Racism causes PTSD in DSM-5

Changes In DSM-5: Racism Can Cause PTSD Similar To That Of Soldiers After War

Updates to the recently released DSM-5 could potentially transform how race-based traumas are diagnosed in ethnic minorities.

By Nadia-Elysse HarrisDr. Monnica T. Williams suggests that proposed changes in the criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in the fifth edition of the Diagnostic Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) could increase the potential for better recognition of race-based trauma in racial and ethnic minorities.

In a recent article in Psychology Today, Williams, who is a clinical psychologist and the associate director of the University of Louisville's Center for Mental Health Disparities, said that before the release of the DSM-5 Thursday, racism was recognized as a trauma that could potentially cause PTSD, but only in relation to a specific event. There had to be an incident of intense fear, helplessness, or horror for such consideration. For instance, if someone was assaulted in a racially-motivated event, then racism qualified as a sufficient trauma to be categorized as a cause of PTSD.

But now, under the new definition, the requirements for fear, helplessness, and horror have been removed, making room for the more lasting effects of subtle racism to be considered in the discussion of race-based traumas.

In 2011, researchers found that African Americans who reported experiences of racial discrimination had higher odds of suffering from generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). An article on PsychCentral termed the phenomenon as "racial battle fatigue, saying that "exposure to racial discrimination is analogous to the constant pressure soldiers face on the battlefield."

"While the term [racial battle fatigue] is certainly not trying to say that the conditions are exactly what soldiers face on a battlefield, it borrows from the idea that stress is created in chronically unsafe or hostile environments," said Dr. Jose Soto, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology at University of California, Berkeley.Comment:  I've written about this subject several times. For instance, in:

Racism linked to addictive behavior
Indians suffer toxic stress
"Thick dark fog" = PTSD
Subtle racism = psychological torture

I'd call it common sense that being persecuted and discriminated against is psychologically harmful. So I'm glad to see the psychological community is finally recognizing this.

Of course, this point also applies to the less virulent forms of racism such as stereotyping. That's what we're talking when we talk about things like "subtle racism," "unconscious racism," and "microaggression."

Being portrayed as a whooping savage in a headdress every day takes a psychological toll. Contrary to the unfounded saying, words and images will hurt you.

For more on the subject, see "Why Can't Indians Just Move On?" and Unabomber Shows Effects of Stress.

"Why can’t Indians just move on?"

In his new book, Anton Treuer does what the title suggests. I thought one answer was particularly interesting--and not obvious to non-Indians:

Book Excerpt: Everything You Wanted to Know About Indians But Were Afraid to Ask

By Anton TreuerWhy can’t Indians just move on?

Historical trauma is a complicated subject. It’s kind of like this. Someone was hitting the Indian in the head with a hammer for decades, and it did a lot of damage. Now the government is (for the most part) done hitting the Indian in the head with a hammer. But there is still all this damage that takes a very long time to repair. And the government is not interested in repairing the damage—it all happened in the past. So Indians are left to heal themselves. Language and culture loss, many health issues, substance abuse, the educational opportunity gap, lack of economic opportunity, and many other problems in Indian country can be directly attributed to specific government policies. It’s easy to push people into a pit, but it can be very hard for them to climb back out.

Another way to look at it is this. If a husband cheats on his wife but then decides he wants to reconcile the relationship and make it work, he cannot say, “It all happened in the past. Just forget about it.” Making peace has to start with him saying, “Hey, I did you wrong. I am sorry. And it will never happen again.” Then there is a chance that they can reconcile the relationship. That is a fair analogy to what happened with the U.S. government and the Indian. Instead of cheating in a marriage, the U.S. government used genocidal warfare, residential boarding schools, suppression of religious freedom and a host of pernicious policies against Indians. But the government has never even said that it was wrong, much less apologized, much less tried to make things right. And every time the government comes up with a new English-only law, or ignores the 50 percent unemployment rate in some Indian communities, or allows a state like Arizona to ban the teaching of ethnic studies in public schools, or tries to renege on or renegotiate a promised treaty right, Indians see it as another hammer blow to an ancient wound. The historical baggage and the ongoing damage make it very difficult for Indians to move on, discard anger, forgive, or heal. And the fact that most Americans have no understanding of this dynamic makes the struggle all the more frustrating,Comment:  For more on intergenerational trauma, see Unabomber Shows Effects of Stress and Childhood Stress Causes Adult Problems.

Unabomber shows effects of stress

A friend's Facebook posting:Was watching Dark Matters on the Science Channel. They did a story about a psychologist who did groundbreaking studies on personality. His goal was to separate the different aspects of a person's personality so he could study them. His favorite subject was a 17-year-old math prodigy who was such a conformist that they nicknamed him "Lawful." For three years this subject underwent intense mental testing where his core beliefs were scrutinized and attacked. He was also forced to watch films of himself being insulted. After the study, Lawful went onto graduate from Harvard, earning a PhD in Mathematics. He suffered nightmares and flashbacks however, and eventually left society. Lawful eventually became known as the Unabomber. True story.Other articles confirm this information:

Harvard and the Making of the Unabomber

By Alston ChaseNo. 7 Divinity Avenue is a modern multi-story academic building today, housing the university's Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology. In 1959 a comfortable old house stood on the site. Known as the Annex, it served as a laboratory in which staff members of the Department of Social Relations conducted research on human subjects. There, from the fall of 1959 through the spring of 1962, Harvard psychologists, led by Henry A. Murray, conducted a disturbing and what would now be seen as ethically indefensible experiment on twenty-two undergraduates. To preserve the anonymity of these student guinea pigs, experimenters referred to individuals by code name only. One of these students, whom they dubbed "Lawful," was Theodore John Kaczynski, who would one day be known as the Unabomber, and who would later mail or deliver sixteen package bombs to scientists, academicians, and others over seventeen years, killing three people and injuring twenty-three.Murray Center Seals Kaczynski Data

By Kirsten G. StudlienAuthor Alston Chase suggested in a recent Atlantic Monthly article that Kaczynski's participation in the Murray study might have pushed him over the edge from an isolated student to a revolutionary against science and society. Kaczynski's bomb attacks often targeted science professors and airline executives.

Called "Multiform Assessments of Personality Development Among Gifted College Men," the study consumed hundreds of hours of participants' time over three years.

In one part of the experiment, subjects were pressured to respond to questions asked under extreme duress, with bright lights and cameras pointed at them and electrodes attached to their bodies.

Dr. Ross Neissuler, who also took part in the study, said that participants also took the Thematic Apperception Test, a psychological test that Murray himself developed.

The experiences left some participants scarred for life.

Chase cites several other participants in the study who were quite disturbed by the experience, and remembered years later how angry, frightened and violated they felt. Chase suggests that feelings of this kind might have driven Kaczynski to lash out against society.Comment:  We see various people who lash out at themselves or others more often that average. Kids from dysfunctional homes...soldiers returning from war...minorities who experience poverty and racism...et al.

These articles confirm what I've said many times. Namely, that antisocial behavior such as crime, substance abuse, or suicide is triggered by environmental stress. If you alienate or abuse people, it's not surprising when they grow confused or angry and strike back. Murray apparently wasn't trying to create disturbed or sick people, but that's what he did.

