Beginning in 2009, Detroit's urban American Indian health center entered into a collaborative and participatory partnership with a university research team. The purpose of the partnership was to incorporate Indigenous traditional healing practices into the health and wellness services at this center. Following extensive consultation with stakeholders at the center, we were commissioned by local decision-makers to develop a program tailored for members of the urban American Indian community that would introduce and orient these individuals to meaningful participation in Indigenous traditional spirituality. The Urban American Indian Traditional Spirituality Program is a structured curriculum for American Indian community members that introduces and orients participants to meaningful engagement with sacred practices associated with the sweat lodge ceremony. The signature innovation of this program was the recasting of traditional socialization practices into a structured, didactic curriculum that could initiate an enduring spiritual devotional life for American Indian participants toward improved health and well-being. Created primarily "by Indians, for Indians," the collaboratively designed curriculum draws on cultural strengths and spiritual empowerment to advance health equity for these marginalized populations.
Anderson, J. D., & Gone, J. P. (2009). Native American religious traditions. In R. A. Shweder, T. R. Biddell, A. C. Dailey, S. D. Dixon, P. J. Miller & J. Modell (Eds.), The child: An encyclopedic companion (pp. 670-672). Chicago: University of Chicago.
Bucko, R. A. (1998). The Lakota ritual of the sweat lodge. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska.
Castor, M. L., Smyser, M. S., Taualii, M. M., Park, A. N., Lawson, S. A., & Forquera, R. A. (2006). A nationwide population-based study identifying health disparities between American Indians/Alaska Natives and the general populations living in select urban counties. American Journal of Public Health, 96, 1478-1484.
DelVecchio Good, M. J., Hyde, S. T., Pinto, S., & Good, B. (Eds.) (2008). Postcolonial disorders. Los Angeles: University of California.
Dennis, M. K., Momper, S. L.& the Circles of Care Project Team (2016). An urban American Indian health clinic's response to a community needs assessment. American Indian and Alaska Native Mental Health Research, 23, 15-33.
Frank, J. D., & Frank, J. B. (1993). Persuasion and healing: A comparative study of psychotherapy. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University.
Garrett, M. T., Torres-Rivera, E., Brubaker, M., Portman, T. A. A., Brotherton, D., West-Olatunji, C., … & Grayshield, L. (2011). Crying for a vision: The Native American sweat lodge ceremony as therapeutic intervention. Journal of Counseling and Development, 89, 318-325.
Gone, J. P. (2016). Alternative knowledges and the future of community psychology: Provocations from an American Indian healing tradition. American Journal of Community Psychology, 58, 314-321.
Gone, J. P. (2019). “The thing happened as he wished”: Recovering an American Indian cultural psychology. American Journal of Community Psychology, 64, 172-184.
Gone, J. P., Blumstein, K. P., Dominic, D., Fox, N., Jacobs, J., Lynn, R. S., Martinez, M., & Tuomi, A. (2017). Teaching tradition: Diverse perspectives on the pilot Urban American Indian Traditional Spirituality Program. American Journal of Community Psychology, 59, 382-389.
Gone, J. P. & Trimble, J. E. (2012). American Indian and Alaska Native mental health: Diverse perspectives on enduring disparities. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 8, 131-160.
Hall, R. (1985). Distribution of the sweat lodge in alcohol treatment programs. Current Anthropology, 26, 134-135.
Hartmann, W. E. & Gone, J. P. (2012). Incorporating traditional healing into an urban American Indian health organization: A case study of community member perspectives. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 59, 542-554.
Indian Health Service (2019). Fiscal year 2019 Indian Health Service justification of estimate for Appropriations Committees. Available from: https://www.ihs.gov/budgetformulation/congressionaljustifications/ [last accessed June 8, 2020].
Moghaddam, J. F., Momper, S. L., & Fong, T. W. (2015). Crystalizing the role of traditional healing in an urban Native American health center. Community Mental Health Journal, 51, 305-314.
Nagel, J. (1997). American Indian ethnic renewal: Red power and the resurgence of identity and culture. Oxford, UK: Oxford University.
Park, A. (2009). Bemidji area urban American Indian/Alaska Native needs assessment-Detroit results. PowerPoint slideset, Seattle, WA: Urban Indian Health Institute, Seattle Indian Health Board.
Pomerville, A., & Gone, J. P. (2018). Behavioral health services in urban American Indian health organizations: A descriptive portrait. Psychological Services, 15, 1-10.
Smith, D. P. (2005). The sweat lodge as psychotherapy: Congruence between traditional and modern healing. In Moodley, R. & West, W. Eds.), Integrating traditional healing practices into counseling and psychotherapy (pp. 196-209). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Waldram, J. B. (2013). Transformative and restorative processes: Revisiting the question of efficacy of indigenous healing. Medical Anthropology, 32, 191-207.
Walkingstick, M., & Larry-Osborne, G. W. (1995). The Native American sweat lodge as metaphor for group work. Journal for Specialists in Group Work, 20, 33-39.
Warne, D., & Lajimodiere, D. (2015). American Indian health disparities: Psychosocial influences. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 9, 567-579.
Wendt, D. C., & Gone, J. P. (2012). Rethinking cultural competence: Insights from indigenous community treatment settings. Transcultural Psychiatry, 49, 206-222.
Yuan, N. P., Bartgis, J., & Demers, D. (2014). Promoting ethical research with American Indian and Alaska Native people living in urban areas. American Journal of Public Health, 104, 2085-2091.
Grants
UL1TR002240/Michigan Institute for Clinical & Health Research
