The Struggles Faced By Natives In Alaska
It is generally accepted that with the modernization of a community comes an increase in the standard of living in that community. While this may be true, the modernization of the United States has left many communities behind. The increase in the standard of living for indigenous people in America, and in particular, Alaska, has come much slower than for the general population. This fact has lead to many in these indigenous areas suffering from lack of available health care, a general increase in violence, and substance abuse. One issue that they have experienced so far is a lack of availability to modern medicine. A study comparing rates of infectious disease hospitalizations concludes that the hospitalization rates for infants in Alaskan Native populations are “about two times higher than for the general U. S. infant population,” with 15,724. 6 per 100,000 infants in Alaskan Native populations being hospitalized for an infectious disease as compared to the general population’s 6,623. 2 per 100,000.
That same study concluded that Lower Respiratory Tract Infection (LRTI) hospitalizations occur at a rate of roughly 3 times that of the general US population. In addition, Alaskan Native populations and their hospitalization rates during the H1N1 influenza pandemic of 2009-2011 were approximately 12 times those of the general population. Increased access to modern medicine is not the only key to keeping people healthy. This is fairly evident from the continued high rates of hospitalizations despite increased access to modern medicine among Native Alaskans. Another key aspect of the indigenous people is the difference between that of the lower 48 states in keeping people healthy is a clean living environment. Foote et al. speculates in their article “Lower Respiratory Tract Infection Hospitalizations among American Indian/Alaska Native Children and the General United States Child Population” that the extremely high rates of LRTI’s among Alaskan Natives come from “household crowding, indoor smoke, lack of piped water and poverty. ” These are all factors that have been linked to LRTI’s in previous studies and are all things that plague Alaskan Natives. Foote et al. also found that “during the study period, approximately 27% of households in rural regions of Alaska did not have access to in-home water service. ” Indoor plumbing is strongly associated with social progress and is a key factor in the increased hygiene modern people enjoy. Without access to indoor plumbing, hygiene decreases which results in more disease and infection. Modernization comes with a lot of benefits to communities but modernization that leaves communities behind contributes heavily to increasing class divisions. The poor losing work time to sickness and racking up medical bills because they cannot afford to live in a place with indoor plumbing, heating that doesn’t rely on a wood stove, and rooms that are heavily overcrowded is a major oversight by the United States and its governing bodies to understand that there are steps that need to be taken to ensure that the poor indigenous population are able to get the help a services that are needed to not only ensure their survival but also to make sure they thrive and flourish. There is also an issue with where some people live because some of the stated lands on which they were forced to live upon have been old military testing grounds. These have been linked to health issues such as heavy metals getting into water streams and crops and contaminating them and making it much more difficult to survive with what little access they already have to medical treatment.
As stated in the journal, “Our objective was to quantify metal accumulation capacities for plant species and functional groups common to Alaskan military training ranges where elevated soil metal concentrations were likely to occur. Plant species across multiple military training range sites were collected. Metal content in shoots and roots was compared to soil metal concentrations to calculate bioconcentration and translocation factors”. There has been a correlation between the people who have health issues and where they live in areas exposed to our leftover military testing. With this being a major health concern there has been several grants and centers set up to better counter the living condition in which these indigenous people are living in.
Overall there is a problem in rural villages where access to daily items is limited and the villages are plagued with people trying to smuggle in drugs, alcohol, and other illegal substances. Since their very isolated there is a substantial amount of violence that has to do with the village's ban on alcohol. A study looked at 355 women ages 20-89 to dig deeper into issues around depression and violence within the household or community and the circumstances that most likely caused these issues. It stated that “ Although two contemporaneous stressors influence the likelihood of depression, intrafamilial violence experienced in childhood and, for natives of both Alaska and the Russian Far East, childhood emotional abuse by nonnatives exhibit dramatically more important effects that do not decay with time”. The upbringing of these women had the biggest effect on their emotional state and how they dealt with these issues later on in life. This resulted in communities that were brought up kids into an already rough period of time and atmosphere. The paper then later stated that “These findings point to a violence-induced biologic mechanism for depression in adulthood. They also warrant interventions that extend their focus to the subtle forms of emotional violence that members of: one ethnic group may inflict on another and to the social power relationships that may give these forms of violence a lifelong impact”. This effect than would snowball down generations and unfortunately would lead to an increase in the suicide rates in indigenous regions. Recently to combat this there was a grant that was given to indigenous peoples to help improve their quality of life. This $5,000,000 grant is to prevent substance abuse that has also been a major issue for people in these indigenous areas. This, in turn, will help the communities torn apart by violence and poverty get on their feet and start to overcome these major issues.
