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The reported population of American Indians and Alaska Natives has grown rapidly over the past 20 years. These changes raise questions for the Indian Health Service and other agencies responsible for serving the American Indian population. How big is the population? What are its health care and insurance needs? This volume presents an up-to-date summary of what is known about the demography of American Indian and Alaska Native population--their age and geographic distributions, household structure, employment, and disability and disease patterns. This information is critical for health care planners who must determine the eligible population for Indian health services and the costs of providing them. The volume will also be of interest to researchers and policymakers concerned about the future characteristics and needs of the American Indian population.
Alaska Native populations have undergone relatively rapid changes in nearly every aspect of life over the past half century. Overall lifestyles have shifted from subsistence-based to wage-based, from traditional to Western, and from self-sustainability to reliance on Outside sources. My research investigates the effects of these changes on health and well-being. The literature appears to lack concern for and documentation of Native peoples' perceptions of the changes in food systems and effects on their communities. Additionally, there is a lack of studies specific to Alaska Native individual perceptions of health and well-being. Therefore, my research aims to help identify social patterns regarding changes in the food that individuals and communities eat and possible effects the changes have on all aspects of health; it aims to help document how Alaska Native individuals and communities are adaptive and resilient; and it aims to honor, acknowledge, and highlight the personal perspectives and lived experiences of respondents and their views regarding food, health, and community well-being. I conducted interviews with 20 Alaska Native participants in an effort to document their perspectives regarding these changes. Many themes emerged from the data related to subsistence, dependency, and adaptation. Alaska Natives have witnessed what Western researchers call a "nutritional transition." However, Alaska Native participants in my research describe this transition as akin to cultural genocide. Cut off from traditional hunting and fishing (both geographically and economically), Alaska Natives recognize the damage to individual and community health. Studies attribute rising rates of cancer, heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and mental illness to the loss of culture attached to subsistence lifestyles and subsistence foods themselves. Alaska Natives report a decrease in cultural knowledge and traditional hunting skills being passed to the younger generations. Concern for the future of upcoming generations is a reoccurring theme, especially in regard to dependence on market foods. When asked what changes should be made, nearly all respondents emphasized education as the key to cultural sustainability and self-sufficiency. The changes sought include means and access to hunting and fishing. This is seen as the remedy for dependence on Outside resources. From a traditional Alaska Native perspective, food security cannot be satisfied with Western industrial products. When considering Arctic community health and cultural sustainability, food security must be considered in both Western and Indigenous Ways. Control over local availability, accessibility, quality, and cultural appropriateness is imperative to Native well-being. Many participants point to differences in Western and Native definitions of what is acceptable nourishment. Imported processed products simply cannot fully meet the needs of Native people. Reasons cited for this claim include risky reliance on a corporate food system designed for profit with its inherent lack of culturally-appropriate, nutrient-dense, locally controlled options. Respondents are concerned that junk food offers dependable, affordable, available, and accessible calories, whereas traditional foods often are not as reliably accessible. Based on these findings, I named the concept of "nutritional colonialism." Respondents expressed a desire to return to sustainable and self-sufficient subsistence diets with their cultural, emotional, social, spiritual, and physical benefits. Although they expressed concern regarding climate change and environmental pollutants, this did not diminish the significance of traditional foods for respondents.
"In the past century, especially since the 1960s, Alaska Natives have faced rapid cultural and socio-economic change as Western influences have increasingly infiltrated the Native life-ways; since the 1960s social problems, including alcohol abuse, violence, and suicide have plagued Native individuals, families and communities. Arguably, a source of these social problems is the striking shift from clearly defined gender roles for Native adults that guided youth to adulthood in the past to opaque and ambiguous roles for adults that draw on both traditional and Western cultures. Historically, clearly defined gender roles provided youth with the role models necessary for maturing into healthy, productive adults and thereby offered youth a sense of purpose, direction and identity. Today's youth must look for cues in both traditional and Western culture to envision their futures, and with often conflicting value systems and too few strong adult role models to follow, many youth, especially males, are floundering. Healthy adult and elder role models are essential to the well-being of Native youth as they mature into adulthood. The revitalization of mentors, role models and close relationships between adults and youth are critical to future health and well-being of Alaska Native individuals, families and communities"--Leaf iii.
