Historic Trauma

"I feel like I have been carrying a weight around that I've inherited..."

~ Lakota/Dakota Woman (Brave Heart & DeBruyn)

References

• Brave Heart, M. Y. H., (2003). The historical trauma response among natives and its relationship with substance abuse: A Lakota illustration. Journal of Psychoactive Drugs. 35(1), 7-12.
• Brave Heart, M. Y. H., Chase, J., Elkins, K., & Altschul, D. B. (2011). Historical trauma among Indigenous

peoples of the americas: Concepts, research, and clinical considerations. Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, 43(4), 282-290. Doi:10.1080/02791072.2011.628913

• Durham, M., & Webb, S. N. (2014). Historical trauma: A panoramic perspective. Brown University Child &

Adolescent Behavior Letter, 30(10), 1-6.

• Gone JP. (2009). A community-based treatment for Native American historical trauma: Prospects for

evidence-based practice. Journal Of Consulting And Clinical Psychology, 77(4), 751-62. doi:10.1037/a0015390

• Grayshield, L., Rutherford, J. J., Salazar, S. B., Mihecoby, A. L., & Luna, L. L. (2015). Understanding and healing historical trauma: The perspectives of Native American elders. Journal Of Mental Health Counseling, 37(4), 295-307. doi:10.17744/mehc.37.4.02
• Hill, J. S., Lau, M. Y., & Sue, D. W. (2010). Integrating trauma psychology and cultural psychology: Indigenous perspectives on theory, research, and practice. Traumatology: An International Journal, 16(4), 39-47.
• Kirmayer, L., Gone, J., & Moses, J. (2014) Rethinking historical trauma. Transcultural Psychiatry, 51(3), 299-319. Doi: 0.1177/1363461514536358
• Morgan, R., & Freeman, L. (2009). The healing of our people: Substance abuse and historical trauma. Substance Use and Misuse, 44, 84-98.
• Nicolai, S. S., & Saus, M. (2013). Acknowledging the past while looking to the future: Conceptualizing Indigenous child trauma. Child Welfare, 92(4), 55-74.
• Reinschmidt, K. M., Attakai, A., Kahn, C.B., Whitewater, S., & Teufel-Shone, N. (2016). Shaping a stories of resilience model from urban American Indian elders’ narratives of historical trauma and resilience. American Indian & Alaska Native Mental Health Research: The Journal of the National Center, 23(4), 63-85.
• Struthers, R., & Lowe, J. (2003) Nursing in the Native American culture and historical trauma. Issues in Mental Health Nursing, 24, 257-272.
• Tucker, R. P., Wingate, L. R., & O’Keefe, V. M. (2016). Historical loss thinking and symptoms of depression are influenced by ethnic experience in American Indian college students. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 22(3), 350-358.
• Whitbeck, L., Adams, G., Hoyt, D., Chen, X., (2004). Conceptualizing and measuring historical trauma among American Indian people. American Journal of Community Psychology, 33(3/4), 119-129.
• Wiechelt, S. A., Gryczynski, J., Johnson, J. L., & Caldwell, D. (2012). Historical trauma among urban American Indians: Impact on substance abuse and family cohesion. Journal of Loss & Trauma, 17(4), 319-339. Doi:10. 1080/15325024.2011.616837

Resources for Counselors

Transcending Historic Trauma

• http://discoveringourstory.wisdomoftheelders.org/

University of Minnesota: Historic Trauma and Cultural Healing

• http://www.extension.umn.edu/family/cyfc/our-programs/historical-trauma-and-cultural-healing/

American Indian Historical Timeline

• http://www.institutefornativejustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Seven_Time_Periods_of_Federal_Indian_Policy.pdf

American Indian Art Therapy

• https://www.facebook.com/American-Indian-Art-Therapy-112071728960316/

Society of Indian Psychologists

• http://www.aiansip.org/

Treatment Considerations

• Awareness and education
• “We can't change what we don’t know”
• Regain traditions, religion, language (Grayshield et al., 2015)
• Address possible maladaptive cognitive ideas around historical loss (Tucker et al., 2016)
• Identify/facilitate cultural support systems
• Develop strengths based narratives that may incorporate of strength, survival, courage, and success
• Address boarding school experience
• Parents need to resolve their grief before being available for their children

(Brave Heart et al., 2011)

• Youth Considerations
• Younger generations have little understanding of historical trauma but still suffer the consequences
• Focus on a strengths-based narrative of historical trauma, emphasizing strength, courage, and overcoming adversity
• Can facilitate empowerment/pride in youth

(Reinschmidt et al., 2016)

Strengths-Based Intervention

"Now we need a new kind of plant...We need a plant that will go deep into the wound, drawing out the poisons."

~ Walter Austion (Uncle Walter) Tingit Elder

Clients know best what they need to heal (Morgan & Freeman, 2009)

• Identify positive cultural based values
• Indigenous values:
• Community
• Spirituality
• Humor
• Cultural values can be used to promote strength-based intervention and assist in healing
• Practitioners cannot assume that we know one’s values

(Nicolai & Saus, 2013)

• Historical trauma stories can be connected with stories of resilience

(Reinschmidt et al., 2016)

Systemic Considerations

• Systematic/structural level: Advocate to change negative western beliefs about Native Americans
• deficit model (alcoholism, anger) - strengths model (resilience)
• Individual level: Work through internalized oppression
• Examine internalized thoughts and beliefs that result from being socialized in an area that holds negative beliefs about the American Indian population

(Grayshield et al., 2015)

Shanto Begay

Cultural Considerations

"It is our way to mourn for one year when one of our relations enters the Spirit World..."

