Module 5: Balance: Past and Present
Historical Trauma
Historical trauma is the unresolved emotional and psychological injury caused by the cumulative effects of colonization, epidemics, boarding schools, and racism.1,2,3 This trauma is a kind of 'psychological baggage' that, unless healed, is passed down through generations. While Alaska Native people share a past of trauma-related colonization, different regions had very different experiences and periods of exposure to new comers and their ways of life. To learn more, please watch this short digital story.
Tribal health care providers can be affected by historical trauma. It can affect one’s ability to believe in oneself, to trust one's own knowledge and skills, and to wonder if it’s all worthwhile. Historical trauma is likely to be present in the people you treat, and even more so in the depressed, the addicted, and the victims and perpetrators of violence.