Which is not to say kids from dysfunctional homes, soldiers returning from war, and minorities who experience poverty and racism are like the Unabomber. The only thing I'm saying they have in common is suffering stress from external sources. If they turn out wrong, it's because they were made, not born.

For more on the subject, see Childhood Stress Causes Adult Problems and Indians Suffer Toxic Stress.

Native with "professional voice" goes unrecognized

An article about Native education includes a telling anecdote about stereotypes:

Montana Natives Aim to Educate Against Hate

By Adrian JawortRegarding the “Indians are all drunks” stereotype, Brien says since Natives are a collectivist society, people with addiction problems will leave reservations to deal with their addiction away from their families. Those are often the Natives city people come across, and thus they base their illusions of the entire group on them. Even if one did want help with their addiction, Brien says they’d have to wait up to two months before being evaluated at a local Indian Health Service clinic. “A person with an addiction problem that wants help can’t often wait that long.”

Familial patterns of addiction combined with historical trauma, poverty, and undiagnosed learning disabilities make for a harsh cycle that’s hard to break out of.“These stereotypes are so interconnected that you can’t solve one without dealing with the other,” Brien said.

A former newspaper reporter for The Billings Gazette, Brien related an anecdote of how she was assigned to write a story about miniature horses. She called the interviewee using a “reporter voice,” and they enthusiastically agreed to the interview. When she showed up and knocked on the door, there was no answer. After going to the door a second time after calling to verify it was the correct house, she saw the curtains rustling from inside the house, but they still wouldn’t answer. Brien said, “They heard my voice, but they saw my face, and they didn’t make the connection because I have the ability to use a professional voice.”

Although she can joke about it now and says maybe the woman thought “that Indian woman was going to steal her tiny ponies,” she said, “People just make assumptions about us. There may be some truth to these stereotypes, but it’s snowballed into something much bigger, into a belief that’s so negative that they don’t even realize they’re assuming something because they think its fact.”Comment:  For more on the subject, see Natives Can't Be Professors?! and Modern Indians Are Less Native?

Childhood stress causes adult problems

The Psych Approach

By David BrooksIn Paul Tough’s essential book, “How Children Succeed,” he describes what’s going on. Childhood stress can have long lasting neural effects, making it harder to exercise self-control, focus attention, delay gratification and do many of the other things that contribute to a happy life.

Tough interviewed a young lady named Monisha, who was pulled out of class by a social worker, taken to a strange foster home and forbidden from seeing her father for months. “I remember the first day like it was yesterday. Every detail. I still have dreams about it. I feel like I’m going to be damaged forever.”

Monisha’s anxiety sensors are still going full blast. “If a plane flies over me, I think they’re going to drop a bomb. I think about my dad dying,” she told Tough. “When I get scared, I start shaking. My heart starts beating. I start sweating. You know how people say ‘I was scared to death’? I get scared that that’s really going to happen to me one day.”

Tough’s book is part of what you might call the psychologizing of domestic policy. In the past several decades, policy makers have focused on the material and bureaucratic things that correlate to school failure, like poor neighborhoods, bad nutrition, schools that are too big or too small. But, more recently, attention has shifted to the psychological reactions that impede learning—the ones that flow from insecure relationships, constant movement and economic anxiety.Cuddle Your Kid!

By Nicholas D. KristofOne University of Minnesota study that began in the 1970s followed 267 children of first-time low-income mothers for nearly four decades. It found that whether a child received supportive parenting in the first few years of life was at least as good a predictor as I.Q. of whether he or she would graduate from high school.

This may illuminate one way that poverty replicates itself from generation to generation. Children in poor households grow up under constant stress, disproportionately raised by young, single mothers also under tremendous stress, and the result may be brain architecture that makes it harder for the children to thrive at school or succeed in the work force.

Yet the cycle can be broken, and the implication is that the most cost-effective way to address poverty isn’t necessarily housing vouchers or welfare initiatives or prison-building. Rather, it may be early childhood education and parenting programs.

Scholars like James Heckman of the University of Chicago and Dr. Jack Shonkoff of Harvard have pioneered this field, and decades of fascinating research is now wonderfully assembled in Paul Tough’s important new book, “How Children Succeed.” Long may this book dwell on the best-seller lists!

As Tough suggests, the evidence is mounting that conservatives are right about some fundamental issues relating to poverty. For starters, we can’t talk just about welfare or tax policy but must also consider culture and character.

“There is no antipoverty tool we can provide for disadvantaged young people that will be more valuable,” Tough writes, than grit, resilience, perseverance and optimism.

Yet conservatives sometimes mistakenly see that as the end of the conversation.

“This science suggests a very different reality,” Tough writes. “It says that the character strengths that matter so much to young people’s success are not innate; they don’t appear in us magically, as a result of good luck or good genes. And they are not simply a choice. They are rooted in brain chemistry, and they are molded, in measurable and predictable ways, by the environment in which kids grow up. That means the rest of us—society as a whole—can do an enormous amount to influence their development.”The following study provides evidence for this position:

New Version of Classic Marshmallow Experiment Upends Original Conclusions

In it, a marshmallow was placed before young children, who were told to wait for it. The original experiment concluded that those who waited longer succeeded later in life. In shorthand:

Character => success

But in the revised experiment, the researchers withheld art supplies from one group of children before testing them with the marshmallow. Those who had been frustrated this way were much quicker to take the marshmallow. In shorthand:

Environment => character => stress

Conclusion

The implications of this study are obvious. As in Tough's book, kids in an unstable or unpredictable environment are more likely to avoid stress and seek comfort. That means dropping out of school or a job and pursuing sex, drugs, or gang affiliation. Which leads to a criminal record, a disease, or an unwanted pregnancy. The kids aren't "weak" because of their race or culture. They simply lack the mental maturity most of us take for granted. Any person raised in that environment would come out roughly the same.

This must be the 10th or 20th item I've posted on the subject of why poverty happens. Again, it's not because people are lazy and don't work hard enough. It's because environmental factors rob people of their ability to focus, learn, and apply themselves.

These people are victims of circumstance, which is why we denounce those who blame the victim. They often can't overcome their handicaps by themselves, but they can with our help. As Kristof says, we can and should do whatever we can to influence their development.

For more on the subject, see:

GOP America:  strivers vs. parasites
Social factors affect intelligence
Romney:  47% are moochers
America's "bootstrap theology"
Conservatives admit welfare-bashing is racial

Cree girl pretends to be Portuguese

Change Happens

By Sarah KoiMy name is Sarah. I was born in Vancouver on May 20th 1989 by a pure blooded, beautiful Nêhiyaw (Cree) woman. My mother struggled in Vancouver’s, ‘Streets of Plenty.” The intergenerational trauma of Residential School and the breakdown of family left an open wound that riddled my bloodline with addiction, abuse and sickness. She died from an overdose in 1995; I never got to meet her. I’m not quite sure if I was taken or given up at birth. Either way, my biological mother could not care for me, thus I was adopted into a European family. This is my story as a colonized Cree.

