American Indian veterans and families.

This chapter will provide suggestions and techniques with which the individual counselor can more successfully outreach this often overlooked segment of the Vietnam veteran population. For an assortment of different reasons, Indian veterans have not fully utilized Vet Center services. It should not be assumed there is no need for readjustment counseling among Indian Vietnam veterans. Assumptions that Indians are immune to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) due to cultural or traditional beliefs are false. Real reasons for low utilization of Vet Centers include: (a) lack of knowledge in tribal communities of services available, (b) long distances between reservations and urban Vet Center locations, (c) occasional cultural insensitivity of Vet Center staff members, (d) lack of awareness of immediate or surrounding Indian communities and organizations, (e) skepticism of government programs by Indians, (f) ignorance about American Indians among the majority of the non-Indian population, and (g) typical, negative stereotypes of Indian people. Initially one must determine if there is a visible or substantial Indian population in your immediate area. Before offhandedly assuming there is not, be aware that American Indians are found from Seattle to Florida and from New York City to Los Angeles and most urban communities between. The following map shows areas of the country where Indians live in higher concentrations than the national average for their race (Figure 1). The 1990 census provides the following information on American Indian, Eskimo or Aleut populations. Population rank by state: (a) Oklahoma, 252,420 (b) California, 242,164 (c) Arizona, 203,527 (d) New Mexico, 134,655 (e) Alaska, 85,698 (f) Washington, 81,483 (g) North Carolina, 80,155 (h) Texas, 65,877 (i) New York, 62,651, and, (j) Michigan, 55,638. Rank by percent of state population: (a) Alaska, 15.6%, (b) New Mexico, 8.9%, (c) Oklahoma, 8.0%, (d) South Dakota, 7.3%, (e) Montana, 6.0%, (f) Arizona, 5.6%, (g) North Dakota, 4.1%, (h) Wyoming, 2.1%, (i) Washington, 1.7%, and (j) Nevada, 1.6%.