Melanie it's hard hon. You're dealing with issues that are so complex and interwoven. Not only the father/daughter thing, the drugs influencing that, the emotional abuse, the family history but also a cultural issue where males are encouraged to dominate and control "their" females. I spent many, many years working with oji-cree women in a family crisis shelter and you cannot ignore the heavy influence of a culture that was interfered with so very badly by the "black robes" that their very view of women was destroyed and reshaped. A native male unable to control his wife and daughters is so looked down upon by others of his community it's no wonder stories like yours occur over and over again.

That's not to say that great strides haven't been made in our wonderful native communities but I personally know of at least one community in northern Ontario, Canada, in the year 2007, that females are not allowed to step on to an airplane or purchase food supplies without "permission" from a male (either their father, their brother or their husband/boyfriend). This is considered the norm there. To break from this pattern, breaks you from your extended family, your community and in some cases, your very cultural identity.

Very sad in a culture where once women were considered the core of a wheel of life and honored for their ability to bring life into this world.

I hope you can find peace with your upbringing and allow it to make you stronger and wiser. We can't forget the past, only learn from it, take from it some life lessons and move always move forward.