Abstract
According to recent estimates (U.S. Census 2010), 5.2 million American Indians, over 500,000 families, reside in the United States today. The majority of these families reside off-reservation or Indian trust land, live and raise children in mainstream society and, for many, find themselves physically removed from the support of their tribal community. In this chapter, our goal is to spur conversation regarding the mainstream social context American Indian parents and children must deal with today and how this society, simply by reflecting its own unquestioned history, may bring forth for many a disparate level of difficulty. We will discuss the clash in worldviews occurring at the initial cultural intersection that sought to break up communities and subjugate traditional protective parenting practices within families. We will present data-driven models of the impact of a colonized history on current parent and child functioning and demonstrate how society today continues to exacerbate the impact of this moral injury on many families. Within this discussion we will expand the current view of enculturation as a protective factor, highlighting how past and continued colonization for some parents can impact the resiliency gained from one’s ancestral story. Finally, we will present our conceptualization of the balance needed between ancestral story and mainstream influences in order for parents to pass cultural resiliency through to the next generation.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsReferences
Axelson, J. A. (1985). Counseling and development in a multicultural society. Monterey: Brooks/Cole Publishing.
Barter, E. R., & Barter, J. T. (1974). Urban Indians and mental health problems. Psychiatric Annals, 4(11), 37–43.
Berger, P., & Luckmann, T. (1966). The social construction of reality: A treatise in the sociology of knowledge. New York: Anchor.
Bird-David, N. (1991). Animism revisited: Personhood, environment, and relational epistemology. Current Anthropology, 40, 67–91.
Brave Heart, M. Y. H. (1999). Oyate Ptayela: Rebuilding the Lakota Nation through addressing historical trauma among Lakota parents. Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment, 2(1–2), 109–126.
Brave Heart, M. Y. H. (2000). Wakiksuyapi: Carrying the historical trauma of the Lakota. Tulane Studies in Social Welfare, 21–22, 245–266.
Brown, D. A. (1991). Bury my heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian history of the American West. New York: Henry Holt and Co.
Clarke, S. A. (2002). Social and emotional distress among American Indian and Alaska Native students: Research findings. New York: ERIC Clearinghouse on Rural Education and Small Schools. (ERIC No. ED459988)
Cross, T. L. (1986). Positive Indian parenting: Honoring our children by honoring our traditions. Portland: National Indian Child Welfare Association.
Davis, B., Dionne, R., Madrigal, L., & Fortin, M. (2010). Findings from two culturally-based family prevention studies with indigenous populations. Invited presentation at the National Institute of Drug Abuse, State of Science and Grant Development Workshop, Building Bridges: Advancing American Indian/Alaska Native Substance Abuse Research.
Denham, A. R. (2008). Rethinking historical trauma: Narratives of resilience. Transcultural Psychiatry, 45(3), 391–414.
Dionne, R., Davis, B., Sheeber, L., & Madrigal, L. (2009). Initial evaluation of a cultural approach to implementation of evidence-based parenting intervention in American Indian communities. Journal of Community Psychology, 37(7), 911–921.
DuBray, W. H. (1985). American Indian values: Critical factor in casework. Social Casework: The Journal of Contemporary Social Work, 66(1), 30–37.
Duran, B., Duran, E., & Brave Heart, M. Y. (1998). American Indian and/or Alaska Natives and the trauma of history. In R. Thornton (Ed.), Studying Native America: Problems and prospects (pp. 60–76). Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
Evans-Campbell, T. (2008). Historical trauma in American Indian/Native American communities: A multi-level framework for exploring impacts on individuals, families, and communities. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 23(2), 316–338.
Goheen, M. (2002, July). The European worldview and education. Paper presented at the Education Conference in Tivadarfalvai. http://www.biblicaltheology.ca/blue_files/European%20Worldview%20and%20Education.pdf
Gone, J. P., & Alcantara, C. (2010). The ethnographically contextualized case study method: Exploring ambitious achievement in an American Indian community. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 16(2), 159–168.
