Abstract This study explored the role and function of vocational choice for

This study explored the role and function of vocational choice for American Indian (AI) law enforcement officers. Extended Case Method (Burawoy, 1991) was used to investigate complex patterns of coping over time, with intergenerational historical trauma, or soul wound (Duran, 1990; Duran & Duran, 1995; Duran et al., 1998). Specifically, the study sought to examine how this vocation might provide a culturally congruent vehicle of reparations for AI officers working in non-AI settings, and further, how the career might facilitate and/or hinder healing of soul wound. The study results indicated that participants saw their law enforcement roles as congruent with traditional warrior roles, particularly the role aspects of minister and mentor to the people, and that fulfilling the traditional AI warrior role via a career in law enforcement held a spiritual meaning for those who participated. The present study has implications for expanding vocational and ethno-cultural theories in the field of psychology, and for restructuring theoretical and methodological options for research on AIs, traumatized populations, culture/ethnicity, and vocation. The Career-Healing Process Model is presented for addressing how participants negotiate their individual needs, community orientated values, AI culture/worldview and mainstream culture/worldview in an effort to achieve career satisfaction. Limits and implications are presented in the discussion section. Serena Cisneros Leah Arndt, Educational Psychology McNair Summer 2007 Soul Wound, Warrior Spirit: Exploring the vocational choice of American Indian law enforcement officers working for non-tribal agencies American Indians (AIs) in the United States remain one of the most under served populations on nearly every front. The lack of culturally relevant and/or effective services and interventions is evident in current statistics from the educational, human services, medical and mental health fields within the United States. The bulk of existing literature on AIs paints a grim picture, emerging from a deficit orientation and paying particular attention to issues of violence within the culture, such as alcohol and other drug abuse, child and domestic abuse, and suicide. In fact, the majority of existing literature on AIs continues to replicate long held stereotypes, and perpetuate hegemonic Euro-centric approaches to research and practice with this population (Duran & Duran, 1995; Duran et al. 1998). Little of the published literature examines these issues in the context of AI history and colonization from a strength-based, resiliency-focused, culturally grounded theoretical or methodological orientation. This present work used indigenous bodies of knowledge and methods of observation, and integrated them with several fields of theory, research, and practice to explore the vitality and tenacity of AIs through an examination of how the traditional role of the warrior has been sought by AIs within the modern context, as a means of managing soul wound (Duran et al., 1998; Duran & Duran, 1995; Duran, 1990), or the intergenerational trauma resulting from American Indian colonization history. Conceptual frameworks utilized by other researchers to explore the phenomena of the intergenerational transmission of trauma include a multicultural model of the stress process by Slavin et al. (1991), an Indigenist stress coping-model by Walters and Simoni (2002), and Danieli’s (1994, 1998) Trauma and the Continuity of Self: A Multidimensional, Multidisciplinary Integrative (TCMI) Framework. These models are discussed in terms of points of congruence and divergence with the indigenous soul 1 This study utilizes the label “American Indian” to denote the indigenous populations of the Continental United States and Alaska, encompassing more than 500 individual nations. Where practical as an indication of the great diversity with American Indian culture, proper ethnic/nation titles are used. wound concept, and in terms of the influence of culture on the transmission of trauma and its reparative process. It is argued here that a predominant cultural vehicle of reparations for AIs is that of the warrior and one of its modern vocational expressions— that of law enforcement officer working in a non-tribal setting. Previous research in this area, though scant, has indicated that the role of the warrior among AIs has been adapted to the role of the military soldier with the United States armed forces (Duran & Duran, 1995; Holm, 1996; Beals, 2000). The study asserts that the law enforcement vocation closely reflects the pre-colonial role of the American Indian warrior found within most tribes, and that this role serves a similar function for AIs as does a career in the military, and in fact, likely meets a fuller spectrum of the traditional functions performed by the warrior role for AI peacekeepers. This study responded to the call of researchers in many fields for culturally and contextually relevant means of theorizing about and researching issues facing the American Indian community. The issues addressed by this research have theoretical, methodological, and practice implications for many fields beyond counseling psychology, in that several fields of inquiry (e.g., history, AI studies) were utilized to guide its direction of inquiry, as well as its data analysis. Implications specific to the field of counseling psychology include extending the theoretical, research, and practical knowledge bases for trauamtology, ethnic/cultural issues in counseling, and vocational psychology. Little research exists in the field of psychology that is specific to American Indians, and even less looks at what role AI culture plays in vocational choice and development, or examines coping with the affects of colonization (Johnson, Swartz & Martin, 1995; Byars & McCubbin, 2001). The chapters that follow articulate relevant concepts for conceptualizing intergenerational historical trauma as it relates to AI experience, and for understanding how this experience interacts with the vocational choice of the study’s participants. Relevant models of stress and coping are described and discussed: one arising from the multicultural counseling field, one specific to American Indians, and one addressing the intergenerational aspect of trauma and coping. These theories are examined in relationship to the American Indian concept of soul wound, and the persistence of the cultural role of the warrior. A key element in this endeavor is the discussion of relevant methodological issues that shaped this work. This study utilized culturally appropriate methods of data collection and observation, as indigenous methods of qualitative inquiry and documentation have always existed within AI culture—specifically observation, hypothesis testing, holistic interpretation, and a strong oral tradition. 