I had always considered myself to be white. I knew no other way of life. My parents are from Finland. They speak Finnish, think Finnish, and live their lives as devoted Christians. For many years, actually for the majority of my life--I felt perfectly comfortable being Finnish or white. I had no clue what an ‘Indian’ was. I only knew of Indians on Hastings Street, the scary kind. I grew up with absolutely no Aboriginal culture or peoples around me. I wouldn’t say I was taught that Indians were ‘evil’, but somehow I developed this belief as a young child. I remember seeing the Totem poles in Vancouver parks. I was afraid of the carvings. I remember hearing the beating of drums while camping near Kelowna. I covered my ears because the sound terrorized me.

I wouldn’t say my parents are racist, but rather misinformed, or stuck in their influenced perceptions and ideas of Indigenous peoples and our struggle. They only see the statistics and thank God, Jesus, and Lord that I was saved from the savages! (No, my life has not been easy or handed to me--nor was I necessarily ‘saved.’ I was not immune to drugs, abuse and alcohol.)

During elementary and high school I faced exclusion and racism in different forms of physical, emotional and even spiritual abuse from students, strangers and church members. I remember being at private Christian schools and having basketballs thrown at my head, having my nose busted up and being called a “Chug” too many times to count. I didn’t have Cree pride to protect me. I couldn’t care less if someone was attacking my heritage. I was angry that I had the features of an Indian worthy of discrimination.

Around age 14 I began to lie about my identity. I would tell people that I was Portuguese or Hispanic. I even dyed my hair blonde and put blue contact lenses in. Looking back at that time in my life, I realize this self-hatred was the intergenerational effects of my Native history and policies of assimilation. “To kill in the Indian in the child;” this is exactly what I was doing to myself, and sadly no one stopped me.Comment:  Do the math on this one, people. This didn't happen during the boarding-school era, in the mid-20th century. You know, when tribes were terminated and children were placed in white environments so they could become "good Christians." Sarah started pretending she was Portuguese in 2003.

This is a perfect example of how trauma gets passed down from one generation to the next. Sarah's mother was an addict, so Sarah was raised white, with no knowledge of her roots. This dislocation led her to "drugs, abuse and alcohol," just as staying with her mother would've done. Either way she faced challenges that most of us don't have to deal with.

As a child, Sarah didn't have the maturity or coping mechanisms to handle the bullying she received. That's how poverty and racism conspire to keep Indians and other minorities downtrodden. And it's idiocy for white folks to tell these people to "just get over it." If someone physically and verbally abused your child, I guarantee you'd blame the victimizer, not the victim.

Fortunately, things turned out okay for Sarah, as you can see if you read the rest of her essay. Intergenerational trauma isn't a death sentence, but it's a huge obstacle that not everyone can overcome.

For more on the subject, see Racism Linked to Addictive Behavior and Indians Suffer Toxic Stress.

Below:  "Lastrealindians.com Writing Contest winner Sarah Koi."

Racism linked to addictive behavior

New study links anti-aboriginal racism to drug use and gambling problems

By Gordon KentAboriginal Edmonton residents face such high levels of discrimination that it’s apparently pushing them toward prescription drug and gambling abuse, a new study has found.

About 83 per cent of respondents to a 2010 questionnaire had experienced racism at least once in the past year, far more prejudice than black and Latino Americans see in a lifetime, according to research led by University of Lethbridge epidemiologist Cheryl Currie.

This poor treatment, which happens most often in public places, schools, stores and restaurants, can lead to post-traumatic stress disorders that are linked to problems with drugs and gambling for people living in cities.

“It’s the first study to show a link between racism and gambling among any population in the world that we’re aware of,” said Currie, an assistant professor in the U of L faculty of health sciences.

“I wasn’t expecting this … I didn’t think racism to be so high and I didn’t expect it to be so strongly correlated with prescription drug dependence and gambling, especially through PTSD.”

Hilda Francis, an aboriginal woman who has lived in Edmonton for about 30 years, said she runs into some form of racism two or three times a year.

She and a co-worker were told to leave a department store for no reason at the beginning of June and an employee wanted to look through their bags at the door, which Francis said she refused to allow.Comment:  For more on the subject, see Indians Suffer Toxic Stress and Subtle Racism = Psychological Torture.

Below:  "Hilda Francis, who works for Boyle street Community Services, talks about her experiences with discrimination as an aboriginal Edmonton resident." (Greg Southam, edmontonjournal.com)

Indians suffer toxic stress

Science explains some of the world's poverty and crime. This applies to poor Americans in general and poor Indians in particular.

A Poverty Solution That Starts With a Hug

By Nicholas F. KristofThis month, the American Academy of Pediatrics is issuing a landmark warning that this toxic stress can harm children for life. I’m as skeptical as anyone of headlines from new medical studies (Coffee is good for you! Coffee is bad for you!), but that’s not what this is.

Rather, this is a “policy statement” from the premier association of pediatricians, based on two decades of scientific research. This has revolutionary implications for medicine and for how we can more effectively chip away at poverty and crime.

Toxic stress might arise from parental abuse of alcohol or drugs. It could occur in a home where children are threatened and beaten. It might derive from chronic neglect—a child cries without being cuddled. Affection seems to defuse toxic stress—keep those hugs and lullabies coming!—suggesting that the stress emerges when a child senses persistent threats but no protector.

Cues of a hostile or indifferent environment flood an infant, or even a fetus, with stress hormones like cortisol in ways that can disrupt the body’s metabolism or the architecture of the brain.

The upshot is that children are sometimes permanently undermined. Even many years later, as adults, they are more likely to suffer heart disease, obesity, diabetes and other physical ailments. They are also more likely to struggle in school, have short tempers and tangle with the law.Comment:  We know the long list of "ills" that afflict Indians and others who are poor or disadvantaged. This posting suggests why the cycles of poverty and crime keep repeating themselves.

For more on the subject, see Review of Older than America and "Thick Dark Fog" = PTSD.

Review of Older than America

Some thoughts on Older than America, which I saw at Saturday's human rights event:

'Older than America,' Georgina Lightning receive nom for emerging artist award

By Michelle R. Shining Elk“Older than America” is the story of a woman’s haunting visions that reveal a Catholic priest’s sinister plot to silence her mother from speaking the truth about the atrocities that occurred at a Native American Indian boarding school. It is a contemporary drama about suspense, as “Older than America” delves into the lasting impact of the cultural genocide that occurred at Indian boarding schools across the United States and Canada. Lightning states, the film “covers the root of the problem that caused our Native nation to be in the state that it is in today--the film exposes the reality of the murders and violence that happened in the Indian boarding school system.”Older Than America (2008)Powerful, Gentle and Universal, October 15, 2010
By Andrew Freborg (Stow, Ohio United States)

This film is incredibly moving, powerful, and gentle all at once. The characters humanity is what truly stands-out. Even the supporting and ancillary characters are strong--and most important--multidimensional. There are sympathetic, ordinary whites trying to make a living and interacting as equals to their native friends. There is a conflicted native fooled by a duplicitous priest.

The friendships, family struggles, and disdainful gov. bureaucracies are things to which we can all relate. Healing doesn't come from revenge and hate--it comes from truth. That's the message I got strongly from this gem of a film. Thank you all (actors, producers, writers & director) for making and sharing this.

Review of: Older Than America, November 3, 2010
By M. R. Wilson "Mountain Man" (Earlysville, VA USA)

Georgina Lightning has directed and starred in a powerful film that address the ongoing fallout from the old US policy toward the indigenous people of "Save the man--Kill the Indian." There are strong performances from the veteran cast of mostly native actors including Adam Beach, Wes Studi, and Tantoo Cardinal.

