People of the Genetically Engineered Corn

Genetically modified foods have entered the North America food chain. Not only is this a human rights violation; Indigenous people feel this is a cultural violation because foods like corn, tomatoes, and potatoes which they have grown for thousands of years, are now pushed onto to local farmers to be grown in Central and Southern American countries. Foods are bypassing informing consumers they are genetically engineered despite substantial reports on their harmful side effects. This is because labelling is optional. An article in CBC almost ten years ago estimated, “as many as 30,000 different products on grocery store shelves as ‘modified.’ That's largely because many processed foods contain soy. Half of North America's soy crop is genetically engineered”.[1] The basic problem is different ontologies held by Indigenous peoples and western interests. There are other companies, councils, and practices that have such interest in the success of genetically engineered crops – this jeopardizes the sustainability of future generations. Humans will need to recognize their place of the food chain – we are dependant.

When Europeans arrived they discovered that almost as many species of plants were cultivated here as were grown by all the agriculturists in Europe and Asia combined. The central Andes have the greatest ecological density in the world, within 200 kilometers; it is possible to find 80% of the zones of natural life that scholars have proposed for the world.[2] One very little known fact and cultural violation that gets little attention or credit is the contribution Indigenous peoples have made to the culinary revolution of the world. The Columbian Exchange transferred not only diseases and metals, but new world foods to the old world. Foods that are now culinary centerpieces in countries like Hungary (paprika), Italy (tomatoes), Ireland (potatoes), Thailand (peanuts and pineapples) and India (chili peppers) all were introduced through the Columbian Exchange. Additionally, sweet potatoes, vanilla, and maize are also now universal foods; tobacco was used as a currency in trade worldwide; the commercialization of rubber; the improved cultivation of old world crops in the new world are further direct results. New World plant Quinine has medicinal effects that combat malaria; it is standard view that Europe’s colonization of Africa, and the slave trade, wouldn’t have been possible without quinine.[3] Today, the beef, pork, and soy industries are a massive consumer of fresh water. Locally, a negative impact of the hog industry in Manitoba is the polluting of Lake Winnipeg in the Interlake region. On top of Manitoba Hydro’s controlling of water levels, (which is nullifies the role of marshes) the combination of capitalism and European livestock practices are killing the lakes. 

This fits into Dr. Kulchyski`s lecture and his position on resource development, the conquest is not over.[4] According to multinational company Monsanto Canada`s website, its head office here in Winnipeg and farms all across Manitoba and Canada are using Monsanto products. According to the book, Farmageddan: Food and the Culture of Biotechnology, (1997)  Monsanto social construct of biotechnology provides the ideological foundation on the basis of which genetic and pharmacological engineering can hold out hopes for salvation that social engineering and politics have abandoned. Monsanto takes their advertising on step further to align itself as the saviour of the world using the logo “food-health-hope” in an attempt to place itself alongside the holy trinity: father, son, and holy spirit or the tripartite principles of peace, order, and good governance. Monsanto defines biotechnology as the science of changing the genetic makeup of seeds that grow our foods to add new benefits (p.31). This is the same thinking that suggests infant formula can be supplemented in place of breast milk.

            Monsanto has been making friends in high places; one such ally is the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The FDA allows Monsanto to sell milk to the public without their knowledge, consent, or labelling. This milk has been treated with rbGH shortly after 1985 and the controversy that ensured, dairy industry reps and drug company executives met and agreed it would be helpful to have articles published in reputable journals explaining how sound all the science and approval processes have been  (p .42 -78).[5]  Health Canada is also in on the scheme which will be detailed in latter part of essay.

            The key that unlocks the door to the global market for Monsanto is the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Where has Monsanto made inroads? - From the chapter, Genetic Pollution of Mayan Corn by Suzanne York, in the textbook Paradigm Wars, the author states Mexico has a 5000 year old gene pool which includes thousands of varieties and plant relatives specific to each region. This reflects agriculture genius, adapted to soil, climate pests, and other local conditions. People of Mexico are tied to land and food, believing they are made from corn. It came as shock but to little surprise when indigenous communities detected the genetically engineered (GE) corn shortly after the NAFTA was ratified a few years earlier.

The Bt gene is the believed to be the source of the contamination through interbreeding of local corn with Bt corn. The Bt corn designed to kill the corn root worm. In a 2002 testing, 35 percent of tested maize varieties had GE contamination. This poses a threat to the survival of the varieties of maize harvested in the global homeland over millennium. 35 to 40 percent of corn grown in the United States is genetically modified. Among the multiple problems is the government subsidized corn is cheaper than the non subsidized Mexican varieties. The Biosafety Law, also referred to as the “Monsanto Law”, was passed under the questionable authority of a newly formed Biosecurity Consultative Council which exempts companies from any liability for genetic pollution caused by their seeds.

