Date of Award
Spring 3-21-2022
Document Type
Honors Thesis
Department/Major
Biology
First Advisor
Melissa Dittberner
Second Advisor
Jamie Turgeon-Drake
Third Advisor
Frank Zavadil
Keywords
Historical Trauma, Native American Health Disparities, Historical Trauma Response
Subject Categories
Mental and Social Health
Abstract
The byproducts and motivators of colonialism- namely acquisition of land, pursuit of power, and assimilation of non-dominant cultures- have created a long legacy of historical trauma within the American Indigenous population, who have been at the targets of discrimination and conflict since the onset of European colonization of the Americas. Generations of losses have victimized Native American people and has left them to pick up the pieces of what they lost to colonialism. Researchers and experts in the field have suggested that due to the extensive and unique Historical Trauma experienced by the population has initiated the Historical Trauma Response within survivors and their descendants alive today. One can determine a degree of causality between historical trauma, the historical trauma response, and many of the health disparities affecting Native American reservation communities and populations.
Recommended Citation
Gisi, Alison A., "Integrating History into Healthcare: Understanding Links Between Past Traumas and Current Health Disparities within the Native American Population" (2022). Honors Thesis. 247.
https://red.library.usd.edu/honors-thesis/247