Abstracts
Abstract
This literature review examines the various responses to trauma suffered by Indigenous peoples as a result of governmental policies geared toward assimilation. Both traumatic and resilient responses are demonstrated at the individual, family, and community levels. Much of the research that has been done in the United States to develop theories around historical trauma and race-based traumatic stress may also be applied to Canada’s First Nations due to similar histories of oppression and colonization. Overall, the research finds that self-government and a connection to culture and spirituality result in better outcomes for Indigenous peoples.
Keywords:
- Indigenous peoples,
- resilience,
- trauma,
- self-government,
- culture,
- spirituality
Appendices
Bibliography
- Abadian, S. (2006). Cultural healing: When cultural renewal is reparative and when it is toxic. Pimatisiwin: A Journal of Aboriginal and Indigenous Community Health, 4(2), 5-28.
- American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed.). Washington, DC: Author.
- Andersson, N., & Ledogar, R. J. (2008). The CIET Aboriginal youth resilience studies: 14 years of capacity building and methods development in Canada. Pimatisiwin: A Journal of Aboriginal and Indigenous Community Health, 6(2), 65-88.
- Armitage, A. (1995). Comparing the policy of Aboriginal assimilation. Vancouver, BC: UBC Press.
- Assembly of First Nations. (2007). First Nations regional longitudinal health survey (RHS) 2002/03: Results for adults, youth and children living in First Nations communities. Ottawa, ON: Assembly of First Nations/First Nations Information Governance Committee.
- Ball, J. (2008). Promoting equity and dignity for Aboriginal children in Canada. IRPP Choices, 14(7), 1-28.
- Bar-On, D., Eland, J., Kleber, R., Krell, R., Moore, Y., Sagi, A., . . . & van IJzendoorn, M. H. (1998). Multigenerational perspectives on coping with the Holocaust experience: An attachment perspective for understanding the developmental sequelae of trauma across generations. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 22(2), 315-338. https://doi.org/10.1080%2F016502598384397
- Beavon, D. (2003). An application of the United Nations Human Development Index to registered Indians in Canada, 1996. Vancouver, BC: UBC Press.
- Blackstock, C., Prakash, T., Loxley, J., & Wien, F. (2007). Wen: de: We are coming to the light of day. Ottawa, ON: First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada.
- Bowlby, J. (1952). Maternal care and mental health: A report prepared on behalf of the World Health Organization as a contribution to the United Nations programme for the welfare of homeless children (2nd ed.). Geneva: World Health Organization.
- Brave Heart, Y. H. M. (1998). The return to the sacred path: Healing the historical trauma and historical unresolved grief response among the Lakota through a psychoeducational group intervention. Smith College Studies in Social Work, 68(3), 280-305. https://doi.org/10.1080/00377319809517532
- Brave Heart, Y. H. M. (1999). Gender differences in the historical trauma response among the Lakota. Journal of Health and Social Policy, 10(4), 1-21. https://doi.org/10.1300/J045v10n04_01
- Brave Heart, Y. H. M., & Debruyn, L. (1998). The American Indian Holocaust: Healing historical unresolved grief. American Indian and Alaska Native Mental Health Research, 8(2), 56-78.
- Brubaucher, M. (2006). Coming home: The story of Tikinagan Child and Family Services. Sioux Lookout, ON: Tikinagan Child and Family Services.
- Bryant-Davis, T. (2007). Healing requires recognition: The case for race-based traumatic stress. The Counseling Psychologist, 35(1), 135-143. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0011000006295152
- Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (RCAP). (1996). Volume 1: Looking forward, Looking back. Ottawa, ON: Canada Communication Group.
- Carter, R. T. (2007). Racism and psychological and emotional injury: Recognizing and assessing race-based traumatic stress. The Counseling Psychologist, 35(1), 13-105. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0011000006292033
- Chandler, M., & Lalonde, C. (1998). Cultural continuity as a hedge against suicide in Canada’s First Nations. Transcultural Psychiatry, 35(2), 191-219. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F136346159803500202
- Chandler, M., & Lalonde, C. (2004). Transferring whose knowledge? Exchanging whose best practices? On knowing about Indigenous knowledge and Aboriginal suicide. In J. White, P. Maxim, & D. Beavon (Eds.), Aboriginal policy research: Setting the agenda for change (Vol. 2) (pp. 111-123). Toronto: Thompson Educational Publishing.
- Cornell, S. (2006). Indigenous peoples, poverty and self-determination in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the United States. Tucson, AZ: Native Nations Institute for Leadership, Management, and Policy.
- Cornell, S., & Kalt., J. (2007). Two approaches to the development of Native nations: One works, the other doesn’t. In M. Jorgensen (Ed.), Rebuilding Native Nations (pp. 3-33). Tucson, AZ: The University of Arizona Press.
- Danieli, Y. (1998). Intergenerational handbook of multigenerational legacies of trauma. New York City, NY: Plenum.
