Social Work with Native Americans

Social Work with Native Americans

By: Katy Fedurek

One of the most vulnerable populations today is Native Americans. In the United States, there are 562 tribes that are federally recognized. These tribes must meet certain criteria in order to be eligible for services given by the government. One key issue with this population is sovereignty. There are 322 Indian reservations in the United States and this land within the country is sovereign territory. Because of this, Native Americans are not a minority, they are a separate category. The federal government wanted to buy land that belonged to the Indian nations so treaties were made where large parts of the land were given in exchange for protection over resources and their land, education, and healthcare. In 1924, the Citizenship Act granted US citizenship to all Native Americans.

Native American student after arriving at a boarding school.
source: http://listen.sdpb.org/post/boarding-school-memories-haunt-lakota-man

There are many issues that social workers help with when working with Native Americans. 40% of housing on reservation land is inadequate. In 1928, the Meriam Report proved that Indians lived in extreme poverty. Native American women die around the age of 77 and men tend to die around the age of 60. Non-Native American women die around 80 and non-Native American men die around 75. This population also has many mental health issues. This could be due to the fact that the American government forced Native American children to attend boarding school. One example of someone who went through boarding school is Walter Littlemoon.  The United States government came into his house and took him away from his mother just at the young age of five years old. “Nobody was smiling, I can remember that,” Littlemoon says. “There was a lot of crying. There was a lot of….you know…children weren’t running.” One example of a punishment that these children suffered through was being hit with a boat paddle with holes drilled into it. Littlemoon was diagnosed with Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder due to the amount of abuse over the years. This abuse also happens during a peak point in personality development in the child's life. The cruelty happened for hundreds of years in the United States. Social workers must understand the past history of Native Americans in order to help them and empathize with their everyday struggles. 

This information is very relevant for social work majors because the history of Native Americans and boarding school is often not taught in the American education system. This remains a large issue and many Native Americans live in states of intense anxiety due to stress over health care, the US government, and their land. I learned this information through my social work class and we had an assignment on boarding schools.

Sources:

Social Work: A Profession of Many Faces. N.p.: Allyn & Bacon, 2012. N. pag. Print.