the Midwest. One prime example is the Montana prisons which found the state of recidivism was dramatically reduced with the use of the program. (1943)
Quintero, Gilbert. (2001) “Making the Indian: Colonial Knowledge, Alcohol, and Native Americans.” American Indian Culture and Research Journal. 25( 4) 57-71. http://www.metapress.com/content/D7703373656686M4 Walle AH: Native Americans and alcoholism therapy: the example of Handsome Lake as a tool of recovery. Journal of Ethnicity in Substance Abuse 3:55–79, 2004
Frank, J.W., Moore, R.S., Ames, G. M. (2000). Historical and cultural roots of drinking problems among American Indians. American Journal of Public Health, 90(3), 344-351. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx
National Institute on Alcohol abuse and alcoholism. (2005). Module 10h: ethnicity, culture, and alcohol. National Institute of Health, 1-12. Retrieved from http://pubs.niaa,nih.gov
Limb, G. E., Hodge, D. R., & Panos, P. (2008). Social work with Native people: Orienting child welfare workers to the beliefs, values and practices of Native American families and Children. Journal of Public Welfare, 2(3) 383-397. Doi:
Coyhis, D., & Simonelli, R. (2008). The Native American Healing Experience. Substance Use & Misuse, 43(12/13), 1927-1949. doi:10.1080/10826080802292584.
Gilbert Quintero explores the influence …show more content…
of the Europeans on the outcomes and images that label the Native American role with alcohol. Colonial knowledge has influenced the Native Americans into a different way of life, trying to change their morals and beliefs into the colonizers ideals. Alcohol was a way to “colonize the Indian people to conquer the space, culture and beliefs they have. By doing this it placed a negative bias on the Indians and represented them in incorrect way (Quintero, 2011) Social workers need to understand the true history behind alcoholism in their culture because it was not always like this. Colonizers enable the concepts of social labeling and social problems within certain communities and social workers need to be aware of these markers ad how the problems were created.
Native Americans are the highest to consider a problem within their families. Harford does not explain why, how or to what extent the prevalence of alcohol is within their families. This is a very important subject to understand because there could be other factors that would support why they are more likely to rate their families as having a problem with alcohol. History, background culture, values and beliefs needed to be accounted for because it may have not always been like this (Hartford, 1992) Understanding that Native Americans do relate their families to having an alcohol problem is also very important to understanding the correlation between Native Americans and Alcohol. The micro level, mezzo level as well as the macro level is extremely important for any social worker to understand how to work with the Natives Americans, to help resolve these issues and how to effectively engage and asses the progress that is needed. Essentially the Native American people as a whole experienced “intergenerational trauma” and oppression. Intergenerational trauma means;
Suffering and shock based in events that took placed in the past but whose pain and distress have been passed down from generation to generation because they have never properly healed. The symptoms of intergenerational trauma express themselves through harmful events taking place in the present. (1946)
With an understanding of Native American history, it is easy to see how cultural can play a key part in alcoholism among natives.
Cultural being determined by attitudes, values norms, beliefs, and customs shared by a group of people. Family for most native American tribes consist of the whole tribe, were other tribe members are considered and treated as brothers and sisters. Unlike the western family which is contrived of those living under one roof as the micro family, Native Americans do not have a micro family setting but a mezzo to macro family setting and that is how their culture has always been (Limb). Early Native American culture used altered states of mind for powers of healing, enlightenment, and the facilitation of war-making. Achieving a mind altering state was usually used to protect their people from harm. When the Europeans introduced alcohol to the natives they also taught them how to drink excessively. “Indians were exposed to persistent modeling of antisocial behavior associated with frequent high-dose drinking by soldiers” (Frank p.8). The Native Americans learned antisocial behaviors as well other socially harmful behaviors as the Europeans learned that they could use alcohol to oppress the Native …show more content…
Population.
European s strategically used alcohol as profitable trade good. They also used alcohol as a diplomatic tool in official treaties with the American natives and later it was used in negotiations as they took more land holding from them (Frank p.9). The reduction of their land was a devastating blow to the Native American culture changing their way of hunting, gathering, and all around way of life.
Anxiety, frustration, and anger can result from the personal and social encounters with oppression, social injustice and discrimination. This, along with economic instability could increase the consumption of alcohol. Poor individual treatment is also known to cause low-self-esteem, hopelessness and despair (National p.6). These negative self portraying emotions often lead people to self medication to feel better about them, which is often done through alcohol.
