American Indians 101

Things I have heard growing up. From a black man — “I didn’t know you could leave the reservation.” From white men — “You don’t need to work, do you? Doesn’t the government support you? Free schooling, free medical, no taxes?” More recently, others have been surprised by my time in recovery as the stereotype is — “I thought all Indians were drunken Indians” (That used to be said, now it appears to be thought but not spoken)

So much misinformation and so many myths and misunderstandings. I started training on this curriculum in 2009. We have seen some changes over the years. Many people attending our training are upset that they didn’t know the material we train on. It is not American Indians 101 to our participants, only to our trainers.

Several years ago now, a psychologist working in a treatment program that worked with Native American people for many years, told us at the end of a training, “I thought I would know 95 percent of what we would learn, and maybe learn 5 percent new information. It was the opposite, I learned 95% and knew 5%.

On Thursday, a participant told us that her son is learning about Native Americans in school and comes home and shares with her what he is learning. Things that she didn’t learn until she was an adult and working in the community.

We worked with a group of therapists working with children on and off the reservation. We were brought in specifically to train with these therapists who work primarily with Native American children. Many said similar things after day one. The curriculum appeared to be an overview for them.

As trainers, what that meant was that we would gear the training more so that we answered their questions. We had a panel discussion at the end of the last day of the three-day training, and answered their questions after they reviewed the last two modules.

At the beginning, they do a pre-test, and at the end, they do a post-test. Everyone made a significant improvement in their post-test and was thankful for the training. There were a couple of people out of that group who were interested in being trainers.

This was a group that would use the handouts. They will benefit from the training and use what they learned to help them in their work. The end benefit is that our Native American children will benefit from their work, from the things that they learned.

Not all Native Americans are the same -

*There are over 500 different federally recognized tribes in the United States, with over 500 different languages spoken.

*Because we have four trainers each day, both men and women, they are given a sample of this truth of being raised differently and coming from different backgrounds.

*The group's participants were licensed as social workers and mental health therapists, while the curriculum is focused on both mental health and substance abuse for the Native American population.

* Two of our trainers were not alcoholic or drug addicted, while all are in recovery, four others were in recovery from drugs and alcohol addiction, with the least years being 10 and the most being 44 years of recovery, for a total of over 100 years of recovery among the trainers. (Trainers can’t always be there for the full training, so at least two trainers stop in and out during the training)

*Our focus was on the tribes living in Minnesota. The Ojibwe and Dakota language speakers. One of our trainers is enrolled in a tribe in Minnesota, but has a Lakota last name. So, some intra-tribal and inter-tribal prejudice was discussed.

*One of our trainers is from the Turtle Mountains in North Dakota, and her mother spoke Michif (a combination of Ojibwe, Cree, and French). Her family was originally from Canada. She was in a boarding school.

The curriculum we use was developed in South Dakota for the Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota substance abuse counselors. The curriculum was mandatory for all counselors in South Dakota at the time of the purchase of the curriculum.

Then the curriculum was adapted by both a Minnesota-enrolled Native American with a Social Work and Teaching background, and Dr. White Hat, a Lakota male working for the State of Minnesota Behavioral Health Division.

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Author's Note: American Indian was the term decided on for use in grant contracts and legal documents by the Tribal Chiefs many years ago. While Native American and Indigenous are the terms used most often today.

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First published by Penny Press on medium.com