i appreciate your thoughtful reply, thank you.
first thing that comes to mind is the native understanding/belief in seven generations:
"...Vine Deloria, Jr. (native american scholar) spoke of the Seven Generations in very practical terms. In his
cantankerous way, he would express extreme annoyance at the romanticism of the concept as it was
popularly used. Because, as explained to him, the generations we are sworn to protect and revere are the
seven we are most immediately connected to.
Think about it for a moment. It is possible that many of us have known or will know our great-grandparents,
grandparents, parents, our children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. Even if we aren’t fortunate
enough to have been in the physical presence of those who came before us, we usually have
stories, songs, and photos that have been shared so that we feel a connection. We also want to
make sure our kids and grandkids are healthy, safe and aware of where they come from. So, counting our
own generation—ourselves, siblings, and cousins—we are accountable to those seven generations, not
some imagined futuristic peoples two hundred years down the road..."
indiancountrytoday.com
as well, there's increasing evidence about the effect of intergenerational/multigenerational trauma:
"... One of the first articles to note the presence of intergenerational trauma appeared in 1966, when
Canadian psychiatrist Vivian M. Rakoff, MD, and colleagues documented high rates of psychological
distress among children of Holocaust survivors (Canada’s Mental Health, Vol. 14). Since then, researchers
have been assessing anxiety, depression and PTSD in trauma survivors and their progeny, with Holocaust
survivors and their children the most widely studied and over the longest period of time. Most of these
studies have found atypically high rates of these disorders.
apa.org
my aged experience is that traditional native folks experience their 'existence' differently than folks of
other ethnicity, especially those of european/western origin. the guardian article indicates that members of
the potawatomi tribe are grateful and believe the recognition is significant. seems significant to me. |