2.LITERATURE REVIEW: HEALING THE PEACETIME WARRIOR This chapter develops a framework for understanding how American Indian law enforcement officers’ vocational choice constitutes a vehicle for healing historical trauma in a culturally relevant manner. An examination of the soul wound and traditional theories of healing is undertaken, as well as a review of existing theory and research on soul wound and the role of culture in healing. Essential to achieving this objective is an exploration of how AI cultural concepts and practices are intertwined with the evolution of the role of the warrior. In keeping with this study’s emphasis on the legitimacy and viability of AI methods of information gathering and analysis, a final objective of this chapter is to review the utility of received theories and methods that have been used to explore these issues in the past. Soul Wound The soul wound (Duran, 1990) has existed since American Indians first experienced large-scale contact with Europeans. Pre-colonially, AI peoples adhered to a holistic and balance-focused worldview. The atrocities of colonization and ongoing pressures of acculturation stress inflicted upon AIs have resulted in an injury upon the core of the AI psyche. This core is also the center of AI spirituality and worldview, and is the locus of the soul wound (Duran & Duran, 1995).: “...and it is from this essence that mythology, dreams, and culture emerge. Once the core from which the soul emerges is wounded, then all of the emerging mythology and dreams of a people reflect the wound. The manifestations of such a wound are then embodied by the tremendous suffering that the people have undergone since the collective soul wound was inflicted half a millennium ago. Some of the diseases and problems that American Indian people suffer are a direct result of the soul wound. [Even] self-destructive behaviors may be a desperate attempt to bring back a harmonious soul.” (p. 45). Historical events central to the etiology of the soul wound and intergenerational transmission of trauma for AIs include themes of cultural and psychological shock, warfare and genocide, systematic oppression and subjugation, decades of forced relocation to reservations, boarding schools, and urban areas during termination, and ongoing systematic racism, prejudice, and stereotyping. In American Indian worldview, a traumatic event is experienced as a dislocation from the state of harmony and balance within the circle of life/time/space. When one experiences a disruption of the balance of living, he/she must be healed and placed back on the path of healthy living. Fundamental to the healing process is the support of one’s community and the participation in ceremony and ritual. Cultural roles entail essential spiritual and balancing elements. Healing and well living are deeply entrenched in spirituality and ritual. Medicine ceremonies have been developed over generations for maintaining balance in all aspects of living. These practices have served to restore balance for an individual, as well as a community. It is understood that any person not receiving proper medicine for healing trauma is destined to be dislodged from the circle of balance whenever he/she passes the same fractured point on the circle of living, and further, that each member of the community must enact his/her role in an effort to heal the individual, as well as the community. Postcolonially, many AI healing rituals and ceremonies have been lost due to genocide, warfare, oppression, racism, and the discrimination that typifies the interaction between mainstream and AI traditional culture. The AI population in the U.S. has also been scattered across the continent. Such displacement has resulted in many no longer having access to medicine practitioners, while others do not have full and complete access to the holistic worldview of their ancestors. The unavailability of healing medicine creates but another trauma for those suffering with soul wound. Trauma upon trauma, there exists both an individual and a collective suffering—a wounding of the individual and collective soul—that persists over time and through generations, and is insufficiently addressed by Western psychology alone (Duran & Duran, 1995). Soul Wound Theory and Research. Duran’s (1990) publication was the first to articulate the soul wound concept, and to attempt to compare, contrast, and integrate traditional Western psychology with traditional American Indian psychology in this respect. Duran found the Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) paradigm to be useful in understanding certain coping reactions of AIs, such as alcohol abuse and the internalized oppression and shame often experienced by males in this population— which Duran equates to existential death for AI warriors. As delimited in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-IV (DSM-IV) (1994), PTSD may be manifested by someone who “has been exposed to a traumatic event in which he/she experienced, witnessed, or was confronted with an event or events that involved actual or threatened death or serious injury, or a threat to the physical integrity of self or others” (p. 427) and