Indigenous ‘‘First Nations’’ communities have consistently associated their disproportionate
rates of psychiatric distress with historical experiences of European colonization.
This emphasis on the socio-psychological legacy of colonization within tribal
communities has occasioned increasingly widespread consideration of what has been
termed historical trauma within First Nations contexts. In contrast to personal experiences
of a traumatic nature, the concept of historical trauma calls attention to the
complex, collective, cumulative, and intergenerational psychosocial impacts that
resulted from the depredations of past colonial subjugation. One oft-cited exemplar
of this subjugation—particularly in Canada—is the Indian residential school. Such
schools were overtly designed to ‘‘kill the Indian and save the man.’’ This was institutionally
achieved by sequestering First Nations children from family and community
while forbidding participation in Native cultural practices in order to assimilate them
into the lower strata of mainstream society. The case of a residential school ‘‘survivor’’
from an indigenous community treatment program on a Manitoba First Nations reserve
is presented to illustrate the significance of participation in traditional cultural practices
for therapeutic recovery from historical trauma. An indigenous rationale for the postulated
efficacy of ‘‘culture as treatment’’ is explored with attention to plausible therapeutic
mechanisms that might account for such recovery. To the degree that a return to
indigenous tradition might benefit distressed First Nations clients, redressing the sociopsychological
ravages of colonization in this manner seems a promising approach
worthy of further research investigation.