Wicasa Was'aka: Restoring the Traditional Strength of American Indian Boys and Men

Abstract

We examined health disparities among American Indian men and boys within the framework of historical trauma, which incorporates the historical context of collective massive group trauma across generations. We reviewed the impact of collective traumatic experiences among Lakota men, who have faced cross-generational challenges to enacting traditional tribal roles. We describe historical trauma-informed interventions used with two tribal groups: Lakota men and Southwestern American Indian boys. These two interventions represent novel approaches to addressing historical trauma and the health disparities that American Indians face. We offer public health implications and recommendations for strategies to use in the planning and implementation of policy, research, and program development with American Indian boys and men.

Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program Recommendations from Urban and Reservation Northern Plains American Indian Community Members

“…The program recommendations described above provide detailed community prescriptions for content and activities. In sum, these results contribute toward the call for community-driven program recommendations outlined in previous studies (e.g., Brave Heart et al, 2012;Harris & Allgood, 2009;Walker & Bigelow, 2011). These recommendations will be used to advise the development of a school-based program curriculum for use in the urban and reservation-based Northern Plains AI communities involved in this study.…”

“…It is widely recognized that culturally grounded prevention programs enhance program effectiveness (Brave Heart, Elkins, Tafoya, Bird, & Salvador, 2012;de Ravello, Tulloch, & Taylor, 2012;Kirby, 2002), and a number of efforts have been made across the country to build on the assets and strengths of AI/AN culture to improve the reproductive health of these youth (e.g., Native STAND, Sacred Beginnings, Circle of Life, Project Red Talon). While strides have been made in recent years to understand the contemporary sexual and reproductive health expectations, pressures, and norms that influence today's AI/AN youth and how these might be shaped by lived cultural experiences (e.g., Rink et al, 2012;Rushing & Stephens, 2012;Rutman et al, 2012), there is still a need for teen pregnancy prevention programs to not only examine context but also to be responsive to the specific needs and priorities of the communities and participants these programs work with (Harris & Allgood, 2009).…”

Psychological‐Mindedness and American Indian Historical Trauma: Interviews with Service Providers from a Great Plains Reservation

“…Finally, no SPs in this sample mentioned pressure from the tribe's health and human services administration or on the basis of involvement in other behavioral health initiatives to adopt stock HT narratives. The same may not hold for SPs involved in the numerous HT-focused community interventions and educational campaigns throughout "Indian Country" (e.g., Brave Heart & DeBruyn, 1998;Brave Heart, Elkins, Tafoya, Bird & Salvador, 2012;Garrett et al, 2014;Heckert & Eisenhauer, 2014) and around the globe (e.g., Beltr an & Begun, 2014), that often represent HT as an inherently indigenous framework for understanding and addressing distress in indigenous populations around the world. As such, this work adds psychologicalmindedness to the growing list of cultural exports in the context of asymmetrical power relations between the local and the global within biomedicine and emerging movements for global mental health (see Collins et al, 2011;Kirmayer & Pedersen, 2014).…”

Women finding the way: American Indian women leading intervention research in Native communities

“…Boarding school trauma also has undermined the status of AI/AN men as the warriors and protectors of the tribe. Traditionally, in many AI/AN cultures, women and children were sacred and were never considered the property of men, and domestic violence was not tolerated (Brave Heart, 1999a, Brave Heart et al, 2012). Although AI/AN women have made significant contributions to AI/AN leadership in modern times as elected officials and have asserted traditional strengths in many ways across generations, currently AI/AN women also have the highest rates of violent and interpersonal trauma risk of any racial or ethnic group.…”

“…Many have emphasized that AI/AN mental health must be understood within the context of AI/AN histories of collective traumas and the damages those and subsequent traumas have caused in terms of culture, identity, and spirituality (Brave Heart, 1998, 1999a, 1999b; Gone & Alcantara, 2007; Walls & Whitbeck, 2012). Increasing consensus exists that historical trauma is an important part of AI/AN emotional, mental, and psychological experience (Brave Heart, Elkins, Tafoya, Bird, & Salvador, 2012; Evans-Campbell, 2008; Gone & Trimble, 2012; Mohatt, Thompson, Thai, & Tebes, 2014; Walters & Simoni, 2002; Whitbeck, Adams et al, 2004). While AI/ANs think often about such historically traumatic events and losses (Whitbeck, Adams et al, 2004; Whitbeck, Chen et al, 2004), current EBTs do not specifically target this reality.…”