his/her “response involved intense fear, helplessness, or horror.” (p. 428). PTSD symptoms include persistent re-experiencing, avoidance and numbing, and increased arousal. Symptoms must persist more than one month and cause disturbance to a clinically significant level in the social, occupational, or some other important area of functioning. The DSM-IV indicates that “individuals who have recently emigrated from areas of considerable social unrest and civil conflict may have elevated rates” of PTSD (p. 426). American Indians have not emigrated to this country, but have been displaced and have experienced considerable social unrest and civil conflict. Though the PTSD conceptualization of soul wound acknowledges historical trauma, it is not able to fully accommodate the intergenerational and spiritual nature of the phenomena, nor the experience of the American Indian. In later publications, Duran (1995; Duran et al., 1998) articulated a more complex construction of the soul wound that recognizes its intergenerational historical grief and trauma. Drawing heavily from the literature on Jewish Holocaust survivors and their children, Yellow Horse Brave Heart and DeBruyn (1998) constructed the soul wound phenomena as the accumulation of unresolved historical grief experienced by AI peoples. They also identified similarities between Jewish Holocaust and American Indian Holocaust survivors’ and survivors’ children’s reactions to those traumatic historical events; particularly noting that both sets of survivors and their children appear to manifest survivor syndrome (Solkoff, 1992, 1981) and survivor’s-child complex respectively (Kestenberg, 1990). Both the survivor syndrome and the survivor’s-child complex display with classic PTSD symptoms (anxiety, intrusive images, depression, grief, withdrawal and antisocial behavior, guilt feelings), as well as some more unique manifestations: (a) elevated mortality rates, including by violent death; (b) perceived obligation to share in ancestral trauma and identification with the deceased; (c) fantasies of compensation and retribution, and (d) complicated grief. Yellow Horse Brave Heart and DeBruyn make an argument for the integration of traditional AI ceremonies with mainstream psychology for healing such grief and trauma. Core to this healing process, they argue, is the spiritual empowerment of the client and “extended kin networks which support identity formation, a sense of belonging, recognition of a shared history and survival of the group.” (p. 66). The Yellow Horse Brave Heart and the Duran et al. conceptions of intergenerational historical trauma among American Indians have received some empirical support. In one study, Lakota-centric psychoeducational groups focusing on historical trauma, traditional/spiritual grief contexts, and initiation of grief resolution for 45 service providers and community leaders were found to have: (a) increased the awareness of all participants of historical trauma; (b) improved their understanding of related survivors’ complexes, (c) helped in the resolution of grief, and (d) helped participants to feel more positive about being Lakota, and about themselves as persons (Yellow Horse Brave Heart, 1998). These results were relatively unchanged at the six-week follow-up. A Lakota-centric parenting curriculum was also determined to be effective in educating ten parent, and two facilitator participants about historical trauma, and in reconnecting them with traditional Lakota spiritual, parenting, and protective practices around alcohol and other drug abuse (Yellow Horse Brave Heart, 1999). Participants expressed positive attitudes about the effectiveness of the curriculum in facilitating the healing of intergenerational trauma/soul wound, and its Lakota-centric focus. Finally, Cashin (2001) collected interview data from nine American Indian service and healing professionals. She found core differences in the definitions and values around psychological healing between AI and Western culture. The study concluded that groups appear to be of significant value in the spiritual/healing process of AIs, while individual healing is a strong focus in Western culture. Unfortunately, a review of the literature in several fields did not reveal any study or theoretical piece that specifically explored vocation in relationship to healing intergenerational historical trauma for any culture. However, some attention has been paid to American Indian military veterans. Both empirical and conceptual pieces have been published focusing on the occurrence of PTSD and trauma-related disorders within this population, the use of indigenous healing techniques in the integration process, and the persistence of cultural roles and role expectations over time as a coping mechanism in dealing with historical and intergenerational trauma. The persistence of the role of the warrior within American Indian culture as a cultural coping strategy has specifically been examined in these studies as well. Holm (1996, 1994) found that American Indian Vietnam-era veterans reported different military experiences than individuals from other ethnic groups. Sixty-one percent of American Indian veterans felt that going into the service to gain recognition and respect from dominant culture was not important. Likewise, the traditional role of the warrior played a substantial part in the decision for these veterans in serving, with 75% indicating that honoring family and tribal traditions was an important reason for military service. Experiences of racism during service were found to be significant for these veterans (though not always consciously recognized or acknowledged), and were different from those experienced by other ethnic groups due to the unique stereotyping of American Indian culture (e.g., being referred to as ‘Scout’ or ‘Chief’, having the U.S. soldiers referred to as ‘the Cowboys’ and the North Vietnamese as ‘the Indians’). Systemic discrimination, racism, and stereotyping often resulted in these veterans being placed in more dangerous and demanding