Maria Yellow Horse Brave Heart facts for kids

Maria Yellow Horse Brave Heart is a Native American social worker, a professor, and an expert in mental health. She is famous for creating a special way to understand something called historical trauma for the Lakota people. This idea was later used to help Indigenous people all over the world. She is from the Hunkpapa and Oglala Lakota tribes.

Understanding Historical Trauma

What is Historical Trauma?

In 2000, Maria Yellow Horse Brave Heart wrote an important article called "Wakiksuyapi: Carrying the Historical Trauma of the Lakota." She studied how big, terrible events can affect groups of people for many generations. She looked at research done on survivors of the Holocaust (a very sad time in history) and saw similar patterns in the experiences of Native Americans.

She realized that events like the 1890 Wounded Knee Massacre and the forced removal of children to federal boarding schools caused deep, lasting pain. She started thinking about historical trauma in the 1980s. She wanted to understand why many Native Americans faced challenges in achieving what is often called "the American Dream."

Key Findings on Trauma's Effects

Dr. Brave Heart identified six main ways that historical trauma showed up:

• First Contact: This was a time when Native people experienced big changes and terrible losses. They didn't have time to heal from these events, which included new diseases and other challenges.
• Economic Changes: Native people lost their traditional ways of life and important spiritual connections.
• Invasion and War: This period involved conflicts and many people being forced to leave their homes, similar to refugees.
• Reservation Life: Native people were confined to reservations and became dependent on others. They often felt unsafe and lost their freedom.
• Boarding School Period: Children were taken from their families and sent to boarding schools. In these schools, family systems were broken, and children faced harsh punishments and mistreatment. They were often forbidden from speaking their Native languages or practicing their religions. This led to confusion about their identity and made it hard for them to become parents later.
• Forced Relocation: Many Native people were moved to cities. They faced racism and were treated as second-class citizens. They also lost their traditional ways of governing themselves and their community ties.

Healing from Trauma

Dr. Brave Heart also suggested three main ways to help people heal:

• Education: Learning about historical trauma helps people understand what happened.
• Sharing Experiences: Talking about the effects of trauma helps people feel less alone.
• Grief Resolution: Healing happens when people mourn and heal together as a community.

Since 1976, Dr. Brave Heart has worked directly with Indigenous communities. She has gathered information about historical trauma among the Lakota people in South Dakota, tribes in New Mexico, and Indigenous and Latino groups in Denver, New Mexico, and New York. She has given over 175 presentations and trained many tribes across the United States and First Nations in Canada.

In 1992, Dr. Brave Heart started the Takini Network. This is a Native nonprofit organization in Rapid City, South Dakota. It helps Native Americans heal from the pain of trauma passed down through generations.

Maria Yellow Horse Brave Heart's Career

Maria Yellow Horse Brave Heart is known for creating models to understand historical trauma and how to help people heal from it. She earned her Master of Science degree from Columbia University School of Social Work in 1976.

After working as a social worker, Dr. Brave Heart went back to school in 1990. In 1995, she earned her doctorate in clinical social work from the Smith College School for Social Work. Her special research paper was called "The Return to the Sacred Path: Healing from Historical Trauma and Historical Unresolved Grief Among the Lakota."

Dr. Brave Heart was a professor at the University of Denver Graduate School of Social Work. She also led a project called the Native People's Curriculum Project, which worked with the Navajo and Ute reservations. She was also a professor at the Columbia University School of Social Work and worked on a research team at the Hispanic Treatment Program in New York.

In 2001, the healing approach developed by Dr. Brave Heart was recognized as an excellent model. It won a special grant award for Lakota Regional Community Action Grant Historical Trauma. She also helped create programs to improve parenting on reservations. She organized and hosted several conferences about healing from historical trauma between 2001 and 2004. She also served on the board of directors for the Council on Social Work Education and advised the National Indian Country Child Trauma Center.

Currently, Dr. Brave Heart is a research professor at the University of New Mexico Department of Psychiatry. She also directs research and community health programs for Native Americans. Her work focuses on collective trauma, grief, historical trauma, and mental health in Indigenous populations.

See also

• Historical trauma