A loss of culture from the past leads to suicide in the youth of the Inupiat Culture today :
In the past, the Inupiat Culture has always grew up on a tradition of working hard to reach the needs of their daily lives. The Inupiat Culture had to work on their own for things such as going out to collect fire logs, searching for water and ice, taking care of dog teams and even traveling far away to do their hunting and fishing activities. As youth their job has always been to help provide for the family in some manner. This gave the youth a place and purpose in their lives and a meaning to live. The young people have always been involved and at no point did have time to be negative or even think negatively.
Now, the Inupiat people lives have become easier. Electricity, running water, snow-go's and many other things they have needed to go get on their own has now been handed to them. Most of the Inupiat people who attend school are not able to succeed and training is a hard task. Therefore, it is very hard for these people to even get a job. With out any daily responsibilities the Inupiat people have much free time on their hands now.
We would think that lives for the youth have gotten better since new technology is in, but surprisingly things got worse. Taking away the daily responsibilities that the youth grew up on also took away their independence. This made the Inupiat youth depressed and unstable. With nothing to keep the youth busy and sane, they would turn to drugs and alcohol to make them feel better or to even pass time. They would hear all the time from their parents how much they've got it good and how hard their parents have had to work. The youth were not even able to speak the Inupiat language at school. Their whole culture was being taken away from them and it was almost like they had been raised by someone else. The youth felt as though their was no control over their lives, so some felt as though there wasn't a reason to be living.Further actions have been taken to bring these youth together and letting them know that there is still purpose in their lives and more about their culture. Hard work has always been of the Inupiat culture and this is the difference between the past and now. The youth needed the knowledge that they can still do these things even though there is no technology out. Campaigns have been held to decrease the number of suicides amongst the youth who have felt as though there was no means to life because their culture has been taken from them.
Wexler L.M
2006 Inupiat youth suicide and culture loss: Changing community conversations for prevention. Electronic document, http://www.sciencedirect.com.ezproxy.lib.usf.edu/science/article/pii/S0277953606003868, accessed June 3, 2015
While reading on the Inupiat people and what caused many of the youth to commit suicide, I compared it to society today. I found it a little interesting how these people felt bad that they were not able to work hard anymore such as having to hunt for their food, finding their water, find fire logs and etc. Today we are very much lazy. We love the thought of new technology because it makes things easier and to us, we are less stressed. New technology gives the Inupiate people worries. Something that is the same about the Inupiat people and us is that some of our parents still tell us how hard they have had it. I believe now we interpret there sayings as a way for us to be appreciative, not to feel down because we don't have to work hard as them.
ReplyDeleteWhile understanding why the youth in this culture were committing suicide, it brought to my attention the movie in which the lady visited an indigenous culture and was not very polite about their culture and what they do to make money for their living. She also was not a nice reflexive traveler. In contrast, while outside responsibilities such as hunting and gardening are activities keep the Inupiats busy; school and track is what keeps me occupied and out of trouble. When reading this article, I became a reflexive reader when realizing that the daily activities that I do, keeps me from thinking about things that make me sad and now I understand why the Inupiats were so depressed.