Historical Trauma in the American Midwest Event Recap

Nearly 150 people attended the Midwest session of PACEs Connection’s Historical Trauma in America series on September 15. The event was facilitated by PACEs Connection staff members Ingrid Cockhren (chief executive officer) and Dr. Porter Jennings-McGarity (director of continuous quality improvement) with support from St. David's Foundation.

Click here to download the slide deck from this presentation. Then click “download file.”

The series examines the impact of intergenerational trauma on the health and well-being of individuals today. Historical trauma—another term for intergenerational trauma—is defined by Dr. Maria Yellow Horse Brave Heart as multigenerational trauma experienced by a specific cultural group resulting in “a cumulative emotional and psychological wounding over the lifespan and across generations, emanating from massive group trauma.” As recent advances in the science of positive and adverse childhood experiences (PACEs) continue to show the profound impact of historical trauma on society today, PACEs Connection launched this series to educate and empower people to take action to mitigate its adverse impact and promote resilience in their regions.

Due to its popularity, PACEs Connection's Race & Equity Workgroup is repeating the “Historical Trauma in America Series” in 2022-23.

Register now for future regional sessions, including the next session on Historical Trauma in Northeast America on November 17, 2022. Click HERE to register.

Participants were very engaged in the session, as indicated by select contributions and comments below:

• Denise Steward: “I took advanced placement history in high school, but didn't learn about land theft until my junior year of college when one of my professors took our class on a field trip to the Sea Islands of South Carolina. Thank you for this.”
• During a discussion of the prevalence of racism in the Midwest:
  • Robert Franklin: “I know a few people who were from the south and then moved to the Midwest, they said they had never experienced discrimination and racist attitudes like they did after moving to the Midwest.”
  • Lara Kain: “I grew up in Wisconsin and whenever I shared this with people they were always shocked.”
  • Erin Schwab: “As someone who has lived in the Midwest almost all my life, I am not surprised by that fact.”
  • Michelle Walters: “Surprised, not surprised. I have seen it and felt it in my life in the Midwest.”
  • Michael Kemp: “I worked for the state of Wisconsin for 30 years: Wisconsin led the nation in highest percentage of Black & Native men incarcerated.”
  • Sean Marz: “I know we often look at data from a comparative lens (e.g., we're not the worst or even in the top ten).  How do we work to shift the conversation that bad is still unacceptable when we're talking about real lives?”
    
    

Topics covered by PACEs Connection staff:

• Overview of the series, including a review of the concepts of collective trauma, intergenerational transmission of trauma, and historical trauma, featuring the RYSE Center’s infographic on Interacting Layers of Trauma and Healing framework.
• Historical examples of traumatic events impacting African Americans:
  • “Extreme, overt racism...and the beginning of domestic terrorism against Blacks” during the end of slavery and Reconstruction (1865-90).
  • Lynchings and race riots (e.g., Tulsa Massacre and the bombing of Black Wall Street in Tulsa, OK), some of which were sparked by murders of children, in the Midwest during the Jim Crow Era (1890-1965).
  • The 1933 New Deal, which resulted in the creation and expansion of suburbs, redlining, and the exacerbation of disparities and inequities. “Certain areas were invested in and certain areas were not. This was largely driven by race. Home loans were not given to people to people of color in white areas. Homes in redlined areas were not invested in.”
  • Mass incarceration and the “less-than-empathetic response” to substance use in the African American population in the War on Drugs (1970-95).
  • Police brutality, race, riots, and protests in the Midwest. Notable police killings include Timothy Thomas (2001), Tamir Rice (2014), Michael Brown (2014), Philando Castile (2016), George Floyd (2020).
• Historical examples of traumatic events impacting Native Americans:
  • “Incredibly violent wars and atrocities” perpetrated against Native Americans, many of which occurred in the Midwest (e.g., Black Hawk War, Wounded Knee Massacre)
  • Multiple racist national policies that caused “forced assimilation, violence, and poverty” over hundreds of years. For example, the Indian Removal Act of 1830 forced tens of thousands of Native Americans from their homes via the Trail of Tears. The Indian Appropriations Act of 1851 created Indian reservations, many of which are located in the Midwest. Native Americans were further forced West by the Dawes Act of 1887.
• Data on disparities in the Midwest:
  • African Americans have lower incomes, educational outcomes, and home ownership rates as well as higher incarceration rates than other groups in the Midwest. According to Zippia, the Midwest includes 6 of the 10 worst states for racial disparities for Black Americans.
  • “Native Americans experience a number of health disparities, a lot of which are concentrated in the Midwest” (e.g., lower life expectancy, higher rates of mental health issues, such as substance use and depression). For example, since 1999, the Native American suicide rate for women has jumped 137% while the national suicide rate rose 33% during the same time period.
    
    

Additional resources shared by participants:

• Tracy Stewart: My Grandmother's Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies by Resmaa Menekem: “Summarizes much of this work and suggests coping strategies to work toward changing how people carry internalized oppressive thinking toward others and within underappreciated communities.
• Chris Baune: “Please buy and donate this book: A Kids Book About Racism by Jelani Memory to your local area schools. There is a YouTube video of the author reading it. It was helpful for my biracial children to watch and read it at the time, living as black kids in the Midwest, in the aftermath of what happened to George Floyd. I highly encourage and honestly plead with white families to purchase this book and read it to your kids.”
• Denise Steward: “I recommend Groundwater Training developed by Race Equity Matters.”
• Cynthia Nielsen: The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition
• Amy Bitner: Ending Violence to Children in the United States: Changing Social Norms About the Hitting of Children: A Virtual Conference on Friday, October 14, 2022 | 9:00 am to 1:00 pm EST
• Tracy Stewart: Teaching People's History | The Zinn Education Project
• Amy Bitner: “The Equal Justice Initiative yearly calendar notes so many instances of terror in the US, each day gives a history of an event and where [it happened].”
• Natasha Russell: “Check out the research of author Brent Campney for the history of racist violence in the Midwest!”
• Natalie Audage: Path to a Just Society infographic from PACEs Connection and PACEs Connection’s Anti-Racism Resources
• Porter Jennings-McGarity:
  • Suicide rate for Native American women up 139%, men up 71% since 1999 (usatoday.com)
  • ‘Midwest nice’ hides a history of racial terror and segregation - The Washington Post
  • Hate Map | Southern Poverty Law Center (splcenter.org)
  • Most to Least Segregated Cities | Othering & Belonging Institute (berkeley.edu)
  • Sundown Towns by State - History and Social Justice (tougaloo.edu)
  • Indigenous Women’s Experiences of Lateral Violence: A Systematic Literature Review - Lindsey Jaber, Cynthia Stirbys, Jesse Scott, Emma Foong, 2022 (sagepub.com)
  • Lateral Violence (csvanw.org)
• Carey Sipp: Book recommendations
  • Caste (Oprah’s Book Club): The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson
  • The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson
  • The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together by Heather McGhee

Register NOW for future Historical Trauma in America regional sessions, including our next session on Historical Trauma in Northeast America on November 17, 2022!