The role NAFTA played was by demanding that Mexico break up the traditional communal land-ownership system for their participation in NAFTA. Mexico went from corn producer to importer. Ten thousand years of health benefits from maize for all humankind is up against the government representatives word that there is no evidence that GE corn is bad for you. Further yet, corporations can patent the seeds that Indigenous farmers have grown for generations, forcing them to then buy them back from them or starve altogether. These practices are not only destroying their lives and cultures, but threaten biodiversity and Indigenous farms with 1000’s of years of methods and knowledge.[6] Contamination through interbreeding is the biggest threat to the global food supply, and a human rights violation.

Food practices have changed more in the last 50 years than in the last 10,000. Just what are some of the effects of consuming genetically modified foods? According to French study released, “In rats fed a lifetime diet of Monsanto's genetically engineered corn or exposed to the company's popular Roundup herbicide, rats developed tumors and suffered severe organ damage”.[7] From the book, Genetic Roulette, rats fed Bt corn for 90 days had multiple health problems. They showed significant changes in their blood cells livers and kidneys which might indicate disease (p.26). Further rats fed GM FlavrSavr tomato for 28 days got bleeding stomachs, and several died (p.24). Scientists have criticized the creating of resistant seeds is counterproductive, there is no genetic uniformity in nature, there will be survivors. In three years, species will develop immunity.[8]

Ethics and practices like genetically engineering foods is also another cultural violation. The stark difference is opposing ontologies. The spiritual relationship that Indigenous people have to food and the land is explained thoroughly in the book, Indigenous Traditions and Ecology: The Interbeing of Cosmology and Community, (1997). In the chapter, Andean Cosmovision and the Nurturing of Biodiversity by Julio Valladolid and Fredrique Apffel–Marglin, the concept of improved farming practices and sustainable development is put up against peasant farming methods harvested over centuries. PRATEC (Andean Project of Peasant Technologies) was founded in 1987 by researchers who spent their life working for the development projects and brought the green revolution to the countryside. All of native peasant background, the researchers devoted themselves to delivering this belief to help their people. They came to the slow realization that sustainable development was the problem.

After recognizing that sustainable development itself is the problem and a foreign import, the researchers started to decolonize themselves. The reason they quit their job was because they were becoming agents of the state. The world view of Andean Farmers and relationship to the ecosystem is far different than western practices. To the peasant farmers, the relationship has names indicating their ontology. The ayllu is a local group of related persons, and non humans the pachu. PRATEC stresses the importance of chakra, the peasant’s field.

Western anthropologist Enrique Mayer has criticized PRATECs work as something he finds to lack scientific credibility. This viewpoint which is shared by the larger society, ultimately failing to see other ontology’s and epistemologies that PRATEC strives to articulate. The problem is science is founded on a clear separation and opposition between humans and nature. Conversing with the wind, water rocks, ect. - is all viewed of a supernatural beliefs held in the westernized minds of the people. The material void is devoid of spirits or any metaphysical aspect.

Anthropologists, who base their beliefs in a narrow science based perspective, also have their own critics. Those opposed to the field of linear thinking science have argued that it is in fact impossible to separate the metaphysical. Even the quantum physicists, have established that the world is all interconnected, right to the anthropologist and the experimenter themselves. The term anthropocentrism is the assertion that only humans will matters, that the only actor is man. The phrase, ‘we were never modern, we just dreamed we were’, is expressed in the process of deluded ourselves to thinking we were creating an amnesia that our nonhuman companions were just inert objects. Over the course of establishing PRATEC, they rejoined their hearts and souls to their minds. Over the course of de-professionalizing themselves, they now walk through the chakras and learn from the peasants how to see and feel with Andean eyes and heart again (p. 639 – 670). [9]

These great projects are not isolated to South America; First Nation communities in the United States and Canada are also taking back food sovereignty.  According to Dr. Winona Laduke’s lecture on Food Sovereignty, factors need to be considered are different ontologies, for example the calendars. First Nations people have 13 months with 28 days, in sync with the moon rather than Roman Gods.[10]  Her project, White Earth Land Recovery Project, Onaway's basic practical objective is to provide seed grants to Native American organisations whose aim is to increase indigenes' self-esteem through self-sufficiency initiatives. This finds an ideal home with the Ojibway, Indian. White Earth Land Recovery Project which has connected the community, specifically the children with the land, the language, and history of their peoples growing practices. Native Harvest is a store and economic development spinoff, language revival is done on the land. Children learn the language on the land, working with food and planting seeds. This is a pathway to knowledge between children and elders, restoring communication methods.   "Our land is Mino-Aki (good land) whose biodiversity is essential to the health and spiritual well-being of our people”. White Earth Land recovery Project protects the biodiversity of food.[11]

This got me thinking it would be nice if we trained kids in Keeseekoowenin to a similar project, have it part of the school curriculum. I feel our community, while battling social ills, has the potential. My mom remembers her mom garden, it had everything – carrots, potatoes, rhubarb, and I remember snacking on rhubarb and sugar. I remember her picking chokecherries in Riding Mountain, saskatoon`s with my aunties.  In Keeseekoowenin, community elder and keeper of Medicine Eagle Woman Camp, Audrey Bone has said that, "medicines can come to you or someone through dreams or when spirits can talk to you." Audrey goes to 61A where she picks medicines and conducts ceremonies where she feels a great connection to our traditional roots. "The difference between western and modern medicine is that a lot of people are getting their traditional names now at the camp when there was a time when that never used to happen. Now people are bringing their kids to the camp to receive their names which will intern will help them in their life. A traditional name gives them a sense of who they are and how they are connected to the spirits. This is something we are bringing back slowly due to the colonial effects of residential school taken our traditional aspects away. It puts them on direction that they take could take in life." Audrey recalls learning about medicines from McKay Blackbird when she was a child.

