MAPACA

Mid-Atlantic Popular &
American Culture Association

The Round House by Louise Erdrich is narrated through the perspective of young North Dakotan, Native American teenager, whose family’s lives are turned upside down by the vicious rape of his mother.

The weeks and months that follow see the family unable to cope emotionally and despite the attempts to enlist local, federal and tribal authorities to bring the attacker to justice, no charges are ever pressed. The theme of racism and racial discrimination persists throughout the story as despite a strong testimony and evidence implicating the attacker, the authorities fail to prosecute him.

However beyond the legal and law enforcement scenario, racial discrimination is depicted in within the health care environment. This is exemplified by several incidences including one where nursing staff fail to reprimand a patient who subjects the victim’s son to racial abuse, the cold unprofessional behaviour demonstrated by the attending junior physician, and the failure of clinical staff to offer any emotional support to the victim or family as would normally be expected in the clinical setting for victims of such violent/sexual assault.

That such apparent acts of racial discrimination occurs in an environment where a patient’s well-being is paramount without concern to their ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation or socioeconomic background is not only shocking but severely undermines the clinician-patient relationship and acts as a barrier for patients using the health care system. Though the fictional events took place in late 1980s, one must consider whether Native American patients still experience racial discrimination within the health care system today. This paper will examine three separate studies in order to determine to what extent is racial discrimination experienced by Native Americans within the health care system and, what are the implications of such discriminatory behaviours and how can they be addressed appropriately?