American Indian wisdom could help non-Indian war veterans

By Laurie Swenson
Bemidji Pioneer

A scholar of American Indian studies wants to see American Indian rituals inspire non-Indians to develop their own rituals to welcome home war veterans and help curb post-traumatic stress disorder among war veterans.

“This is a critical part of our history,” said Larry Gross, a visiting scholar at Bemidji State University. “We have these veterans coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan.”

Gross, who has a master’s degree from Harvard University and a doctorate from Stanford University, is a member of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe enrolled with the White Earth Band. He is conducting research in the Bemidji area on storytelling and cultural survival among the Anishinabe. Part of his research includes the writings of Jim Northrup, a noted Anishinabe writer and a Vietnam veteran affected by PTSD.

Gross and Northrup presented a joint lecture Thursday night for about 40 people in BSU’s Crying Wolf Room, the first installment of a series sponsored by A.C. Clark Library. The lecture was arranged by Ron Edwards, university librarian.

“When I look around Indian country, Indians have their ways,” Gross said, noting that Indians welcome home veterans, honor their service, reintegrate them and make use of their experiences, but non-Indian communities do not have similar rituals.

“I have a vision,” he said. “My vision is that by the time the Minnesota National Guard unit comes back from Iraq in July … churches all around the state will have these rituals set up. I’m hoping to find people who will work with me on this.”

He also envisions a national movement that would bring a Veterans Day ceremony to the Washington National Cathedral.

Battling memories

Northrup’s talk Thursday was peppered with humor, which he said is another survival tool in the ongoing battle against post-traumatic stress disorder.

“I had PTSD before I knew it had a name,” he said. “I knew I wasn’t the same person I was before I went there.”

Northrup, born on the Fond du Lac Reservation and who lives in Sawyer on the reservation, entered the U.S. Marine Corps after high school in 1961. He went to Vietnam in September 1965, serving with India Company, 3rd Battalion, 9th Marines.

“I was an 0311 … an infantryman … a grunt,” he said.

He heard stories about those who had died before he arrived. Before long, he began to see dead people around him, both Asian and American. He developed a “turtle reflex,” pulling his head toward his chest at the sound of loud noises.

“There were a lot of bodies, a lot of terrible, terrible things,” he said, “things that 41 years later I’m still seeing in my dreams.”

Northrup read a number of poems he has written about his experience. In one, he answers the question of how it felt to kill: “I felt like a murderer, a savior, a cog in the machine.

“My mind and my thinking have been interrupted by these intrusive thoughts,” he said. “Many times I felt like killing myself.”

He credits Patricia, his wife of 20 years, as a big part of the reason he’s still alive.

“There’s nothing really cut and dried — just being there,” she said, adding that she listens when he wants to talk. “I’ve heard it all.”

Northrup said he has learned to use tools to cope with PTSD, including writing about his experiences. He has authored two books, three plays and 50-60 poems and writes a syndicated newspaper column.

Another coping mechanism is “living my life with the seasons as the Anishinabe do,” he said.

In the spring, he makes syrup and spears fish. In summer, he makes baskets and goes to powwows. The fall is time for harvesting wild rice and hunting moose and deer. In winter, he sets snares and writes and tells stories. “It gives me some kind of order – I’m not going to kill myself today because I have to rice,” he explained.

Gross noted that 58,000 Americans were killed in Vietnam, but another 60,000 later committed suicide.

“There were a whole lot of Americans who got killed in that war but didn’t fall down until they got home,” he said. “I’m hoping we can reduce some of the suicides that we know will occur in the wake of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

Complex needs

Gross noted that pastoral counseling is the main way that non-Indian religious institutions help returning veterans.

While psychological and pastoral counseling are valuable tools for the individual, humans are more complex than their individuality, he said.

Religious rituals frame the sacred, Gross said, bringing the warrior back into the sacred area. “Rituals work at a different level than the individual. We are not just individuals. We live in a community. We live in the sacred things around us.”

Religious rituals within the community help develop ways for these veterans to cope, he said. “These are soul wounds,” Gross said. “That’s why they’re so difficult to deal with.”

Gross explained that Indian rituals can inspire those of other faiths to develop their own rituals from their own traditions. “Every ritual is new at some point,” he said.

He stressed that he is not suggesting that non-Indian faiths adopt Indian rituals. “We don’t want Catholics doing powwows, Lutherans doing sweat lodges and Baptists doing I don’t know what. … There’s no way on this Earth that we want non-Indians to be using Indian rituals in that way.”

He suggested that rituals could incorporate elements of welcome, recognition of service, thanks, acceptance and forgiveness, and blessings.

Those who would like more information or are interested in joining Gross in his quest can e-mail vetsrituals@yahoo.com.

Gross said he is willing to work with both religious and secular organizations who would like to learn new ways to welcome home war veterans.

“In my mind, there’s such a crying need for it.”