Main Topic:

Name:​ ___________________________________
Class:​ _________________ ​Period:​ ________
Date:​ ____________________________

About, details, ties into research

Questions/Main Ideas: Notes:

Cherokee gathering casts light on generational trauma
https://www.smokymountainnews.com/news/item/7147-cherokee-gathe
ring-casts-light-on-generational-trauma
Forgiveness ● Many Cherokee leaders believe that the way to heal
from the Trail of Tears and other trauma is to
forgive those who put the trauma onto them
● People have traveled parts of the trail as part of
finding forgiveness, because some of the areas were
sacred before the removal
● Many of them have been taught to hate whites (esp
Andrew Jackson) but many of them are now trying
to let it go and forgive
Trail of Tears still ● The Trail of Tears still affects people today- but the
affects many Cherokee impacts have been repressed for a long time
people today ● If your parents were alcoholics or abusive, you’re
more likely to be the same way
Trauma basics ● Trauma freezes us-
○ The person becomes what they were harmed
by
○ Trauma that occured at a young age = trigger
send stress hormones which mentally revert
you back to that age
Summary: ​Cherokee people were fucked up by the Trail of Tears
(which makes a lot of sense). Many of them think that forgiveness
is the way to healing. This applies to our research because it talks
about one specific issue that the government did.
 Wakiksuyapi:
Carrying the Historical Trauma of the Lakota
http://discoveringourstory.wisdomoftheelders.org/ht_and_grief/Wakiksu
yapi-HT.pdf
Lakota history ● Lakota history has been traumatic (from Wounded
Knee to forced removal and boarding schools)
● Comparable in some respects (analogous) to Jewish
survivors of the Holocaust, and their descendants
● Lakota Manifestations
○ Mental health issues (depression, addiction,
etc.)
○ Mortality from heart disease is 2x higher than
general population
○ Suicide rates are more than 2x higher than
national population
Boarding schools- do not ● Boarding Schools
use as an example ○ Sometimes over 1,000 miles away from home
because wow trauma ○ The treatment of the native children was
horrible- shackled, chained, beaten, etc.
○ Overcrowded so many people got ick (TB)
○ Continued as long as the 1970s
Wakiksuyapi Wakiksuyapi- Memrial people (people who carry the
grief and trauma around with them)
Wakiksuyapi Method ● Intervention is very important to healing
○ Education
○ Make it work with their culture
● Studies have been done on what helps, and
although they have produced date they have been
with a small number of participants
● Results of the Wakiksuyapi study revealed these
themes:
○ Trauma testimony
■ Actual trauma events, whether the
person or their descendants went
through them
■ “My grandfather had scars” = Wounded
Knee testimony
○ Trauma response features
■ Trauma identity and carrying the
trauma
 ○ Transcending trauma
■ Coping skills
■ Healing
Summary: ​About the Lakota tribe trauma and how they have dealt
with it, specifically through the Wakiksuyapi Mathod. The study
was done by a leader in Native American trauma, and so it’s good,
but it’s also small- which shows the lack of information about it
that exists. Ties into our research because it shows what is being
done now to try and combat some of the trauma that people have
experienced.

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