As history has disclosed, many of the children forcibly removed from their homes and sent to Indian Boarding Schools were victims of physical, sexual and emotional abuse. The policy of stripping the children of their own culture and placing them in regimented industrial programs actually continued into the mid-1970's. Many of these children were not allowed to visit their own families for years. An untold number of these children were "disappeared" as well. Indian country continues to struggle with the scars of these policies and often have found ways to rise above the effects of those policies.

Set in northern Minnesota, the film also touches on the darker side of problematic native-white political/economic relationships that continue to this day.

This film is moving and perhaps will bring a better understanding to the dominant society regarding the struggles of those who have been marginalized for too long. Both my wife and I were in tears at the end of this film. May it touch you as well.On the other hand

Older Than America

By Nick HartelThe toughest review to write is one for a film like Georgina Lightning's "Older Than America" a film written, directed and starring Lightning based on some truly horrific, real to life events. The Native American film genre is often underrepresented and one would hope "Older Than America" would be a standout, featuring two well-known Native actors, Adam Beach and Wes Studi, however, while an incredibly competently made film that does manage to tell the story it set out to, it refuses to pave any new ground, instead settling for quiet mediocrity.Independent Indies--Older Than America

By Matt GambleBut while there is much to love about this film, from its inspirational message to other Native Americans to its educational benefits for those like me who know so little about the events the film is based on, Older Than America does have one flaw. That being it simply tries to cram too much information, and too many plot lines into the narrative. Rather then strengthening the film and turning it into an epic tale, it has the unfortunate effect of muddying the waters, making it difficult to keep track of just what is exactly going on.SXSW Review:  Older Than America

By Peter MartinThe stories that inspired Older Than America need to be told, but the film never draws in the viewer, instead requiring a pre-existing desire to see the stories dramatized and a willingness to overlook the narrative shortcomings. I'm afraid the filmmakers were so passionate that they lost objectivity if their desire was to reach a wider audience.Rob's review

I kind of agree with both sides here. On the one hand, it's an important film, telling a story that needs to be told. It's ambitious, with action sequences and a hint of the supernatural. And it's competently executed, especially for a first feature film shot on a low budget.

On the other hand, it didn't feel as powerful or suspenseful as it could've. There is a lot going on, and some of the character and plot points don't get enough coverage. If you know about the boarding-school crimes, I'm not sure the film will give you any new insight.

But I'd say the negative comments in the reviews above are too negative. Older than America is better than a "mediocrity"; it's a solid and enjoyable film. Rob's rating: 8.0 of 10.

For more on Older than America, see Lightning Nominated as Emerging Artist and Native Films Need Crossover Potential. The second posting is basically a review and I agree with most of its conclusions.

Older than America screening

As part of the 2011 National Human Rights Conference in Los Angeles, the US Human Rights Network hosted a special screening of Georgina Lightning's Older than America Saturday. Because it was at the Radisson LA Airport Hotel near my home, I was able to attend. (Finally, a movie screening within a 15-minute drive!)

Guests at the event included:

Frank J. King III (Rosebud Sioux)

Tribal and government political consultant

Andrea Carmen (Yaqui)

Executive Director, International Indian Treaty Council

Denise Lajimodiere (Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa)

National Boarding School Healing Project

Francisco Cali (Maya)

General Assembly member of the State Parties to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) and expert member of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD)

Georgina Lightning (Cree)

Writer, Director, Producer | White House Healing Effort

I didn't know they were going to serve a free dinner, paid for by the US government (I presume), but they did. I got to sit at the key table with Georgina Lightning, Frank King, Michelle Shining Elk, Sonny Skyhawk, and Max Gail (Wojciehowicz on Barney Miller), who's a big supporter of Native causes.

The evening's purpose

The purpose of the screening and a panel discussion afterward was astrategic planning dialogue in seeking a public proclamation and apology from the White House acknowledging the profound grief, loss and cultural genocide of American Indians as a direct result of the boarding school experience so a path to healing and freedom can begin in Indian country.I mentioned the lack of a public apology in Obama Still Should Apologize and Obama's Invisible Apology. People are still urging him to apologize publicly. For instance:

The Quiet American Apology to Indians

A federal apology to Native Americans for a ruthless history has been made but mainly kept under wraps. Is it for shame or the fear of huge reparations?

By Mary Annette PemberIn her recent article in Indian Country Today, Lisa Balk King reports hearing a non-Indian in Rapid City scoff, “You were conquered, get over it!”

I don’t purport to speak for all Indian people here in the U.S. but I think I can say that overall, it’s been tough to bounce back from the whole conquest thing. It’s been the gift that just keeps on giving for many of us. The legacies of European conquest in the form of United States policies such as The Dawes Act, Relocation, forced sterilization, assimilation through relocation, forced attendance at government boarding schools and adoption of our children to say nothing of outright extermination have made a lasting impact on Native peoples.

So it stuck in our craws when last month President Obama failed, once again, to make the United States apology to Native Americans public.And:[D]espite the Obama administration’s work on Native issues, many in Indian Country still say that a public apology is warranted and would go a long way toward healing our people and the nation as a whole. King points out that an apology “could provide a much-needed shift in public attitudes toward tribes in the country, as well as attitudes of Native people toward the federal government.”

Tex Hall, Chairman of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation in North Dakota agrees: “While some may say, ‘Let’s forget the past,’ the truth is that only through remembrance can our nation’s conscience heal, and only though amends can we truly move forward in strength, hope and justice.”

I think that the U.S. is terrified to make too much of the 2009 apology for fear of setting off something like Canada’s 2006 $2 billion compensation package for aboriginal peoples who were forced to attend residential schools. In 2008 Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper publicly apologized to former students of the schools; the country also established a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to address the consequences of these institutions.After the movie

In the panel discussion after the screening, King shed some light on the situation. He said Kimberly Teehee, the White House adviser on Indian affairs, told Obama the apology wasn't that important to Indians.

Everyone in the room seemed to disagree. The consensus was that if the US publicly expressed regret, Americans would stop denying the country's tragic past and start dealing with Indian issues.

Andrea Carmen said the US Human Rights Network would pass a resolution urging the public apology. King said he would take it to a meeting with Obama, along with calls to stop the Keystone XL pipeline and pardon Leonard Peltier.

Anyway, Older than America, which I hadn't seen before, was good. If only the keynote speech and panel discussion didn't go on too long. People were still rambling on about their pet concerns at 12:30 am when someone mercifully halted the event.

All in all, it was an interesting evening, although it could've been an hour or two shorter. Here are photos of the event:

"Older than America" screening--December 10, 2011
US Human Rights Network hosts special screening of OTA

For more on the subject, see Brownback Reads US Apology and Brownback Urges Public Apology.

"Thick dark fog" = PTSD

New Documentary Tracks Cultural Genocide of American Indians

By Rose AguilarA new documentary, "The Thick Dark Fog," shines a light on the traumatic boarding school experience through the telling of personal stories. The film focuses on Walter Littlemoon, a Lakota who was forced to attend a federal government boarding school on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota in the 1950s. Littlemoon says his culture, language and spirituality were brutally suppressed.

