Historical Trauma, Healing, and Decolonization

Catalog description

In recent years, scholars have begun to explore the prevalence of historical trauma among American Indian communities. This research argues that the genocide, violence, breakdown of customary cultures through external coercion; and oppression that Indians continue to face at the hands of foreign colonizers has left Indians with harmed with intergenerational self-destructive behavior, domestic violence, suicide, anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, and anger. As a result of this violence and oppression, they have developed models of recovering healthy nations while challenging violations of their human rights in the domestic and international arenas. This history has given rise to a widespread cultural revitalization movement often referred to as decolonization. Scholars from an array of academic disciplines are producing a growing body of literature about decolonization.