I attended the recent Native American Generational Trauma workshop last week at the Lucky Star Casino. At the bottom of the agenda for the workshop was a quote from White Buffalo Woman “Understanding is a wonderful thing.” This underscores the mission and purpose of the Cheyenne and Arapahoe people with this conference. “Understanding” is a basic element to all successful and productive human interactions. If we can’t understand each other, we can’t communicate meaningfully.
The mission of this conference was “Recognizing, Healing, Connecting and Addressing Generational Trauma” by bringing people from the community, across the spectrum, to share their stories and experiences. Most of all it provided access to resources to help with the trauma affecting the lives of the people in our community. All people.
The question I ask myself and you should ask yourself as well is, “How much trauma am I living with”? It’s naive to believe that we have not been affected by trauma or are living currently with trauma, generational or otherwise. We are a broken people in a broken community. This workshop’s goal is to begin addressing this issue, this need.
Why here, and why now? For me to make sense of this I have go to, who? The Cheyenne and Arapaho Nation. Leaders in this community have shared with me their vision to build something, a hospital, a network, a place to bring healing, not only to themselves but to those whom they live amongst. They are doing this with the opposite” spirit that brought them here.
The Strauss-Howe generational theory may apply in some way to this. This theory states that history and social changes happen in 80year cycles. This is a wonderful rabbit hole to wander down, but not today. The crayon explanation is that society changes every 80 years, and I think somewhere in this theory is the “Why Now”. I think the “Why here” is irrelevant, I’m just happy it is here and somehow, I’m a part of it. The Cheyenne and Arapaho Nation, its people and its leaders are and have stepped up and taken the lead in healing generational and nongenerational trauma. Substance abuse, domestic violence and physical abuse.
What has been started is open to everyone, you don’t have to be Native. You don’t even have to have been a train wreck once in your life to participate. An open mind will be helpful. The next workshop will be November 17-18 this year. This workshop will be focused on the customs, and traditional healing methods given to the indigenous people by their ancestors, a nonpharmaceutical path. All of this isn’t going to fix the world, but together let’s changes some lives here in Watonga, then work on the bigger picture. There is a long-term goal to build a first-class mental health facility with a campus maybe here in Watonga to address the needs of the community. Find out how to help with this, it’s never too early or too late to be involved. “Understanding is a wonderful thing.”