Historic Trauma and Aboriginal Healing

Chapter 3
state, according to recent reports from the Minnesota Department of Human Services.
In addition, American Indians have the lowest life expectancy and die earlier than other
ethnic groups (The Circle, 2001:3).
The relationship between loss of control and the onset of poor health has also been well-documented in
psychology literature. In the Schmale and Iker (1966) studies, it was found that people who are high in
feelings of helplessness and hopelessness are more likely to develop cancer. Uncontrollable events are
consistently more strongly associated than controllable events with depressive outcomes (clinical
depression, depressive symptoms, suicide attempts).
Physiological research also shows that both the endocrine and immune systems are responsive to the
uncontrollability of the stressful event (Sachar, 1975), in that the levels of corticosteroids become elevated,
leading to a reduction in immune functioning (Gabrielsen and Good, 1967). Since a loss of control
leads to elevated corticosteroid levels, it may weaken the immune system and, thereby, affecting the
development of problem conditions. Consistent with these findings, feelings of helplessness and an
inability to control one’s environment are associated with the onset of immune-related diseases, such as
some cancers (Schmale and Iker, 1966; Skalar and Anisman, 1981).
Helplessness also lowers levels of a brain neuro-transmitter, norepinephrine, which leads to an emotional
depression that reduces the probability of successful coping, leading to failure and further depletion of
norepinephrine, and so on, in a vicious circle. The very process is also indicated in nicotine dependence.
Since smoking increases levels of norepinephrine, the habit can be seen as a coping (albeit clearly
maladaptive) response under anxiety-provoking or stressful conditions (Pomerlau and Pomerlau, 1984).
For people with no adaptive coping methods, smoking becomes the only available coping strategy that,
paradoxically, helps them to deal with over-powering stress.
Dohrenwend (1978) identified the additive burden hypothesis that explains higher prevalence of
maladaptive behaviours in socially disadvantaged people, in terms of the independent and additive
influences of stressful events, personal dispositions and available support. From this perspective,
maladaptive social behaviours are seen as a result from a cumulative process (such as an historic trauma),
in which people with limited personal resources to deal with adverse and stressful conditions exist in a
very demanding environment and are confronted with a series of stressful events that exacerbate the
intensity of these demands. The occurrence of stressful events on a frequent, if not daily, basis has been
shown to relate to a sense of limited control over one’s environment (i.e., external locus of control; Eron
and Peterson, 1982), a fatalistic view of the future (Ross, Mirowsky and Cockerham, 1983), and a state
comparable to learned helplessness (Strauss, 1979).
People confronted with such pressures are also ineffective in acquiring and utilizing available sources of
social support in times of difficulty (Caplan and Killilea, 1976). Arsenian and Arsenian (1948) also
propose that a culture, in which a disadvantaged group is located, greatly influences the development of
maladaptive social behaviours. A “tough” culture (such as a dominant non-Aboriginal culture in the
Aboriginal context) would have few mechanisms available for tension reduction and would limit the
effectiveness, efficiency and acceptability of those that are available. Within such a culture, disadvantaged
people would exert considerable effort for minimal gain, find many paths to goal attainment inaccessible
and experience considerable frustration. Moreover, a tough culture would also limit the range of goals
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