In With the Wind and the Waves, psychologist Ray M. Droby tells a story of treatment and learning, drawing on experiences ranging from an ocean journey he took on the Bering Sea while serving in a Alaska Native community to his clinical work as a psychologist in rural Alaska. Like negotiating an ocean, Droby moves “with the wind and the waves” while working with substance abuse disorders and mental health issues superimposed on intergenerational trauma and internalized oppression. He captures positive momentum in work aimed at facilitating self-determination with Alaska Natives and their communities while discouraging historical dependency and colonizing patterns of thinking and doing for mental health workers. Sensitive to the history of non-Native outsiders imposing their own culture on Native land, Droby presents here principles, combined with cultural and therapy considerations, that are designed to help people avoid replicating this history of harm. Recognizing the strengths of Alaska Natives and their communities, and the stages of change human individuals and communities undergo, Droby shows how to exercise a nonjudgmental presence as a mental health worker in rural Alaska.
The Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act passed by Congress in 1971, hailed at the time as the most liberal settlement ever achieved with Native Americans, granted 44 million acres and nearly $1 billion in cash to a new entity -- Native corporations. When this book was published in 1985, that settlement was bitterly resented by the Alaska Natives themselves. Thomas R. Berger, invited by the Inuit Circumpolar Conference to head the Alaska Native Review Commission, traveled to sixty-two villages and towns, held village meetings and listened to testimony from Inuit, Aboriginal peoples, and Aleuts. His report, Village Journey, suggests changes in the law and public attitudes that will be required to reach a fair accommodation with the Alaska Natives and enable them to keep their land for themselves and for their descendants. The author's new Preface deals with problems still facing Alaska Natives and their corporations. This is a new release of the book published in May 1995.
This book explores the application of federal Indian policy to Alaska Natives in the 20th century, a process driven by the federal government's desire to acquire Indian land. Twentieth century Indian policy, as applied in Alaska, has oscillated between encouraging the privatization of land and assimilation of Native Alaskans into the dominant society, and allowing for Native autonomy and self-government. The Alaska Reorganization Act of 1936, better known as the Alaska Native New Deal, promoted Native self-government through constitutions and native self-sufficiency through corporations within geographic limits of designated reservations. In Alaska, the federal government's termination policy extended state jurisdiction over Native peoples after World War Two. A new policy of self-determination was initiated by the passage of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971. With this act, 40 million acres were conveyed to newly created Native corporations. Alaska Natives would achieve self-determination by participation in corporate decisions. This history of the legislation and implementation of federal Indian policy in Alaska explores the tensions and reversals expressed through successive legislative acts, and focuses upon the implications of this policy for Native Alaskans.
Decades before the marches and victories of the 1960s, a group of Alaska Natives were making civil rights history. Throughout the early twentieth century, the Alaska Native Brotherhood fought for citizenship, voting rights, and education for all Alaska Natives, securing unheard-of victories in a contentious time. Their unified work and legal prowess propelled the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, one of the biggest claim settlements in United States history. A Dangerous Idea tells an overlooked but powerful story of Alaska Natives fighting for their rights under American law and details one of the rare successes for Native Americans in their nearly two-hundred-year effort to define and protect their rights.
Making up more than ten percent of Alaska's population, Native Alaskans are the state's largest minority group. Yet most non-Native Alaskans know surprisingly little about the histories and cultures of their indigenous neighbors, or about the important issues they face. This concise book compiles frequently asked questions and provides informative and accessible responses that shed light on some common misconceptions. With responses composed by scholars within the represented communities and reviewed by a panel of experts, this easy-to-read compendium aims to facilitate a deeper exploration and richer discussion of the complex and compelling issues that are part of Alaska Native life today.