Research Reports
Reflections on Traditional American Indian Ways, 1998
Threats to Tribal Sovereignty, 1998
Traditional American Indian Leadership: A Comparison with U.S. Governance, 1997
Culture, Spirituality and Involvement in the Criminal Justice System
American Indian cultural practices are distinct to geographical areas and tribal roots. These include a set of core values and beliefs such as respect, honesty, humbleness, and generosity. Spirituality is also a core component of beliefs, values, and teachings that provides the foundation for family, community, and cultural stability. Dysfunctional relationships between families and communities result from disruption in the transmission of cultural ways of knowing. In this scenario, values, beliefs, and traditional ways do not flow smoothly from one generation to the next.
Several participants note that the American Indian community has lost many of these important values and beliefs at the expense of individual identity and life meaning. Without these guiding principles, individuals are more likely to engage in behaviors that lead to criminal activity as well as the abuse of alcohol and drugs.
“And we lost a lot of our traditional ways. A lot of our culture is gone forever. Even the traditional ones, like my people, the most traditional ones – we lost almost half of what we have. So, we forget ourselves, and then we start thinking like an American Caucasian, and we forget about who we are and what we are.”
“Because, I know myself that there is this medicine man that charges Caucasians $1,500 to put them on the hill [vision quest]. And that they charge them to go into a sweat lodge, they charge them to do ceremonies. Now it’s like our people are making a mockery more or less of our ways.”
Here one participant describes his experience on entering a state institution. It is unfortunate indeed that this brotherhood, closeness, association is not a description of life in the community, but rather something that is found upon entering a prison or in the latter, a treatment facility.
“When I was there it was like a get-together, you know. You’d sit around, drink coffee, and talk about the outside. We’d help each other out with cigarettes and toothpaste. There was no gang activity there. They had some trouble of the phones and stuff back then, but that happens all the time. But it was a pretty good group. They weren’t going to beat nobody up or anything like that. I thought it was a good thing there. Years ago there was a little gang activity, but not amongst the group.”
“(In Treatment programs)… he did strongly express that when Indians gathered together this provided an opportunity where they found strength in each other; most likely because they found someone who could understand and relate to the serious social, emotional and spiritual issues they were experiencing, something they could not find in the professional ranks of social institutions. He was struck by the fact that some of the best chemical dependency counselors he knew were Indians who had been “on the streets” themselves.
Revitalization of American Indian languages is another strong pattern drawn from interviews and talking circles. Participants articulate several important factors for revitalizing languages, and many of their ideas are consistent with language revitalization efforts that are currently underway across the country. Language revitalization assures that American Indian values, perspective, and understanding of the world are preserved, because language retains a vital connection to history and ancestry. Teachers of the language know that there are many words, phrases, and ideas that cannot be interpreted in the English language. One participant notes that the loss of connection between spirituality and language serves as a contributor to involvement in the criminal justice system.
“The big picture is that they lost their spirituality
because they lost their language – their way of life. They lost everything once they lost the language because the language is everything. You can’t understand what the meaning is of that ceremony, or the Spirit talking in Lakota or Ojibwa unless you know the language.”
“… learn your language … because if you don’t know your language you’re not going to know your culture, your history or your way of life, or your ceremonies… [it’s important to know] I’m a Dakota… I’m a Lakota … I’m Ojibwa… you know.”
“So our mind disconnects itself from the heart, and that spirit kinda dwindles, that light starts flickering and grows smaller and smaller until it goes out. And then we’re just a head walking around, thinking, and we get ourselves into trouble because we do things to try to suppress that pain that we don’t even know why we have it.”
The near destruction of American Indian languages is the result of intentional and systematic efforts to destroy American Indian culture. Indian children were removed to areas far from their communities. Boarding schools were established to “civilize” American Indian children who had been forcibly removed from their families. In school, they were punished for speaking the language. In addition, parents and children alike were punished for appreciating and practicing their spirituality. As a result, language and cultural practices went underground.
It is commonly understood by Indians that connectedness to culture, beliefs, and values along with participation in ceremonies reinforces positive identity. Identity for American Indian people is further strengthened, obviously, through connections and interactions with extended family members who provide an environment of strong spiritual beliefs by practicing traditional values of honesty, respect and generosity. Yet many Indian people, particularly those in urban areas, have had a distance between themselves and direct connection with tribal traditions and culture. Many find it difficult or are simply unaware of authentic cultural resources that could provide this important connection. Several participants note that adoption practices may result in identity issues that in turn could be a risk factor for involvement with the criminal justice system.
“… 35% of Indians were adopted out, and those are the people who are now raising our children. We don’t talk much about adoptees – it’s the post-boarding school generation. 25% of Indian children were adopted in 1971. That’s huge and it’s caused and is causing a lot of problems. … I interviewed ten adult adoptees, and they all happened to be professionals who came from healthy homes and yet they’re struggling, even though they had a better environment.”
“[Adoptees] find they’re not accepted into the Indian community as they had hoped, and so they struggled with fitting in. This is during their early twenties, when a lot of people are trying to figure out who they are, but these adoptees had this added burden of struggling with where they belong.”
“[T]alking about adoption and foster care and what it does to a family, when you think about how it’s never just the one person who’s taken out that affected, it’s everybody … __ always talks about not having a sense of belonging, when you don’t have that, like he was just talking about that elder, she didn’t have a sense of belonging in her culture even though she was there. A sense of belonging shouldn’t be just attributed to those who grow up outside of the culture, there are people on the reservation who don’t have a sense of belonging and that’s something that has to be identified.”
Concerns about acquiring a strong identity formation is not limited to children or adults that have been adopted into non-Indian homes. Child welfare and foster care practices have made it difficult to locate children once they have been removed from homes. Hence, reinforcement of cultural identity is a reality in most Indian communities because 1 out of 12 Indian children in Minnesota are in an out of home placement.
A Look at American Indian Families in Hennepin County. Part Five, Reclaiming the Spirit. American Indian Families Project, January 2005.
The
Well-Being of American Indian Children in Minnesota: Economic Conditions,
1994
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