As referenced earlier there is a major problem with substance abuse in the rural communities in Alaska. This is due to bans on alcohol as well and most other controlled substances and medicines. This has resulted in many resorting to violence and smuggling to get these substances into small towns and villages that then tear apart families and villages slowly. One paper specifically looks into the adverse effects that this ban has had on the local population. It states “Since 1981, Alaskans have had the ability to enact by referendum local restrictions in alcohol sales, importation, and possession, known as 'local options. ' Intended to empower rural communities to reduce alcohol abuse and associated violence and trauma, the 'local option' laws have led to unintended consequences as individuals in alcohol-restricted communities seek intoxication from both legal and illegal sources of alcohol”. This local option has been overseen by the Alaskan State Troopers where they visit and oversee most local villages that these indigenous people live in. This means that the Troopers will visit from time to time for a few days to check in on people that they have had previous issues with and then try and capture or make amends with them. But this has lead to further issues of being able to capture these people who smuggle alcohol or other substances into these communities. There are resource officers that live in each community but they are on a volunteer basis so it is sometimes difficult to ensure control while the officers are gone. This has resulted in bad press also makes it hard for charities to move in and provide better education and health services which creates a bad cycle of relapse. In turn, it has been a struggle to try and overcome these issues and provide better services to the people and better amenities that would help the locals improve their living situations.
Now that the modern age is started to spread to the reaches of the world we are starting to understand just how far back some of these people are. With this knowledge, there has been a significant effort to better the quality of life that these people experience. There are programs made to teach indigenous people how to better their health via hygiene and access to modern medical treatment and basic amenities. When their health improves there appears to be a correlation between the communities with increased basic amenities and medical attention that has resulted in less substance abuse and a significant reduction in violence. In turn, this will create a better environment for kids to grow up and flourish without experiencing the hardship that we have caused by leaving the rural areas behind in what they need to excel in life.
Works Cited
- D'ORO, RACHEL. “Alaska Native Villages Get $5M to Combat Rural Violence. ” AP, 30 July 2019. Douglas, Thomas A. , et al. “Metal Accumulation Capacity in Indigenous Alaska Vegetation Growing on Military Training Lands. ” International Journal of Phytoremediation, CRC Press, Sept. 2019, pp. 1–8, doi:10. 1080/15226514. 2019. 1658708.
- Foote, Eric M. , et al. , “Lower Respiratory Tract Infection Hospitalizations among American Indian/Alaska Native Children and the General United States Child Population. ” International Journal of Circumpolar Health, vol. 74, no. 1, 5 Nov. 2015, doi:10. 3402/ijch. v74. 29256.
- HANDWERKER, W PENN. “Childhood Origins of Depression: Evidence from Native and Nonnative Women in Alaska and the Russian Far East. ” Journal of Women’s Health. , vol. 8, no. 1, Mary Ann Liebert,, Jan. 1999, pp. 87–94, doi:10. 1089/jwh. 1999. 8. 87.
- Holman, Robert C, et al. , “Disparities in Infectious Disease Hospitalizations for American Indian/ Alaska Native People. ” Public Health Reports (Washington, D. C. : 1974), vol. 126, no. 4, 2011, pp. 508–21, doi:10. 1177/003335491112600407.
- Ogilvie, Kristen A. “Unintended Consequences of Local Alcohol Restrictions in Rural Alaska. ” Journal of Ethnicity in Substance Abuse, vol. 17, no. 1, Jan. 2018, pp. 16–31, doi:10. 1080/15332640. 2017. 1362728.
