By Helen Thomas, EdSurge, October 8, 2021
Years ago, before I became an educator, I took a contemporary Native American studies course as one of my first college classes. For the final research assignment, I choose to explore the disproportionate rates of suicide among Native American youth—an issue that impacts nearly all tribal communities, including my own, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.
From that assignment I learned that understanding trauma can help us better address complex behavioral issues in the communities we care about, whether those communities are our tribal nations or classrooms.
That research paper was the beginning of my relationship with what most educators know as “trauma-informed practices,” a term used for acknowledging the widespread effects of trauma, and started me on my journey of advocating for Native youth through education. I realized that in many cases, our understanding of trauma—where it comes from and how to address it—is limited. In order to truly address trauma, we must also consider both the cultural experiences and socioeconomic inequities that impact our students.
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