I asked Audrey what she believed getting the traditional land (61A) back meant to Keeseekoowenin Band. She said, "gaining back way of life holistically, meaning physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. It’s beneficial to the way we eat, and for healing ourselves." Audrey operates a camp called Medicine Eagle Women’s camp in (61A) Clear Lake. Audrey says "we teach them medicines, share information and all sickness that are high in community, we have medicines for them.” Audrey also said that the park should be kept natural, and used in traditional way always so that future generations can enjoy the park as our ancestors once did. Our ancestors used to walk and pick berries and medicines at Clear Lake where they would also set up camp and hunt.[12] In Keeseekoowenin the relationship to the land is important, that relationship was disrupted in 1930. Keeseekoowenin was the last community to be forcibly removed from a national park in Manitoba. The relationship to the land is important, the [sahikan] lake has a spirit [manitouak], and it comes from the mountain, that’s why it is so clear - that relationship and understanding needs to be restored. Indigenous people worldwide share this view. We are disconnected from the production of food, and joy of eating. We are planting a time bomb in the bodies of children around the world. [13]

 The University of Winnipeg (U of W) has been instrumental to preserving and passing on knowledge. U of W Doctoral Professor and respected elder Tabasonakwut Kinew has repeatedly said we need to get these teaching down to pass on to next generation. The key to unlocking the knowledge is done through unlocking and learning the language.  What are alternatives? Tabasonakwut Kinew has encouraged practices and beliefs should be taught. He questioned who is going to do our marriages – what is the four day final journey? Suggested students write a letter to Lloyd Axeworthy to ask that courses be taught. It can teach land based practices such as plucking a goose, snaring rabbits, picking sweetgrass, making medicines. Teach a philosophical worldview, Nin(gitima)giz - I am pitiful/poor. This is not a defeatist attitude; tt is recognizing and respecting our human role at bottom of food chain. [14] Another option is to develop a food sovereignty project, like White Earth Land Recovery Project, works hand in hand with language revival.

Visiting professor at U of W, Dr. R.N. Pati gave a presentation on the Juang, the Forest Dwelling Tribe of Orissa near Kendujhar in east India focussing on their intellectual property, rights, Traditional Ecological Knowledge, and their Indigenous rights to territories. He said Tribal peoples make up 8% of population in India, development focuses on customary rules that strive for peaceful co-existence. The principle of reciprocity governs the values of the tribal peoples. The principle of duality was explained that water represents male, earth represents female.  Another key concept is the principle of equilibrium. Ecology and human health are intertwined - Festivals respect the symmetry with environment; and the principle of reciprocity was repeatedly stressed.

 The Juang as people live, hunt and farm collectively - one clan. They also live on hill slopes, practices are slash and burn agriculture, shifting cultivation. Biodiversity conservation among Juang villages has objectives to conserve biodiversity in hill villages. Key concepts are [1] Sustainable use and [2] Equitable access to resources. The project objectives are the empowerment of Self Help Groups [SHGs] - they have a home herbal garden, manure preparation, and medicinal plants are cultivated. It is key to incorporate children in the school effort - they cultivate honey. Livelihood activities include raising goats, cattle, and pigs. In the local markets, there is pottery, they collect water from streams. The balance prevents haves and have not’s. Medicinal plants and aromic plants have protected habitats, water harvesting is very important. Buying and planting the selected plants on the four rented lands from different plants. They have workshops on entrepreneurship, providing information and training for the use of internet technology – in particular, the creation of website helps spread group’s message. Hair oil and massage oil are harvested and contributed to the preservation of biodiversity. However, communities receive no compensation for bio prospecting.[15]

So just what can consumers do today to inform themselves about avoiding genetically engineered foods and fight back? Besides avoiding McDonald’s french fries and seedless grapes, Greenpeace has put out a consumer’s guide. In the How to Avoid Genetically Engineered Food List: a Shopper’s Guide by Greenpeace, one company in particular stands out ignoring the wishes of consumers to label products containing genetically modified foods: Loblaws. In addition, Loblaws also owns No Name and Presidents Choice brands which make up more than 1100 retail stores operating and carrying unidentified genetically modified foods. The shopper’s guide serves as a starting point to check ingredient lists for foods made with soy, corn, canola, and cotton. These four crops account for nearly 100 of genetically engineered crops grown in North America. Many of today’s foods are made readily available to consumers here in Canada. Protestors gathered in front of Loblaws to protest against the soft regulations that make labelling genetically modified ingredients optional for companies, 95% of people who participated in survey want products labelled.[16]

The reason why this is not a bigger issue here in Canada is unclear, but optional labelling has played quite a role. At least 35 countries have adopted mandatory labelling for any product that has been genetically modified, animal feed containing GMOs will also have to be labelled. Canada has not; a free vote in Parliament Oct. 17, 2001, defeated a bill by Liberal MP Charles Caccia. His private member's bill, C-287, would have required mandatory labelling of genetically altered foods. Health Canada has taken the position that GM foods are just as safe as conventional foods. According to a 1999 Environics poll, 80 per cent of Canadians want GM foods to be labelled. Greenpeace Canada says that number is closer to 95 per cent.
The Canadian Federation of Agriculture says the industry faces huge losses if mandatory labelling is implemented. The fear is that consumers will see the labels as a warning and avoid these foods; labels will increase the price of foods produced and processed in Canada.[17] Optional labelling keeps the masses ignorant.

In conclusion, the basic problem is economics and politics are overriding good ethical morals that we seem to preach about in other forums, such as human rights, the charter of rights and other instruments of good governance. There is enough food in the world to feed people; it is the methods of distribution and all mighty dollar that influence actions however. What will be the effects 20 years from now of genetically modified food? The biggest issue for our children’s generation will be the foods they eat. It’s in everything, the condiments, soups, tomatoes and pasta sauces, salad dressings and cooking oils, snack foods, especially the potato and tortilla chips. The messing around of plants and animals is likely to share the same fate as Indigenous people did shortly after contact with Europeans. The effects diseases had on the Americas population, is the same thing is happening to the biodiversity of plant, food, and animal species now.

---

[1] "CBC News Indepth: Genetic Modification." CBC.ca - Canadian News Sports Entertainment Kids Docs Radio TV. http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/genetics_modification/ (accessed December 3, 2012).

[2] Grim, John. Indigenous traditions and ecology: the interbeing of cosmology and community. Cambridge, MA: Distributed by Harvard Press for the Center for the Study of World Religions, Harvard Divinity School, 2001. P. 640. (Accessed October 25^th, 2012).

[3] Nathan Nunn and Nancy Qian. The Columbian Exchange: A History of Disease, Food, and Ideas. Journal of Economic Perspectives. Volume 24 number 2. Spring 2012. Pages 163-188. Accessed 10 November 2012 at: http://www.economics.harvard.edu/faculty/nunn/files/Nunn_Qian_JEP_2010.pdf

[4] Kulchyski, Peter. "Conflict and Resource Development." Class lecture, Indigenous Peoples, Land and Natural Resources from University of Winnipeg, Winnipeg, November 26, 2012.

[5] Kneen, Brewster. Farmageddon: food and the culture of biotechnology. Gabriola Island, BC, Canada: New Society Publishers, 1999.

 

[6] Mander, Jerry, and Victoria Corpuz. Paradigm wars: indigenous peoples' resistance to globalization. New expanded ed. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books; 2006. P.145-152 (accessed October 12, 2012).

[7] French Study Finds Tumor and Organ Damage in Rats Fed Monsanto Corn. Accessed 9 November 2012 at: www.truth-out.org

[8] Smith, Jeffrey M. Genetic roulette: the documented health risks of genetically engineered foods. Fairfield, Iowa: Yes! Books, 2007.

 

[9] Grim, John. Indigenous traditions and ecology: the interbeing of cosmology and community. Cambridge, MA: Distributed by Harvard Press for the Center for the Study of World Religions, Harvard Divinity School, 2001. (Accessed October 25^th, 2012).

[10] Laduke, Winona. "2012 Dodge Lecture - Winona LaDuke - Food Sovereignty, Biopiracy, and the Future - YouTube." YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Un1hx-n5Pcc (accessed October 25, 2012).

[11] Laduke, Winona. "White Earth Land Recovery Project." http://www.onaway.org/indig/ojibwe.htm (Accessed 28 October 2012).

 

[12] Bone, Audrey. Interview by author. Personal interview. Keeseekoowenin FN, Manitoba. April 10, 2009.

[13] Patel, Raj. “Conclusion”. Stuffed and starved: the hidden battle for the world food system. Brooklyn, N.Y.: Melville House Pub., 2008.

[14] Kinew, Tabasonakwut."Class lecture", Pathways to Indigenous Knowledge from University of Winnipeg. Winnipeg (accessed September10, 2012.

[15]Dr. R.N. Pati."Class lecture", International Indigenous Rights from University of Winnipeg. Winnipeg (accessed November, 2012.

[16] Greenpeace: Beware the Frankenfood. Accessed 10 November 2012 at: http://www.cbc.ca/archives/categories/environment/environmental-protection/greenpeace-always-bearing-witness/beware-of-frankenfood.html

[17] "CBC News Indepth: Genetic Modification." CBC.ca - Canadian News Sports Entertainment Kids Docs Radio TV. http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/genetics_modification/ (accessed December 3, 2012).

