Jun 20, 202310 min read

Historical Trauma

By Beverly Gorman, LMSW

The Long Walk

As a Diné/Navajo woman, my great grandparents often talked about the era of the “Long Walk,” what was described by our elders as the “time of great heartache and sadness.” The experience is referenced by elders as a time when our people had to make unthinkable decisions and actions to survive, while resisting occupation and later escaping invasion and captivity from the U.S. government infantries. During this time families were displaced and many died from the harsh realities of captivity. June will mark the 155th anniversary of the “Long Walk.”

Like many Indigenous communities the Diné (Navajo) and Ndé (Apache) people experienced the most devastating impact of colonization during the “Long Walk” era, occurring between the early 1860’s to 1868. In my life journey, I learned of the “Long Walk” or what our people call “Hwéeldi” when working on an assignment for a high school Diné/Navajo cultural class, where I interviewed my maternal grandfather regarding life on the Diné/Navajo Nation. Although my grandfather did not experience the “Long Walk” directly, he had much reflection and shared narratives told by elders before him. My grandfather delicately and hesitantly shared what he was told about “Hwéeldi.” I knew enough that the experience was a deep and unfathomable wounding experienced by the Diné/Navajo and Ndé/Apache people. Like many tribal communities during this time, in the 1860’s the Diné/Navajo faced removal from their homelands at the hands of the U.S. government. Over the next six years thousands of Diné people were chased, captured, and marched to Bosque Redondo or the Fort Sumner area of New Mexico. Most of the Diné people were made to walk the entire 300-400 mile track. Many dying along the way due to extreme mental and physical exhaustion, starvation, and violent traumatic acts at the hands of the soldiers. It is estimated about 8,500 Diné people were marched to Fort Sumner and 2,500 of them passed on.

To this point my grandparents and parents had never spoken of “Hwéeldi” and the shared narrative had a deep impact on my life. Completing this assignment was my initiation to learn about my history and thankful I heard it from my grandfather. While my grandfather shared, he spoke and reminded me to respect for the Dinéhealing process. My grandfather practiced cultural teachings regarding the importance of ceremony and healing, where when one keeps to ceremonial protocol, and healing is initiated, the positive life way is restored and renewal of self. The life way exists from that moment forward. Should past ailments or severe human experiences like the “Long Walk” are spoken of, one can regress and dismiss the healing process. My grandfather informed elders and medicine people of that time immediately started the healing process, where offerings, cleansing, and ceremonies were put in place so that the next generation would not endure this physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual grief. My grandfather did not speak about it again and I learned not to ask further about this time.

I felt the deepest pain for my grandfather, our elders, our people, and all Indigenous communities. As a young woman all I could think about is, how could such atrocities be inflicted upon the Diné/Navajo and Ndé/Apache people. Moving forward in life, I dealt with feelings of anger, guilt, intense fear, depression, hopelessness, and helplessness. Although I engaged in traditional cleansing and prayer, it was hard to walk through life ‘acting’ as if these acts of horror did not happen. These feelings led to an immense distrust, survivors’ guilt, anger towards non-Indigenous people, and wanting to numb the pain. Although speaking or thinking of death is discouraged in our culture, I often would think about my ancestors and those who passed, wanting and wishing things could have been different for them. Much of what led to feelings of guilt when I would enjoy having the conveniences of life. These feelings worsened for me when I left the reservation. When attending college in southern Arizona, I often felt unsettled and felt the pressures of adjusting to the easy way of life in the urban setting. In college a majority of my classmates were non-Indigenous and often I would have negative thoughts and feeling of betrayal, doubt, anger, and pre-occupation with wanting recognition and reconciliation by races of the oppressors. I often would think should I be feeling this much anger towards someone I do not even know. When internalizing these feelings and not finding a healthy way to let go, I sought help. Many years later, it was through ongoing immersion in Diné/Navajo cultural teachings, cleansing, and prayer that helped me to reach awareness and acceptance. The greatest healing for me was finding solace in learning and understanding Diné (Navajo) emergence and creation narratives. These narratives are oral doctrine, foundational to what our people refer to as “Hózhóójí” (Life Way/Positivism/Balance) and “Hóchxójí” (Darkening/Blackening Way/Negativity/Chaos). The two concepts allow our people to understand the importance of the application of holistic practices of harmony and balance. The oral narratives teach our people to acknowledge that both negativity and positivity exist in life. The interaction between both creates balance. I leaned in and on these teachings to understand, implement, act on, and achieve healing. And it was not until my 30’s in my graduate studies, I learned about the American Indian experience with trauma in history, where later I absorbed and found solace in the knowledge regarding historical trauma.

