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American indians health issues
Native american history essay
Native american history essay
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When I think back to high school about the first europeans arrived to America, all my teacher taught me was that the about 90 percent of native american population die from the disease the pilgrim brought with them. I never thought of the reverse and now I have to research a question why the native american didn’t wipe out europeans with disease and I found it very hard to research my paper. I asked my history professor about my question and the response I got was that the native tribes are normans who migrate from place to place and they are very clean with the connection with earth. On the research I found out that europeans are more farming while native american are hunters and gatherers, european living area is different from native american …show more content…
One of the website I found said “european has been the caretakers of domestic animals for thousand of year, and had over time grow immune to the common disease”(Emily Upton) I agree with what this person said because if we look at the native american, they don’t usually be friend with animals other than their pet hunting dog. Native american are hunters and gathering which mean they go where the food go and they don’t stay in one spot which mean they don’t get disease or come to contacts with …show more content…
In history class I learned that the king and other rich people in england want poor people to go to the new colonies because the the area in england was very crowded. At the time England was not just crowded city, but also the street is very dirty because people would just throw their trash out of the window. Unlike native american, they move place to place and the area they live never have trash all over the floor. The author also said “when so many humans live together in relatively close, disease spread quickly with the general population continually get exposed to numerous pathogens.”(Emily Upton) This is true because when we exposed to disease often time, our boy can adapt to deal with the disease and for people who survive, their immune system thrived as a result. We can said for sure that native american people never have problem with the disease the european have face and they are not immune to it
One of the determining factors of a person’s survival from the variola virus during the period of the American Revolution in North America was race. Even though the variola virus in and of itself does not factor in race to determine whether to infect one person over another, race did factor in significantly in the survival rate when exposed to the virus. Part of Fenn’s argument is that Europeans had an innate immunity over diseases that those who were not from Europe did not have. She argued that since Europeans come from a world with a large array of diseases their bodies had built up certain protections against the variola virus. This innate immunity that Fenn discussed brought about certain mechanisms within the body that pr...
In the New World, domestic animals were not common and therefore most meat was hunted and scavenged for, whereas in the Old World domestic animals such as cows, horses, pigs, etc. were very commonplace in villages of the same stature as those in the Americas thus living styles were different with different habits. In addition, the epidemiological imbalance came from the amount of diseases deriving from the old world and its domestic animals compared to the diseases found in the Americas. Overall, the old world, Europe, had many more diseases which transmitted easily. Also, Mann calls the disease imbalance the most important fact in world history because when these diseases were transmitted to the Americas, it dictated the first 150 years of Native American life as so many were
“ [They] spent most of the conquest and colonial periods reacting and responding to the European strangers and invaders” (99). Both sides were different in many ways; Their communication, transportation, culture, and the way they survived differentiate the Europeans from the Native Americans. They both acted as wisely as they could when this encounters began after the discovery. “[Tribes] worked mightily and often cleverly to maximize their political sovereignty, cultural autonomy, territorial integrity, power of self identification, and physical nobility” (100). The Europeans were stronger, had better technology, better weapons, and had plenty of experience fighting people like the Native Americans. They could have easily conquer them , but they had a problem of resources, reinforcements and survival. Native American were many but they lacked the knowledge and experience of war and evolution. Europeans were technologically evolved and were experienced at fighting wars, but they ...
The outbreak of diseases ravages the Native population. Due to geographic regions and limitations, the Natives never suffered from such strong illnesses as smallpox, measles and the black plague. Some of the European colonies gave the Natives diseased infested animals and clothing. The English and the Natives did cooperate with each other due to it being in the best of their interests. Their mutual trust would later erode due to the English going back to their old habits and started to steal from the Natives.