Canada Day: 145 years old

there is lake Sturgeon in Manitoba older than Canada

The Truth and Reconciliation of Colonialism's Infection of the First Nation Family System: Research Paper

While the class textbook is an excellent conflict resolution resource, it does not offer any specific comparison unique to First Nations. This essay discusses problems rooted in  post contact First Nations history.  What  emotional illiteracy and literacy is; survival bonds, post trauma syndrome along with  different kinds of trauma and how it all relates to First Nation families today from the book  Trauma and Addiction: Ending the Cycle of Pain through Emotional Literacy by Tian Dayton  supported with content from Normal family Processes: Growing Diversities and Complexes.  First Nations peoples are more than emotionally hurt; the unique challenges of space, time, social order and contemporary social ills are detailed In  a Poison Stronger than Love: The Destruction of an Ojibwa Community. I have found through talking with elders and from life experiences, that there is significant spiritual disconnection compounded by destructive environmental factors. The conclusion includes thoughts about resolution strategies to stop the pattern which persists in the billion dollar industry of helping First Nations people heal and that this is a loss tied to the misunderstanding of the spirit,  intent and  power of our original tribal language.

            Overall there are many broad topics, methods, and principles that apply to the unique history that First Nations in Canada have, this essay aims to clarify the issues that I feel the book Normal Family Processes: Growing Diversity and Complexity, does not get into details about. Only chapter 15, The Spiritual Dimension of Family Life by Froma Walsh has a few lines about 'Native Americans'. The book states when speaking about spirituality, spirituality transcends the self: it fosters a sense meaning, wholeness, harmony, and connection with all others - from the most intimate bonds, to extended kinship and community networks, and to a unity with belief systems of ancient Indigenous peoples worldwide, as in Asian, African, Aboriginal, and Native American visions of the unity with all creation. This is the core of Native American visions. Walsh accurately acknowledges in a predominantly Christian society with European origins, early American conquers viewed native tribes as savage heathens who practiced pagan witchcraft. In government and missionary programs, children were forcibly taken from their families to boarding schools to educate and acculturate them into Christianity and western ways, stripping them of their cultural and spiritual heritage. a recent resurgence of Native American spirituality is reconnecting families and youth, especially those at high risk of substance abuse and suicide, with the spiritual roots of their ancestors. There is also another mention of Native Americans which states 'to watch us dance is to hear our hearts speak'.[1] I feel the author speaks from an American perspective and clumps all Indigenous people on the world together.

             History tells of where an entire race of people are beaten into submission through war and war-induced depravation conditions such as starvation, famine and further through on-going degradation of their social and family systems. There is on-going destruction, this attack keeps doing the destructive nature of colonialism – it is through the generational attacks through their family systems. For generations now, First Nation families have had to make sense of and deal with a deep conflict with the emotional disillusion and distortion and disturbance of relating without conflicting with the dominant society.

            There are stages to abuse,[1] abuse done to you, [2] abuse you did to others, and [3] abuse that you do to yourself. The Residential School System has had a chronic disturbance of the natural nurturing process, as well as an expression of emotion and sexuality as well. Sexuality is linked to nurturing. There are many layers to heal, change and resolve - like an onion. Violence would be before sexuality because sexuality is the last to heal. This leads to sexual deviance. To clarify in the onion metaphor and why sexuality is the last to heal - this is because of a connection to nurturing a connection to genitalia and stimulation. If you had nurturing, you've had more balanced stimulation , so there is not a mix up between nurturing and sexual stimulation. Sexuality is the last to heal because it’s the last to be talked about, there are sexual issues, shame. People hold onto shame about what happened to them and what they experienced. If you grow up in a disturbed home sexuality becomes like a taboo, further, we become desensitized. A lot of First nations people are disturbed and they need to survive and feel part of a group, gang, or you will be deviant amongst your own group.

             People with sexual deviances need to be comfortable with their sexuality and have control because this is what you must portray that to a child, your partner, and society. There are degrees of sexual deviances; masturbation, to pictures is another level, to fantasize body parts another, violence another . When it interferes with normal life a person needs to get help. Steps of healing are to [1] recognize the need for help; [2] accepting and acting on this belief and participating; [3] staying open to learning to work with the help; and [4] to develop trust along with activation and learn who you are and what you need to resolve and work with the process, and replace. Talking circles make mistake by not replacing . [2]

            The truth is that this infection of First Nations family system took place from the very beginning of the arrival of the 'discoverers' of this land called the 'Americas'. The reconciliation is about the First Nations and the dominant society and their system of implementing psycho-social change. The infection is the disillusionment – an illusion held by First Nations people as to their present state of being and preparation in taking part in this dominant society without resolving the disturbances of their belief and value system.