~ Blackcloud (Brave Heart, 1995)

• Consider the extent to which someone reflects the consequences of historical trauma
• Assess how a clients culture may influence their worldview
• Assess the importance that culture plays in one’s life (Tucker, Wingate, & O’Keefe, 2016)
• Loss thoughts do not necessarily indicate risk but may be a form of cultural awareness (Wiechelt et al., 2012)
• Incorporate traditional healing practices (Brave Heart et al., 2011) (Morgan & Freeman, 2009)
• Address system mistrust (Nicolai & Saus, 2013)
• "The Future is now" client example

Multicultural Treatment Issues

An Introduction to Historic Trauma:

• Most psychological services and interventions originate based on European American culture (Gone, 2009)
• Western interventions further marginalize, oppress, and colonize (Hill, Lau, & Sue, 2010)
• Not only experiencing historic trauma but ongoing oppression and discrimination (Brave Heart et al., 2011)
• Address cultural conditions affecting behavior (discrimination, cultural oppression, historical trauma)
• Mistrust of American systems

(Durham & Webb, 2014)

• Awareness of specific tribal affiliation and experiences (Tucker, Wingate, & O’Keefe, 2016)

Photography by Erica Lord

General Treatment Interventions Cont.

The Wounding of the Native American Soul

General Treatment Interventions

Decolonizing practice competencies by Evans-Campbell and Walters , 2006

• Culturally relevant framework
• Helping individuals identify traditional ways of healing
• Work with the idea of mistrust and how it is a reaction to HT
• Document HT events in order to provide meaning to ones behaviors and emotions
• Discuss the concept that avoidance and denial of HT can initially be a protective mechanism but can be harmful as time passes
• Emphasize resilience
• Create new narratives, identifying why and how behaviors were learned
• Incorporate community support of grief

• Historical Trauma Intervention Model by Brave Heart et al. (2011)
• Confronting the trauma
• Understanding the trauma
• Releasing the pain
• Surpass the trauma
• Goal: increase awareness of trauma in order to allow for healing

(Durham & Webb, 2014)

Kirby Sattler

(Durham & Webb, 2014)

Historic Trauma and Native Peoples

What is Historic Trauma?

Cumulative and collective emotional and psychological injury over the life span and across generations, resulting from a cataclysmic history of genocide (Struthers & Lowe, 2003)

Terminology:

• Historical Trauma Response
• A constellation of features associated with a reaction to massive group trauma
• Historical Unresolved Grief
• A component of HTR
• The profound unsettled bereavement resulting from cumulative devastating losses

Symptoms of Historic Trauma

• Physical
• Hypertension
• Heart Disease
• Diabetes
• Being overweight
• Cirrhosis
• Spiritual
• Wounding of the soul
• Loss of traditions/cultural knowledge

• Psychological
• Unresolved grief across generations
• Substance Abuse
• Depression & Anxiety
• Avoidance of people/places
• Loss of Sleep
• Suicide
• Overeating
• Social, Economic, Intellectual & Political
• Poverty
• Crime
• Low educational attainment
• High rates of homicide
• Accidental deaths
• Child abuse
• Domestic abuse

Specifics and Statistics

• Rates of PTSD, anxiety, depression, and alcohol/drug use are higher among the Native American population
• Result from genocide acts, disease, war, cultural destruction, forced relocation, and forced assimilation

(Wiechelt, Gryczynski, Johnson, & Caldwell, 2012)

• Alcohol = coping strategy = consequences (children exposed to drugs, violence in homes, violence among youth)

(Reinschmidt, Attakai, Kahn, Whitewater, & Teufel-Shone, 2016)

• Highest documented rates of diabetes in the world
• "Susto" = Loss of Soul

(Struthers & Lowe, 2003)

Where in History..?

(Struthers & Lowe, 2003)

(Wiechelt, Gryczynski, Johnson, & Caldwell, 2012)

• Jewish Holocaust
• Slavery of African American people in the United States
• Treatment of Japanese Americans in United States during WWII
• Conflicts in Bosnia, the Middle East, Ireland, Afghanistan, and the Philippines
• Indigenous people such as the Native Americans in the United States and Canada

Boarding Schools

• Forced assimilation
• Children as young as 4
• Inadequate nutrition, manual labor, loss of culture (language, traditions family), and brutal punishment
• One half – two thirds experienced sexual abuse

(Gone, 2009)

• Intended to “civilize” Indians
• “I remember they would have us stand on a little box and we had this sign on us that they put around our neck. I guess it said, I'm a dumb Indian because I cant speak English.”
• Internalized oppression- “boarding schools made children believe they were lazy, bad, and dirty.”

(Grayshield, Rutherford, Salazar, Mihecoby, & Luna, 2015)

• Many individuals developed trust, relationship, communication, and parenting issues
• Parenting issues due to neglect and abuse

(Brave Heart, Chase, Elkins, & Altschul, 2011)

Mike Menasco