"The government school had tried to force me to forget the Lakota language and I wouldn't do it," he says in the film. "We had a deep sense of preservation for our culture, so we would go and hide in order to speak Lakota. If we got caught, they were allowed to beat us with whatever they could, but we took that chance. The Lakota language is something that comes from deep inside of you. It comes from how you look at things and how you see things."

"The Thick Dark Fog" profiles Walter's healing process and attempt to reclaim his heritage. "It wasn't until my sixtieth year that I began to realize that there was more to me. Something was missing. It was like I was a nonbeing," he says. "I didn't know the medical words of multigenerational trauma or the complex post-traumatic stress disorder, so I called the problem what I felt it to be: the thick dark fog."

One of the film's more haunting moments provides a montage of excerpts of interviews with Indians describing their boarding school experiences:"We had all our clothes taken from us."

"I remember always going to bed hungry."

"We were being punished, but none of us really knew why."

"It wasn't punishment. It was beatings. You'd put your hands down and they'd slam the desk down on your hands. They'd take you downstairs and make you kneel down on either a broom handle or a pencil."

"Soap. That's what she used to wash my mouth. I'll never forget the burning, the choking, the helplessness, the fading out that I went through."American Indian Film Festival Honors ‘The Thick Dark Fog’

By Stephanie WoodardAn important part of Littlemoon’s journey was figuring out why he experienced alternating flashbacks and sensations of numbness—which he called the “thick dark fog.” After consulting a Harvard Medical School psychological-trauma expert, Littlemoon learned he was suffering from Complex Post Traumatic Stress, which arises from childhood ordeals. Once his fear had a name, he could fight it and win, he said. Littlemoon hoped others would take courage from his discovery and wage their own battles against the debilitating effects of the residential institutions.

“Several younger people told me seeing the film helped them better understand their parents or grandparents,” said Littlemoon. “One guy was crying after the panel discussion and saying he now realized it was his boarding-school experience that had caused him to fight so much with his parents.”

The revelations weren’t confined to the Native community, according to Littlemoon: “A Japanese man who’d been imprisoned as a child in World War II concentration camps told me he could now explain to his children how that affected him. I felt the film had impact. We got our message out, and it felt good.”Comment:  This shows how laughable the "get over it" school of thought is. Indians have suffered a long series of injustices, of which being kidnapped, brainwashed, and tortured in a boarding school is just one example. This produces stress akin to the stress suffered by US soldiers in Iraq, who are committing suicide in record numbers. Is anyone telling the soldiers to "just get over it"? Then why would anyone say that to Indians?

For more on intergenerational trauma, see Subtle Racism = Psychological Torture and Intergenerational Trauma = PTSD.

Below:  "Director Randy Vasquez, left, and Walter Littlemoon, Oglala Lakota, the subject of Vasquez's new film on the Native American boarding-school experience, shown at the American Indian Film Festival in San Francisco, where the movie won Best Documentary Feature."

Subtle racism = psychological torture

I've written about the microaggression effects of the constant barrage of Native stereotypes. Here's an article that lays out the harm by comparing it to the Cold War psychological torture.

Is Racism Worse in the Age of Obama?

There are plenty of downsides to racism, but the biggest is perhaps the fear and paranoia it instills in those who have experienced it or seen it up close and personal.

By Keli GoffYet the further along we go into the Obama era, which many assumed would mark the start of a new chapter in American race relations, a provocative question has emerged: Is subtle racism actually more damaging to black Americans than blatant racism?

I had never really considered this question until a panel discussion for the new book Who's Afraid of Post-Blackness? by cultural critic Toure. Among dozens of questions he asked over 100 influential black Americans one was, "What's the most racist thing that's ever happened to you?" Though some shared incidents of breathtaking, blatant racism and of course the N-word made an appearance or two, the most popular answer was what Toure dubbed "the unknowable"; a moment they cited that may have negatively impacted their lives in an incredibly significant way, such as a lost job opportunity, or home loan, that they suspect was tied to their race yet ultimately they will never know for sure and never be able to prove it, so there's nothing to be done about it. But it haunts them, in a way that being called the N-word by some jerk out in the open, no longer does.

In the age of Obama in which even David Duke has enough sense not to use the N-word in public, "the unknowable" has become the most common form of discrimination, unknowable, and thus un-provable. It's therefore become a bit like a form of slow burning psychological torture for those who believe they've endured it. After all, it's one thing to struggle to find a job in a horrendous economy--something people of all races are grappling with. But it's another to know that studies have confirmed that even today just by virtue of being black you are less likely to get a job opportunity than a white male with a prison record, even when you don't have one.

But part of the torture is knowing that because we finally have a black president, accusations of racism are looked upon with more suspicion, eye rolling and dismissal than ever, which only further perpetuates the fear and paranoia. In other words, unless someone actually calls you the N-word, no one wants to hear you whine about racism. By the same token most people--even racists--are too sensible to use the N-word, which leaves those who face any form of subtle racism caught between a rock and a boulder. So victims of subtle racism may begin to feel a bit like the Ingrid Bergman character in Gaslight. For those who consider that reference too obscure, here's another. According to recent reports spies for the Russian government have begun aggressively targeting U.S. and British diplomats and journalists with small-scale psychological torture in an effort to drive them insane and ultimately, from the country. The torture in question? Breaking into their homes and moving pictures and other small personal items around. Though there is rarely any real threat of physical danger, the threat of the unknown and the impossible to control, combined with the inability to prove they are being targeted has begun to have the intended effect: driving some from their posts. In previous regimes some targets were even driven to suicide.Comment:  Consider how many times I've written about Halloween costumes and parties, Pocahontas and other Indian "princesses," and fashion appropriations in the last month. Not to mention the regular parade of stereotypes portraying Natives as savage, lazy, or drunk.

And this is just the tip of the iceberg. I see only the words and images "big" enough to make it into the mainstream media. I wouldn't be surprised if most Indians are confronted with a negative stereotype every day of their lives.

Just think of this. Suppose Indians have seen or heard that they're "savages" 10,000, 15,000, or 20,000 times in a lifetime. They've received not only the direct message ("You're not a real American") but the unknowable message in the non-Indian's mind. "What does this person think of me?" Indians have to ask. "Does he hate or fear me? What do I have to do to win his approval?"

This certainly does sound like psychological torture. If you've had a parent, teacher, or boss question you every day, you know how stressful it can be. A few years of that can screw up your life permanently.

The constant onslaught of stereotypes is the same thing. You began to wonder and dread what every person is thinking about you. You feel like the masses are judging you and (in your imagination) finding you wanting.

How often do you have to hear you can't do something before you give up on it? Ten times? A hundred? A thousand? Indians have heard a million times that they're nothing but chiefs, warriors, princesses, squaws, and savages--i.e., primitive people of the past.

Even when they don't hear it, they know people are thinking it. I can see how this would lead them to drop out of school, drink, lash out, or become depressed. Psychologically speaking, it must be incredibly debilitating. It's fair to compare it to psychological abuse bad enough to cause post-traumatic stress disorder.

For more on the subject, see Understanding Implicit Bias, Poverty Makes People Sick, and Intergenerational Trauma = PTSD.

Below:  "This is you, Indians. Repeat 10,000 times until you get the message."

US condemned Indians to diabetes

I've talked before about how forcing Indians onto reservations resulted in poverty, crime, and disease. Most of the time this connection is nebulous, since no one kept good statistics on Indians until recently.

