This fall quarter our focus will be on centering indigenous people and the representation of traditional medicine in our collection. At Seattle Central College we are located on the traditional homelands of the Coast Salish people, the Duwamish, Suquamish, Tulalip and Muckleshoot nations. Indigenous people, the original caretakers of this land, established and maintained a deep connection with each other, the plants, animals, and land. This connection and knowledge system was forcibly disrupted due to colonization. In this guide you will find perspectives written by or with indigenous authors on mental health, healing, traditional medicines, and the decolonization of western medicine. You will also find highlighted here peer reviewed, open access journals centering Native American voices and published predominantly from those spaces.
Indigenous People's Day Mon, Oct 14, 2024
"The Mohawk phrase for depression can be roughly translated to "a mind spread out on the ground." In this urgent and visceral work, Alicia Elliott explores how apt a description that is for the ongoing effects of personal, intergenerational, and colonial traumas she and so many Native people have experienced. Elliott's deeply personal writing details a life spent between Indigenous and white communities, a divide reflected in her own family, and engages with such wide-ranging topics as race, parenthood, love, art, mental illness, poverty, sexual assault, gentrification, and representation. Throughout, she makes thrilling connections both large and small between the past and present, the personal and political. A national bestseller in Canada, this updated and expanded American edition helps us better understand legacy, oppression, and racism throughout North America, and offers us a profound new way to decolonize our minds."-- Page 4 of cover.
"This book offers a timely understanding of the complexities of Indigenous health and health outcomes, and ways for Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples to build systems and programs with positive solutions"--Provided by publisher.
Indigenous peoples globally have a keen understanding of their health and wellness through traditional knowledge systems. In the past, traditional understandings of health often intersected with individual, community, and environmental relationships of well-being, creating an equilibrium of living well. However, colonization and the imposition of colonial policies regarding health, justice, and the environment have dramatically impacted Indigenous peoples' health. Building on Indigenous knowledge systems of health and critical decolonial theories, the volume's contributors--who are academic and community researchers from Canada, the United States, Sweden, and New Zealand--weave a narrative to explore issues of Indigenous health within four broad themes: ethics and history, environmental and ecological health, impacts of colonial violence on kinship, and Indigenous knowledge and health activism. Chapters also explore how Indigenous peoples are responding to both the health crises in their communities and the ways for non-Indigenous people to engage in building positive health outcomes with Indigenous communities. Global Indigenous Health is unique and timely as it deals with the historical and ongoing traumas associated with colonization and colonialism, understanding Indigenous concepts of health and healing, and ways of moving forward for health equity.
In Reproductive Justice, sociologist Barbara Gurr provides the first analysis of Native American women's reproductive healthcare and offers a sustained consideration of the movement for reproductive justice in the United States. The book examines the reproductive healthcare experiences on Pine Ridge Reservation, home of the Oglala Lakota Nation in South Dakota--where Gurr herself lived for more than a year. Gurr paints an insightful portrait of the Indian Health Service (IHS)--the federal agency tasked with providing culturally appropriate, adequate healthcare to Native Americans--shedding much-needed light on Native American women's efforts to obtain prenatal care, access to contraception, abortion services, and access to care after sexual assault. Reproductive Justice goes beyond this local story to look more broadly at how race, gender, sex, sexuality, class, and nation inform the ways in which the government understands reproductive healthcare and organizes the delivery of this care. It reveals why the basic experience of reproductive healthcare for most Americans is so different--and better--than for Native American women in general, and women in reservation communities particularly. Finally, Gurr outlines the strengths that these communities can bring to the creation of their own reproductive justice, and considers the role of IHS in fostering these strengths as it moves forward in partnership with Native nations. -- Provided by publisher.
"This groundbreaking book provides guidance to counselors working with Native Peoples and other vulnerable populations. Including an important new chapter devoted to working with veterans, the second edition presents case materials that illustrate effective intervention strategies for prevalent problems, including substance abuse, intergenerational trauma, and internalized oppression"-- Provided by publisher.
"Exploring intergenerational trauma in Indigenous communities--and strategies for healing--with provocative prose and an empathetic approach. Indigenous peoples have shockingly higher rates of addiction, depression, diabetes, and other chronic health conditions than other North Americans. According to the Aboriginal Healing Foundation, these are a result of intergenerational trauma: the unresolved terror, anger, fear, and grief created in Indigenous communities by the painful experiences of colonialism, passed down from generation to generation. How are we to turn this desperate tide? With passionate argumentation and chillingly clear prose, author and educator Suzanne Methot uses her own and others' stories to trace the roots of colonial trauma and the mechanisms by which trauma has become intergenerational, and she explores the Indigenous ways of knowing that can lead us toward change"--Provided by publisher.
