Marie Yellow Horse Brave Heart
Maria
Yellow Horse Brave Heart, Hunkpapa, Oglala Lakota,
PhD, is currently Associate Professor of Social Work
at Columbia University School of Social Work. Dr.
Brave Heart is a licensed social worker with advanced
training in psychotherapy. In addition to private
practice experience, she has extensive experience in
community mental health on reservations and in urban
areas.
Brave Heart is internationally recognized for developing
historical trauma and historical unresolved grief theory
and interventions among American Indians. In 1992 she
founded the Takini Network, a Native non-profit
organization devoted to community healing from
intergenerational massive group trauma among Native
Peoples.
The following article is about both the Takini Network and
Dr. Brave Heart. When the article was originally published
Brave Heart was a tenured faculty member at the University
of Denver Graduate School of Social Work.
An
update follows.
Healing from Historical Trauma and Grief
“Takini” is a
Lakota word meaning “survivor or one who has been brought
back to life”. The Takini Network is a collective of Lakota
(Teton Sioux) and other Native natural, grassroots helpers
and human service professionals. The mission of the
network, which is located in Rapid City, South Dakota, is
to improve the quality of life for Native people by helping
them transcend and heal from historical trauma.
In the late 1970s Maria Yellow Horse Brave Heart became
aware that she was carrying “grief that was bigger than
herself”. Overtime she became increasingly aware of the
powerful impact that historical trauma, such as the
boarding school experience and federal assimilation
policies have had, not only on the direct victims of these
traumas but also on the children and grandchildren of these
Native people. Further, she says, "With the 1881 federal
ban on traditional burials, spirit keeping, and the wiping
of the tears ceremonies, Lakota grief was inhibited and
compounded.”
Brave Heart gave talks about historical legacy at various
mental health and social service conferences and in various
tribal communities. She also became interested in the
growing literature on the Jewish Holocaust, which
documented not only the trauma and grief of the Holocaust
survivors, but the trauma and grief that was passed on to
the children and grandchildren of the survivors. Brave
Heart suspected that, like the children of Jewish Holocaust
survivors, generations of Americans Indians have suffered
from what happened to their ancestors and also from the
traumatic losses that continue today through
alcohol-related accidents, homicide, and suicide.
In 1990 after
years of doing front-line social worker, Brave Heart went
back to school and in 1995 earned her doctorate in clinical
social work from Smith College School for Social Work. Her
dissertation was entitled, “The Return
to the Sacred Path: Healing from Historical Trauma and
Historical Unresolved Grief Among the
Lakota.” According to
social worker Josie Chase, this dissertation provided the
framework for the Takini Network.
To address the
unresolved grief and trauma of the Lakota people, Brave
Heart created a psychoeducational curriculum for use in
intensive, four-day workshops. In 1992, with the help of
Jewish Holocaust therapist, Eva Fogelman, Brave Heart and
her colleagues (including Josie Chase, Myra DeBruyn, Birgil
Kills Straight, Bennet “Tuffy” Sierra, Lona Knight Fast
Horse, Lester Obago) used the curriculum themselves. They
did this as a way of preparing themselves to facilitate the
same workshop for 46 people, most of whom were Lakota
service professionals and natural healers. Chase explains,
“We walked through the workshop to deal with our own issues
and to experience it as the people in the workshop would.”
At the beginning of the workshop, which was held in the
Sacred Black Hills, Brave Heart and the others viewed
videotapes depicting Lakota traumas, such as the Wounded
Knee Massacre and boarding schools. These videotapes plus
discussions and exercises helped them get in touch with
strong emotions and grief. They then shared their stories
and reflected on the dynamics of unresolved grief and
trauma, including how these dynamics were being played out
in their own journeys and spiritual paths. The workshop
closed with Lakota purification and wiping of the tears
ceremonies.
A few days later, Brave Heart and the other facilitators
held the first official workshop, which proved to be a
powerful and helpful experience. Then, convinced that many
other Indian people would probably welcome this kind of
healing experience, Brave Heart, Chase, Kills Straight,
Sierra, and Obago formed the Takini Network. They were
joined later by Susan Yellow Horse. Together they have been
offering workshops and other healing interventions.
The members of the Takini Network work at helping American
Indian and Native Alaskan people recognize that the signs
of historical trauma can include alcoholism, suicidal
behavior, anxiety, depression and health problems. Some of
these behaviors can be from anger that is turned inward.
Homicide and abuse of others can also be linked to
historical trauma.
Brave Heart says, “We talk about Paulo Freire’s concept of
‘internalized oppression’ and how people start identifying
with the oppressor, which results in self-hatred and hatred
of others like oneself. In our communities we have a lot of
lateral oppression, lateral violence—people hurting other
community members and placing aggression on to one another.
Freire’s theory is that it’s dangerous to direct aggression
at the oppressor. Since the aggression has to go somewhere,
it goes out toward others like you. Once you recognize
where these emotions come from, then you can find a healthy
way to deal with them. We believe that that our traditional
cultural and spiritual ways have natural ways to help
people do that. They were very wise in that way.”
Since 1992 the Takini Network has conducted more than 50
workshops not only among Lakota people but also for Native
people throughout the United States, including southwestern
tribes and Alaska Native people. When working in other
communities Brave Heart says, “We like to begin the work
with the community leaders and natural helpers. People need
to have some sobriety and strength because the work is
difficult. We try not to impose our values or our beliefs
or our culture on the group that we work with. We try to
respect their tradition and culture. But we share what we
know in order to help them.
“The community is responsible for the coordinating and the
follow-up. People who go through training or workshops
should have opportunities for follow-up on what they’ve
begun to discover about themselves and the trauma, so we
encourage people to form support groups and make use of the
existing support services in the community such as mental
health and substance abuse services. They might also want
to form some specialized groups, such as talking circles.
“The evaluations of the work have been overwhelmingly
positive. I think what helps people is that they don’t feel
crazy any more.”
Chase says, “Our group relies on prayer and spirituality as
our foundation. We believe that this work that we do is
scared.” The members of the Network intend to reach out
even more in the coming years. They have developed a
parenting curriculum, which includes trauma work and draws
on ancient wisdom. Brave Heart says the curriculum is
“designed to prevent youth substance abuse and help our
parents heal from the legacy of boarding school trauma.”
Members of the Network also intend to create a healing
center for all Native people.
The
article above originally appeared in the Summer 2000 issue
of Winds
of Change. The cover
artist is Helen Hardin, Santa Clara Pueblo.)
Update
2007
Dr.
Brave Heart's Historical Trauma and Unresolved Grief
Intervention has received grant awards, including grants
that incorporate components of the intervention in
reservation-based parenting work. From 2001-2004 Brave
Heart directed an international conference that brought
together indigenous survivors of massive trauma and their
descendants. The conferences focused on mutual support and
the sharing of models for healing.
Brave Heart has been a repeat conference presenter for the
International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies. She has
served on the Board of Directors for the Council on Social
Work Education and as a consultant to the National Indian
Country Child Trauma Center.
For more about Brave Heart, see her biography on the
Columbia University website.