The return to the sacred path: Healing the historical trauma and historical unresolved grief response among the lakota through a psychoeducational group intervention

Abstract

This article, based on research conducted with Lakota human service providers, concludes that the Lakota (Teton Sioux) suffer from impaired grief of an enduring and pervasive quality. Impaired grief results from massive cumulative trauma associated with such cataclysmic events as the assassination of Sitting Bull, the Wounded Knee Massacre, and the forced removal of Lakota children to boarding schools. The research studied a culturally syntonic four‐day psychoeducational intervention designed to initiate a grief resolution process for a group of 45 Lakota human service providers. The methodology included assessment at three intervals: (a)apre‐ and post‐test, utilizing a Lakota Grief Experience Questionnaire andthe semantic differential, (b) a self report evaluation instrument at the end of the intervention, and (c) a six‐week follow‐up questionnaire. The results confirmed the hypotheses that: (a) education about historical trauma would lead to increased awareness of the impact and associated grief related affects of the traumatic Lakota history, (b) sharing these affects with other Lakota in a traditional context would provide cathartic relief, and (c) grief resolution would be initiated, including a reduction in grief affects, more positive identity, and a commitment to individual and community healing.