Lecture on Intergenerational Trauma and Healing in Indigenous Communities

Introduction

• Speaker greets audience in Lakota/Nakota language, emphasizing cultural identity and connection to ancestors.
• Speaking indigenous language seen as a revolutionary act due to historical attempts at eradication through assimilation.

Personal Story and Dream

• In the speaker's 20s, experienced emotional and psychological difficulties, feeling isolated.
• Had a dream about being at the ocean floor with others, led by a woman who communicated the sacredness of water and resilience.
• The dream provided clarity on personal and professional paths towards healing.

Understanding Trauma

Psychological Trauma

• Trauma from single or multiple events can alter brain chemistry and interfere with functioning.

Collective Trauma

• Intergenerational Trauma: Trauma passed through generations, biologically and behaviorally.

  • Epigenetics: Events leave imprints on DNA that can be activated in descendants.

• Historical Trauma: Emotional and psychological wounding from massive group trauma, e.g., genocide.

  • Frequent questions about high rates of alcoholism, suicide, and poverty among Native peoples are linked to historical trauma.

Boarding School Era

• Carlisle Boarding School: Native children were taken from families to be assimilated.
  • Experienced sexual, physical, and spiritual abuse.
  • Attempt to "Kill the Indian, Save the Man," leading to internalized oppression (shame).
  • Internalized oppression turns into lateral oppression within communities.

Epigenetics and Soul Wound

• Epigenetics: Environment events leaving genetic imprints passed through generations.
• Soul Wound: Intergenerational trauma affecting spiritual aspects; need for healing current generations have stability and tools ancestors lacked.

Personal Responsibility and Healing

• Transition from feeling burden to privilege in addressing ancestral trauma.
• Symptoms of intergenerational trauma include flashbacks or nightmares of genocide.

Role of Healing and Community

Honoring Ancestors

• Bigfoot Ride: A ride through winter, praying for ancestors' spirits, integrating trauma into daily life.

• Healing is a collective effort – requires clinical and community approaches.

  • Being a good relative and providing community spaces for healing.

Closing Thoughts

• Encouragement to reflect on personal connection to ancestral trauma.
• Emphasizes the power of healing and resilience.
• Speaker’s emotional connection to late brother and the symbolism of water in healing.

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• Speaker concludes with gratitude and the story of their brother’s passing and the ongoing journey of healing.