roles. American Indian soldiers fell victim to the stereotype that they were born of a “martial race”, and genetically dispositioned for warfare. Many “were placed in dangerous situations as a result of the Indian scout syndrome and more often than not accepted the fact that they would be so treated as simply a normal consequence of American military service” (Holm, 1996, p. 90). Not surprisingly then, these Vietnam-era warriors were also highly decorated for their actions in the military. Readjustment to civilian life for these warriors bore witness to the unique experiences of American Indians within the dominant socio-political culture (e.g., some soldiers returned to de-federalized, depopulated reservations). Thus, these soldiers faced additional stressors upon their return home that were unique to their ethnicity. They also constituted the only ethnicity that was a member of a nation other than the one represented by the U.S. government. Many American Indian veterans indicated that they felt bound by tribal treaties to fight on behalf of the United States, though they were fighting an indigenous population that was perceived by their community to be enduring the subjugation that they themselves had been enduring at the hands of the U.S. government. Tribal customs and religion were found to be significant in sustaining these veterans during combat against the Vietnamese population, and played a significant role in the healing process after wartime (e.g., viewing war as a disruption of the normal balance/peace, participating in ceremonies of preparation for, and healing from warfare). Sixty-four percent of participants in Holm’s study indicated that tribal ceremonies aided in the healing process after war.Holm’s work is significant in that it presents a holistic examination (both qualitatively and quantitatively, and both research and anecdotally based) into the soul wound phenomenon, its relationship with the pressures of dominant culture, and the persistence of indigenous culture and roles— specifically that of the warrior. Another veterans’ study, by Beals (2000), used interview and archival data, and grounded theory methods to explore the preand post-service experiences of 32 Alaska Native Vietnam-era veterans. The study examined the impact of the cultural and individual beliefs, expectations and experiences of the participants. Beals found that participants’ traditional beliefs around warrior traditions were meaningful and utilized to “justify” military service, and that most believed they would be provided with an elevated status within their tribes due to their war-time service. Many participants also shared experiences of overcoming a childhood trauma and felt that such experiences had helped them to cope with the traumas of war. Furthermore, many participants identified with being members of a traumatized culture, and indicated that their childhood traumas were related to growing up in their traumatized culture. Eight of the 32 participants reported experiencing conflicts between traditional AI and traditional Western values, particularly regarding the expectation that a warrior only fight for a high ideal. The experience of this disparity was reported by participants as being manifested in a sense of subsequent disillusionment, betrayal, and guilt. Interestingly, however, all participants were asked if they had experienced racism in Vietnam, and without exception they all responded in the negative; though most provided anecdotal evidence that indicated that they indeed had such an experience. Along the same lines, participants seemed to struggle with internalized oppression and AI stereotyping. For example, many reported feeling that the traditional skills learned in childhood, such as hunting, functioned as a double edged sword, wherein those who had such skills were able to gain the respect of their non-AI counterparts for their sustenance skills. Unfortunately, such skills seem to have been ascribed to AI soldiers regardless of their merit, due to stereotyping, and this perception placed them in high-risk assignments. Significant in Beals’s findings was the belief by participants of their innocence having been lost during service. “Although none of the men connected the idea of lost innocence with initiation, several men spoke of knowing that they had been made somehow very different by their experiences” (p. 60). The idea that warfare/combat changes the warrior is one that is central to AI beliefs. It is widely recognized by AI cultures that the warrior must be healed in order to integrate such experiences. Participants indicated that without the facilitating and healing experiences/practices of their respective cultures, they remained locked in a wounded state. Behaviors manifested in this state of wounding included PTSD and related symptoms, substance abuse, and alienation. The facilitating rituals participants cited as necessary to healing included a connection to the brotherhood of veterans, public ceremony and recognition of their veteran status involving both veterans and members of the community, and reconnection with the community they had left upon service. The central finding of Beal’s study focused on healing as it is manifested in reconciliation and readjustment; the antithesis of alienation. “And to me, a true warrior spirit within is one that becomes true and strong for himself, and true and strong for his family, and to be true and strong for his community. And being strong for these things, he is true and strong for his Creator. And that’s another reason why a lot of us work so hard, is to wake up the warrior spirit in our Native veterans” (anonymous participant, p. 66). It is noteworthy that the participants in both Holm and Beal’s work reported experiencing differences related to vocation, which they attributed to culture. Prominent in both pieces were themes related to fulfilling the cultural role of warrior though soldiering. The participants made meaning of their vocation through their tribes’ warrior traditions. Also, these soldiers