Rethinking American Indian Mental Health Services: Explorations in Alter-Native Psy-ence

In an early part of his career, Joseph P. Gone, Professor of Anthropology and of Global Health and Social Medicine (FAS/HMS/HSPH), explored depression and problem drinking among his own people on the Fort Belknap Indian reservation in Montana, USA. He interviewed a middle-aged cultural traditionalist named Traveling Thunder who explained why many community members struggled with substance abuse and associated distress. In his view, the primary problem was that “We never was happy living like a Whiteman.” As it turned out, this straightforward observation captured an entire explanatory rationale about reservation mental health that reappeared everywhere Gone went in “Indian Country.” Specifically, Traveling Thunder explored the historical and spiritual factors contributing to mental health challenges on reservations, suggesting these issues stem from the long-term impacts of Euro-American settlement and cultural disruption. This perspective reframes “mental disorders” as conditions shaped by historical and cultural contexts, forming the basis of an Indigenous mental health framework that complements but differs from mainstream psychiatric approaches.