Historic Trauma and Aboriginal Healing
by Cynthia C. Wesley-Esquimaux, Ph.D. and Magdalena Smolewski, Ph.D.
by Cynthia C. Wesley-Esquimaux, Ph.D. and Magdalena Smolewski, Ph.D.
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Chapter 1<br />
journals that could be read in the present to grasp the depth of the pain <strong>and</strong> grief they experienced.<br />
One cannot read how <strong>Aboriginal</strong> people might have helped each other through their fear <strong>and</strong> confusion<br />
that, in turn, makes one unable to empathize with their feelings in a contemporary context. However,<br />
there are many letters <strong>and</strong> journals that have been preserved from the 400 years of plague that devastated<br />
European populations. A general comparison of the aftermath of these horrific continental debacles is<br />
a useful exercise that may help to fill in some of the blanks. It is possible that the experiences of<br />
Medieval Europeans might reflect the early historic experiences of Indigenous people in the Americas,<br />
<strong>and</strong> explain known responses to similar European devastation, such as rampant alcoholism, social apathy<br />
<strong>and</strong> anomie, cultural <strong>and</strong> moral breakdown, spiritual rejection <strong>and</strong> reformation, as well as profound<br />
mental <strong>and</strong> emotional withdrawal.<br />
Recovery from the Black Death in Europe was eventually achieved through the processes of spiritual,<br />
economic <strong>and</strong> social adjustment. For some, the return to normal activities was relatively simple. Many<br />
cities <strong>and</strong> towns found they were able to survive the occasional loss of large portions of their population.<br />
People were quickly replaced through births <strong>and</strong> immigration. In fact, in many European cities,<br />
immigration was encouraged, in order to re-establish human <strong>and</strong> material resources <strong>and</strong> rebuild economic<br />
bases. In similar fashion, after the worst epidemics hit the Americas <strong>and</strong> the death rate slowed sufficiently<br />
to allow some kind of recovery, many Indigenous groups took in remnants of other tribes for much the<br />
same reason (Cook, 1998). Axtell (1992) makes reference to at least three adaptations used by various<br />
tribes to cope with demographic devastation, which included increased warfare to replenish populations<br />
with captured replacements, intermarriages with black Africans <strong>and</strong> white Europeans <strong>and</strong> joining together<br />
of rival tribes.<br />
The speed of recovery for Medieval society was striking, considering the sheer horror of the experience<br />
for its citizens (Zeigler, 1969). After the Black Death, fatality statistics drawn up on the order of Pope<br />
Clement VI gave the number of deaths for the “whole world” at 42,836,486 (Nohl, 1961). This figure<br />
is said to have represented, at a minimum, half of the existing population of the entire Old World<br />
continent.<br />
This level of population mortality was true, at a minimum, for <strong>Aboriginal</strong> people of the Americas as<br />
well. Unfortunately, an equally effective recovery process was not to be true for the Indigenous population<br />
on this continent. On the New Continent, while Indigenous people were trying to contend with<br />
never-ending waves of smallpox <strong>and</strong> influenza epidemics, they were also grappling with the additional<br />
burdens of slavery, murder, colonialism <strong>and</strong> the indignity of being forcefully removed from their homes<br />
<strong>and</strong> traditional territories.<br />
For 500 years there was almost no sustained reprieve from physical, social <strong>and</strong> spiritual devastation that,<br />
in turn, would have allowed a steady <strong>and</strong> sustainable rebuilding process to occur. Even after epidemics<br />
ended, the Indigenous people remained under mental siege from colonial governments, assimilationist<br />
tactics, church <strong>and</strong> government-run residential schools <strong>and</strong> Christian missionaries. The huge loss of<br />
life they experienced immediately after contact virtually ensured the destruction of leaders, artists,<br />
teachers, warriors, healers <strong>and</strong> holy men. These losses would have had a huge impact, perhaps even<br />
bigger than that on Medieval Europe, since the majority of Indigenous cultures were not literate. There<br />
were no written records to preserve detailed aspects of their history, cultures <strong>and</strong> belief systems, which<br />
would not necessarily have been known to the “common man.” Most had oral traditions that were<br />
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