Honoring Indigenous Peoples’ Day: Healing, Connection, and Cultural Resilience
“Illustration of an Indigenous woman in a mountain landscape with warm tones, symbolizing reflection, connection, and healing on Indigenous Peoples’ Day.”
Land Acknowledgment
Hendersonville Counseling respectfully acknowledges that we live and work on the traditional homelands of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, one of many Indigenous Nations of Turtle Island (North America). We honor their enduring relationship with this land and their ongoing contributions to the well-being of all communities in Western North Carolina.
Introduction
Each year, Indigenous Peoples’ Day offers an invitation—not just to remember the past, but to engage meaningfully in the present. It is a time to honor the enduring cultures, contributions, and leadership of Native American, Alaska Native, and Indigenous peoples across the continent. Their presence not only predates colonial settlement but continues to shape communities, ecosystems, and healing practices today.
For those of us in mental health care, this day holds a deeper resonance: it reminds us that true wellness is inseparable from culture, connection, and collective care. Healing does not occur in isolation. It emerges from relationship—to land, tradition, language, and story.
Mental Health in Indigenous Communities: Urgent Realities
While Indigenous Peoples’ Day is rooted in celebration, it also calls us to reckon with persistent disparities. Indigenous populations in the U.S. experience disproportionately high rates of mental health challenges, including:
The highest suicide rate of any racial or ethnic group (especially among Native youth)
Increased rates of PTSD, depression, and historical trauma
Systemic barriers to culturally safe, accessible mental health services
Elevated rates of substance use disorders, including drug and alcohol abuse
Substance use in many Indigenous communities is deeply tied to intergenerational trauma. The loss of land, cultural suppression, forced boarding schools, and generational grief have created lasting wounds—often without access to culturally grounded care. Drug and alcohol use are frequently coping responses to these unresolved pains.
Healing from addiction must go beyond abstinence or purely Western models of recovery. Indigenous-led healing prioritizes cultural reconnection as treatment: storytelling, language, ceremony, connection to land, and community support are essential components of recovery—not optional extras.
Indigenous-Led Recovery Resources
StrongHearts Native Helpline (1-844-762-8483) – Culturally appropriate crisis support for relationships and violence, with awareness of addiction-related issues
SAMHSA’s Indigenous Behavioral Health Resources – National programs supporting culturally grounded mental health and addiction recovery
Wellbriety Movement (White Bison) – A grassroots recovery movement rooted in Indigenous teachings and community wellness
Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians – Family Safety Program – Includes support for families navigating addiction and trauma recovery in Western NC
Cherokee Indian Hospital Behavioral Health – Regional recovery and behavioral wellness services in the Qualla Boundary region
If you or someone you love is struggling with addiction, know that healing is possible—and that culturally safe, community-rooted paths exist.
At Hendersonville Counseling, we honor these models and recognize that substance abuse recovery is not a path of shame—but of reconnection, relationship, and resilience.
Honoring Many Nations: Diversity Within Indigeneity
There are more than 570 federally recognized tribes across the United States, each with distinct languages, histories, governance systems, and healing practices. It’s essential to move away from viewing Indigenous peoples as a single entity. Instead, we must embrace the rich diversity of beliefs, protocols, and traditions that shape different Indigenous communities.
This multiplicity also means that wellness is not defined the same way in every community. Listening to local teachings and honoring place-based wisdom is key to relational respect—and to culturally safe therapeutic practice.
Survivance: Cultural Continuity as Healing
The term survivance, coined by Anishinaabe scholar Gerald Vizenor, describes more than survival. It signals a vital, creative presence—a reclaiming of agency, story, and cultural practice.
Rather than framing Indigenous peoples solely through the lens of trauma or resilience, survivance centers their ongoing innovation and cultural leadership. Language revitalization, Indigenous futurism, traditional ecological knowledge, and intergenerational storytelling all reflect how healing unfolds within communities.
In mental health, survivance shows up as the reclaiming of ancestral knowledge as therapeutic wisdom. Ceremony, song, land-based practice, and language are not “adjuncts” to care—they are care.
Intergenerational Trauma: Healing What Was Broken
From the boarding school era to the forced relocation of entire Nations, trauma has shaped the legacy of colonization in profound and painful ways. Intergenerational trauma is passed not just through genetics, but through:
Family dynamics
Community storytelling
Suppressed memory and collective grief
Addressing these wounds requires culturally safe care—defined not by the practitioner’s knowledge, but by how safe the client feels. Healing frameworks designed and led by Indigenous people create space for reconnection to identity, ancestry, and ceremony.
