Abstract
In 2015, we (along with other researchers) conducted a qualitative study in which we listened to the stories of eleven Native American elders regarding their understanding of historical trauma, its impact on their communities, and most importantly, how to heal from it. During this research we came to the understanding that not only is trauma endemic to Western society, it is continuous and on going all over the world. The wisdom shared by those eleven elders not only demonstrated their understanding of historical trauma and its current impact on Native communities today, it impressed upon us how vitally important it is to return to an Indigenous way of being in order to live life in a way that will positively impact our future generations. We wanted to know if the thoughts that these eleven elders expressed were congruent with other Native and Indigenous people around the world. To this end, we searched online videos and paper sources that provided insight into the worldview of Native peoples around the globe. We triangulated these sources and compared them to our original research to identify common themes. The original article was published in the Journal of Mental Health Counseling (2015), titled Understanding and Healing Historical Trauma: The Perspectives of Native American Elders (Grayshield L, Rutherford J, Salazar S, Mihecoby A, Luna L, J Ment Health Couns 37(4):295–307, 2015).
The ones that matter most, are the children. Lakota Proverb.
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Luna, L.L., Grayshield, L. (2020). Wisdom of the Elders: A Return to the Sacred Is the Wave of the Future. In: Grayshield, L., Del Castillo, R. (eds) Indigenous Ways of Knowing in Counseling. International and Cultural Psychology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-33178-8_5
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