Wayne State College service learning, along with the intro to personal, public and global health class are providing students with the opportunity to learn about and discuss historical trauma on Oct. 10. 

Historical trauma is a term that can apply to many things, and as the name suggests, involves the effects of historical instances on modern people. Barbara Engebretsen, a professor in her thirtieth year of teaching, and her intro to personal, public and global health class are putting on a speaker-focused event called Ideas and Conversations. 

This time around, the speaker is Cassie Kitcheyan, a mental health professional and an enrolled member of the Ho-Chunk tribe. Her chosen topic is historical trauma, which as Engebretsen said, is something that many may not understand. 

“…If you think about communities, or groups of people that have historically been traumatized for something, you could think of the Jews and the Holocaust, the African Americans in the slave trade or Native Americans and the assimilation and relocation. Those were all very very traumatic episodes in their history,” Engebretsen said. “The consequences of that trauma persist to this day, sometimes in social situations, they’re still isolated or marginalized, or discriminated against for various reasons.” 

Engebretsen explained that negative attitudes, from those who don’t understand or know, towards those groups cause the traumatization to continue. She also explained the relation of historical trauma to her field. 

“I’m a physiologist, so the question is: what the heck does [historical trauma] have to do with health and physiology?” Engebretsen said. “We have known for years, we have known for many, many years, that the health statistics of these marginalized groups that have experienced historical trauma are very different from the majority.” 

Engebretsen had met with friends from the Winnebago reservation and explained some of the statistics with Kitcheyan and Mona Zuffante, the Winnebago Chief Public Health Officer. Zuffante received a PhD in Indigenous Health from the University of North Dakota and explained to Engebretsen just some of the research. 

According to Zuffante, the life expectancy in Thurston County, which contains parts of the Winnebago and Omaha Reservations, is 58.7 years as of 2023. The rest of the U.S. has a life expectancy of about 79. 

Those interested in learning more about historical trauma are encouraged to attend the Ideas and Conversations: Historical Trauma event this Thursday, Oct. 10 in the Niobrara Room of the Student Center. Doors will open at 5:30 p.m.