But here are some modern cases where the linkage is direct and clear. The US destroyed centuries of health and nutrition habits and basically compelled Indians to eat poorly. The results were predictably bad.

A Dam Brings a Flood of Diabetes to Three Tribes

By Lisa JonesHerbert Wilson arrived on Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in North Dakota in 1954. A Vermont-bred 33-year-old, fresh from Harvard with a tour as a bombardier in World War II and a stint in the Coast Guard, Wilson arrived in the tiny town of Elbowoods to serve as the sole doctor for three tribes that had spent the years since white colonization the same way they had spent the preceding centuries—raising corn, beans and squash in the fertile floodplain of the Missouri River. “Very few people were overweight,” recalled Dr. Wilson. “There was no welfare, no commodity food, and did I mention there was no diabetes?”

But even as Wilson and his wife unloaded their four small children and cat from their 1946 Hudson sedan, the disease that has become the scourge of Native American health was on its way. It was coming in the form of water—the recently constructed Garrison Dam was destined to flood that town and seven other Native communities strung along a 30-mile stretch of the Missouri River, which meant the resident Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara people had to move to high, barren ground, processed food and a five-decade descent into obesity, hypertension, kidney disease and diabetes. Ironically, the flood would drown the only hospital the reservation has ever had.

As dramatic as it is, their story differs from that of other tribes only in the details. Native Americans in the United States have become 2.2 times more likely to develop diabetes than non-Hispanic whites. And they have all gotten there in pretty much the same way—they lost their land, became sedentary, consumed cheap and unhealthy food, and received worse health care than any other group of people in the country.And:Set against the bleak statistical landscape of American Indian health, the diabetes upsurge on Fort Berthold isn’t unique, severe or even surprising. Nationwide, 16.3 percent of American Indians and Alaska Natives are diagnosed with diabetes and are three times more likely to die of diabetes than non-Indians. Researchers opened their eyes to the phenomenon back in 1963, when a group of them traveled to the Pima reservation in Arizona looking for data on rheumatoid arthritis and stumbled upon an “extremely high rate of diabetes,” according to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases website. So they returned to study that instead.

The Pima Indians thrived for centuries on corn, beans and squash they raised on the banks of the Gila River. They also gathered a huge variety of wild plants, and trapped game and birds. In the 1860s, they grew enough wheat that they could sell—5 million pounds to the U.S. government for the Civil War effort, according to Gregory McNamee, author of Gila: The Life and Death of an American River. A few years after that, white farmers upstream, especially the Mormon colony at Safford, diverted their water supply so much that by 1872 the Pima couldn’t feed themselves. The tribe appealed to the farmers without success, and then went to D.C., to talk to President Ulysses S. Grant. He suggested that the Pima move to Oklahoma. They declined.

In 1900, there was perhaps one recorded case of diabetes among the Pima. In the 1920s and 1930s, the Gila was altered by more dams and diversions to funnel water into growing cities like Phoenix, and the Pima’s already depleted farming enterprises shrank further. And the people got fat. Really fat. They are, in fact, among the fattest people in the world.Comment:  If these actions don't qualify as genocidal, they're not far from it. The US acted with depraved indifference to the Indians' health. It didn't care if they lived or died. If their lifespans were shortened by 10 or 20 years, well, so what?

Government supersized Indians

It's roughly like condemning someone to the diet in the documentary Super Size Me:Spurlock dined at McDonald's restaurants three times per day, eating every item on the chain's menu. Spurlock consumed an average of 20.92 megajoules or 5,000 kcal (the equivalent of 9.26 Big Macs) per day during the experiment.

As a result, the then-32-year-old Spurlock gained 24½ lbs. (11.1 kg), a 13% body mass increase, a cholesterol level of 230, and experienced mood swings, sexual dysfunction, and fat accumulation in his liver. It took Spurlock fourteen months to lose the weight gained from his experiment with a special vegan detox diet supervised by his future wife, who was a chef specializing in vegan dishes and gourmet.To reiterate the outcome, it took a highly motivated individual 14 months to undo one month of bad eating habits. It required a chef specializing in vegan dishes to prepare a special vegan detox diet. Needless to say, most Indians don't have access to gourmet chefs.

For more on the Fort Berthold situation, see Al Jazeera to Visit Fort Berthold and Review of Waterbuster. For more on health issues, see "Res-Love" = Abuse and Alcoholism and Spirit Level Is Low in US.

Below:  "Lake Sakakawea, created when the Garrison Dam was built in the 1940s and 1950s, flooded the towns of Elbowoods, Sanish and Van Hook, as well as the rich farmlands surrounding them. Signs near the dam show the lake and its relationship to the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation."

Reviews of The Silence

Some thoughts on the news report previewed in Catholic Church Abuse on Frontline:

Frontline airs documentary on clergy sex abuse in Alaska

"The Silence," which airs on KCTS 9 at 9 p.m. on Tuesday (April 19), tells a powerful story of the suffering and recovery of an Alaska village where 80 percent of the children were abused by the clergy.

By Anthony B. RobinsonCertainly, the most powerful moments of the Frontline broadcast are those in which victims, now middle-aged, gather in St. Michael to tell the stories of events that as children changed their lives forever.

Reporter Mark Trahant, a Northwest journalist who writes for Crosscut and many other publications and was for several years the editorial page editor of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, narrates the story. By way of introduction, Trahant notes, “As a journalist, and member of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribe, I’ve been writing about Native Americans my whole career, but little could prepare me for what happened in St. Michael.”

A unique part of the 2009 court settlement was a requirement that Fairbanks Bishop Donald Kettler travel to all the affected villages, including St. Michael, to meet in person with the victims and apologize on behalf of the Catholic Church. Frontline is able to tape these 2010 meetings of Bishop Kettler (who was not bishop at the time the abuse took place) being confronted by the victims and apologizing.

"The Silence" has been broken. The victims themselves have broken the silence of shame and guilt by speaking through their tears. The Church has broken its silence and complicity by facing the victims and apologizing. But viewers may experience another silence. I found myself moved to silence by this broadcast, a silence of sorrow and deep sadness.Speak Your Piece:  Silence No More

Finally people are listening to us. Now we can stop carrying this terrible silent burden alone within our families.

By Mary Annette PemberThe meetings are featured in The Silence, and caught me emotionally off guard. I heard hoarse, ragged cries come from somewhere and realized they were coming from my own mouth. I cried not only for the victims, but also for my mom, who will be 86 next month. Although dementia has claimed much of her mind, she still speaks guardedly of the abuse she suffered at the “Sister School,” the catholic boarding school where she was raised.

She makes ominous, veiled references, still filled with fear of retribution from the priests and sisters who ran the school. They have robbed my mother and so many others of any real peace or serenity.For a two-minute version of this half-hour report, watch the video:



Comment:  The Silence was indeed a powerful report. A few observations:

The people wear parkas outdoors because it's cold. But there are no igloos, dog-sleds, harpoons, walruses, etc. These people live in houses and attend church--which was the big problem.

One victim told his father about the abuse. The father beat him with a belt for daring to criticize a priest. Then the father went out and got drunk, came back with a gun, raged at his wife, and shot her and the victim's younger brother. Apparently he couldn't believe the church had done wrong, so he blamed his wife for raising his son badly.

