Assisting American Indian Veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan Cope with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Lessons from Vietnam Veterans and the Writings of Jim Northrup
Rent from DeepDyveAmerica . . . are you ready for the veterans to come home from this war?
(January 2005)
As a survivor of the malady called Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, maybe I can help someone who is coming back? (February 2005)
Jim Northrup, Fond du Lac Follies newspaper column
Our country is at war in Iraq and Afghanistan, and, as has been the case throughout the history of the United States, American Indians have answered the call and are serving bravely in our armed forces. As in years past, we also have a cadre of American Indian veterans returning from the battlefield, scarred and wounded in body, heart, and mind. Of course, scientists and social scientists will be investigating ways they can assist these heroic men and women. Scholars in American Indian studies who work in the humanities should no less consider how they can apply their research and analytical skills to the same task. This paper, then, is a call for scholars to engage in a sustained, interdisciplinary conversation about practical suggestions for relieving the suffering of our American Indian warriors.
I would like to begin the discussion by examining the record of Amer-ican Indian veterans who served in Vietnam. At this point, American Indian Vietnam veterans have enough history with healing to help point out, practically speaking, what has helped them recover and what mistakes should be avoided. I will start with a brief word on the methodology informing this piece and then examine the record dealing with American Indian Vietnam veterans, starting with some basic epidemiological [End Page 373] data and barriers to treatment that they have suffered. From there the discussion will turn to the various ways American Indian communities have assisted their veterans. First, cultural forms such as ceremonies and powwows will be discussed. Next, the methods being developed by psychologists who are working in a culturally sensitive manner to treat American Indian veterans will be presented. Finally, in order to cover the humanities aspect of this issue, I will turn to the writings of Jim Northrup, an Anishinaabe Indian veteran who has written extensively and honestly about his own struggles dealing with his personal legacy of the Vietnam War. In effect I will be covering the cultural, psychological, and literary components of the experiences of American Indian Vietnam veterans.
This paper is an exercise in what has been termed the "applied humanities." This approach, while containing elements of activist scholarship in seeking to promote a certain social agenda, goes one step further by seriously considering ways in which research done from the point of view of the humanities can be applied to the lives of real people. Since we have applied sciences and even applied social sciences, the same can hold true for the humanities as well. In this regard, I am encouraged by the work of the Center for Applied Humanities at the University of Southern Florida, which has produced a number of books addressing critical issues facing society at large. The best example of this type of work can be found in its volume of collected essays Youth Suicide Prevention: Lessons from Literature, most especially the chapters that discuss how literature and poetry can be applied in the clinical setting to assist in counseling suicidal individuals.1 As a more general comment, Lagretta Lenker writes in the introduction:
We do agree that the humanities, in this case literature, are not the special province of a privileged class of scholars. Literature must be brought out of the ivory tower so that all professionals and individuals have access to the wisdom and understanding that it affords. Interdisciplinary applications . . . provide one approach to opening up literature to all of its potential possibilities.2
So, informed by the spirit of the applied...
