Native American Spirituality Foundational Information to Inform Service with Elders

1. Native American SpiritualityFoundational Information to Inform Service with Elders University of Oklahoma School of Social Work Master’s Advanced Curriculum Project Dr. Lisa Byers (Cherokee) Supported By:

2. Social Work Objectives • Provide definition of spirituality in general and then apply to traditional Native American spirituality • Create knowledge of traditional Native American spirituality • Explain historical & contemporary oppression related to traditional Native American spirituality • Foster practitioner respect for client’s protectiveness and unwillingness to openly discuss traditional methods • Relate how the past experiences of today’s elders may impact spirituality

3. Spirituality Defined1 Those aspects of individualfeelings, aspirations, and needs which are concerned with human’s efforts to find a purpose and meaning in life experiences, and which may occur without the individual being related to an organized church body or making use of a systematized body of beliefs and practices 3 Components of Spirituality • Values, Beliefs, and Practices

4. Native American traditional spirituality Values • Collectivism • Balance & Harmony • Connection Beliefs • Creator • Humans are only one small part of the universe • Interconnectedness of all living beings Practices • Rituals and prayers honor connections among humans, animals, physical world

5. Native American Centers of Value • Tribal nations have clans that are traced through the mother, father, or both • A number of clans are named after animals or other physical elements Clans of Cherokee Nation Clans of the Seminole Nation

6. Native American Master StoriesImages of Power • Images of Power • A Creator, animals, physical world

7. Native American Master StoriesImportance of Animals & Nature Animals are prominent characters in tribal stories and are of equal or higher status in relation to human beings The link below takes you to the Cherokee Nation Traditional Stories website where there are a number of legends that demonstrate the value for nature and living in balance http://www.cherokee.org/Culture/Stories/Cat/Default.aspx Origins of Disease and Medicine The Origin of Strawberries Legend of First Woman Spirit of Little Deer Legend of the Wren

8. Native American Master StoriesImportance of the Physical World • Often involve land and water that reference sacred sites remain significant to this day • Many tribes have faced the destruction of sacred sites due to expansion of Europeans and contemporary environmental oppression

9. How Does Traditional Native American Spirituality Impact Concepts of Health? CONCEPTS OF HEALTH What is considered an illness? What is considered a symptom? What is treatment? NATIVE EXPLANATIONS Illness is the result of imbalance • Within the self systems • Within the family • Within the world Symptoms • A physical symptom in any realm can be the result from an imbalance in one the emotional, mental, or spiritual Treatment is Holistic • Medical doctor and/or Traditional Healer to address all aspects of the person • Traditional Healers also have access to knowledge of traditional herbal medicines as well as prayers and ceremonies to help heal

10. Assessment • Sometimes a broken bone is just a broken bone • Native American people do not always attach a spiritual significance to an injury. • They know that they need to go to a medical doctor to fix a broken bone • Later they may explore if necessary why the accident happened. For example why did it happen? Was it because there was a distraction pointing to a deeper disconnection or problem?

11. Cultural Competence Do We Directly Ask: “How does your spirituality affect your views of health?” No. If you have not established yourself within the tribal community or family, do not expect the person or family members to speak to spiritual aspects of illness or traditional healers. This information is protected.

12. Appropriate Questioning Explanatory Model2 • What do you think caused this? • Why do you think it started when it did? • What do you think your illness does to you? • How does it work? • How severe is your illness? • Will it have a short or long course? • What kind of treatment do you think you should receive? What are the most important results you hope to receive from this treatment? • What are the main problems your illness has caused for you? • What do you fear most about your illness? Explanatory Model Modified for Native Americans For Native Americans the questions can be expanded to ask to include a collective orientation: • What do you think your illness does to you and those around you? • What are the main problems your illness has caused for you and those around you?

13. Oppression of Traditional Native American Spirituality Historical3 • The practice of Native American spirituality was not legal until the American Indian Religious Freedom Act of 1978 • Ending traditional spirituality was one of the goals of assimilation policies by the U.S. Government • Boarding schools for tribal children forbade traditional spiritual practices and instead supplanted Christian religious practices. Contemporary3,4 • Many legal cases involve lawsuits related to the preservation of sites considered sacred to tribes.

14. Description of Court Case and the Link Between Physical and Spiritual “In 1979..., a group of Cherokee Indians sued in a Tennessee court to stop construction on the Tellico Dam on the Little Tennessee River…Although none of these Indians lived in the river valley anymore, it was the heartland of the old Overhill Cherokee Nation. Along its banks were once politically powerful town, extensive cornfields, hunting grounds, and cemeteries. Surrounding the valley was a landscape unequaled in America for the density of medicinal plants, Indian foot trails, and the homes of spirit beings…The Indian said the proposed dam would obliterate their historical villages, ancestral burial grounds and sacred sites. Without this access, even as occasional visitors, the umbilical cord between their spiritual and physical worlds would be cut for good.” (Nabokov, 2006, p. 2)

15. Protectiveness • There may be an unwillingness to discuss traditional spirituality with an outsider • Historical oppression has supported a lack of acknowledgement and discussion of traditional spiritual practices due to its past illegal status • Contemporary exploitation by individuals claiming to be healers and possess spiritual knowledge supports a lack of acknowledgement and discussion with outsiders

16. Traditional Spirituality can Co-exist with Christianity • Diversity of Spirituality for Native Americans • Potential Spiritual Affiliations • Traditional spirituality • Christianity only • Combination of Traditional and Christian spirituality without any conflict

17. Christianity & Native Americans • Christian denominations have Native American specific churches and associations • Oklahoma Indian Baptist Association and Ministry Links http://okindiansbc.org/index2.html • Oklahoma Indian Missionary Conference (Methodist) http://www.umc-oimc.org/main.htm • Native American Congressional Enhancement (Presbyterian) http://www.pcusa.org/nativeamerican/index.htm

18. Native American Elders • Cultural expectation is that elders will be able to pass on traditional spiritual teachings practices • An elder may not identify with traditional spirituality • Each elder will need to determine if the lack of traditional spiritual knowledge brings a sense of loss or not

19. References • Foster practitioner respect for client’s protectiveness and unwillingness to openly discuss traditional methods • Kleinman, A., Eisenberg, L., & Good, B. (1978). Culture, illness, and care: Clinical lessons from anthropologic and cross-cultural research. Annals of Internal Medicine, 88, 251-58. • Nabokov, P. (2006). Where lightning strikes: The lives of American Indian sacred places. New York: Penguin Books • National Congress of American Indians. (no date). Policy issues: Cultural protection, Sacred lands. Retrieved July 28, 2008 from (200http://www.ncai.org/Cultural_Protection.71.0.html