For non-Indigenous clinicians, allyship begins with humility, not authority. It means listening without assumption, acknowledging lived history, and partnering with Indigenous colleagues and organizations for shared care.
What Indigenous Teachings Offer All of Us
Indigenous knowledge systems provide profound insight into modern mental health:
Health as relationship: Healing involves mind, body, spirit, and land in balance.
Time in nature: Outdoor ceremony, seasonal awareness, and land connection ground the nervous system.
Story as medicine: Narratives restore power, memory, and dignity.
Elders as guides: Generational wisdom teaches that healing is communal, not individual.
Community healing models: Circles, songs, and collective rituals offer emotional safety and belonging.
These teachings don’t replace therapy—they deepen it. They remind us that well-being is not about fixing individuals, but restoring relationships.
The Role of Mental Health Providers as Allies
At Hendersonville Counseling, we believe in mental health care that is inclusive, reflective, and culturally attuned. For non-Indigenous practitioners, allyship means:
Examining personal and institutional bias
Supporting Indigenous-led healing initiatives
Continually learning from Indigenous voices
Avoiding cultural appropriation while uplifting cultural appreciation
Allyship is not a one-time action; it’s a long-term commitment to integrity, respect, and relational accountability.
Ways to Honor Indigenous Peoples’ Day
Learn whose land you’re on. Visit native-land.ca or EBCI resources.
Support Indigenous-led organizations:
StrongHearts Native Helpline (1-844-762-8483)
Read and listen. Seek Indigenous authors, podcasts, and films.
Engage respectfully. Attend local events as a learner, not a spokesperson.
Reflect on connection. Healing begins with awareness of our shared humanity and the stories that bind us.
At Hendersonville Counseling, our work is guided by the same principles of connection and respect that shape meaningful allyship. We believe healing begins with relationship — to ourselves, to one another, and to the stories that hold us.
Our therapists offer a space grounded in compassion, curiosity, and cultural awareness, where every person’s experience is honored. Whether you are navigating anxiety, grief, identity, or transitions, our goal is to help you rediscover balance and belonging in a way that feels authentic and respectful. If you’re seeking support for emotional well-being or connection in your life, we invite you to reach out
Learn more about our approach to therapy in Western North Carolina. Healing starts with connection—and every story matters.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q 1: What does Indigenous Peoples’ Day commemorate?
A: It honors Indigenous communities—past, present, and future—and celebrates their living cultures, histories, and contributions.
Q 2: What is “survivance”?
A: Survivance refers to the active, creative presence of Indigenous peoples. It moves beyond survival to embrace vitality, sovereignty, and cultural expression.
Q 3: How does cultural awareness support mental health?
A: Cultural awareness promotes identity, safety, and belonging—all essential ingredients in psychological healing and resilience.
Q 4: How can non-Indigenous allies help?
A: By supporting Indigenous-led mental health and wellness efforts, continually educating themselves, and respecting community-led protocols.
Q 5: Why acknowledge the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians?
A: Because respect for place includes honoring the Indigenous Nation whose stewardship continues here in Western North Carolina.
Closing Reflection
Indigenous Peoples’ Day is more than a date on the calendar—it is a living call to action, to humility, and to connection. Healing is not linear, and it’s never solitary. Whether through storytelling, nature, ceremony, or community, healing is rooted in remembering who we are, where we come from, and how we belong to each other. Let this day inspire you not only to reflect, but to walk forward with renewed respect, gratitude, and commitment to supporting wellness in all communities—especially those that have carried the wisdom of this land for generations.
References
Gone, J. P., & Kirmayer, L. J. (2020). Advancing Indigenous mental health research. Transcultural Psychiatry.
Vizenor, G. (1999). Manifest Manners: Narratives on Postindian Survivance. University of Nebraska Press.
Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (2025). Community wellness and cultural preservation.
SAMHSA Indigenous Mental Health and Wellness Portal (2025).
StrongHearts Native Helpline (2025).
National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition (2025).
Native Wellness Institute (2025).
Professional Insight: Healing involves listening—to stories, to the land, and to each other. Connection, humility, and respect sustain wellness for us all.