Indigenous Ways of Knowing in Counseling: Theory, Research, and Practice

245 Pages·2020·3.305 MB·English

by  Lisa Grayshield, Ramon Del Castillo

International and Cultural Psychology
Series Editor: Anthony J. Marsella, Ph.D.
Lisa Grayshield
Ramon Del Castillo  Editors
Indigenous Ways
of Knowing in
Counseling
Theory, Research, and Practice
International and Cultural Psychology
Series editor
Anthony J. Marsella, Professor Emeritus, University of Hawaii, GA, USA
Explores problems and challenges to mental health, psychosocial wellbeing, human
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The series covers areas like therapy, assessment, organizational psychology,
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Lisa Grayshield • Ramon Del Castillo
Editors
Indigenous Ways of
Knowing in Counseling
Theory, Research, and Practice
Editors
Lisa Grayshield Ramon Del Castillo
Washoe Tribe of Nevada and California Chicana/o Studies
Carson City, NV, USA Metropolitan State University of Denver
Denver, CO, USA
ISSN 1571-5507 ISSN 2197-7984 (electronic)
International and Cultural Psychology
ISBN 978-3-030-33176-4 ISBN 978-3-030-33178-8 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-33178-8
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
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Contents
1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Ramon Del Castillo
2 IWOK Epistemology in Counseling Praxis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Lisa Grayshield, Marilyn Begay, and Laura L. Luna
3 An Introduction to Indigenous Ways of Knowing: A Blackfeet
Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Donald D. Pepion
4 From Training to Practice: The Experiences of Native American
Psychologists Who Have Maintained Their Indigenous
Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Marilyn Begay
5 Wisdom of the Elders: A Return to the Sacred Is the Wave
of the Future . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Laura L. Luna and Lisa Grayshield
6 Traditional Healing Practices in Curanderismo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Ramon Del Castillo, Ivelisse Torres Fernandez, and Laura L. Luna
7 Healing From Generations of Trauma and the California
Mental Health Services Act . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Art Martinez and Brittney Wolfe
8 Native2Native Mentoring: We Bring Our Ancestors With Us . . . . . . 153
Kee J. E. Straits, Melinda A. García, and Steven P. Verney
9 Native Foods and Practices Supporting Infant Brain
Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
Rubi Orozco
v
vi Contents
10 (Re)Claiming Indigenous Heritage: Bringing Forward Tribal
Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
Laura L. Luna
11 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
Lisa Grayshield and Ramon Del Castillo
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
About the Co-Editors/Authors
The chapters of this text represent numerous life ways and experiences from a pleth-
ora of cultural traditions, therefore, we, the Co-Editors, felt it critical in the advance-
ment of Indigenous Ways of Knowing (IWOK) to provide background information
on the authors. It is obvious from our vantage as Indigenous academics, researchers
and authors that IWOK is becoming a viable and practical paradigm in the academy
across numerous fields of study. We chose to include information about the con-
tributors to this text because we felt it important to provide an understanding of
where our authors are coming from in their writings. Therefore, we asked them to
provide a statement including anything they wished to share about themselves. We
additionally chose not to “edit” the statements for consistency in person, grammar
or structure in honor of their unique vantages.
Ramon Del Castillo is currently Professor and Chair