            There is no one recipe to the reconciliation. The only way to heal a community, is to heal individuals , individuals create healthy families, and healthy families create healthy communities. Ultimately, mental health providers must accept a personal sense of social responsibility for changing the attitudes that foster racism and classism and poverty, the first step is honestly acknowledging the existence of the phenomena and learning about their complex interplay, on the microcosms level, we can begin with ourselves and the families with whom we  work. These mental health workers and therapists become overwhelmed when asked to move to a macro level.  If these issues are ever to be resolved fully in any society, we must be willing to speak out for and advocate change in our own agency, clinicians, local, state, and national governments.[3]

            In her book, Trauma and Addiction: Ending the Cycle of Pain of Through Emotional Literacy, Tain Dayton articulates that trauma by its very nature renders us emotionally illiterate. Emotional illiteracy is the inability to describe our inner world to ourselves or another person. If we do not process trauma, ongoing life complications such as depression, anxiety, sleep disturbances, anger, feeling of betrayal, and trouble trusting in relationships can persist years after the traumatic experience occurred. Such are the symptoms that people self medicate with food, sex, and other addictions. Part of what makes a situation traumatic is not talking about it. When we don't talk about trauma we remain emotionally illiterate, emotionally confused wandering around in the darkness of our own internal world.

            Emotional literacy is placing people in their proper perspective , to give them a context, where, when, how; integrate them back into themselves as to what happened and what meaning they made out of it that they are currently live by. Mothers build emotional literacy when they smile at a child’s positive behavior encouraging more of it, while a frown of disapproval discourages other actions from persisting. Emotional literacy is the cornerstone of good relationships, and it generally accepted that meaningful communication is central to successful intimacy, emotional literacy provides the content for that communication.

            In order to survive, one needs to have a close bonded relationship with their primary caregivers, the author calls these survival bonds. Ruptures in early parent child bonds are some of the most traumatic because our dependency and risk for survival are at their highest in infancy and childhood, when survival bonds are ruptured, the likelihood of post traumatic stress are high because , this can interfere with healthy relationships and the ability live a comfortable life.

            Post traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a cluster of symptoms first identified in solders returning from war. It is now recognized that those same symptoms appear in those that have grown up in addicted homes or have homes where emotional psychological, physiological abuse are prevalent.

            Trauma and addiction go hand in hand, when family members are living in two different worlds - a sober person and someone who is addicted, the worlds pull in different directions.  Children's development wrap themselves around like vines around a the tree that has been struck by lightning.    When someone is traumatized or has an addiction they don't have their own codified emotional blueprint because they are in the dark about themselves, they are unable to understand another person. Furthermore, trauma victims often develop learned helplessness, a condition in which they lose the capacity to appreciate the connection between their actions and their ability to influence their lives.

            A person who is abused or traumatized may develop dysfunctional defensive strategies or behaviors designed to ward off emotional and psychological pain. They lose contact with their real and authentic emotions and become covered by physiological defenses and emotional armory. Without emotion we would not know what we feel personally about a given situation, it is emotion that connects to the material of our own lives.

            Childhood traumas effect health more than traumas that occurred within the last three years because the accumulative stress to the body through long term inhibition of feeling. Emotional inhibition is constant work, the harder one works at inhibiting, the greater the stress on the body.  Relationship trauma is about a internal earthquake or loss of  solid psychological and emotional ground when people you love or need in order to feel secure, are lost in their own addictions, physiological illness, addictive behaviors, when the relationships you depend on are ruptured. Family members of addicts present disorders that extend across a wide range of clinical syndromes such as anxiety disorders, substance abuse, psychosomatic symptoms and episodes, eating disorders distortions , confusing their world , co dependence. Children who have grown up in alcoholic homes also suffer post traumatic stress symptoms. The face of trauma is more likely to look like the boy staring emotionlessly at the floor rather than the girl nervously fidgeting and biting her nails , because agitation, serves as an expressive function.

            By not talking about inhibiting event we usually do not translate the event in language, this prevents us from understanding and assimilating the event, consequently, significant experiences that are inhabited are likely to resurface in the form of dreams, and other associated disturbances. Confronting a trauma helps people understand it, ultimately assimilate the event by talking or writing, previous inhabited experience people translate the event into language, - the simple act of confronting, however primitive or childlike expression of feeling, is detrimental to stay within the context and continue to develop, or disappear into the silence an tormented inner world. once it is language based they can better understand the experience and put it behind them. When one does not address the underlying emotional pain from trauma, they remain unchanged, or worse become more complicated and intensified. Rather than being processed consciously, it is being self medicated, which leads to addiction.

            The addiction cycle the trauma victim enters into is a viscous one - emotional and psychological pain, self medication with food, alcohol drugs, sex, - sobering up - reemerging of unresolved pain, - re-medicating and so on. While trauma victims gained a temporary relief they are seeking, they do so at the expensive of self knowledge and mastery. The longer traumatized people rely on external substances the weaker their inner world become. Addicts become out of practice for living, emotional muscles atrophy from lack of healthy exercise, personality development goes off track, thinking becomes increasing distorted and secretive as addicts strive daily to justify to themselves and others their life.

