indigenousrev:

“We Never was Happy Living Like a Whiteman” : Mental Health Disparities and the Postcolonial Predicament in American Indian Communities

“You take a group of people that have been living here for thousands and thousands and thousands of years in one way, in one custom, in one traditional way that worked…. Nobody [wanted] to get rid of it. But when the Whiteman came, they…forced the people, the Indian people, to get rid of their way. Their religious spiritual beliefs. They forced them to trade their economy, which was based on the barter system, and on living off of the land—the wildlife, fish…and herbal medicines. They forced them to change that. And then they not only did that, they annihilated them. Then they turned around and forced their culture on them—their religion, their beliefs, their foreign ways onto them—by taking all the young people out of the homes and putting them away in boarding schools…and forcing the Whiteman’s teachings on them. Such as history. They changed history, rewrote history to suit themselves, to justify the bad things they did to the Indian people…. It’s genocide…. That’s what it was: Genocide.”

Read more on Native post-colonial psychology in Duran and Duran’s: Postcolonial Psychology

Yes, but is safe to say that all “old ways” are good and healthy? I’m not saying Native American ways weren’t or that forcing our ways on them was fair or good, but I don’t think we should deify tradition any more than I think we should assume everything new is good.  I’m pretty sure modern medicine and scientific advances are helpful to most humans.  On the other hand, how can you appreciate what you can’t afford?  

I definitely agree that what we did to the Native Americans was wrong and definitely genocide (and continues to be wrong and genocide), I do think there are *some* good things about modern, European culture. I know, it sounds crazy to say!

The Native American plight is definitely something we need to address once we stop being distracted by the circus that our world has become.