of the Chicana/o Studies (CHS) Department at
Metropolitan State University of Denver and past Chair
of the Master’s Program of Nonprofit Management
(MNM) at Regis University. Dr. Del Castillo is a human
rights activist and an educator who defines the world as
his classroom and whose work centers around themes
such as cultural activism and social justice. As a student
of Paulo Freire, he utilizes liberatory education meth-
ods, critical thinking, dialogue, and gracious/sacred
space as tools to facilitate praxis in his classrooms. He
has been teaching at MSU Denver since 1984, with 12 years of experience teaching
in the Sociology Department and 2 decades in the CHS Department including the
following classes: Introduction to Chicana/o Studies; Mexico/Chicano Politics;
Chicana/o Mental Health Perspectives; Social Justice and Activism in the Chicana/o
Community; and the capstone class, Research Experience in Chicana/o Studies.
Dr. Del Castillo’s research includes Chicana/o health issues, with several publi-
cations on curanderismo, an indigenous and holistic approach to healing, which
includes but is not limited to: Indigenous Ways of Knowing in Psychological
vii
viii About the Co-Editors/Authors
Counseling: Theory, Research and Practice (current publication); Cultural Rituals:
Healing from an Indigenous Perspective, In The Applied Anthropologist. Volume
35, Number 2, 2015: ISSN: 0882–4894; The despedida for Diana Velazquez, curan-
dera: in The Applied Anthropologist. Volume 35, Number 2, 2015. ISSN: 0882–4894;
Curanderismo as Decolonization Therapy: The Acceptance of Mestizaje as a
Remedio, in Proceedings of the National Association of Chicana/o Studies Annual
Conference: Chicago, IL. http://scholarworks.sjus.edu/naccs/2012/Proceedings7
As a published poet, his books include: Tales from a Michoacano, Broken
Concrete, From the Corazon of a Bato Loco, and When the Owl Can’t See at Night.
Chile Colorado, a CD with three local poets is used in the Chicana/o Studies
Department’s curriculum at Metropolitan State University of Denver. El Alma de la
Raza curriculum, used in Denver Public Schools, includes a unit on Dr. Del Castillo’s
poetry. For the last 2 decades, Dr. Del Castillo’s work has appeared in a variety of
magazines and books including but not limited to: TumbleWords: Writers Reading
the West; Cantos Al Sexto Sol: An Anthology of Aztlanahuac Writing; Cool Salsa,
Encyclopedia Chicana; and Yellow Medicine Review: A Journal of Indigenous
Literature, Art and Thought. His book entitled Quetzales Are Not Extinct was pub-
lished in 2016.
Dr. Del Castillo was a past columnist for the Rocky Mountain News and a current
columnist for El Semanario: the Weekly Issue, addressing critical social, cultural,
and economic issues in the community. He volunteers his time as an activist scholar
in the community, dealing with public policy issues that have adverse effects on
families and youth. Dr. Del Castillo has provided organizational development to
nonprofits for over 3 decades assisting groups in strategic planning, cultural compe-
tency, problem-solving, and conflict resolution. Dr. Del Castillo is called upon to
facilitate courageous conversations as organizations seek out solutions for pervasive
problems that need to be addressed. As one of the co-founders of the Cesar Chavez
Peace and Justice Committee of Denver, Dr. Del Castillo has provided leadership in
coordinating the annual peace march that pays homage to one of this country’s
twentieth-century leaders including the name change of the park in North Denver to
Cesar E. Chavez Park. His activism for the last 4 decades includes membership in
several social justice and human rights organizations including the United Mexican
American Student (UMAS) Organization at the University of Northern Colorado,
Al Frente de Lucha, National Association of Chicana/o Studies, Hispanics of
Colorado, Third World Poets, Chicano Mental Health Association, Hispanics of
Colorado, Colorado Latino Forum, and the Black Brown Unity Council.
Dr. Del Castillo’s awards include the Richard T. Castro Memorial Community
Service Award (1994) for multicultural mental health program innovation; NEWSED
Cinco de Mayo Civil Rights Award (1995); State Division of Civil Rights Martin
Luther King Jr. Humanitarian Award (1998); the “Spirit of Tlatelolco Award” (2005);
National Latina/o Student Law Association Award for his contributions to humanitari-
anism (2005); Cesar Chavez Peace and Justice Committee’s Founders Award (2008);
LARASA Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzales Civil Rights Award (2009); Labor Council for
Latin American Advancement (LACLA) Cesar Chavez Award (2012); Metropolitan
State University’s Dr. Martin Luther King Peace Award (2013); Lena Archuleta
About the Co-Editors/Authors ix
Education Award (2014); CHAC 2013 Life Work Achievement Award; Cesar Chavez
Hall of Fame Award (2014), Denver Public Library; 2015 induction into Wisdom
Keepers: Los Compadres Network, Jerry Tello, Oakland, California; 2016 Champions
of Change Award: Liberatory Education, Escuela Tlatelolco; and 2016 National
Association of Chicana/o Studies Community Award for 15 years of work in the Cesar
Chavez march and celebration.
Lisa Grayshield, Ph.D. hunga meh’heshi’– Washiw

dah’mo’mo’, di’ gum di’yah, Dr. Lisa Grayshield –
leh’leh’ wel mel ti’ gum tah’nu’. I am a member of the
Washoe Tribe of Nevada and California. My parents are
Clenta and Frank Grayshield; my grandparents on my
mother’s side are Gladys and Joe Essary, and on my
father’s side they are Louise Jackson and George
[Doggie] Holmes. I want to recognize all my relations,
mi’lew di’yea’yeh’low. I especially want to recognize my
three beautiful daughters, the sons they brought into my
life, my grandchildren, and all the generations that are
yet to come. It is an honor to walk this earth with all of you.
My father once told me that I am the end result of all the choices that were made
by those that came before me; essentially, I am all of those that have come before
me, plus the experiences that are unique to my specific life journey. As I pay honor
to all my relations in the proper Native way by naming my parents, my Grandparents
and sometimes even my great Grandparents, I am reminded that I come from many
Nations of people, most of whom I know little about. My Mother recently com-
pleted her genealogy and found that she was more then 50% Scottish Irish, so this
means I am 25%–the same as my Washoe blood quantum, according to my
Certificate of Indian Blood, and not including the other Nations of Paiute and
Quchan that also make up my Fathers Blood lines. It has always made since to me
that while culture and cultural survival are critical in this time of colonized minds,
even more salient is the critical call to recognize that we are all Indigenous! And
certainly, a return to an Indigenous way of living our lives would promote a more
peaceful existence on Mother Earth for all people.
This book represents my short journey as an academic researcher and professor
in Counseling and Educational Psychology. The authors in this text are my col-
leagues, my previous students and my friends. They are all as passionate as I am to
disseminate information that is critical in understanding our role as healers in
today’s world, where political and social constructs are polarized and the increasing
amount of destruction to the Earth has called into action every reconnection tactic
we can muster. I entered the field of Counseling and Psychology because I sought
to situate myself as a helper/healer of people, primarily inspired by my own experi-
ences as a Native American person having grown up on my Tribal reservation. So
for this I thank all my relatives, my family, my elders and all those who have
influenced my life on the Red Road. I Graduated with my PhD in 2005 and imme-
diately began my tenure as a professor at New Mexico State University. I spent my