| Abstract: | Cultural anomie and the marginality that results from it are important considerations when viewing Native American disorganization, both past and present. Indeed, a major consequence of Indian disorganization is intra-group aggression, a phenomenon manifested by high alcoholism and suicide rates (self-aggression) as well as assault and homicide. And while the problem of cultural anomie has long plagued Native Americans, few attempts have been made to analyze it within the appropriate culturally-relevant, social conflict (majority/minority) perspective. This article makes such an attempt by providing a psycho-historical analysis of the significant policy controls which have served to regulate American Indians since the advent of white contact. It explores the affect of primary conflict generated by the policies of slavery, Indian wars, Removal, Allotment, Reorganization, Termination, Relocation, and Self-Determination. The analysis goes beyond these policy controls by linking them to the ensuing secondary (intra-group) conflicts existing within Indian communities on both the reservations and in the urban Indian ghettoes. |
