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"A Disability History of the United States" by Kim E. Nielsen

Page 4

The concept of “imbalance” that can lead to disability. “Disharmony within the body”

The examples are:

·       Touching objects that have been struck by lightning

·       Incest

·       Marrying within one’s clan

·       Other taboo transgressions

·       Injuring an animal without remorse

The problem is not the impairment (disability) but the imbalance that led to it

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Native American tribes teach a universal truth:

“the spirit chooses the body it will occupy”. Thus, each person is responsible for who and what he is; he cannot blame others for the shortcomings of his body

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Tribes have little reference to mental illness prior to European interaction (page 5)

The tribal view that a mental illness can be seen not as an impairment, but as a “great gift to be treasured and as a source of community wisdom”

However…it is very important to note that there is not single view of disability among the many Indigenous nation tribes.

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A deaf person in Indigenous culture would not be segregated from the rest of the community (7) But what is most important is for each person – able or disabled – to find their gift that would allow them to contribute to their community

Chapter Two posing the idea that the differences between the European settlers and the Native Americans of “New France” in Nova Scotia (Huron tribe) hinged on the “deformity” of facial hair and hair on one’s head.

“The peoples of the two continents interpreted the workings of the world, and each other, in radically different frameworks” (13)

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The significance of sign language cannot be understated. Because the languages of Indigenous peoples were so vast and different, sign language (of sorts) was already in use when the European settlers arrived. Therefore, communicating with them through hand gestures and body language was pervasive. (14)

Note: “Sign language, however, was not enough to bring cultural harmony” (15)

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The disease brought to the North American continent, by the Europeans, is well studied – but what is interesting to me in Chapter Two, that I have always associated the disease with death. But the author suggests that diseases actually lead to disabilities among Indigenous peoples in the form of “blindness, deafness, disfigurement” in which Indigenous peoples were forced to navigate their lives with this new disability (15)

“The social chaos caused by massive death rates forced changes in community interactions and reciprocity, and profoundly altered lives.”

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“Epidemics often left disability in their wake”

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“The period of European conquest in North America reveals much about the relationship between disability and disease.”