Fairbanks Bishop Donald Kettler initially denied the church had done anything wrong. When confronted with undeniable evidence, he grudgingly changed his tune. His apologies to the St. Michael victims seemed kind of insincere or forced to me. He didn't seem to be overwhelemed with Christian compassion.

Being molested and raped "almost daily" by trusted authority figures is like being tortured. It's like going from a peaceful existence to a war zone. It's like seeing a meteor strike the earth or the sun fall out of the sky.

In other words, it's about like seeing half your tribe killed by disease and hunger, another third killed by warfare, and the rest cheated out of your possessions and herded into concentration camps far from your historic homeland, sacred sites, and cultural ties. It's like having your entire world overturned, shattered, destroyed.

You may still live, but everything you know and believe will be gone. No wonder you'll feel lost, helpless, suicidal. It won't be the least bit surprising if you lash out with alcoholism, abuse, and violence yourself.

That's essentially what happened to the victims in St. Michael, Alaska. And to victims of priestly abuse everywhere. And to many of the world's indigenous peoples in general. White Christian Euro-Americans treated them like dogs, which turned them into whimpering wrecks or angry attackers. It's "natural" for humans and other living beings to respond to treatment like that.

For more on the subject, see "Res-Love" = Abuse and Alcoholism and Intergenerational Trauma = PTSD.

Billboards to raise awareness of Indians

Broken Treaties: Aaron Huey’s Pine Ridge Billboard Project

By Phil BickerThe Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, home of the Lakota Sioux, is ground zero for Native American Issues. Best known to most Americans as the site of the 1890 Wounded Knee Massacre, where some 300 men, women and children were slaughtered by US soldiers, today Pine Ridge is one of the poorest counties in America. The life expectancy of men is 47-years–the same as for men in Afghanistan and Somalia. The unemployment levels on the reservation are about 90%. Most people are living on just $3,000 a year.

For the past six years, photographer Aaron Huey has trained his camera on these problems. But, he says, it took him five years to understand what the real story was. “When I first went to Pine Ridge,” says Huey, “the focus was on getting pictures of gangs, superficial violence, drugs and extreme circumstances.” It wasn’t until he was asked to present a TED talk that he pieced together the history–For the first time he saw the reality–how the land was stolen from the Lakota through a series of massacres disguised as battles, and the broken treaties that followed. “It was,” says Huey, “a calculated and systematic destruction of a people.”

To spread the message about the broken treaties–and let people know “where the statistics come from,” says Huey–the photographer has devised an ambitious plan. Collaborating with two artists, Ernesto Yerena and Shepard Fairey, (the latter is best known for his portrait for Obama’s “Hope” campaign), Huey is creating a nationwide billboard campaign. And giving the street artists no-holds-barred access to his work to design it. “I told them they can cut them up,” says Huey, “and put them together, however they want.”

He wants to put these collaborations on billboards, subway platforms and buses. “I want to shift people’s attention to outlets for action,” says Huey explaining that the posters direct potential donors to grass roots Native organizations, as well information on standing treaties between tribes and the US government, and details about broken treaties.An associated video:

The Black Hills Are Not for Sale:  An Interview with Photographer Aaron Huey

Comment:  Watch the video to see examples of Huey's photographs and a couple of posters made from them.

The posters are nice. I'm not sure a poster will catch many people's attention, but a billboard might. At that size, the art may get the public talking.

Huey seems liberal enough, but his mental journey sounds interesting. At first he was taking photos as an ignorant outsider. He seems to have taken the poverty at face value--which means he thought it was the Indians' fault, I suspect. It took him six years to get the idea that maybe the roots of the problem went deeper. That maybe the legacy of broken treaties, massacres, and concentration-camp living might've had something to do with the poor conditions.

Wow. If it took someone who's supposedly a keen observer that long to figure things out, what hope does the public have? It may take decades for Americans to get the message about the Third World conditions on some reservations.

Which means Native activists have their work cut out for them. They have to stick to their guns for as long as it takes. No single protest or documentary or media campaign will do the trick; it may take dozens or hundreds of such efforts.

For more on the subject, see "Res-Love" = Abuse and Alcoholism and Spirit Level Is Low in US.

"Res-love" = abuse and alcoholism

An article provides revealing glimpses into life on a troubled reservation:

Native American student shares struggle, dispels stereotypes

By John LonsdaleMurdo is a convergence of checkered white and Native American land in Jones County, S.D.

A town just a half-hour outside of White River, S.D., and 23 miles north of the Rosebud Indian Reservation in Todd County, Murdo is a place where the most common last name isn't Smith but is White Buffalo, Stands And Looks Back or Black Bear.

Renelle White Buffalo, senior in integrated studio arts, was raised by her grandmother and grandfather in this area.And:Her grandfather moved to a nursing home, and White Buffalo was forced to move in with her alcoholic mother, two brothers and two sisters.

"When I was in high school and middle school, I didn't want to be Native American," White Buffalo said. "I was so bitter about my mom and the bums drinking on the street and all of the bad things that I saw."And:White Buffalo took over the household—paying the bills and getting her siblings ready for school every day.

"It felt like I was trying to please [my mom] so much," White Buffalo said.And:Her youngest sister and mother started sending her Happy Birthday cards with hateful messages inside.

"They would say, 'Hey, happy birthday. I hope you...,'" she said, laughing.

White Buffalo and her brother William are the closest. They didn't speak for a year because of their mother, but they are in contact now. Her other brother is upset about how his life has turned out, and neither he nor her younger sister will speak to her.And:"Res-love" is the term used when women on a reservation have "hickies" and bruises all over their bodies. It's one of the main issues White Buffalo works toward raising awareness for as the only member of the Native American Club this semester.

"People just say, 'That's res-love,'" White Buffalo said. "People make fun of it in order to deal with it and in order to cope. I think that's a huge problem."

It isn't just res-love that was infecting her reservation, though.

"American Indians, as a general rule, live in what contemporary scholars call enforced poverty," Larson said.

Larson, director of American Indian Studies for 11 years, continued.

"They are made to live in greatly diminished circumstances creating the stereotype of the dysfunctional and the savage," he said.

Larson said there is an alcohol problem in many tribal communities, but under the circumstances, any cultural group would most likely medicate itself pretty heavily.

"It's not as simple as they're just all alcoholics," he said. "It's like the stereotype [of American] Indian students getting to go to college for free. It's just not that simple."Comment:  White Buffalo was a straight-A student so she managed to go to college, to escape. But look at what she had to endure to get there. An alcoholic mother. Running the household as a teenager. Hate from her siblings. An environment where domestic violence is so common it's laughed at.

White Buffalo had the intelligence to get away from her dysfunctional family. Yet her upbringing was enough to fill her with self-loathing at being an Indian.

Now imagine if she had been a straight-C rather than straight-A student. Or if a parent had abused her. Or if her mother had died and she was sent to a foster home. It wouldn't take much to tip her precarious life from the "win" to the "lose" column.

This is what many young rez Indians endure. It's part of what drives them to alcohol, drugs, crime, depression, and suicide. The problem isn't that they're not trying, or that they're "different" from us. It's that they're facing harsh circumstances that most middle-class Americans can't imagine.

