The beginning could be traced back to when the European man first stepped off his ship and onto the soil of the Americas. Or perhaps it would be proper to identify this beginning as an end. The very moment Columbus laid eyes on the indigenous men of the Caribbean marked the final moment of freedom for the likes of all indigenous people. It should be acknowledged that Native Americans in particular are usually not subject to treatment comparable to what they received during the colonization of the Americas. That being said, there are still various aspects of freedom which have not been granted back to native peoples. Today, stereotypes of Native American homelessness, substance abuse, and poverty seek to strip indigenous people of their pride and freedom. Sherman Alexie, a prominent Native American author, seeks to explore typical day-to-day life for Native characters, to educate not only his people, but the world they live in. In his short story, “What You Pawn I Will Redeem” and the article, “No, Native Americans aren't genetically more susceptible to alcoholism,” by renowned neuroscience journalist Maia Szalavitz, there is a central motive to disprove common stereotypes about Native Americans, and explore potential causes for excessive Native American homelessness and substance abuse.
An argument which Szalavitz continuously refers back to throughout her article is the notion that many issues faced by Native Americans are induced by levels of stress unheard of amongst other racial and ethnic groups. There is an obvious correlation between trauma and stress and substance addiction regardless of ethnic group in the United States, but it is more important to understand that Native Americans experience a significantly greater amount of stress and trauma than whites do:
The link between trauma and addiction is not in dispute — and the earlier the trauma, the worse the risk of addiction becomes. Whether it’s losing a parent young, being emotionally, physically, or sexually violated, experiencing a natural or man-made disaster or witnessing violence, the risks add up. For example, one study of nearly 10,000 people found that those with four or more of these types of "adverse childhood experiences" (ACEs) have a risk of alcoholism that is seven times greater than those with none. Similarly, boys who have four or more ACEs are nearly five times more likely to inject drugs than those with none. American Indians are also much more likely than whites to have their families broken up by the state, which can propel trauma down the generations. Among older Indians, thousands were torn away from their parents and sent to abusive boarding schools whose explicit goal was cultural genocide: "Kill the Indian to save the man." In these schools, children were forbidden from using their own language and even their own names. Today, a full quarter of Native Americans either have personal boarding school experience or were adopted by whites — meaning they were separated from their parents and, often, from their tribe early in life, according to Elm (Szalavitz).
As is clearly stated by Szalavitz, there are a mass of obstacles presented to Native Americans by stress and trauma, in numerous cases leading to substance addiction. Alcoholism, as it is presented by stress and trauma, is hinted at by Alexie in “What You Pawn I Will Redeem” as one of the reasons for the main character’s homelessness.
The protagonist in “What You Pawn I Will Redeem” is a homeless Spokane Indian, named Jackson Jackson. Throughout the story, Alexie portrays Jackson as somewhat of an alcoholic, and frequently suggests that this could be one of the reasons for his homelessness. While it is clear that it is unfair to make generalizations about all homeless Native Americans from the experiences of one, the story can serves as a basis for outlining potential causes of Native homelessness. The first instance where the audience is shown evidence of Jackson’s alcoholism is near the beginning of the story, where Jackson and his “posse” are headed to purchase alcohol from a 7-Eleven: “After about two hours of negotiating, we earned five dollars—good enough for a bottle of fortified courage from the most beautiful 7-Eleven in the world. So we headed over that way, feeling like warrior drunks, and we walked past this pawnshop I’d never noticed before” (Alexie 30). This action makes a statement about Jackson, one that shows that he is more interested in putting money toward alcohol than something useful or working his way out of homelessness. This could be affected by the fact that Jackson does not seem to mind being homeless and perhaps even enjoys it. Jackson elaborates on this at the beginning of the story when he introduces himself: “I’ve been homeless for six years now. If there’s such a thing as an effective homeless man, then I suppose I’m effective. Being homeless is probably the only thing I’ve ever been good at” (Alexie 29). Motivation to remain homeless is actually in effect for Jackson, and this could potentially be reflected by other homeless Native Americans.
As we can examine alcoholism as a cause of homelessness, and in extent a low socioeconomic status, we can also examine how having a low socioeconomic status influences alcoholism. Szalavitz draws the conclusion that high poverty rates amongst Native Americans is a contributing factor to substance addiction and abuse. To further elaborate on the topic, Szalavitz cites a study from the Journal of the American Medical Association which followed several Cherokee Indian families over the course of three years to research development of substance addiction and psychiatric disorders amongst rural youth. Three years into the study, families of the Cherokee children were compensated $9,000 annually, as part of a deal to operate a casino on their reservation. Children who were younger when their families received the grants had tendencies to not develop addictions or psychiatric disorders over the course of the following years, while children who were older were more likely to showcase this kind of development. In addition to this, employment rates of parents who received the grant increased:
That relatively small amount of money had a big impact. The younger a child was when their parents started receiving the money, the better they did and perhaps also importantly, parents’ employment rates also increased. For example, 35 percent of those who were 16 when the parents began receiving payments developed problems with alcohol or other drugs — but only 23 percent of those who were 12 did. The 12-year-olds were the youngest studied, but other research suggests that younger kids might do even better. When compared to white participants whose families didn’t get payment — rather than to each other by age — the Cherokees also did better. Addiction rates were reduced by about one-third, in Indians compared to whites (Szalavitz).
From this study, it is wise to conclude that increasing socioeconomic status by simply a marginal amount can have a large impact, especially in the case of these Cherokee children and their families. Decreases in development of substance addictions and psychiatric disorders and an increase in employment rates just go to show how heavily socioeconomic status impacts Native American success.
Issues experienced by Native Americans are ones that are both underestimated and taken lightly by many who do not understand the reasons why this issues are present. Throughout “What You Pawn I Will Redeem” and an extensive amount of his other works, Sherman Alexie attempts to shed light on what these reasons may be. Maia Szalavitz’s “No, Native Americans aren't genetically more susceptible to alcoholism” fits concurrently with much of Alexie’s work in the sense that it seeks to disprove misconceptions about Native American homelessness and substance abuse and replace these misconceptions with logical causes and reasoning. These kinds of works are essential if the freedom which Native Americans have been stripped of is to ever be completely returned to them.
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