The impact of historical trauma on Native American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander communities is widespread and ongoing. Each community has diverse and distinct histories, cultures, traditions, and strengths, but they face many shared challenges stemming from colonization.

The response, as noted by Dr. Clayton Small of Native P.R.I.D.E and many other Native leaders, needs to be rooted in community and culture. Pathways to Resilience convened on October 17 to learn about Native American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander acts of resilience and the ways in which state agencies can support healing from and mitigation of trauma and toxic stress among these communities.

Watch the full session and read the key takeaways below.

Honor the difference between Native American, Native Hawai’ian, and Pacific Islander communities while acknowledging shared experiences, challenges, and barriers.

  • The terms Native and Tribal are not a monolith – each community has its own unique culture and identity. There is also great diversity within Native American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander communities that should be considered when developing programming.
  • There are shared experiences, challenges, and barriers being overcome by these populations – including genocide, colonialism, historical trauma, and contemporary adversity. 

Improve understanding of historical trauma and contemporary adversity among Native and Tribal communities, including the impact of colonization.

  • Colonization has had generational impacts.
  • Recognize that many of systems we exist in are not intended to help or support tribal and indigenous communities but were made to oppress and maintain hierarchies.
  • You can learn more about land acknowledgements and the history of your location at www.native-lands.ca.

Respect tribal sovereignty and Indigenous knowledge.

  • Many cultural best practices speak to connection to place, cultural protocol, and connection to self.
  • Work with communities to develop guidelines around keeping/protecting cultural practices. Native and Tribal communities should have equal standing with states because of their sovereignty status.
  • Culture-based programs incorporating spirituality, wellness, and healing have been passed down for thousands of years through oral tradition and should be recognized by state and federal governments as valuable community-based best practices in addition to evidence-based programming.
  • Connection with native culture can serve as a protective factor for these communities to overcome tragedy and stresses.
  • Having dedicated offices at the state level helps address structural issues and allows people to practice cultural connectedness without fear or shame.

Understand current challenges facing Native American, Native Hawai’ian, and Pacific Islander communities.

Seek examples of what meaningful, equitable engagement with Native and Tribal leaders can look like in a state policy context.

  • Cultivate meaningful relationships and invite people with lived experience from the population you’re serving to the decision-making tables.
  • Sustainability is important – it can often take 10 or more years of funding to implement effective prevention programming.
  • Ensure trauma-informed training is available for schools and teachers.
  • Recognize your own limits and know that vicarious trauma is real. Create systems that build in organizational care and lessen the burden on individuals.

Session Resources

Meet the Speakers

Adriann Ricker, MPH
Research Associate, Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing

Adriann Ricker is a Community-Based Researcher, Indigenous Health PhD candidate at the University of North Dakota, and former RWJF Research Fellow focusing on Trauma Informed Policy on Fort Peck Reservation. She serves as the research associate faculty for the Little Holy One Project, an RO1 led by Dr. Teresa Brockie of the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing. Ricker is an enrolled member of the Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes. Her interests are restorative pathways to health through cultural revitalization and language and trauma-informed policy development and implementation.

Tia L. R. Hartsock
Director, Office of Wellness and Resilience

Tia L. R. Hartsock is the first director of the Office of Wellness and Resilience, housed within the Hawaii Office of the Governor Josh Green, M.D. Tia has served nearly 25 years in the pursuit of working to improve the child-and adult-serving systems in mental health and criminal justice. She was also appointed as an adjunct faculty lecturer at the University of Hawai‘i Thompson School of Social Work and Public Health, and has lectured in both the bachelor’s and master’s programs since 2016. She earned her Master of Science in Criminal Justice Administration from Chaminade University with a specialization in juvenile justice and her Master of Social Work from the University of Hawai‘i with a specialization focus on mental health.

Tia is a nationally certified trauma-informed care trainer by the Gains Center at the Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). Formerly, she was the project director on three Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)-funded initiatives within the Hawai’i Department of Health to develop and provide mental health services for adolescent girls and oversaw multiagency collaborations to improve the delivery of services by the state’s mental health system, to trauma survivors from a gender-specific and trauma-informed framework. In her current role within the Office of the Governor, she will use her many years of collective experience to address the unprecedented public health crisis facing Hawai’i’s island communities. Hartsock believes in Governor Green’s philosophy and approach to understanding the root causes of trauma, to improve health outcomes for future generations.

Dr. Clayton Small, Sr.
CEO, Native Pride

Dr. Clayton Small Sr., (Northern Cheyenne) has been an elementary, middle, and high school principal on reservations and in urban communities. He has been a faculty member at the University of New Mexico, University of Montana, and Gonzaga University. He served as a CEO for Indian Health Services and directed several non-profit organizations. His organization, Native P.R.I.D.E. provides prevention, wellness, healing, and leadership training throughout Indian Country. He has developed prevention programs for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Indian Health Services, SAMHSA, and the Department of Justice.

Dr. Small and his staff have provided cultural services in partnership with the State of New Mexico including Talking Circles and Sweat Lodges for Native youth incarcerated in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

He has comprehensive knowledge and experience in community mobilization, strategic visioning, Indian education, organizational development, youth leadership, prevention, wellness/healing, team-trust building, cultural competency, and creating positive change. He is the CEO for the American Indian non-profit, Native PRIDE that has two outstanding culture-based prevention curriculums entitled Native HOPE and the Good Road of Life that are delivered throughout Indian Country. He conducts training and facilitation nationally and internationally. His programs offer leadership and hope for American Indian, Alaska Native, and First Nations people.

Event Info

  • Location: Virtual
  • Date: October 17, 2023
  • Time: 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm ET
  • Phone: