PTSD isn't just for soldiers. Native Americans have been subjected to countless traumas for centuries to the point where children are starting to display the effects.

On top of that, new studies have shown the possibility that past trauma is passed down on a genetic level to the next generation.


 

The rates of suicide and addiction are cripplingly high in Native American communities as the youth, who are shunned by the elders for growing up white are also outcast from white society for being too red.

Without a sense of connection, a sense of belonging, a sense of where they came from, their spirits are being snuffed out.


Though very little coverage is devoted to it, the Standing Rock protests are still going on. And with good reason: a Keystone pipeline (not the Keystone XL) burst in South Dakota in November 2017, spilling 210,000 gallons of crude oil.

SOURCES: CNN, Washington Post, NPR