From WMHCA's Justice, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Committee

During the month of November, we celebrate Native American Heritage Month, to honor the incredible strength and resilience of this diverse and varied people. Due to their rich cultural heritage and spiritual practices, we acknowledge they have much to contribute to the wellbeing of our nation, not the least of which is their profound connection to the land that models a reverence and care for the Earth which sustains all of us. “What mankind must know is that human beings cannot live without Mother Earth, but the planet can live without humans.” Evo Morales, former President of Bolivia*

In addition to the celebration of strengths, it is also important to acknowledge the deep and lasting impacts of colonization that our nation practiced on Indigenous communities---particularly through the forced removal of children to boarding schools. These institutions, designed to strip away Native identities, languages, and cultures, inflicted profound psychological trauma on generations of Native American families. The forced assimilation, the physical, the psychological and the sexual abuse experienced in these schools have left a legacy of intergenerational trauma, contributing to the mental health challenges that many Indigenous individuals and communities continue to face today. (Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition)  And while the effects of these boarding schools have been far-reaching, resulting in the erosion of family and community structures, Native people continue to demonstrate resiliency and persistence in their ongoing efforts to reclaim their cultures, languages, and traditions.

In our efforts to support this revitalization, we recognize the importance of practicing cultural humility in our therapeutic practices that goes beyond land acknowledgment and honors as well as incorporates the Indigenous worldview of health and healing. In addition, we believe it vital to continue to assist the work to remove barriers for Native and all marginalized peoples to become healthcare professionals.**

*As quoted in Becoming Rooted, One Hundred Days of Reconnecting with Sacred Earth, by Randy Woodley (2022, p. 143)

** Decolonizing Trauma Work, Indigenous Stories and Strategies, by Renee Linklater (2014, p. 47)