Amelia Benware

Dr. Nash
History 393i: Indigenous Women of North America
23 May 2023

Summary of Research for Final Project

My final project was a presentation titled “The Legacy of Harm: The Enduring Impacts

of Westward Expansion”. My presentation was about how the genocide against Indigenous

people that began around the 1500s with the arrival of the Europeans and colonization has a

legacy that is affecting Indigenous people to this very day. I chose this topic because I think,

collectively, we assume genocide ends when our textbooks stop talking about it or when we just

forget about it. I want to help people understand that genocide doesn’t end when we move onto

the next unit and rather, the historical trauma that genocide intially causes actually continues a

genocide against a group of people. My research focused on how historical trauma leads to an

increase in substance abuse and suicide rates among Indigenous people, particularly Indiegnous

youth. For my information about substance abuse among Indigenous people, I looked at a report

posted by the CDC titled “Suicides Among American Indian/Alaska Natives — National Violent

Death Reporting System, 18 States, 2003–2014” by Rachel A. Leavitt. I first found this article

last semester when I wrote my final paper for my Native American History class with Dr. Kris-

Klein Hernández. A simple google search led me to this report and a link within the article led

me to the quote and table featured on slides 6 and 7, respectively. The next major part of my

presentation was about the ever increasing suicide rates among Indigenous youth. Similarly, I

also had previously worked with this source for my final paper last semester. I knew I wanted to

talk about suicide rates among Indigenous people today because I thought that it most accurately

caputred how the impacts of west ward expansion are continuing to take the lives of thousands of
innocent individuals. With another simple google search I was led to the National Indian Council

on Aging(NICOA) website where I found the quote and table on slide 9. The last major point I

made in my presentation was about what we, as a society, need to do next. My research brought

me to the idea that the next steps need to include the acknowledgement that it is the trauma our

ancestors caused that is causing the rise in substance abuse and suicide of Indigenous youth. To

help support my argument about acknowledgement I used a quote(partial quote on slide 1, entire

quote on slide 10) from Gina Ryder, that I found through my initial search about

intergenerational trauma. This presentation was a continuation of research I had already

conducted but this topic is something I am passionate about learning and educating myself and

others. However, in hindsight, I believe I could have done a better job of highlighting the

substance abuse and suicide rates among Indigenous women to have more completely related my

topic back to the class.

 Works Cited‌

Bombay, Amy et al. “Intergenerational Trauma: Convergence of Multiple Processes among First
Nations peoples in Canada.” International Journal of Indigenous Health 5 (2009): 6-47.
Leavitt, Rachel A., Allison Ertl, Kameron Sheats, Emiko Petrosky, Asha Ivey-Stephenson, and
Katherine A. Fowler. "Suicides Among American Indian/Alaska Natives? National
Violent Death Reporting System, 18 States, 2003? 2014." Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention. Last modified March 2, 2018. Accessed December 19, 2022.
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/67/wr/mm6708a1.htm#:~:text=More%20than
%20one%20third%20(35.7%25)%20of%20AI%2FAN%20suicides,aged
%2018%E2%80%9324%20years.
NICOA. "American Indian Suicide Rate Increases." National Indian Council on Aging. Last
modified September 9, 2019. Accessed December 19, 2022.
https://www.nicoa.org/national-american-indian-and-alaska-native-hope-for-life-day/.
Ryder, Gina, and Taneasha White. “How Intergenerational Trauma Impacts Families.” Psych
Central, 15. Apr. 2022, https://psychcentral.com/lib/how-intergenerational-trauma-
impacts-families