In contemporary America, Indigenous communities often face significant health challenges, with issues spanning physical, mental, and psychological health. Issues can often lead to problems surrounding life such as substance abuse, parental issues, etc. which has a negative impact on Native American families and communities. These issues are deeply rooted in the lasting legacy and experience of generational trauma, most of which can be traced back to the concept of settler colonialism. Settler Colonialism as a core concept is where settlers occupy the land and force out the indigenous population in order to establish their own society. The main difference between settler colonialism and colonialism is that settlers don’t settle on land to exploit the indigenous…show more content… Expanding America’s territory westward brought along a new issue in what would happen to the people who lived on that land. What ended up happening was the U.S. Government passed several acts to remove, displace, and assimilate the Indigenous population. This would lead to the establishment of Indian Boarding schools in the 19th and 20th centuries. These schools were first established with the primary goal of re-education and assimilation of Indigenous youth into American society (Feir, 2016). Throughout the years of operation for these boarding schools, they have inflicted significant harm on Indigenous communities such as removing Indigenous youth from their communities, disrupting the inter-family and inter-community connections, and destruction of Indigenous cultures and traditions. These experiences leave behind wounds that persist through successive generations today through generational trauma caused by the Indian Boarding
