Unhealthy Past

I need to fall back on my two previous blogs I wrote recently, which were: Native Women and Low Self-esteem and When is it time to leave? I know that there are underlying issues that are the foundation for these problems. I have explored an additional common theme I hear after talking with many Native people, that is they have either witnessed or been a victim of domestic violence. I assume that about 80%of Native women have encountered this unfortunate disposition. Why is domestic violence so prevalent in our communities? Well, back again to history: the White man came, tried to kill us all, but then thought that wasn’t the “Christian” thing to do so then they thought assimilation would be more justifiable to God than genocide. So, they dismantled our familial life by stealing kids away from our homes and placing them in boarding schools. Hmm boarding schools do not sound so bad, right? First, by kidnapping these kids and disconnecting them from their families, communities, land, language, and culture created “monsters.” This single act drastically tore individuals apart which spread into our communities like a wildfire. How do you know how to love when you were not around it? These kids were beaten, sexually molested, and raped and now passed these horrible patterns from generation to generation.