What is historical trauma?

Historical trauma (HT) is often referred to as collective experience which is often described as an “emotional and psychological wounding.” The wounding occurs when a group of people share the collective experience with historical abuse, intense stressors, oppression, and/or racism. The collective traumatic experiences can have long lasting impact, where individuals can experience adverse impact for an entire life time, as well as across generations, which is what is referred to as “intergenerational trauma.” In the U.S. historical trauma impacts all. Today many continue to experience the impact of colonization in the southwest.

According to researchers, since the 1400’s an estimated 95% of Indigenous populations were eliminated in the America’s. According to the 2021 U.S. Census data, the AIAN population is about 9.7 million (alone or in combination), making up 2.9% of the overall U.S. population. Today 574 tribes are federally recognized, and another 400 tribes are non-federally recognized, over 900 Indigenous communities continue to thrive. Wilma Mankiller the famous Tsalagiyehli (Cherokee) Chief once quoted, “The secret of our success is that we never, never give up.” My elders often say, we are here because the people before us had faith, hope, prayer and ceremony.

As mental health professionals we understand the impact of colonization and historical trauma on the human spirit. Whether a person is Indigenous or not, every person in the U.S. has a certain awareness of the impact of the settlement upon this land. This part of history can be an unspoken knowledge or experience. As Indigenous people and people of color, one eventually becomes versed in this history at some point in life and the facts can become daunting to the overall life journey, specifically for Indigenous people.

Trauma is a mental health condition that occurs when a person has experienced a harm, threat, extreme stress, or sudden death. Trauma can lead to a person having an adverse physical, psychological, emotional, and social response. According researchers (Kessler, et al., 1995) trauma impacts many people, in fact a person can experience at least one traumatic event in their life (61% men, 51% women). It is also important to note that although trauma occurs across individual lifetime, only 3.6% experience Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Like many mental health conditions, trauma impacts people differently, it is one of the few mental health conditions that can be experienced as a community, which can have a pervasive impact if not addressed. Trauma therefore is one of the few mental health conditions started by environmental factors, meaning it occurs as a result of the environment the person lives in or experiences.

When a person is exposed to a traumatic experience a person can have a number of responses as well as having mild to acute signs and symptoms. When exposed some people can immediate to lapsed psychological or emotional impact; trauma symptoms can also be latent where a person can seem like they are okay and suddenly a person’s emotional or mental state can change quickly due to a trigger or an activation which worsens the symptoms.

Here are symptoms of trauma experience or response when you are exposed to trauma:

Flashbacks or memories from the traumatic event
Irritability, agitation, or anger outbursts
Hyper-vigilance or being on guard for further potential threats or feeling unsafe all the time
Sadness or having feelings of hopelessness
Disruption in sleep patterns
Difficulty connecting to reality or feeling disconnected, this can also feel like you can not stay focused or feeling outside your body
Finding it difficult to trust others or to interact with others
Unable to experience pleasure or enjoy things that used to make you happy or feel good
Harming or hurting self, including having suicide thoughts or suicide attempts
Inability to cope positively with stress or life when it gets overwhelming
Feeling guilt or feeling responsible for the event

When trauma is left untreated it can lead to mental health illnesses like depression, anxiety, PTSD, eating disorders, and/or long-term health complications.

There are certain types of trauma acute, chronic, complex, and historical. The severity of trauma depends on the number of times you are exposed.

Acute Trauma – one-time exposure, over a lifetime
Chronic Trauma – two or more exposures, continuous
Complex Trauma – two or more exposures, continuous, plus having long-term or long-life outcome on overall life
Historical Trauma – group exposure, over a lifetime, can be continuous, and results in multi-generational outcomes

According to HT researchers, similar to general trauma, HT has a response referred to historical trauma response (HTR). HTR is defined as trauma reaction to the group trauma in history, felt by the decedents or family members of those impacted by trauma historically. HTR can be experienced by you today if your ancestors or past family members experienced mass trauma. Below is a breakdown of HT responses compared to general trauma responses with additional features:

Flashbacks or memories or preoccupation with the historically relevant traumatic event (i.e. genocide, mass deaths)
Irritability or agitation (i.e. having anger towards the aggressor or oppressor)
Hyper-vigilance or being on guard (i.e. feeling like the historical catastrophic events could happen again, overprotection of self or family when going outside the group)
Sadness or having feelings of hopelessness (i.e. feeling like you want to reunify with the deceased or join ancestors that experienced genocide)
Difficulty connecting to reality or feeling disconnected (i.e. feeling numb, psychic numbing, feeling like you are outside your body)
Finding it difficult to trust others or to interact with others (i.e. feeling like you can not trust the race of the oppressors)
Unable to experience pleasure or enjoy things that used to make you happy or feel good
Harming or hurting self, including having suicide thoughts or suicide attempts
Inability to cope positively with stress or life when it gets overwhelming (i.e. constantly working to correct the wrong, engaging in self-destructive behaviors to avoid, using substances to numb the pain)
Feeling guilt (i.e. survivals guilt where although one did not experience the mass trauma and you feel guilty for being alive, thinking “why not me?”)
Historical unresolved grief (i.e. not being able to address or express the grief specific to the historical catastrophic events)

HTR responses are similar to trauma response yet the response relates back to the mass or group traumatic event. Another important aspect of HT is that the trauma experienced by individuals in history can be passed down from generation to generation. This can happen because trauma leaves an imprint on the overall wellbeing due to the extreme stress experienced during the traumatic event. When one experiences stress the levels of cortisol or hormones that help with stress increase, which research has found to have a profound affect on the genetic make-up of people. The trauma is also passed on to the next generation through behaviors and biology. There’s much research regarding epigenetic trauma where findings show that trauma has a chemical impact on genes and then passed onto future generations. Research is also finding that trauma has the most severe impact on human mental, emotional, and behavioral growth and progress; most evident in impaired parenting post the boarding school era of the late 1900’s. Below is a diagram of the cycle of intergenerational trauma, developed by Michele Maas and Nazbah Tom (2008), based on the intergenerational aspects of historical trauma (Brave Heart, 2003; Duran, 2006):

Cycle of Intergenerational Trauma

The cycle is an example of how maladaptive behaviors such as unresolved grief or feelings of guilt when not addressed can turn into sever aggression or substances use to copy, when not addressed the cycle continues. Over the last two decades Indigenous researchers, clinicians, social workers, and mental health workers have been addressing historical trauma by helping community members break the cycle of trauma. There is hope and healing is possible.

Here are ways to address historical trauma, based on Maria Yellow Horse Brave Heart’s model:

Confronting Historical Trauma

Confront the trauma
Educate or increase your knowledge regarding historical trauma
Understand and embrace the history

Understanding Historical Trauma

Continue building your knowledge about trauma and how it impacts you, your family, and/or your community
Increase your awareness and acknowledge areas you, your family, or your community needs to work on; allow personal growth
Reconnect with yourself, family, community, and/or spirit
Express the history and the trauma endured by ancestors

Release the Pain

Grieve and release the pain; addressing the unresolved grief
Share your story or your journey, this can be done through story telling or talking to a counselor
Cleanse and restore; smudge, attend sweat, use traditional medicinal herbs for cleansing, clear through running
Practice prayer, reverence, and gratitude giving
Honor the history
Empower yourself, others, family, or your community, allow and be open to change

Transcend the Trauma

Heal; attend or plan a healing ceremony; healing also means preventing
Rebuild individual, family, community purpose; repair relationships; create new connections; rewrite you life story
Always continue to build your knowledge and be open to learning more about how trauma impacts you
Practice and increase your sense of safety; work on positive coping skills; add to your strengths and resiliency; practice traditional achievement ways
Preserve and continue practicing culture and language

When working on your healing journey you may be experiencing trauma due to historical human catastrophes such as colonization, it is important to remember you are not alone. Getting support will help in your healing journey. Healing and recovery is possible.

Here in Albuquerque New Mexico we acknowledge, honor, and thank the Pueblo people for providing us our place of living. This is written to commemorate the 155th anniversary of the Navajo Treaty/Naaltsoos Sání, signed on June 1, 1868 between the Navajo Tribe and the United States of America.

Sources:

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), 7–13. https://doi.org/10.1080/02791072.2003.10399988

Brave Heart, M. Y. H., & DeBruyn, L. M. (1998). The American Indian Holocaust: Healing historical unresolved grief. American Indian and Alaska Native Mental Health Research, 8(2), 56–78. https://doi.org/10.5820/aian.0802.1998.60

Mass, M., & Tom, N. (2008). Reclaiming voice & spirit: Innovative strategies for co-occurring disorders.[presentation]. Native American Health Center: Family & Child Guidance Clinic, San Francisco, CA, United States.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Center for Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality. (2018). National Survey on Drug Use and Health 2016 (NSDUH-2016-DS0001). Retrieved from https://datafiles.samhsa.gov/

Kessler, R.C., Sonnega, A., Bromet, E., Hughes, M., & Nelson, C. (1995). Posttraumatic stress disorder in the National Comorbidity Survey. Archives of General Psychiatry 52, 1048–1060.