Maria Yellow Horse Brave Heart, PhD, Oglala and Hunkpapa Lakota
Dr. Brave Heart brings to the film decades of research, experience and professional recognition in the areas of historical trauma and intergenerational grief theory. In 1992, she founded the Takini Network, a Native non-profit organization devoted to community healing from intergenerational massive group trauma among Native Peoples. Her award-winning program helps free parents, children and individuals caught in the grip of historical traumatic stress and its legacy.
Maria Yellow Horse Brave Heart received her Master’s degree from Columbia University School of Social Work in 1976 and her Ph.D. in Clinical Social Work from Smith College in 1995. She is currently Associate Professor of Social Work at Columbia University. Dr. Brave Heart’s historical trauma and unresolved grief intervention was recognized as an exemplary model in a special minority Center for Mental Health Services grant award for Lakota Regional Community Action Grant Historical Trauma in 2001. She directed the Models for Indigenous Survivors of Historical Trauma: A Multicultural Dialogue Among Allies Conference from 2001-2004 and has been a member and repeat conference presenter for the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies. Dr. Brave Heart has also served on the Board of Directors for the Council on Social Work Education and as a consultant to the National Indian Country Child Trauma Center.
Ann Bullock, MD, Minnesota Chippewa
Diabetes is at epidemic levels in Native American communities and research shows a direct connection to stress and trauma. Dr. Ann Bullock speaks to the crisis of diabetes and its’ related complications and manifestations and the ways in which it is being successfully addressed, and also ways even greater improvement could be realized.
She will share with us Cherokee Choices, the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indian’s program that works with 4th, 5th and 6th grader students in the Cherokee Elementary School. Cherokee Choices is a community-based participatory approach that has prompted strong community involvement and earned respect from community members. As a result, community members have expressed interest in using the same techniques to deal with other local health issues.
Now that community members have seen positive changes in their children and their co-workers, they are learning that a diabetes diagnosis is not inevitable. The philosophy that underlies the Cherokee Choices program is that conducting multiple activities at the same time can bring about community and system changes.
Dr. Ann Bullock, medical director of the health and medical division of the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians, has been a member of the Cherokee Indian Hospital medical staff since 1990. She oversees the medical components of the Health and Medical Division and has direct responsibility for a number of medical programs, including the Cherokee Diabetes Program, Cherokee Choices, the Wound Care Treatment and Prevention Program, the Cherokee Women’s Wellness Center, and the Qualla Youth Health Center. Dr. Bullock was educated at Brown University, received her Medical Degree at the University of Washington, and did her Family Medicine Residency at the University of Minnesota.
Don Coyhis, Mohican
Mr. Coyhis, the founder and president of White Bison, Inc., brings his vision to the film: To assist 100 Native American communities in healing by the year 2010. In 2009, White Bison is sponsoring the Way Home Tour, a bicycle relay from Alaska to Washington, DC that brings the Sacred Hoop and the Forgiveness Staff to each of 20 active and closed boarding school sites across the country. This 5300 mile journey will call attention to the need of Native people to forgive the unforgivable atrocities done to Indian children in boarding schools in order that they might begin the healing process. The tour will begin in Alaska where it will accept a 40 foot totem pole carved specifically for forgiveness for the atrocities done to children at the boarding schools. It will end in Washington, DC, where the totem pole will be placed in the permanent collection of the National Museum of the American Indian.
Watch Don Coyhis discuss the upcoming Way Home Tour and why it's important to healing process in Indian country.
White Bison, Inc., founded in 1988, is a proud supporter of the Wellbriety Movement. It is dedicated to developing culturally relevant treatment, prevention, and recovery materials to support the Wellbriety Movement. Through the leadership of White Bison, the Wellbriety Movement has taken a prominent role in the recovery of many Native Americans and their communities. Some of the hallmarks of the Wellbriety Movement include the Sacred Hoop Journeys (1999, 2000, 2002, and 2003). Each of these Journeys brings a message of hope and wellness to Native American communities.
Don Coyhis has worked with such national policy organizations as the White House Office of Drug Control Policy, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and national recovery organizations such as the National Association for Children of Alcoholics to develop prevention campaign materials and prevention and recovery programs for Native American Communities.
Birgil Kills Straight, Oglala Lakota
Birgil Kills Straight shares his experiences with revitalizing the Oglala culture and traditions. He is a traditional Medicine Man who works closely with Dr. Maria Yellow Horse Brave Heart in dealing with historical trauma and intergenerational grief, the root causes of physical, mental, emotional and spiritual problems among Indian people. Mr. Kills Straight speaks to Native people’s connection to spirit, specifically, to his own tradition, the Lakota Medicine Wheel.
Mr. Kills Straight is a traditional Medicine Man from Pine Ridge, South Dakota. A former educator who has long been involved in spiritual work, including the 1986-1990 horseback journeys to Wounded Knee known as the Big Foot Ride. He is the co-founder of the Indigenous Law Institute and has presented at the Human Rights hearing at the United Nations. Mr. Kills Straight has long served as a representative of the traditional government.
Donald Warne, MD, MPH, Oglala Lakota
Dr. Warne, raised on the Pine Ridge reservation and educated at Stanford and Harvard, brings to the film his extensive experience and perspective as a healer in both traditional and western medicine. He speaks to the ways in which each of these approaches to healing can be illuminated by the Medicine Wheel and its emphasis on wholeness as the greatest indication of healing. Dr. Warne will also address the United States governments trust responsibility to the American Indians and how they are the only minority promised free and adequate healthcare as stated in the constitution. Sadly, this responsibility is far from being met—resulting in unparalleled and unnecessary suffering amongst the original inhabitants of this land.
Watch Donald Warne on the recent PBS series Unnatural Causes discuss health disparities among the Tohono O'odham people of Arizona.
Dr. Warne is an adjunct clinical professor at the Arizona State University Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law where he teaches American Indian Health Policy and is assisting in the creation of an American Indian Policy Center. He received his MD from Stanford University in 1995 and his Master of Public Health from Harvard University with a focus on health policy in 2002. He is a Certified Diabetes Educator (CDE), and a Diplomat of both the American Board of Family Practice and the American Board of Medical Acupuncture. He has completed fellowships in Alternative Medicine from the Arizona Center for Health and Medicine and in Minority Health Policy from Harvard Medical School.
Dr. Warne is also the Executive Director of the Aberdeen Area Tribal Chairmen’s Health Board in Aberdeen, South Dakota, as well former President of the Board of the Native American Community Health Center, Inc, and President and CEO of the American Indian Health Management & Policy, Inc.
He is a former member of the Advisory Council on Indian Health Care in the State of Arizona and former Chair of the Traditional Cultural Advocacy Committee at the Phoenix Indian Medical Center. He was awarded the 1997 Walter Brazie, MD Award as Arizona’s Outstanding Family Practice Resident from Arizona Academy of Family Physicians; the Dr. Fang Ching Sun Memorial Award for Commitment to Underserved Communities from Harvard School of Public Health; and the Phoenix Area Impact Award from the National Indian Health Board.
