Trauma and Resilience in the Lives of Contemporary Native Americans: Reclaiming Our Balance, Restoring Our Wellbeing

This fully revised and expanded second edition bridges cutting-edge scholarship on trauma and resilience with comprehensive information on contemporary Native Americans in a way that is engaging, accessible, and useful for higher education classrooms.

Native Americans continue to experience significant challenges, including health, economic, educational, technological, and social disparities. Many of these disparities are linked to trauma, both historical and on-going. Trauma and disparities, however, do not fully reflect Native American experiences. Resilience, resistance, and adapting traditional values and beliefs to contemporary circumstances have facilitated Native American continuity, despite adverse circumstances. Incorporating updated theoretical and empirical literature as well as demographic statistics and information from key new resources such as the 2022 federal report on Native American boarding schools and the federal inquiries into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW), this book also has fully revised and expanded content on the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) as well as interviews with ten additional practitioners, scholars, and activists describing their perspectives and what they see as major challenges and innovations.

With new material on the COVID-19 pandemic as well as two new chapters on the multiple manifestations of violence and applications of decolonization, this book is of relevance to all BSW and MSW courses and can be used in a variety of related disciplines, including counselling, nursing, psychology, and education.

Hilary N. Weaver, DSW (Lakota) currently serves as President of the Indigenous and Tribal Social Work Educators’ Association and Global Indigenous Commissioner for the International Federation of Social Workers.