Mark Schure

Project Leader Mark Schure, Ph.D.
MSU Department of Health and Human Development
mark.schure@montana.edu 

Historical trauma induced by U.S. colonization of Indigenous peoples has led to negative impacts for generations of American Indians (AIs). Since colonization, AIs have faced major barriers to good health, resulting in premature mortality; Montanan AIs die 11-21 years earlier than their White counterparts. Intergenerational trauma is also causing strikingly higher suicide rates among American Indian communities (16.9 vs. 12.1 per 100,000 for the overall U.S. population), with the highest rates occurring from the ages of 16 to 39. In Montana, during 2009-2018, the suicide rate for AIs was 31.4 per 100,000 (compared to 23.4 among Whites).

These stark trends, coupled with the scarcity of culturally consonant mental health resources, lead to our main objective of this development project: to understand Apsáalooke (Crow) community members’ understanding of what it means to be emotionally healthy, ways to heal from intergenerational trauma, and solutions to improve mental and emotional well-being. As we have done in the past, these community voices will lead us to the content and approach of an Apsáalooke-specific, strengths-based, trauma-informed mental health intervention. 

We will draw on what we learned from our recent experience developing, implementing, and evaluating the Baá nnilah program, a chronic illness self-management program designed for Apsáalooke tribal members (see Held et al., 2019, and Schure et al., 2020). This program draws from traditional Apsáalooke ways of coming together to learn from and share with each other. One component of this program focused on acknowledging intergenerational trauma and ways to heal through the community’s foundational values, spirituality, and cultural strengths. Our past experience will enable us to successfully develop the Strong Heart (Crow translation: “Daasachchuchik”) program with the focus on healing from intergenerational trauma and improving emotional and mental well-being.