- Denham, A. (2008). Rethinking historical trauma: Narratives of resilience. Transcultural Psychiatry, 45(3), 391-414. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1363461508094673
- Duran, E., & Duran, B. (1995). Native American postcolonial psychology. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
- Evans-Campbell, T. (2008). Historical trauma in American Indian/Native Alaska communities: A multi-level framework for exploring impacts on individuals, families and communities. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 23(3), 316-38. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0886260507312290
- Felsen, I., & Erlich, S. (1990). Identification patterns of offspring of Holocaust survivors with their parents. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 60(4), 506-520. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/h0079205
- Fleming, J., & Ledogar, R. (2008). Resilience, an evolving concept: A review of literature relevant to Aboriginal research. Pimatisiwin: A Journal of Aboriginal and Indigenous Community Health, 6(2), 7-23.
- Fournier, S., & Crey, E. (1997). Stolen from our embrace: The abduction of First Nations children and the restoration of Aboriginal communities. Toronto, ON: Douglas &MacIntyre.
- Garroutte, E., Goldberg, J., Beals, J., Herell, R., Manson, S., & the AI-SUPERPFP Team (2003). Spirituality and attempted suicide among American Indians. Social Science and Medicine, 56(7), 1571-1578. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0277-9536(02)00157-0
- Grubich-Simitis, I. (1981). Extreme traumatization as cumulative trauma: Psychoanalytic investigations of the effects of concentration camp experiences on survivors and their children. Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, 36(1), 415-450. https://doi.org/10.1080/00797308.1981.11823352
- Jorgensen, M., & Taylor, J. (2000). Patterns of Indian enterprise success: A statistical analysis of tribal and individual Indian enterprise performance. Report to the National Congress of American Indians. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.
- Kirmayer, L. (1994). Suicide among Canadian Aboriginal peoples. Transcultural Psychiatry, 31(1), 3-58. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F136346159403100101
- Krepps, M. B. (1992). Can tribes manage their own resources? The 638 program and American Indian Forestry. In S. Cornell and J. P. Kalt (Eds.), What can tribes do? Strategies and institutions in American Indian economic development. Los Angeles, CA: American Indian Studies Center, UCLA.
- MacLaurin, B., Trocmé, N., Fallon, B., Blackstock, C., Pitman, L., & McCormack, M. (2008). A comparison of First Nations and non-Aboriginal children investigated for maltreatment in Canada in 2003. Toronto, ON: Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, University of Toronto.
- Milloy, J. (1996). A National Crime: The Canadian government and the residential school system 1879 to 1986.Winnipeg, MB: University of Manitoba Press.
- Naumetz, T. (2009). Thousands suffered sexual abuse in residential schools. Canoe News. Retrieved from http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Politics/2009/01/17/8057196-cp.html
- Piaget, J. (1928). The child’s conception of the world. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
- Statistics Canada (2008). First Nations children under six years old living off reserve. Ottawa, ON: Statistics Canada.
- Trocmé, N., Fallon, B., MacLaurin, B., Daciuk, J., Felstiner, C., Black, T., . . . & Cloutier, R. (2005). Canadian incidence study of reported child abuse and neglect 2003: Major findings. Ottawa, ON: Minister of Public Works and Government Services Canada.
- United Nations (2006). Consideration of reports submitted by states parties under Articles 16 and 17 of the Covenant. Geneva: United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Economic and Social Council.
- van der Kolk, B. A., McFarlane, A. C., & van der hart, O. (1996). A general approach to treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder. In. B.A. van der Kolk, A.C. McFarlane, & L. Weisaeth (Eds.), Traumatic stress: The effects of overwhelming experience on mind, body and society (pp. 417-440). New York City, NY: Guilford Press.
- Walls, M. (2007). A mixed methods examination of Indigenous youth suicide (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from ETD collection for University of Nebraska – Lincoln. (AAI3271918).
- Walls, M., Johnson, K., Whitbeck, L., & Hoyt, D. (2006). Mental health and substance abuse services preferences among American Indian people of the northern Midwest. Community Mental Health Journal, 42(6), 521-535. https://dx.doi.org/10.1007%2Fs10597-006-9054-7
- Wesley-Esquimaux, C. C., & Smolewski, M. (2004). Historic trauma and Aboriginal healing. Ottawa, ON: Aboriginal Healing Foundation.
- Whitbeck, L., Adams, G., Hoyt, D., & Chen, X. (2004a). Conceptualizing and measuring historical trauma among American Indian people. American Journal of Community Psychology, 33(3-4), 119-130. https://doi.org/10.1023/B:AJCP.0000027000.77357.31
- Whitbeck, L., Chen, X., Hoyt, D, & Adams, G. (2004b). Discrimination, historical loss and enculturation: Culturally specific risk and resiliency factors for alcohol abuse among American Indians. Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 65(4), 409-418. https://doi.org/10.15288/jsa.2004.65.409
- Whitbeck, L., McMorris, B., Hoyt, D., Stubben, J., & Lafromboise, T. (2002). Perceived discrimination, traditional practices and depressive symptoms among American Indians in the upper Midwest. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 43(4), 400-418. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3090234