and DeBruyn 1998). The term historical trauma refers to the cumulative psychological wounding of an individual and his/her group due to the history of genocide and other atrocities that American Indians and other indigenous people experienced from European colonizers. The explicit attempt is to capture such exposure over the life-span of the individual and across generations. Research highlights the importance of assessing not only the actual experiences, but also the role that traumatic reminders of these experiences can play (Stam 2007). Assessment instruments with good psychometric properties have been developed to assess historical trauma and have found, for example, that some 50% of American Indians think regularly about these historical losses (Whitbeck et al. 2004). Empirical studies have also linked exposure to historical trauma to multiple health outcomes. This research is similar to studies of other generational group traumas, including studies of the health consequences of the Jewish Holocaust on survivors and their descendants. The assessment of these traumas in future research should be expanded to include other race-specific experiences such as the historic brutal lynchings of blacks and the internment and re-location of Japanese Americans during the Second World War.