            The roving-isms states that all to often, one addiction leads to another. When an addict sobers up from alcohol and drugs and the numbing effects are removed, they will pick up another medicator such as gambling, sex or eating which then becomes addiction number two. Once an individual begins the healing process, it is important to remember therapy takes time, insight alone does not produce change, it is the new relationship dynamics practiced over time that recondition a person’s conditioned responses [4]

            One can recognize that the residential school process did not build emotional literacy being removed from home at five years old for ten months of the year until they are 17; this severed the survival bond. Unresolved trauma is only one factor behind first nations addictions, furthermore, residential school survivors and their families display symptoms of PTSD, childhood trauma is inhibited. Only recently have survivors begun to confront the trauma which is an important to putting the experience behind them. Unfortunately this comes too late for many who have broken homes and pass on their trauma to the next generation, or worse, lose their life while struggling with issues. This is compounded with other factors such as a environmental destruction and cultural disconnection that comes with the loss of the language and the adoption of religious beliefs that have no connection to the land, and for people who live off the land, when the land is sick, so are the people. the author says that their way of life is worse than grim situations in third world countries because the people of Grassy Narrows have lost hope.  

            In a book written in 1985, A Poison Stronger Than Love: The Destruction of an Ojibway Community; The authors describe Grassy Narrows as society in disarray because an entire generation  was failing to realize its inherited potential for the development of the intellect and spirit. They were  caught in  void between two cultures, the children are learning neither the basic skills of the modern world, nor the traditional ways of life. To provide a brief history of the community, in 1963 Indian Affairs initiated the move of people of Grassy Narrows from the old reserve of islands and peninsulas to a new site five miles south, adjacent to a logging road. It was justified by officials that it would be a good thing because of all the amenities that would be provided and because there was a road into Kenora. The exodus from the old reserve was a turning point in the history of Grassy Narrows band. By 1970, old social ties had snapped, men and women gave up traditional roles and occupations and seized to trap as a family. All the people say that this was the beginning of their troubles, they say they live in a crisis because they were uprooted and before they could establish new roots, another blow: mercury poisoning from the English Wabigoon river system.

            Community elder, Maggie Land articulates every dimension of life on the old reserve of Wabauskang and contrasts it to the new reserve, Grassy Narrows. The quest for food followed the seasonal cycle of economic activities. Today kids eat chips, candy and pop to survive neglect. She recalls the constancy of work and division of labor among all family members, the mix or work and play at times in the annual cycle. She talks about knowledge available through dreams and ceremony and the taboos governing sexual relations and marriage. The chief and council were strict to preserve social order, community life was an ebb and flow of separateness and togetherness between winter trapping grounds and the sociability of summer camps.  

             A big difference from the old reserve and the new reserve was space and social order. Homes were built without consideration for privacy, security, equality of access to water in Grassy Narrows. At the previous Wabauskang settlement, there were unspoken boundaries protecting residential areas occupied by different clans. There was no way to get to the old reserve without someone knowing a stranger was coming, each house had a line of vision to the water, this was important to have this security, located strategically.  There was also communal space like the treaty hall, hunting grounds, and berry picking bushes. On new reserve, the layout does not allow access to the lake and strangers can approach undetected. The old people predicted that the move to the new reserve posed a grave danger to the life of the community, it was based on the eyes of the soul, the new location was not suitable spiritually for life.

            The people had a belief that the land where they are now was already owned by a bad spirit. Another women in her late 70s recalls stories that the new reserve was known to be a very bad spiritually for a long time, and that both her father and uncle, at different times seen someone surfacing at Garden Lake. This was considered an ominous warning and off limits to human settlement. People believe this is also why there is so much hardship in the present-day community.

             The concept of time also changed after the relocation. Only forty years earlier, the people of Grassy Narrows still went by the moon time - 13 months, 28 days. Their orientation of time depending on the season and alterations on the sun and moon. Now everything is out of order in the new reserve, the government people tell us what to do and when to do it, we used to eat when we were hungry and when there was food. We were used to working when there is work to do, set fishing nets at night and lifting them in the morning. There was a time for work, now it 8 in the morning till 4 in afternoon. Another thing is when the sun got up, people got up, when it went down, the people rested; in the new reserve people are up all night and sleep all day, children tell time by television shows.

            Cultural rites of passage were also abandoned. A puberty  vision quest was considered fundamental to gaining knowledge of oneself, ones identity, purpose and special powers. Although some people still believe in dreams as a source of knowledge about self, the vision quest is no longer practiced on the new reserve. In the old reserve there were any place where people had places of power, personal places to mediate and focus on the inner senses.

            Most of chapter one is a catalogue of horrors after the relocation - gas sniffing, sexual assault and abuse, neglect; all backed up by alarming statistics. The author speaks of eleven deaths in a village of 500 people in less than a year and the repression grief, guilt and anger until these powerful emotions can be released by the dis-inhabiting effects of alcohol. The feeling of aggression and rage normally suppressed in face to face encounters find expression during drinking parties which are the context of beating, rapes, and other acts of violence which may lead to death. People forgive each other for violence committed under the influence of alcohol because they say the pain has to come out sometime.

