HISTORICAL TRAUMA

January 5, 2023 Buffalo Latino Village

This remains a Holy Time across the oceans of this world and involves a vast number of wisdom traditions.

Regardless of the wisdom tradition, children across the continents are wide-eyed with awe-struck hearts filled with hope for love, peace, and compassion entrenched in safety and warm embraces to echo the bells cocooned in valleys, across mountainsides, swimming in rivers, roaming our forests, hung on cows, lakes, alive in hills, stampeding the plains, harvested in fields, bending meadows, moist jungles, whispering winds, and desolate deserts.

Yet, there are ever still children enveloped in fear, paralyzed with every pounding at the door, flinching with every ka-boom, yelping with the pellets sounding of rapid-fire, bombs exploding next door on their neighbors and families, machetes hacking at their little legs as they sleep, mothers and fathers to never be seen again, dying the excruciatingly painful death of starvation and dehydration as resources are stolen as they drop from the air or arrive via ship and war-ravaged mothers, nurse, from empty bosoms the last glimmer of all that once glittered, perhaps not dancing in their lifetime, or noteworthy, nor reported across our technological devices.

Maria Yellow Horse Brave Heart Ph.D. (2005) introduced the term “historical trauma” to describe this specific trauma that Indigenous folks, including Taino and Latino people, experienced in the United States. She defined it as “cumulative emotional and psychological wounding across generations including one’s lifespan.” While historical trauma is the result of centuries of colonization and abuses, Brave Heart highlighted the effects of the separation of families and forced assimilation of the boarding school experience.

This is not about conquering and conquering. I find this time of year ideal for such a reckoning. Yes, we all stand on the shoulders of giants, and yes, we all stand on the shoulders of masked marauders. Please review previous editions, outlining generalized trauma and inter-generational if needed. Historical trauma is multigenerational trauma experienced by a specific cultural, racial, or ethnic group.

It is related to major events that oppressed a particular group of people because of their status as oppressed, such as slavery, the Holocaust, forced migration, and the violent colonization of our Indigenous brothers and sisters. Research indicates that race-based discrimination is detrimental to the mental and physical health of African Americans and all hues involved! Please join us next for coping skills that may help you navigate this life!