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Historical Trauma in Northeast America Event Recap

 

“I feel like all my textbooks in elementary school glossed over reality and today's session leaves me wanting to read ‘what really happened,’” said one attendee during the most recent session of the PACEs Connection Historical Trauma in America series. Nearly 80 people attended the webinar on November 17, 2022.

Focused on Historical Trauma in the Northeast, this most recent event was facilitated by Ingrid Cockhren, PACEs Connection’s chief executive officer, and supported by St. David's Foundation. The series examines the impact of intergenerational trauma on the health and well-being of individuals today.

Click here to download the slide deck from this presentation. Then click “download file.”

Historical trauma—another term for intergenerational trauma—is defined by Dr. Maria Yellow Horse Brave Heart as multigenerational trauma experienced by a specific cultural group resulting in “a cumulative emotional and psychological wounding over the lifespan and across generations, emanating from massive group trauma.”

As recent advances in the science of positive and adverse childhood experiences (PACEs) continue to show the profound impact of historical trauma on society today, attendees showed intense interest in the topic by their comments and questions:

  • Beaver North-Cloud: “Academia is the staunchest stronghold of overt institutionalized racism. Our Indian history is denied and ignored.”
  • Shebra Hall: “What are your thoughts on when people say they don't ‘see color?’ How do we explain to colleagues and friends that we understand the intent of the statement, but it is important—especially if they are in a position of privilege, to recognize that we are, as you said, in a racist system in this country?”
  • Dian Rees: “Museums have a responsibility too. Many artifacts were stolen through colonialism.”
  • Laurel Hong: “BIPOC absence from history books is another issue.”

Topics covered by PACEs Connection staff:

  • Overview of the series, including a review of the concepts of collective trauma, intergenerational transmission of trauma, and historical trauma, featuring the RYSE Center’s infographic on Interacting Layers of Trauma and Healing framework.RYSE Interacting Layers of Trauma and Healing
  • Historical trauma experienced by European colonial settlers, including:
    • Religious persecution, feudalism, and the trauma of migration.
    • The extreme and violent experiences in Europe that led to large waves of migration from Europe. Cockhren explained that European Americans brought their trauma with them to the United States and then inflicted their trauma on others, including Indigenous people and African Americans.
  • Historical examples of traumatic events impacting Native Americans, including the following:
    • Enslavement, trafficking and forced relocation, especially of Indigenous males.
    • Genocide, as demonstrated by the 90-95% decrease in Native American population by 1891 due to the actions of European settlers and the American policy of Manifest Destiny.
  • Historical examples of traumatic events impacting African Americans, including:
    • The beginning of chattel slavery in 1619 in Jamestown, Virginia. “Slavery looks different in different parts of the world,” said Cockhren. “Chattel slavery is treating people like livestock. Stripping of names, slaves were bred, they were forced to mate. People were considered to not have souls.”
    • PaintingThe stripping of rights and legal status of Africans through policies. For example, laws were passed to prevent Black women from being able to claim paternity for their children, which resulted in White men not being legally obligated to their biological children. Laws in states with slavery were passed to ensure that Black children born to enslaved women were automatically enslaved. Black people in the Northeast were also prevented from voting, serving on juries, and joining unions. They were targeted by daily casual violence and mob violence, often with the cooperation of law enforcement.
    • The clear understanding early on in the history of the U.S. that the treatment of Indigenous people and Blacks was inhumane, as demonstrated by this quote from Thomas Jefferson: “Misery is often the parent of the most affecting touches in poetry. Among the blacks is misery enough, God knows, but no poetry.”
    • Race riots caused by racism. The 1919 DC Race Riots, which were part of the Red Summer, were started by rumors that a Black man raped a white woman (i.e., the narrative that White women were not safe from Black men). Other riots in the Midwest and the Northeast during the Jim Crow era were caused by the pitting of White workers against Black workers.
    • FDR New DealRedlining and housing discrimination during the New Deal in the 1930s. These policies made it harder for Black and brown communities to accumulate wealth and created suburbs that exacerbated racial tensions, community violence, and segregation. Redlining was particularly acute in the Northeast. A documentary about the Levittown suburb in Pennsylvania addresses this.
    • Cockhren provided information about current-day disparities for African Americans in the Northeast, including disparities in income, wealth, incarceration, and housing discrimination.
  • During the question and answer portion of the event, Cockhren said, “If you’re being raised in America, you’re being raised in a racist society. You probably hold racist views no matter what your background, including people of color. It’s difficult for people to accept their racism when they don’t have perspective. We’ve never experienced equal treatment. At present we have it on paper, but the research and statistics show that there are clear disparities and we have a White Supremacist system….We have to engage in truth-telling in our educational system….This is America’s origin story….[The current narrative tells stories] from the lens of the colonizer. These communities already had culture and religion, it was just not honored and recognized. This narrative is pervasive.”

Additional resources from PACEs Connection staff:

Additional resources from participants:

PACEs Connection's Race & Equity Workgroup launched this series to educate and empower people to take action to mitigate the adverse impact of historical trauma, and to promote resilience in each region of the United States. This is the second year of the popular series.

Register now for future regional sessions, including the next session on Historical Trauma in the American Northwest on January 19, 2023. Click HERE to register.

Attachments

Images (3)
  • RYSE Interacting Layers of Trauma and Healing
  • FDR New Deal
  • Painting

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