              The widespread use and pathological use of alcohol began in the mid 1960's when the people were moved to the new reserve and connected to the town of Kenora by road. A typical binge at grassy narrows has several characteristics that distinguish it from the white man's way of drinking. First the majority of heavy drinkers are not necessarily addicted to alcohol in the sense of physiological enslavement, most people can follow a period of heavy drinking with a week or so of abstinence, till next payday.  They can also stay sober for weeks while on the trapline, the alcoholic of the western world who cannot function without a certain level of alcohol in the bloodstream finds few counter parts in the Indian society. Second, Indian drinking is a social activity and alcohol is widely shared; third, people drink until they become unconscious. Fourth, prolonged binges are like a tornado of tears, across the landscape leaving devastation in its wake. infants become dehydrated, women are beaten young girls are raped.

            One of the most significant issues in the family breakdown is the fundamental change  of the moral standards and circumstances surrounding sexual relations. In 1979, six babies were born to girls under the age of 16 outside the context of a family or stable relationship. Children lack the most basic necessities: shelter, security, food and love that is demonstrated. They have been disposed of the emotional and cognitive prerequisite to cognitive development. Further,  they no longer have the opportunity to learn the moral and symbolic rhetoric of their culture from their elders who used to communicate such knowledge through stories and legends. 

            The author suggests that is important to ask if the conditions at Grassy Narrows are any worse than those of other Indian reserves in the area not affected by mercury poisoning. According to hospital data, Grassy Narrows has the highest hospitalization rate at 30 times the rate of Ontario residents. Grassy Narrows has the highest number of children in care or foster homes in the entire region at the time this book was published. Out of 108 children in care near Kenora, 58% came from Grassy Narrows, 75% of children are apprehended for reasons of neglect of parental alcohol abuse.

            There is a sharp  discontinuity between the old and new reserves regarding Indian ways of teaching the young about the nature of the world around them, their relocation disrupted the way of life, and under the fundamental changed conditions by government planners, the traditional Ojibway orientations of time and space lost their basis and value.[5]

            one of the most glaring issues in the book is that there are no workers or family therapist brought in to help the crisis in Grassy Narrows, instead people such as the authors are brought in who are unequipped to help but rather write a book in their free time cataloguing the horrors of the community for their own profit. Today the problems are evolving in First Nations communities, People are addicted to prescription pills and  the suffering of aboriginal people is a billion dollar industry while the remedy seems to be a revolving door of help. People with the capacity to Provide aftercare for people who have gone through treatment, as well as ongoing support to deal with the underlying issues that led to addiction in the first place and prevent relapse, and  Recognize the role of cultural oppression as an underlying factor in drug abuse in First Nations. and to do the hard work in the community need to be trained and put in place.

            In conclusion, the resolution strategy would need to reinforce cultural pride and help youth connect with their culture, including connecting with the land.  Recognizing the role of cultural oppression so much so that this aspect must now be educated as to the reality of this disturbing consequence of colonization which has become a disturbance of focus of self-power and energy – meaning that we must re-establish our individual understanding of how we are affected and effected by this oppression , understand how it plays out in our individual everyday lifestyle and what this does to our self direction and our support for others of our people to make change – fully. First Nation families deal with a lot of emotional disillusion,  How to they deal with issues when they come up, what is the implementation process? What are the method, of making the healthy change when there is no trust in metal health system and people are not utilizing it? The answer is there is there is no way except one person at a time.

             

Bibliography

1. Dayton, Tian. Trauma and addiction: ending the cycle of pain through emotional                              literacy. Deerfield Beach, Fla.: Health Communication, 2000.

2. La Vallee, Jaye. Experiential Psychotherapist / Life Skills Trainer.

3. Shkilnyk, Anastasia M., Kai Erikson, and Hiro Miyamatsu. A poison stronger than                           love : the destruction of an Ojibwa community. New Haven [etc.: Yale University                      Press, 1985.

4. Walsh, Froma. Normal family processes: growing diversity and complexity. 4th ed.                          New York: Guilford Press, 2012.

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[1] Walsh, Froma. "The Spiritual Dimension of family Life." In Normal family processes: growing diversity and complexity. 4th ed. New York: Guilford Press, 2012. 347 - 367.

[2] Lavallee, Jaye . Personal interview. 14 June 2012.

[3] Walsh, Froma. "The Spiritual Dimension of family Life." In Normal family processes: growing diversity and complexity. 4th ed. New York: Guilford Press, 2012. 291.

[4] Dayton, Tian. "The Connection between Trauma and Addiction and Emotions and Emotional Literacy." In Trauma and addiction: ending the cycle of pain through emotional literacy. Deerfield Beach, Fla.: Health Communication, 2000. 1-57.

[5]  Shkilnyk, Anastasia M., Kai Erikson, and Hiro Miyamatsu. "Grassy Narrows: Community in Ruins, A Community Destroyed, The Way of Life of a People, and Worlds in Conflict.." In A poison stronger than love : the destruction of an Ojibwa community. New Haven [etc.: Yale University Press, 1985. 1-78.