The European influences to the Native Americans were Europeans carried the new diseases to the Indians. “Europeans were used to these diseases, but Indian people had no resistance to them. Sometimes the illnesses spread through direct contact with colonists. Other times, they were transmitted as Indians traded with one another. The result of this contact with European germs was horrible. Sometimes whole villages perished in a short time” (Kincheloe). Slave trade was another influence to American Indians. Europeans soon realized that they could provide commercial goods such as tools and weapons to some American Indian tribes that would bring them other Indians captured in tribal wars, and these captured Indians were bought and sold as slaves. Therefore, “slavery led to warfare among tribes and too much hardship. Many tribes had to move to escape the slave trade, which destroyed some tribes completely. In time, the practice of enslaving Native peoples ended. However, it had greatly affected American Indians of the South and the Southwest” (Kinchloe). Lastly, Europeans change Native America and African’ roots. Native Americans
American Indians have had health disparities as result of unmet needs and historical traumatic experiences that have lasted over 500 hundred years.1(p99) Since first contact American Indians have been exposed to infectious disease and death2(p19), more importantly, a legacy of genocide, legislated forcible removal, reservation, termination, allotment, and assimilation3. This catastrophic history had led to generational historical traumas and contributes to the worst health in the United States.2 American Indians and Alaska Natives (AI/AN) represent 0.9 percent of the United States population4(p3) or 1.9 million AI/AN of 566 federally recognized tribes/nations.5 American Indians/Alaska Natives have significantly higher mortality rates of intentional and unintentional injuries, chronic liver disease and cirrhosis, diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular disease and coronary heart disease and chronic lower respiratory disease than other American.6
The extraordinary good health of the natives prior to the coming of the Europeans would become a key ingredient in their disastrous undoing. The greatest cause of disease in America was epidemic diseases imported from Europe. Epidemic diseases killed with added virulence in the " virgin soil" populations of the Americas. The great plague that arose in the Old World never emerged on their own among the western hemisphere and did not spread across oceans until Columbus' discovery.
A major problem facing people of the United States is the increase in diabetes rates, with some of the highest rates fall upon people of Native American origin. Food, language, and traditions are three big components that define the Native American culture, but could alterations to the very components that define these indigenous people also be contributing to their demise? Many factors have contributed to the declining health of Native Americans, but most notably, changes in eating habits and inactive lifestyles are the two of the main culprits leading to the high diabetes rates among the Native American population.
Hampton, R., & Toombs, M. (2013). Chapter 4: Indigenous Australian concepts of health and well-being. In Indigenous Australians and Health: The Wombat in the Room. (pp. 73-90). Oxford University Press: South Melbourne.
Since the arrival of Columbus in 1492, American Indians have been in a continuous struggle with diseases. It may not be small pox anymore, but illnesses are still haunting the native population. According to statistics, Native Americans have much higher rates of disease than the overall population. This includes a higher death rate from alcoholism, tuberculosis, and diabetes than any other racial or ethnic group. Recent studies by Indian health experts show that diabetes among Indian youth ages 15-19 has increased 54% since 1996 and 40% of Indian children are overweight. Even though diabetes rates vary considerably among the Native American population, deaths caused from diabetes are 230 percent greater than the United States population as a whole. Diabetes is an increasing crisis among the Native American population.
Native Americans never came in contact with diseases that developed in the Old World because they were separated from Asia, Africa, and Europe when ocean levels rose following the end of the last Ice Age. Diseases like smallpox, measles, pneumonia, influenza, and malaria were unknown to the Native Americans until the Europeans brought these diseases over time to them. This triggered the largest population decline in all recorded history. Fifty percent of the Native American population had died of disease within twenty years. Soon after, Native Americans began to question their religion and doubted the ability of shamen to heal. This was the first step towards the destruction of Native cultures. The Native Americans had never experienced anything like these deadly diseases before and they came to believe that Europeans had the power to kill or give life.
Throughout time, mankind has persistently been seeking ways to maintain their health and to cure those that had not been so fortunate in that task. Just about everything has been experimented with as a cure for some type of illness; whether physical, spiritual or mental. There has always been evidence of spiritual healing and it will continue to be an important part of any healing process, large or small.
Many people believe that Native Americans are a disadvantaged group of individuals in many ways. Culturally, in that many of the cultures of the various tribes across the Americas were taken from them by Europeans and their descendants. Socially, in that they are unlike other minorities in the United States because of their extra-constitutional status; and even medically, stemming from the general belief that Natives are at a higher risk for disease than other ethnicities due to tobacco and alcohol use, especially when used together (Falk, Hiller-Sturmhöfel, & Yi, 2006).
Europeans were deemed poor candidates for slavery due to their higher mortality rates. In 17th century, the New World was going through Public Health crisis. European immigration to the New World influenced the transmission of unknown epidemic diseases in American colonies. Warm climate in American colonies also became det...
The exchange of diseased from the old world (Europe) and the new world (America) was so one-sided in that America's got killed off, not Europeans. This was because the old world had a resistance to their diseases compared to the native americans how were never exposed to such deadly diseases like smallpox and measles. Social animals are domesticated animals that live together for example pigs,cows, horses etc. They are the ones that carry the epidemic diseases. The old world had a domesticated these animals and were less vulnerable to them but the new world was off by its