Lecture 4 Flashcards
Pre-Contact Health of Indigenous Populations: Common ailments included
pyhorrea (disease of the gums), arthritis, venereal disease, broken bones.
Pre-Contact Health of Indigenous Populations: Indigenous people were well adapted
by cultural and biological means to deal with these types of ailments.
Pre-Contact Health of Indigenous Populations: They used plants
and herbs as medicines. In fact, many modern drugs are derived from these herbs and plants.
Pre-Contact Health of Indigenous Populations: Healers had
special status in traditional communities and knew how to care for the sick.
Pre-Contact Health of Indigenous Populations: Indigenous people lived
lived relatively healthy lives and did not suffer from infectious disease
Pre-Contact Health of Indigenous Populations: Women were
valued and held leadership roles,children were raised according to the values of the sacred circle,and resource-rich environments provided abundant, healthy food.
Henry Dobbyns wrote: “Aside from venereal disease,
almost the only biological weapons Natives possessed were severe forms of intestinal parasites and this absence of lethal pathogens allowed Native peoples to live in almost a paradise of well-being.”
Indigenous lifestyles were
dependent on and by necessity were in harmony with the environment and other species.
Populations adapted to environmental change
and migrated when necessary.
Colonization
refers to the establishment of a colony in an area, or the spreading of a species into a new habitat, there are a number or practices that are associated with the act.
Settler colonialism
- Settlers intend to permanently occupy, and assert their control, over Indigenous lands.
- This invasion is structural rather than a single event.
- The goal is to eliminate colonial difference by eliminating Indigenous peoples, thereby establishing settler right to Indigenous lands.
Colonization practice
War, displacement, forced labour, removal of children, relocation, ecological destruction, massacres, genocide, slavery, spread of deadly disease, banning of languages, marriage regulations, assimilation, and eradication of social, cultural and spiritual practices
Colonization finds a middle ground between
extermination and exploitation
Prior to European settlement in North America,
all First Nations governed themselves.
Although there were differences among the nations, there was a few common threads connecting them;
one of those threads being the belief that the land belonged to everyone, and no one person or group could claim ownership.
There is evidence that increases in the consumption of
“saturated fats, sugars and starches, refined salts, alcohol, and caffeine” have contributed to health and social problems.
Land displacement and land ownership
was the first step toward European colonization
In addition to a loss of cultural knowledge about available foods and medicines, substance use has resulted
in family violence, loss of parenting knowledge between generations, as well as physical and mental health problems
4 contributors to the spread of infectious disease
- Large, sedentary populations
- Over-crowding and poor hygiene
- Poor nutrition
- Close contact with animals (they are reservoirs for microorganisms)
However, a census estimate of the size of the Indigenous population in Canada in 1871 places the number at
102, 000
During 200 to 300 years of contact, diseases such as
smallpox, tuberculosis, influenza, scarlet fever and measles reduced the population drastically.
It would take more than ____ years — until the early _____s — before the size of the Indigenous population again reached the 500,000 mark.
100; 1980
Almost 50% of off-reserve Indigenous children under the age of six live
in low income families, compared to 18% of non-Indigenous children and 57% of Indigenous children that live in large urban centres are living in low-income families
These inequities in Indigenous populations are due to
the inability to cage the overarching effects of these policies on families experiencing intergenerational trauma, and individuals dealing with discrimination and racism, two factors that increase the impact of the other traumas.
