Healing Project Glossary

22 terms that may be used to describe instances or organizations that have contributed to the oppression of the Native American people in the United States today. terms

assimilation: noun; the social process of absorbing one cultural group into harmony with another.
BIA (Bureau of Indian Affairs): noun; committee organized by John C. Calhoun, it's mission is to enhance the quality of life, to promote economic opportunity, and to carry out the responsibility to protect and improve the trust assets of American Indians, Indian tribes and Alaska Natives.
child neglect: noun; the failure of caretakers to provide adequate emotional and physical care for a child.
colonization: noun; the action or process of settling among and establishing control over the indigenous people of an area.
cultural assimilation: noun; the process in which a minority group or culture comes to resemble a society's majority group or assume the values, behaviors, and beliefs of another group whether fully or partially
cultural genocide: noun; the systematic destruction of traditions, values, language, and other elements that make one group of people distinct from another.
discrimination: noun; the intended or accomplished differential treatment of persons or social groups for reasons of certain generalized traits.
dispossession: noun; the fact of having property, especially buildings or land, taken away from you, or the act of taking property away from a person or group.
duress: noun; constraint illegally exercised (using threats or violence) to force someone to do something against their will or better judgment.
healing: noun; to restore to health or soundness; cure.
Indian Adoption Project: proper noun; a federal program that acquired Indian children from 1958 to 1967 with the help of the prestigious Child Welfare League of America; a successor organization, the Adoption Resource Exchange of North America, functioned from 1966 until the early 1970s. Churches were also involved.
Indian Territorial Dispossession: noun; the process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands, Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations,” and even there, their land and their way of life were not respected.
Indian Trust Fund: proper noun; in the late 1800s, Indian Tribes signed treaties with the United States government. While terms varied, most treaties involved Tribes ceding title for their lands to the United States Government in exchange for protection, health care, education, permanent reservations, and sovereignty. In many cases, Tribes retained rights to resources and how they can be used on lands they ceded to the government, even when those lands extended beyond the borders of their reservations. These rights included drilling, grazing, hunting, mining, timber production, and other land uses through which companies make money.
industrial boarding schools: noun; off-reservation boarding schools and vocational training centers to educate Native American children
mission boarding schools: noun; schools which are run by religious organizations as the responsible authority which offer boarding facilities.
Native American: proper noun; descendants of the original inhabitants of North America and South America before the arrival of white settlers from Europe, also called Indians or American Indians.
native boarding schools: noun; boarding schools founded to eliminate traditional American Indian ways of life and replace them with mainstream American culture.
oppression: noun; the exercise of authority or power in a burdensome, cruel, or unjust manner.
physical abuse: noun; an act where one person uses their body in order to inflict intentional harm or injury upon another person.
psychological abuse: noun; (sometimes referred to as verbal or emotional abuse) the intentional infliction of mental anguish or the provocation of fear of violence or isolation in the older person.
sexual abuse: noun; any sexual activity that occurs without consent. Including: unwanted sexual touching, forced oral sex, and rape, among other sexual acts.
trauma: noun; the response to a deeply distressing or disturbing event that overwhelms an individual’s ability to cope, causes feelings of helplessness, diminishes their sense of self and their ability to feel a full range of emotions and experiences.