THE LONG JOURNEY HOME
HELPING NATIVE VETERANS HEAL BY AARON LEVIN
I
n 1968, U.S. Marine Tom Holm fought and survived the brutal com- bat of the Tet Offensive and other perilous operations during the Viet- nam War. Sometimes, he was asked
to identify the bodies of men—his friends— who had been killed in action. “It was pretty awful at times,” he recalls. After such experiences, a veteran’s rein-
tegration into civilian life may be a rough journey. The journey can be even tougher when he carries additional burdens of histori- cal trauma and discrimination. Some studies have shown that the rates of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in American Indians and Alaska Natives are twice those of non- Native, non-Hispanic populations. However, Holm (Creek/Cherokee) and many other Na- tive veterans have been fortunate enough to draw on their cultures to find a path home, one that recognizes both their service to their country and their communities as well as their own individual experiences in war.
SIGNIFICANCE OF CEREMONY
American Indians have fought in all of America’s wars, from the American Revolu- tion and Civil War to the recent conflicts in the Middle East. They served to defend their families, their country and—as the first Americans—their land. They did so “despite a long history of oppression, suppression of their culture and centuries of outright war- fare by American troops,” says Herman Viola,
24 AMERICAN INDIAN FALL 2020
curator emeritus of Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. As described in the book “Why We Serve:
Native Americans in the Armed Forces” by Alexandra Harris and Mark Hirsch, a war- rior tradition is integral to many but not all American Indian and First Nation cultures. In addition, “warrior” is a term that encompasses more than fighting prowess. “Members of the community view the warrior as a relative who takes part in battle not only to protect the com- munity but also to restore justice and serve the people in other ways,” says Holm, now a retired professor of American Indian Studies at the University of Arizona. “The warrior’s virtues— honesty, humility and generosity—are part of any Indigenous society that is close to the land.” In Canada, Taiaiake Alfred (Mohawk)
grew up near Montreal and spent three years in the U.S. Marines infantry in the early 1980s. “The warrior spirit is a way to express one’s self that is honored and revered by Native cul- ture,” says Alfred. In the past, once warriors returned from war, the spiritual ceremonies helped them heal. "They told us that if you retake your traditional place, you would heal.” The Mohawk carry on their long warrior tradition, he says, and cites his involvement in a 1990 armed standoff with the Canadian Army and police over Indigenous land rights for a golf course in Oka, Quebec. Two of the great 20th-century novels
by American Indian writers follow the dif- ficult return to their Native communities
of soldiers who fought in the South Pacific during World War II. The protagonists of N. Scott Momaday’s “House Made of Dawn” and Leslie Marmon Silko’s “Ceremony” were deeply scarred psychologically by combat or captivity. Holm describes “House Made of Dawn” as “a story about a person who works through things and finally is at peace with himself,” and “Ceremony” as a novel that “indicates that you can make peace with yourself through the old ways.”
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