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Trauma-Informed Tribal Community Development: An Introduction

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Webinar Host and Facilitator

Host: Pandora Lemons, Director of Operations, Casey Family Programs, Indian Child Welfare Programs

Facilitator: Fred Fisher, Tribal Community Development Advisor, NNCTC

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Presenters

Dr. Marilyn Zimmerman, Senior Director of Policy and Programs, National Native Children’s Trauma Center, University of Montana
Dr. Miriam Jorgensen, Research Director, Native Nations Institute, University of Arizona
Patrice Kunesh, JD MPA, Pehin Haha Consulting and Development Officer, Native American Rights Fund

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Trauma-Informed Assumptions

Realization is the understanding of the multiple pathways and intersections that trauma has had on individuals and the community.

Recognition involves understanding the signs and symptoms of these disruptions—interpersonal violence, addiction, intergenerational poverty, increased crime and community disorganization, failing community institutions, etc.)

www.samhsa.gov

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Trauma-Informed Assumptions

Response to these complex conditions requires an approach that is comprehensive, interpretive, and sustainable. Creating conditions that support control, choice, and autonomy and which promote resiliency. Response that develops Individual, neighborhood, and tribal community assets. Individuals, neighborhoods, and community is defined by its strengths rather than its deficits—avoidance of pathologizing at all levels and in all systems.

Re-traumatization—approaches and solutions are continuously assessed to avoid iatrogenic effects and impacts in all systems.

www.samhsa.gov

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NNCTC Expanding Our Focus

Trauma is complex and manifests itself via multiple pathways-- tribal communities, tribal governance and tribal institutions, and tribal infrastructure have all been impacted.

Consistent with a public health approach—the base of the public health triangle is comprised of community and economic supports.

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Built Environment, Infrastructure, Community and Economic Development is Trauma-Informed Approach to �Community Wellbeing

Responding to trauma in the context of individual’s environments, and

an eco-system approach to individual and community recovery as the goal by:

grounding the approach in culture and tribal community context,
creating conditions that are safe and predictable
emphasizing control, choice and autonomy at all levels
creating collaborative relationships and opportunities for participation, and,
demonstrating Tribal leadership and commitment to building ladders of opportunity for AI/AN children and families.

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Miriam Jorgensen, PhD

Research Director, NNI

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Why were some Native nations able to break away from a seemingly intractable pattern of poverty and what conditions were necessary for sustained development?

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Nation rebuilding refers to the processes by which a Native nation enhances its own foundational capacity for effective self-governance and self-determined community and economic development.

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THE

NATION REBUILDING APPROACH

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SOVEREIGNTY

CAPABLE GOVERNING INSTITUTIONS

CULTURAL MATCH

STRATEGIC ORIENTATION

PUBLIC SPIRITED LEADERSHIP

Sovereignty (the nation calls the shots)

Native nations that have been willing and able to assert self-governing power have significantly increased their chances of sustainable community and economic development.

Capable governing institutions (back up authority with competence)

The chances of sustainable development rise as Indigenous nations put in place effective, non-politicized dispute-resolution mechanisms and build capable bureaucracies.

Cultural match (governing institutions match community beliefs about how authority should be organized)

Institutions that build and innovate upon Indigenous conceptions of governing responsibilities fare better than those whose form departs from such conceptions.

Strategic orientation (decisions are made with long-term priorities in mind)

Successful Native nations tend to approach development not as a quick fix for poverty but as a means of building a society that works.

Public-spirited leadership (instead of politics as boxing ring where factions fight to control the goodies)

In successful Indian nations, there is typically a group of individuals who recognize the need for fundamental change in the way things are done and can bring the community along with them in building that future.

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Native nation building �leads not simply to economies that work �but to SOCIETIES that work.

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https://hpaied.org/honoring-nations

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Colonization - Trauma - Community Resilience

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Patrice H. Kunesh

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Loss of vital resources and livelihood �

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CICD Research Economist Donna Feir Working Paper 2019-01 (2018), The Slaughter of the Bison and Reversal of Fortunes on the Great Plains.

As many as 30 million North American Bison existed pre-contact. In the late 19th century, the North American bison was brought to the brink of extinction in just over a decade.

CICD Research Economist Donna Feir has undertaken extensive research to examine the impact of the loss of the North American bison on Indigenous economies and the policies that followed. From her research, she finds that the near extinction of the North American bison was arguably one of the largest economic shocks in recorded North American history.

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Following the rapid slaughter of the bison, less than 1000 bison remained.

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This dramatic loss also meant the loss of livelihoods of the peoples who depended on the bison. Families and communities faced serious barriers to economic recovery due to restrictive federal policies and lack of access to capital.

Impacts on Native communities included decreased health and income over the 20th century. Once the tallest people in the world, the generations of bison-reliant people born after the slaughter were among the shortest.

Donna contends that federal Indian policy that limited out-migration from reservations and restricted employment opportunities to crop based agriculture hampered the ability of bison-reliant societies to adjust in the long-run, generating lasting regional disparities associated with other indicators of social dislocation.

Today, those communities that lost the bison during the rapid slaughter are among the poorest Native American communities and suffer from increased rates of premature mortality.

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Loss of home lands

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Figure: 1879 Indian Territory and 1911 ads offering Indian lands.

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Loss of Identity

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Figure: St Joseph’s Indian Boarding School & Carlisle Indian Industrial School

Credit: Primeau-Kelly Special Collection

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Self-determination – Economic & Social Well-Being

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National Native Children’s Trauma Center�Visit us at www.nnctc.org�

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