Greenwood, M. (2004). Voices from the field – An aboriginal view on child care. In R. E. Tremblay, R. G. Barr, & R. DeV. Peters (Eds.) Encyclopedia on early childhood development (pp. 1–3). Montreal: Centre of Excellence for Early Childhood Development. Available at: http://www.child-encyclopedia.com/documents/GreenwoodANGps.pdf. Accessed July 12, 2012
Hart, M. A. (2010). Indigenous worldviews, knowledge, and research: The development of an indigenous research paradigm. Journal of Indigenous Voices in Social Work, 1(1), 1–16.
Hull, G. H., Jr. (1982). Child welfare services to Native Americans. Social Casework: The Journal of Contemporary Social Work, 63, 340–347.
Kleinman, A. (1998). Experience and its moral modes: Culture, human conditions, and disorder. Presentation at the Tanner Lectures on Human Values, Stanford University.
Manson, S. M., Beals, J., O’Nell, T. D., Piasecki, J., Bechtol, W., Keane, E. M., & Jones, M. C. (1996). Wounded spirits, ailing hearts: PTSD and related disorders among American Natives. In A. J. Marsella, M. J. Friedman, E. Gerrity, & R. M. Scurfield (Eds.), Ethnocultural aspects of posttraumatic stress disorder: Issues, research, and clinical applications (pp. 255–283). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Morrisette, P. J. (1994). The Holocaust of First Nation people: Residual effects on parenting and treatment implications. Contemporary Family Therapy, 16, 381–391.
Patterson, C. (2002). Eternal Treblinka: Our treatment of animals and the Holocaust. New York: Lantern Books.
Red Horse, J., Feit, M., Lewis, R., & Decker, J. T. (1978). Family behaviors of urban American Indians. Social Casework, 2, 67–72.
Schlitz, M., Vieten, C., & Miller, E. (2010). Worldview transformation and the development of social consciousness. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 17(7–8), 18–36.
Sizemore, P. S., & Langenbrunner, M. R. (1996). Native Americans: Fostering a goodness-of-fit between home and school. Family Science Review, 9(2), 93–105.
Sotero, M. M. (2006). A conceptual model of historical trauma: Implications for public health practice and research. Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice, 1(1), 93–108.
U.S. Census. (2011, November). Facts for features: American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month. Retrieved July 10, 2012, from http://www.census.gov/newsroom/releases/archives/facts_for_features_special_editions/cb11-ff22.html
Walters, K., Simoni, J., & Evans-Campbell, T. (2002). Substance use among American Indians and Alaska Natives: Incorporating culture in an “Indigenist” stress-coping paradigm. Public Health Reports, 117(1), 104–117.
Weaver, H. M., & White, B. J. (1995). The Native American family circle: Roots of resiliency. Journal of Social Work, 2(1), 67–79.
Whitbeck, L., Adams, G., Hoyt, D., & Chen, X. (2004). Conceptualizing and measuring historical trauma among American Indian people. Journal of Community Psychology, 33(3/4), 119–130.
Wise, F., & Miller, H. B. (1983). The mental health of American Indian children. In G. J. Powell, J. Yamamato, A. Romeo, & A. Morales (Eds.), The psychosocial development of minority group children (pp. 344–361). New York: Brunner/Mazel.
Witt, S. (1980). Pressure points in growing up Indian. Perspectives: The Civil Rights Quarterly, 12(1), 24–31.
Acknowledgment
The authors wish to acknowledge the following for grant support for this chapter:
NIH/NIAID Grant # DA017626
NIDA Grant # DA015817
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Davis, B., Dionne, R., Fortin, M. (2014). Parenting in Two Cultural Worlds in the Presence of One Dominant Worldview: The American Indian Experience. In: Selin, H. (eds) Parenting Across Cultures. Science Across Cultures: The History of Non-Western Science, vol 7. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7503-9_27
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7503-9_27
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-007-7502-2
Online ISBN: 978-94-007-7503-9
eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)