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Drug abuse is of course not distinct to this community. A study published in September in the journal Jama Psychiatry found that between 2015 and 2019, the number of overdose deaths associated with methamphetamine in the US increased by 180% to 15,489. When broken down by ethnicity, the report found that Native Americans and Alaska Natives had the highest rate of methamphetamine use disorder.
These high numbers within the Indigenous community can be linked to historical trauma in the form of community massacres, forceful relocation and boarding schools, explained Dr Tommy K Begay, research assistant professor at the University of Arizona’s department of psychiatry and a member of the Navajo Nation. The trauma, he explained, resulted in maladaptive coping behaviors that sometimes include drug use, which were passed on to new generations.
“This is not just unique to Native people,” said Begay. “You put any human being through circumstances that some individuals were placed under, we would see the same relationships.”