THE AMERICAN-INDIAN HOLOCAUST - HEALING HISTORICAL UNRESOLVED GRIEF

American Indians experienced massive losses of lives, land, and cultur e from European contact and colonization resulting in a long legacy of chronic trauma and unresolved grief across generations. This phenomen on, labeled historical unresolved grief, contributes to the current so cial pathology of high rates of suicide, homicide, domestic violence, child abuse, alcoholism and other social problems among American India ns. The present paper describes the concept of historical unresolved g rief and historical trauma among American Indians, outlining the histo rical as well as present social and political forces which exacerbate it. The abundant literature on Jewish Holocaust survivors and their ch ildren is used to delineate the intergenerational transmission of trau ma, grief, and the survivor's child complex. Interventions based on tr aditional American Indian ceremonies and modern western treatment moda lities for grieving and healing of those losses are described.