Stereotypes In First Nations

The injustice of stereotypes begins with depictions of diverse groups as uniform. For Indigenous Australian stereotypes, there are prevailing negative views of laziness, welfare abuse, substance abuse, and criminality (Perkins, 2014). Initial negative stereotypes of Indigenous Australians were based on social-Darwinist theories (Harrison & Sellwood, 2016). However, contemporary stereotypes might be attributed to ignorance of Australia’s past paternalistic colonialism on contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. Stereotypes negatively impact the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. This is clear in constructing identity, and the expectations others have of Indigenous Australians.

Most people think that all First Nations are alcoholics, drug dealers, homeless and etc. This consept bothers me a lot. It's like judging a book by it's cover. Today, most Aboriginal teens have difficulty fitting in the society because they are ashamed of who they are, instead, they try to pretend to be a different person by violating their traditional and cultural rights, hating their skin tone, and even considering changing their names. One great example that we see of how The First Nations were affected through a book called “April Raintree” by Beatrice Culleton.

Great questions, I feel that in order for Canada to better represent the people of Canada they have to have the different views in order to ensure the best option for the country. In order to eliminate negative stereotypes, they have to rid a label that has been created by the media or the government. The only way to get rid of a label is to allow different cultures or group to be given the power during policy-making to ensure they are not being victimized which will have large social repercussions. Canada has to realize that they are not just trying to make the majority of Canadian happy when they have branded themselves a multicultural country. That means that they have to be accepting of all background and not create stereotypes which might

Truthfully, Canada has yet to come to terms with its Aboriginal heritage. Though steps are being made, our country still in a sense lacks the conviction to truly accept our Indigenous history. This essay will discuss the importance of three paramount pieces of Aboriginal history that we must come to terms with as Canadians in order to accept our Aboriginal heritage. Canada is struggling to come to terms with its Aboriginal history, and this essay will attempt to display what we need to understand in order to move forward and make progress. Canada is a melting pot of diversity, but our very earliest roots as a nation stand with the Aboriginal people. Therefore, it is clear that Canada needs to come to terms with its Aboriginal heritage.

Throughout Canadian history, Aboriginal peoples have been subjected to varying degrees of state imposed control. With the end goal of eliminating the ‘Indian problem’, colonising mechanisms were put in place to regulate individual and collective Indigenous rights, possessions, and privileges. Various Canadian governmental policies had made institutionalized racism, as well as assimilation tactics against its Aboriginal people’s common practice. Infringing on their basic human rights and fundamental freedoms, the legislated policies and programs reflected the ideology of the time, which could be summed up by the very words of the Deputy Superintendent of Indian and Northern Affairs from 1913-32, Duncan Campbell Scott. As he infamously

Aboriginal people represent less than 3% of the total population in BC. Yet, they account for more than 9% of all suicides in BC (Chandler). The numbers of suicides amongst aboriginal youth are even more alarming – nearly one-fourth of all youth suicides in BC are committed by aboriginals and more than half of all aboriginal suicides are committed by youth (Chandler). The fact that indigenous communities in Canada have the highest rate of suicide of any culturally identifiable group in the world implies that these alarming statistics may not solely be a result of aboriginal communities belonging to a minority cultural group. I will attempt to build a speculative hypothesis behind the significantly high suicide rates amongst aboriginal

1. Being a Native American, and being a woman. Would create some employment problems in the future. Lots of companies would rather hire a non-Indian instead of a Native American. The Native American people have always been stereotype as being unreliable, un-educated, lazy and a drunk.

Native Americans as a whole have been typecast as drunks ever since the coming of the white man’s “fire water.” TS Naimi, MD et al. reports that alcohol is responsible for 11.7% of all American Indian and Alaska Native deaths, compared to 3.3% for the U.S. general population (939). This disturbing discrepancy reinforces the age old notion of the “drunk Indian.” Generalizations aside, is there some truth to this stereotype? Are Indians more likely than other races to be drunks? Of all the races, “Native Americans have the highest prevalence (12.1%) of heavy drinking…A larger percentage of Native Americans (29.6%) also are binge drinkers” (Chartier and Caetano 153). Although some research has been done on genetic causes, little is

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

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

Native American culture is one that is misunderstood and stereotyped in many different ways. After Europeans colonized North America they began to make assumptions and opinions on Native American culture, many of which were misconcenceptions. Since Native American culture was so different then western culture, many Europeans treated it as if it was not a legitimate way of life, instead something that was of the past. With this point of view, many began to build stereotypes for Native American people. These varied from them only being guides for Europeans as they explored North America, to them being sexual beings since Native American culture gave men and woman a more equal distribution of power. Whatever impression the Europeans had, they were unable to widely understand what Native American life was really like and how it was affected by westward expansion. The artist Kent Monkman comments on this falsified reality in his painting The Trappers of Men, where he alludes to many different stereotypes that are associated with Native

     Throughout the history of American literature, the Native American is rarely presented as a fully developed character; instead, he is degraded to a mere caricature, one deeply rooted in traditional racial prejudices. In his novel, The Pioneers, James Fennimore Cooper became the one of the first American authors to depict an Indian as a leading character; in fact, Cooper's depiction of the infamous Chinkachgook is widely considered to be the original archetypical basis for Native American figures as seen in American literature.  However, Cooper's characterization of Chinkachgook, known by a variety of names, including John Mohegan and Indian John, is based

Aboriginal people in Canada have constantly been oppressed, ostracized, and taken advantage of for many years. The rest of society has created labels and stereotypes for aboriginals, often associating them with drunks, addicts, and degenerates. These negative stereotypes have created a platform to continue the hate and prejudice attitudes towards Aboriginals. According to Horvath’s view on colonialism, he explains that domination is the control by individuals or groups over the territory or the behaviour of other individuals or groups (Popham, Lecture 5, 2015). He goes onto explain that the dominant group in society (intergroup) have the ability to control society, as the culture throughout the intergroup is the same. Knowing that Aboriginal

All Aboriginal people are victims of colonialization and the vast majority of them are continuing to live in condition of disadvantage. They become racialize and treated differently simply because of their physical characteristics. According to statistic Canada they speak over 60 different languages across 52 different cultural groups. For instance “the Province of Alberta has 46 separate Indian bands among the First Nations population. There are distinct cultural differences between the tribes with Alberta being home to Blackfoot, Blood, Stony, Cree, Dene, Saulteaux, and Beaver tribes” (Voyageur and Calliou 16). The reserve life is always characterized by poverty, blocked opportunity, and ill health. First Nations, while constituting only

Canada’s Aboriginal people have been experiencing adverse health outcomes that have been resonating across generations. As a result, Aboriginals are disproportionately suffering more from disabilities, diseases and high rates of mortality than other Canadians. The high rates of HIV, depression and chronic diseases among Aboriginals have been linked to experiences of poverty, unemployment, poor living conditions, and the loss of community ties. Although Aboriginal communities are suffering from a wide variety of health issue, Canadian society has been unable to find adequate solutions. My understanding is that as a society we lack the ability to find suitable solutions because we do not understand the correlations between various socio-economic factors and poor health.