First Nations History and Culture | Report

Running head: FIRST NATIONS HISTORY AND CULTURE
First Nations History and Culture
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1FIRST NATIONS HISTORY AND CULTURE
Topic: First Nations History and Culture
Introduction
The first nation people in Canada, since the time of European infiltration has suffered
for various reasons. They have faced loss of habitat, loss of culture and subordinating policies
that has led to the backward and threatening situation that they are in (Hayes et al., 2018). In
Canada, the oldest population of the indigenous people, known as the First Nations people are
still living in reserves as their lands have been greatly encroached. Due to the uprootment and
loss of culture has led to increasing mental health issues in Canadian First Nations population
(Restoule et al., 2016).
Thesis Statement: In this paper, I argue that loss of culture among the First Nations
population in Canada and governmental policies has led to the increase in mental illness
among the people and a cultural partnership and collaboration may be the approach that can
mitigate the risks.
Discussion
The needs and rights of the aboriginal people have been of little to no concern of the
majority government. The policies and practices, since the time of colonization has created
adverse effects and increasing challenges to the Canadian first nation population (Nelson &
Wilson, 2017). Due to encroachment of land they have lost much of their natural habitat.
They have been subjected to extreme violence and mass killing since the time of conquest of
the New World and that has created a deep-rooted sense of foreboding and distrust among the
indigenous people. Loss of land has resulted to loss of culture as many of the policies that
were enforced on them, took away their means of following their traditions and rituals. Due
to their loss of culture and identity, there have been increase in the number of indigenous

2FIRST NATIONS HISTORY AND CULTURE
people suffering from depression (Snowshoe et al., 2017). There have also been increase in
percentage of drug and alcohol abuse. All of these issues have culminated to the increase in
mental illness among the indigenous population of Canada.
The mean age of the indigenous people are significantly lower than the non-
indigenous people of Canada (Kumar & Tjepkema, 2019). According to Snowshoe et al.
(2017), culture and social contexts needs to be analyzed in order to understand the depression
and mental health issues that the indigenous people are facing. For indigenous people,
historical and race based trauma are the major causes for their mental illness (Fast & Collin-
Vézina, 2019). The governmental policies regarding indigenous population focuses on the
assimilation of them into the mainstream population. The experience of violence, repression
and discrimination that these people have faced since the time of colonial expansion, have
caused depression and self-harm tendency among the population. This kind of behavior has
by now become hereditary and thus, many of the indigenous youths too are suffering from the
same issues. Several reasons creates barrier to the improvement of the population and among
them lack of education, poverty, drug and alcohol abuse, governmental policies of
assimilation and lack of healthcare are predominant.
The most important reason is the loss of culture. As social beings, the identity of self
is closely related to one’s culture, their rituals, and their language (Hackett, Feeny & Tompa,
2016). Each individual needs to be able to practice their culture and rituals in order to feel
connected to their past. For indigenous people, it is all the more important as their identity is
closely related to their land, nature and the rituals that they have. The governmental policies
have disrupted their cultural practices in many ways. The policies have mostly focused on
assimilation which has led to the loss of many of their language and cultural practices (Auger
et al., 2019). Moreover, due to the violence and mass killing many of the indigenous tribes