To suggest that rez conditions are the "fault" of Indians like White Buffalo is tantamount to racism. Yes, her mother could've gotten help if help was available. But the four White Buffalo children couldn't do much about their circumstances. And so it goes in general. For every adult who may be able to exercise responsibility, there are children, elders, and others who can't. It's not their fault so blaming them is wrong.

Blame system, not victim

The problem is the environment as a whole...the lack of jobs and healthcare...the "enforced poverty." It's the intergenerational trauma stemming from broken treaties, boarding schools, and other forms of cultural extermination. White Buffalo is only a generation or two away from someone who may have been tortured for thinking and acting like an Indian.

Her case seems typical to me. Alcoholic and abusive parents pass their dysfunctionality to their children. One or two may survive while the rest succumb. Outsiders blame the victim without understanding the problem.

This also suggests why Indians cling to reservations and perpetuate the cycle. For mediocre students who have been abused and lack self-esteem, venturing to a college or city is almost unthinkable. To them this is alien territory, not the natural progression it is for many Americans.

It would be like my going to Russia to change my life. In theory I could do it, but I'd be likely to fail and I'd be too scared to try. I don't have the knowledge or tools to succeed in Russia any more than a troubled Indian teen has what it takes to succeed off the reservation.

The teen could do it with help and training too, of course. But not with platitudes such as "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" or "try harder." That isn't "help," it's the opposite. It's America's rugged individualism aka social Darwinism: Survive on your own or die.

For more on the subject, see Spirit Level Is Low in US, Poverty Makes People Sick, and Intergenerational Trauma = PTSD.

Below:  "Renelle White Buffalo, senior in integrated studio arts, works on her drawings at her apartment. She said her art is influenced by her mother, as her mother had a monster just like everyone else, and alcohol fueled her monster and it eventually took over." (Karuna Ang/Iowa State Daily)

Spirit Level is low in US

Here's another variation of the argument I've used to explain the plight of Indians. This time it's in a book with "mountains of data."

Equality, a True Soul Food

By Nicholas D. KristofThere’s growing evidence that the toll of our stunning inequality is not just economic but also is a melancholy of the soul. The upshot appears to be high rates of violent crime, high narcotics use, high teenage birthrates and even high rates of heart disease.

That’s the argument of an important book by two distinguished British epidemiologists, Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett. They argue that gross inequality tears at the human psyche, creating anxiety, distrust and an array of mental and physical ailments—and they cite mountains of data to support their argument.

“If you fail to avoid high inequality, you will need more prisons and more police,” they assert. “You will have to deal with higher rates of mental illness, drug abuse and every other kind of problem.” They explore these issues in their book, “The Spirit Level: Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger.”

The heart of their argument is that humans are social animals and that in highly unequal societies those at the bottom suffer from a range of pathologies. For example, a long-term study of British civil servants found that messengers, doormen and others with low status were much more likely to die of heart disease, suicide and some cancers and had substantially worse overall health.Comment:  For more on the subject, see Poverty Makes People Sick and Intergenerational Trauma = PTSD.

Language whipped out of Indians

Melvin Martin:  The importance of keeping Indian languages alive"There were two offenses, son, that made the boarding school people really mad at us and that was wetting the bed and talking Indian. Not talking in Dakota was hard for me to do because I didn't speak any English until I was five years old, and that's when I was shipped off to boarding school for the first time. Every morning right after breakfast that was usually cold cornmeal mush with sour milk and giant worms or moths in it, they lined up all the bed wetters and anybody from the day before who was heard talking Indian and marched us all down to this old oak tree. Once there, we all had to take off our pants and underwear, us boys, and then we were hoisted up and over a tree branch with an old rope that was tied around both feet. There we were, hanging upside down and swinging in the air with our private parts showing for all the world to see."

"Then, this older white woman who said she used to be a nurse in the British army and who worked at the school as a dorm matron, would take out this horse whip that had been shortened to about four feet in length. There were nine leather tabs that had the old-fashioned thumb tacks stuck in them, the big brass ones, that were attached to this whip." (Note: I later found out that an instrument like this is known as a "Cat o' nine tails" and was used by the British Navy to flog sailors who had committed various offenses at sea.)

"This old English hag would then just proceed to slice our butts to hamburger with that whip. Until I was ten, I'd always pass out from the pain and some older boys would carry me back to the dormitory. I haven't spoken a word of Dakota since 1950, three years before you were born." My father died in 2003.Comment:  We've heard horror stories about Indians killed, maimed, and raped, but this seems almost as bad. Boys hung upside down from trees, naked, like slabs of beef. Then whipped until they passed out from blood loss and pain. And Americans wonder why Indian reservations are messed up? Here's your answer, people.

For more on boarding schools, see Libraries Hide Hidden from History and Tiles to Represent Boarding-School Victims.

Below:  Whipping the Indian to a bloody pulp to save the boy.

Poverty makes people sick

The grinding reality of growing up poor

By Petula DvorakSome people think that this kind of childhood wreaks greater havoc on a child than almost any Pat Conroy-child-abuse scenario.

"Poverty trumps mistreatment, absolutely," said Sheryl Brissett-Chapman, executive director of the National Center for Children and Families in Bethesda.

She explained that being extremely poor grinds down a child, that poverty gets into the brain and under the skin. Literally, actually.

Studies show that increased levels of cortisol, a chemical produced in the body as a result of stress, can seriously affect a child's brain development, stunting memory and disrupting learning patterns.

The stress of living in poverty gnaws at children. Poor kids who took part in one study were found to have elevated levels of cortisol in the morning. When the children showed up at a high-quality, small-group day-care center, where they bonded well with their teacher, the cortisol levels dropped. By afternoon, they were similar to the morning levels of their middle-class counterparts.

So, essentially, being poor costs a kid at least half a day in the classroom just to get the brain back to normal.Comment:  Indians are poor because the white man stole their land and herded them onto reservations. Poverty causes stress that's worse than child abuse. This--not the "primitiveness" of Indian cultures or the "socialist" nature of Indian societies--is what causes the "plight of the Indian." Poverty leads to violence, crime, substance abuse, depression, and suicide. And poor performance in school, of course.

For more on the subject, see Intergenerational Trauma = PTSD and Only Whites Blame "Intergenerational Trauma"?

Intergenerational trauma = PTSD

Another point on Only Whites Blame "Intergenerational Trauma"?:

If you need a helpful analogy for intergenerational trauma, think about John McCain or some other prisoner of war. Or anyone who comes back from war and suffers post-traumatic stress disorder.

Yes, some people will surrender to the pain while others will fight it. But pointing to intergenerational trauma is like pointing to the war as the pain's source. It explains why the pain is happening. People don't get depressed or "freak out" because they're stupid or bad...born without self-control...modern-day "savages." They do it because external forces impel them to do it.

Yes, they must overcome these forces to right themselves and move forward. Some have the capabilities and resources to do this, some don't. If they can't do it themselves, the solution is to help them. But blaming the victim for living in a tough, poor environment is like blaming a stressed-out soldier for going to war.

Let's not forget the evidence that historical trauma is transmitted biologically. This is far from something that liberals made up to excuse Indians and help themselves in the process. It's a real phenomenon with some scientific backing.

Below:  Adam Beach as Ira Hayes, who may have suffered both intergenerational trauma and PTSD.