Healing a fractured spirit: indigenous use of the sweat lodge for the healing of depression

Abstract

In this ethnographic study, I use my personal life experiences to explain the use and healing properties of the Native American sweat lodge. I look into sources of mental trauma common in Native communities such as historical trauma, lack of help-seeking, and medical mistrust to explore reasons for seeking practices outside of Western therapy. I further discuss how dehumanization and emotional suppression are contributing to a need for more methods of healing which are culturally centered. I then analyze the dichotomy of mental health from both Western and Indigenous perspectives. These sections include discussion of the history and treatment, grief practices, and the power of language in discussing mental health. Finally, through an analysis of different approaches to healing I discuss how Native communities are not only teaching themselves traditional methods of healing but are actively using the education system to foster a new generation of individuals able to control how the manage their ability to heal their spirits. Throughout the paper I incorporate stories told to me from different tribes regarding their origin and purpose of sweat lodges, and the interactions when participating in building a community sweat lodge to explain the more symbolic reasoning that Native groups find purpose in this ceremony. These stories also explain how so many groups of people can see this practice so differently, yet maintain its importance in spiritual, mental, and physical health.