The Medicine Wheel As A Culturally Relevant Solution Substance Abuse Essay

This threat to the native family is detrimental to the children who lack the emotional attachment, therefore creating immature adults who are deprived of a sense of direction or values. Apart from emotional dislocation, the rate of physical and sexual abuse among aboriginal Canadians is also high. There have been various stories of addiction that have been stemmed from abuse and neglect among Natives. Researchers claim that the loss of attachment of young people may lead to increase in addictive tendencies. First Nations people are believed to be largest substance-abusing groups in Canada, where there is formal discussion regarding addiction there are references to the high addiction rates in Aboriginal communities. The major difference between the addiction problem for Native Canadian and others is the element of social isolation and systemic discrimination. This has created a divide among Native communities and a decrease in the spirituality that was originally a central source of power in Aboriginal communities. Addiction has been a symptom to many other issues in First Nations communities, most of which come back to segregation and alienation. Today many first nation communities are fighting for basic needs such as clean water, this is evidence of the discrimination and injustices against first nations people that remain an issue. The first step to addressing these concerns is by ending the cycle of abuse

Source 1 displays a Indigenous prayer ceremony to prepare for Christmas. The ceremony is influenced by Aboriginal culture such as their connection with the land and the spirits of the First Peoples. For Aborigines “all objects are living and share the same soul and spirit as them”. Spirituality is heavily incorporated into the everyday lives of Aboriginals. Spirituality can be defined as the sense of a connection to something bigger than yourself and involves a search for the meaning of life.

In Aboriginal teachings, the medicine wheel is sacred because it represents the various components of a healthy, well-rounded individual. Like wellness, the medicine wheel represents an “active state of health in which an individual progresses toward a higher level of functioning, thus achieving an optimum balance” (as cited in Fain & Lewis, 2002, p. 7). The medicine wheel is divided into four major sections, each representing a major part of a person (physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual). In order to achieve balance in one’s life, one must analyze each of these components, and work to improve communications within one’s self. Intrapersonal communication is vital to the development of self-concept and self-esteem,

The Inuit people find it very useful for their society to understand the spiritual part of their culture because it helps them connect to each other and their inner self. Culture is extremely significant to the Inuit people and they spent a lot of time practicing how to greater it. In Concise Dictionary of Social and Cultural Anthropology by Mike Morris culture is defined as: “general use, culture is usually treated as an attribute of quality of refinement in the mind, which can be accumulated or exercised through reading, attending the theatre, and classical music concerts and similar pursuits” (pg.56). Culture is also defined by Charles Winick in Dictionary of Anthropology as: “all that which is nonbiological and socially transmitted in a society, including artistic, social, ideological, and religious patterns of behaviour, and the techniques for mastering the environment”(pg. 146). The intelligence of Raven is never ending, he can do anything he set his mind too, Raven is especially good at healing.

spirituality. Aboriginal spirituality is passed on orally by elders through myths and rituals. Without knowledge of their traditional languages, young people could not learn about the spiritual beliefs of their people. This spirituality was all encompassing, affecting not only their thoughts about the spirit world but also their knowledge of places, plants and animals and traditional skills such as fishing, trapping, and tanning (Blair et al., 2002, p. 96). As Steckley and Cummins have pointed out, without access to the elders’ knowledge of nature, young people lost access to the beliefs and practices their people had developed over thousands of years (2001, p. 17). Therefore, the loss of language led to the loss of traditional spiritual beliefs and

“In Native American Spirituality, the medicine wheel represents harmony and connections and is considered a major symbol of peaceful interactions among all living beings on earth” (“Medicine Wheel”, 2013, p. 1). The medicine wheel has been used for many generations of various American native tribes and are still used today in the Native American spirituality. In an interview with an aboriginal woman B.C, B.C stated “the wheel has been passed down from generation from generation and the meaning of the wheel has never been altered and it’s very symbolic to the first nation’s people. The following is a picture of the medicine wheel;

While the Native Americans and the Africans inhabited two different continents, their belief system has a plethora of similarities pertaining to their core values. The basis of their religion also, in some ways, epitomizes modern day religion such as rites of passage. Their differences are shallow in context when it comes to what they view as sacred and holy and including religious rituals that are performed for a specific reason or transformation. Both Native American and African mythologies center around the ideology of harmony, balance, and cyclical nature of all beings through animistic symbolization. To a certain degree, all outsiders or nonnatives who study the belief systems of indigenous religions have found that indigenous religion is more than just a religion or belief system but rather an inherent way of living. To name or label indigenous beliefs as “religion” or any other is to have a bias based on our own views of transformation and ultimacy.

For Native Americans, protecting their sacred ways was and is a matter of survival, but it is also a matter of respect for the power that is involved. Across the United States, there are more than 558 federally recognized and several hundred state recognized Native American nations (Russell, 1998). Given the wide-ranging diversity of this population consisting of 2.3 million people, it is essential to understand that the term Native American spirituality encompasses the vastness of more than 500 different tribal traditions represented by these hundreds of Indian nations. Being particularly interested in the spirituality as well as the spiritual philosophies and practices of Native Americans, I have decided to approach this very

Because so many Native Americans are at risk for abuse at home, leaders have begun a program that aims at preventing suicide for the girls who have “repeatedly struggled with sexual and domestic violence” (Horowitz, “The Hard Lives”). It is a challenge to protect children from the damage of the poverty and addiction that lead to many “sexual assaults, domestic violence, and substance abuse” (Horowitz, “The Hard Lives”). These young people live in homes where there is a large amount of frustration and often adults will lash out at the children, which creates even more of a cycle of abuse. As poverty continues to worsen, addiction, especially drug abuse and alcoholism, continue to become even more widespread on Indian reservations. With alcoholic parents in the home, children are exposed to the dangers of drinking at a young age and many children, aged five or six, begin “experimenting with alcohol” (Children of the Plains). Statistics show how common alcoholism is for Native Americans: according to one source, “80 percent of adults on this reservation” are alcoholic because they turn to drink when they have trouble handling the poverty of their community (Children of the

Pattel-Gray, Anne. “Aboriginal Spirituality: Past, Present, and Future.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Vol. 67, No. 2 (June, 1999), 496-499. Web. 26 November 2014.

Psychosocial integration, the antithesis of social dislocation, is the meaningful inclusion of individuals in the larger community (Alexander and Shaler 231). While there does appear to be some evidence of violence, and mental health problems there is little to no indication that addiction was prevalent in Native Canadian society (Alexander 17). Today, Aboriginal Canadians have a disproportionately high number of drug addicts (FK). A common argument for the high number of addicts is that Aboriginal Canadians have some sort of genetic predisposition towards addiction ("Aboriginal People”). If native Canadian societies have some genetic predisposition to addiction why is there no evidence of mass addiction before the Europeans (FK)? Did this gene miraculously evolve over a few generations? What did evolve between over those generations was the assimilation policies of the Canadian government. The assimilation policies used social dislocation as a weapon to destroy communities in an effort to claim land and resources (Government). Residential schools were set up to forcibly remove children from their native culture and assimilate them into the mainstream Canadian society (Government). Communities were forced to disconnect themselves from their culture under the fear of punishment. Today, we are witnesses to the impact of that forced dislocation. First Nation people are over represented in the federal prison system for drug related offenses, they are over represented in emergency visits for drug overdoses, we see rampant drug abuse in First Nation communities and we see continued social dislocation (Weekes, Thomas and Graves 2). The recent history of the First Nation people of Canada is one of social dislocation that has lead to mass

Certainly, this treatment does utilize nurses and trained psychologist and counselors as part of the “western” tradition of psychological healing, which does show some many comparable methodologies that are utilized in psychiatric treatments. However, the cultural focus of interventionist counseling strategies involving the philosophy of the medicine wheel provide a culture-specific focus on the needs of the indigenous patient. In many cases, the processing of aboriginal substance abusers provides a way to return to the roots of their own culture in the healing

The belief in kinship with creation is widely supported within most indigenous religions. In this way of thinking, there is more importance placed on the concept of “we” than there is on the concept of “I”. Here, the family or village is where strong emphasis lies. In many indigenous traditions, developing and maintaining a respectful relationship with spiritual energy is paramount. This concept doesn’t only apply to humans, but also, in many cases to the immediate natural environment as well. The oneness of the body and the land is vital. Many think of themselves as mere ‘caretakers’ of the earth, and nothing more, who has a duty to nurture and preserve it for future generations. Certain animals are seen as spiritual conduits, just as certain trees are seen to impart herbal healing secrets.

The United States is not immune to the worldwide drug addiction epidemic. Drugs pour in from Mexico daily, then distributed to throughout the country. The economic crisis in America is creating an excuse for drug use (e.g., depression, hopelessness). This chemical fix not only creates problems for the addict, but the family and community as well. Every addict has an enabler, a person who makes the addiction possible through various venues of support (e.g., financial, denial). Addicts are only concerned with their next fix and will resort to any means to obtain it (e.g., theft, prostitution, pan-handling). Some have even resorted to extremely desperate measures; for example, murder for inheritance or life insurance proceeds.

The book that I read “This is Your Country on Drugs: The Secret of Getting High in America by Ryan Grim” tells us the stories and relationship among Americans, their drugs and the government, which is a drug literature. The book and author will give us a tour in an illicit world of drugs use in the United States. The Americans dilemma of love-hate relationship with psychotomimetic substances extended from the nations commencing until the present time.