XVI Congreso Internacional de Salud, Bienestar y Sociedad

Abstract

The American Indians Movement (AIM) grew out of the social unrest that plagued North America (Mexico, USA, Canada) during the turbulent 1960s and 1970s resulting in demands for accountability for the Indian boarding school debacle and for greater self-determination among Indigenous tribes. The ability of the colonial powers to dominate Indian affairs throughout the region was a geo-political game of pitting tribes against each other. The boarding school experiment’s original mandate was designed to isolate the Indian child from his/her culture and language using punitive and harsh methods, an unintended consequence was the emergence of tribal members mixing despite generations of intra-group hostilities, some extend prior to White contact. Here, the shared brutality forged a coherent cohort of individuals whose common plight was the destruction of some of the main identification of their once isolated trial norms. Out of this vacuum grew a sharing of significant tribal artifacts and practices that provided the glue for a shared “Indian identity” - one that transcended the restraints of historical obstacles and intra-tribal hostilities. This became the “Pan-Indian” movement and it is shared across tribal and international borders via the “Pow Wow Trail.” This movement has provided the strength for Indian survival even during times of international hostilities like that currently exists due to the American tariff wars.