Alcohol is readily available to all socioeconomic groups. Wealth to low incomes, there is an alcoholic beverage for all budgets. It can be an easy escape from the things people do not like about life or themselves, and for many Native Americans it has become a way of life. It is important to look at the reason why a culture drinks, and to work on the reason behind the drinking before other options are followed. Once cultural changes are underway to relearn proper social drinking skills and overcome the oppression which the culture has endured it will be easier to look at alcoholism of Native American from different view, such as genetics.
Cultural difference play a huge role in recovering from alcohol/and or substance abuse. What works for one nationality may not necessarily work for another-pointing out that while A.A. has been very successful, it tends to devalue the differences between nationalities by “focusing on the parallels exhibited by all or most alcoholics.”(Walle, 56)
There has been increasing acknowledgement that different people benefit from specific programs that fit their needs.
Because the AA program was designed by middle class white men and the approach is not necessarily a good fit for other cultures. For example, the Hispanic culture is a very macho culture who may not feel comfortable expressing a powerlessness which is the primary part fo the Alcoholics Anonymous program. Native Americans are a private and modest people who may not feel at ease announcing their shortcomings in a public forum which is highly encouraged at AA meetings. (Walle, 56)
While there is some thought that Native Americans are particularly susceptible to alcoholism due to genetic factors the author believes that this is probably not the case. If one looks at the trauma, cultural genocide and socioeconomic revearsals endured by this culture over the last 150 years this is far more likely to be the cause. One’s culture plays a huge role in our mental health and when that is “forcefully taken away it weakens a person’s emotional well being” as noted by Emile Durkheim in Suicide.(Walle, 57-60,
62).
The Iroqois people of Western New York and Ontario are an impressive people and nation whose complex governmental structure may have been the forerunner of the US Constituition and the Declaration of Independence. They were highly skilled at usig the rivalry between the French and the British and benefitted economically from this. During the revolutionary war things began to turn and by the beginning of the 1800’s they were a beaten people. As a result alcoholism became widespread.
Handsome Lake, who at one time was an esteemed individual of the Iroqoius nation, fell into alcoholism. He became bedridden and was thought to be near death. He collapsed in front of his daughter and appeared to be departed from this world. He was in a trance state and had a vision in which he was instructed by heavenly messengers. After he came out of this trance state he devoted himself to soberness and helping his become culturally reborn.
While he encouraged his people to accept traditions he also helped shape new traditions and have viable economic pursuits-such as farming which had been traditionally a female occupation but became a male occupation- which helped the culture survive and have firmer economic foundation to respond to the changes which would come. He distilled his visions into 6 beliefs which are; 1.embrace tradition, 2.transform tradition, 3.stop alcohol, 4. Admit to errors made, 5. Do not repeat the errors of the past, 6. Heritage and recovery. These beliefs led to the establishment of the long house tradition. (Walle 61-75)
What a social worker must always consider when helping a individual is that not every treatment should be a one-size-fits-all approach and that while a person may find help from a program such as AA it could be supplemented with an alternative that fits the individual and helps them cope with distinct stresses and pressures of their particular culture.
Wellbriety as a whole is doing well helping reduce the recidivism, working in the community which is seeing increase in wellbriety events and increasing participation in groups across the Midwest. One prime example is the Montana prisons which found the state of recidivism was dramatically reduced with the use of the program. (1943)
Quintero, Gilbert. (2001) “Making the Indian: Colonial Knowledge, Alcohol, and Native Americans.” American Indian Culture and Research Journal. 25( 4) 57-71. http://www.metapress.com/content/D7703373656686M4 Walle AH: Native Americans and alcoholism therapy: the example of Handsome Lake as a tool of recovery. Journal of Ethnicity in Substance Abuse 3:55–79, 2004
Frank, J.W., Moore, R.S., Ames, G. M. (2000). Historical and cultural roots of drinking problems among American Indians. American Journal of Public Health, 90(3), 344-351. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx
National Institute on Alcohol abuse and alcoholism. (2005). Module 10h: ethnicity, culture, and alcohol. National Institute of Health, 1-12. Retrieved from http://pubs.niaa,nih.gov
Limb, G. E., Hodge, D. R., & Panos, P. (2008). Social work with Native people: Orienting child welfare workers to the beliefs, values and practices of Native American families and Children. Journal of Public Welfare, 2(3) 383-397. Doi:
Coyhis, D., & Simonelli, R. (2008). The Native American Healing Experience. Substance Use & Misuse, 43(12/13), 1927-1949. doi:10.1080/10826080802292584.