The Psychological Damages of Genocide

Rhonda asked me a question last night when we came home. "Why is it that Indians make up 1% of the Oregon population and 12% of our kids are in foster care?" I told her I believed it to be in part due to the psyochological effects of genocide.

Indians have endured a 98% reduction in our populations in general. There has been a study sited by Spalding Gray in the film "Swimming to Cambodia" that a 10% reduction in a population causes irreversible psychological damage. (I haven't found this study, yet.) In this case, it was the Khmer Rouge who had a 20% reduction in their population by the U.S. They then started a holocaust in Cambodia with no attempt by the U.S. to stop it. Sound familiar?

I have observed many things I believe can be linked to the psychological effects of genocide. Then I realized as I got older and read the Genocide Convention, that indeed, the Indians are still suffering under conditions of genocide. It is odd to be a member of a group that there is a continued system that attempts to still wipe us off the face of the earth.

Like with childhood sex abuse (read "The Courage to Heal") the shit just doesn't simply leave you. It brings up or enhances all sorts of issues within individuals and communities.

I talked with Stephen Feinstein, head of the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at the University of Minnesota (he also found out for me that Peter Brzika made it to the states in the mid '50's under an assumed name), and asked if there had been any studies on the psychological effects of genocide. Indeed, there have been none that he knows of.

Hey, Amerika...

...ouch...