"This book focuses on promoting health equity and addressing health disparities among Indigenous peoples of the United States (U.S.) and associated Territories in the Pacific Islands and Caribbean, It provides an overview of the current state of health equity across social, physical, and mental health domains to provide a preliminary understanding of the state of Indigenous health equity. Part 1 of the book traces the promotive, protective, and risk factors related to Indigenous health equity. Part 2 reports promising pathways to achieving and transcending health equity through the description of interventions that address and promote wellness related to key outcomes."--Provided by publisher.
The text covers the history of American Indians with a focus on the drastic changes that occurred following European contact. The book addresses the roots of American Indian nursing, including coverage of indigenous knowledge and traditional approaches to health and healing
In Native American Medicinal Plants, anthropologist Daniel E. Moerman describes the medicinal use of more than 2700 plants by 218 Native American tribes. Information--adapted from the same research used to create the monumental Native American Ethnobotany--includes 82 categories of medicinal uses, ranging from analgesics, contraceptives, gastrointestinal aids, hypotensive medicines, sedatives, and toothache remedies. Includes extensive indexes arranged by tribe, usage, and common name. --from publisher description
Native Voices: Native People's Concepts of health and illness, an online exhibition. "Native Voices: Native Peoples’ Concepts of Health and Illness explores the interconnectedness of wellness, illness, and cultural life for Native Americans, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians. Visitors will discover how Native concepts of health and illness are closely tied to the concepts of community, spirit, and the land" -- Exhibition Home Page
Native American Insights on Healing By Vernon Foster "Vernon Foster is a member of the Klamath tribes of Oregon, a teacher, spokesperson, and activist for the Native American community for over 40 years. As a counselor, he works with indigenous tribes and retreats, focusing on the psychological aspects of transformation and healing.
In this 20-minute interview, Vernon talks about the methods we can use to integrate healing ceremonies into our everyday lives and how to deal with negative emotions in a way that leads to permanent change."
Native American Ethnobotany: A Database of Foods, Drugs, Dyes and Fibers of Native American Peoples, Derived from Plants. The database now contains 44,691 items. This version added foods, drugs, dyes, fibers and other uses of plants (a total of over 44,000 items). This represents uses by 291 Native American groups of 4,029 species from 243 different plant families. About half of them are medicinal. This expansion of the database was supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation.
International Journal of Indigenous Health
The International Journal of Indigenous Health (IJIH) was established to advance knowledge and understanding to improve Indigenous health. The Journal seeks to bring knowledge from diverse intellectual traditions together with a focus on culturally diverse Indigenous voices, methodologies and epistemology. The Journal is peer-reviewed, online, open-access and shares innovative health research across disciplines, Indigenous communities, and countries. Building on its trusted reputation for sharing community-relevant and high-quality knowledge, the IJIH welcomes submissions within the IJIH mandate from researchers and practitioners in Indigenous health around the world.
Podcasts are newly spaces in the medical community utilized for sharing information. The following are podcasts of various tones which center Indigenous health and wellness.
Medicine Talkers Podcast "Medicine Talkers, a podcast from the Native American Center for Health Professions (NACHP), is about all things health through an Indigenous lens. You will hear conversations that connect Indian Country to the classroom, clinic and community." -- Description from Podcast Web Page
Indigenae Podcast "Indigenae is a community-guided podcast that is dedicated to Indigenous wxmen’s health and wellbeing. Join hosts Sarah Stern (Cherokee), Olivia Trujillo (Navajo) and Dr. Sophie Neuner (Karuk) as they interview a new guest each week and take listeners on a journey through Indigenous womanhood, exploring topics from Coming of Age to Becoming an Elder.
The podcast highlights conversations with traditional practitioners, Indigenous health care workers, activists, researchers, artists, and survivors. “Indigenae is really about telling stories”, says Sarah Stern, Citizen of the Cherokee Nation, “and for Indigenous peoples, storytelling is a traditional way of learning how to live well.”
All episodes were guided by an advisory board of Elders, mothers, and daughters, who came together from Tribal nations across Turtle Island, also known as North America, to define topics, guests, and discussions. “This powerful group of women, who gifted their time to Indigenae, were in the driver’s seat,” explains Olivia Trujillo, Member of the Navajo Nation.
“Guest speakers share so many important lessons” says Dr. Sophie Neuner, Member of the Karuk Tribe. “Their laughter, stories, and teachings are medicine."" --Description from Podcast Web Page
This display was curated by Maria Arteaga Cuevas, an essential part of the Health Education Center Library, and circulation lead.
