As I wrote these words, I remembered my feelings
during the first few months after my arrival many years
ago in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta area. I had gone through
some difficult times in my own life, and I was not sure
what Alaska would have in store for me.
It was difficult for me,
in those early days, to understand why there was so much
frustration, anger, and violence among the people in the
villages. For these were people abundantly capable of
support and genuine friendship and so free of prejudice
toward others. It took time to develop insight into the
sickness which had spread through the Native communities
and which was causing so much self-destructive behavior,
especially among the young people.
WELL-BEING
AND MENTAL HEALTH
Mental health is the positive attitude
toward life, together with the skills to cope successfully with life’s
stresses, which makes it possible for us to reach our highest potential
as human beings. Our coping skills are important to help us maintain
a state of well-being. Equally important are an understanding
of the stresses we encounter in life and the support we receive from
our support systems: our families, friends, and the communities we
belong to.
Our
state of well-being is determined, then, by these three
forces: stressful life events, individual coping skills,
and social support systems. Well-being
is also a state of harmony between the individual and his
or her total environment. It requires successful
adjustment in the areas of physical, mental, cultural,
spiritual, and economic interaction.
All
of us living in this world are constantly exposed to the
stresses and hardships of life. Groups of people, as time
goes on, develop ways to ease the impact of these
stresses in the form of cultural traditions. These
traditions guide us throughout life and become a healing
force when we are faced with events that threaten our well-being.
When changes happen too rapidly and are forced upon us,
our traditions may not be able to adapt and may thereby
lose the ability to guide us. This is especially true
when outside forces are destructive to our own culture.
FORCED
ACCULTURATION
IN ALASKA
Looking back on the recent
history of Alaska, it appears that many of the problems
of today are related to the attitude of the non-Native
caregivers who came to the state in great numbers to
"save" the Native people.
With
some exceptions, these outsiders were thoroughly
convinced — as is typical of members of most
dominant societies — about the superiority and
rightness of their own culture. Due in part to ignorance
and cultural nearsightedness, they believed that
replacing the Native culture with their own was
beneficial and, therefore, justified.
Before
the newcomers came to Alaska, the Native people were not
in need of salvation. For many centuries their cultural
traditions and their knowledge had provided them with the
skills to survive successfully in their own environment.
The disintegration started when the non-Native culture,
totally foreign to the natural environment of Alaska,
caused great disruption between the land and the Native
people.
First
came the devastating epidemics of diseases to which
Native people had never before been exposed. More
recently, after the Native way of life became
increasingly influenced by the dominant culture and
society, the Native people themselves — either by
choice or by coercion — became dependent on the
outside world. This dependency, which is the single-most
damaging force with respect to Natives’ self-esteem,
gives the artificially created situation its life by
means of the scores of federal, state, and private
agencies that are still in the business of
"saving" the Natives.
In
this context, it is not difficult to understand the anger
and frustration of Alaska Native people. Natives cannot
help but observe that with the arrival of every new
service and each new non-Native provider comes more
damage to the Native way of life and to the pride and
independence of the people.
DEPENDENCY
The unwillingness on the
part of many non-Native providers to give up control has
left Native people unprepared for the changes which have
taken place. It continues to foster a state of dependency
that destroys the self-esteem of the people who find
themselves caught between two worlds.
Dependency
is a terribly destructive force. As individuals, we are
born with a sense of being special. But this sense of
self-worth develops only if we have the good fortune of
growing up in a healthy environment. If that positive
force is missing during our childhood, the tension
between the natural need for self-fulfillment and the
doubts about our self-worth leads to a chronic state of
frustration. This frustration, in turn, creates anxiety
and anger; anger toward oneself as well as toward a world
which fails to support us or, even worse, stunts us in
our growth.
THE
STRENGTH OF CULTURAL TRADITION
It is impossible to make
life meaningful unless we have been given the means to do
so. In a rapidly changing world, this often becomes a
serious problem.
When
parents do no have the skills to prepare their children
for changes yet to come, they often transmit their
feelings of helplessness to their children. Overwhelmed
by the technical skills of the dominant culture, they
fail to recognize the strengths which lie in the
spiritual values of their own cultural heritage. As a
result, the parents do not share those values with their
children.
These
children grow up without the spiritual foundation of
their parents, but neither are they comfortable in the
dominant culture, which to them is foreign and confusing.
When control of life is lost and decisions surrendered to
others, the spirit weakens and depression sets in. When,
on the other hand, spiritual values are alive and
supported by a living cultural heritage, the chances of
succeeding in a changing world are greatly enhanced.
Only
after hope has been restored and depression has lifted
can people become aware of their own strengths and the
spiritual strength of their cultural tradition. The
thought that cultural traditions retard development is
totally wrong. As long as a culture remains alive and can
incorporate new ideas while remaining true to its basic
spiritual foundation, development and progress can become
living realities.
THE
FUTURE
After many years of
research, I agree fully with what Alaska Native elders
have told me. The true nature of the sickness which has
spread throughout the Native villages is the state of
dependency which led to the loss of direction and
self-esteem. Everything else is of a secondary nature
— merely symptoms of the underlying disease.
Programs which are aimed at relieving the symptoms but
refuse to relate to the sickness itself are doomed to
fail and may even make things worse.
The
healing will have to come from within the Native
community. And it will have to come by means of the
reawakening of the independence, the pride, and the sense
of purpose which at one time guided the people in their
journey through the centuries. New skills are needed for
that journey to continue and succeed. But most of all,
there needs to be a return of the spiritual strength of a
cultural tradition in order to make the journey
meaningful again and provide future hope for those who
have become lost on the trail.
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