found meaning and made sense of their experiences though their traditional spirituality. They were recognized as changed persons, and were healed though family and community recognition ceremonies that hearken back to pre-colonial times. The Warrior Tradition. It is understandable that literature on soul wound addresses the issues of American Indian veterans. American Indian men and women have a long and distinguished history of soldiering and policing service on behalf of the United States government. American Indians have rendered warrior services on behalf of Europeans in the Americas for centuries. They were involved in the War of 1812, and fought on both sides during the Civil War. The U.S. American Indian Scouts were established in 1866, saw action throughout the West and Mexico, and were not deactivated until 1947, when their last member retired. The first establishment of a federally-sponsored American Indian police department took place with the Iowa and Sac and Fox tribes in Nebraska in 1869, and other American Indian Agencies followed suit. Some of the police agencies involved regimentation through the U.S. government and remained closely affiliated with the military (e.g., Navajo Calvary 1872), while others were organized more along traditional tribal lines (e.g., Chippewa, Creek, and Menominee) that were “rather amorphous police organizations composed of all warriors who had attained a certain minimum distinction in battle.” (BIA, Internet resource). In fact, a large number of tribes established their own police departments in response to federal demands and encroachments, but modeled them on their traditional organizational systems (e.g., a particular warrior society, one warrior from each society, rotation of duties among societies). By 1881, 49 of 68 American Indian agencies had policing entities—the American Indian police agencies thought to be a lesser evil than military occupation. American Indian service in policing and the military has a history much older than the U.S. government it has benefited. The warrior tradition is one that most American Indians knew long before the arrival of Columbus. However, to view the warrior’s role merely through the lens of military service or American Indian Agency policing would be to grossly misinterpret the warrior tradition. Such an interpretation stems from the stereotype of American Indians as a martial race of genetically superior scouts and stealthy fighters, and does a gross injustice to the culture and knowledgebase passed down from generation to generation. It also negates the positions of social and spiritual importance that warrior societies hold within their respective communities. Furthermore, such a portrayal of American Indian warriorhood disregards the impact of historical trauma on the warrior role itself. Before the warrior tradition began to reflect the way in which the dominant culture separates policing and military roles, American Indians adhered to an image of the warrior as one who was responsible for the management of social and spiritual issues within the tribe. Though the exact structure of such management systems varied tribally and regionally, some general tendencies can be delineated for the purpose of understanding the essential role of warrior societies. While a few nations did not have specifically or rigidly organized warrior societies, most did. Many of these societies were age-graded, requiring warriors to pass in like-aged groups through the ranks of societies over the lifetime (e.g., Blackfoot). Other societies were not organized along the lines of age/rank, but were more fluid, allowing members to enter the desired society upon invitation (e.g., Lakota/Dakota). Most of these societies are referred to in the literature as “men’s societies.” Women too, had societies that were equally as important in the warrior tradition. Most of the literature refers to such organizations as guilds or trade societies; however, the gender separation that appears in the literature is misleading. “In many tribal languages...the word for warrior simply means ‘one who defends’ or ‘protects.’ A warrior could be either a male or female—there are numerous examples of warrior women in American Indian history—who was willing to defend the people” (Holm, 1996, p. 68). There are also specific examples of women’s warrior societies (e.g., the Ponca). The first American Indian female police officer was hired shortly after the turn of the 20 century and served the Blackfeet Agency in Montana for 25 years. Gender has never been a criterion for service among American Indians in either policing or the military, as has been the case in mainstream culture. In the holistic sense, warrior societies provided many services to their communities. They preserved order in camp and on the move or hunt, administered punishment for offenders against communal harmony, protected community and took positions of danger and leadership during warfare, ministered to their communities through social role modeling, served an intermediary role in government by acting as temporary dispensers of authority, and recognized appropriate communal living by other members of society. The fabric of the community thus was woven and maintained by the warrior (Holm, 1996; Mails, 1973). In keeping with the American Indian worldview, the role of the warrior was not merely to police or to soldier, but involved all aspects of communal harmony. Warrior societies thus assumed enforcing, soldiering, social, and spiritual roles for the tribe. This complex role was fractured along with all of American Indian society subsequent to colonization. European newcomers utilized warriors for their knowledge of the land and martial abilities. They took advantage of age-old rivalries amongst American Indian peoples, and pitted tribe against tribe—the French allying with one nation and the English allying with another. Each European nation assumed a stance of war with the other and relied on their American Indian allies to help them gain the upper hand. Maintenance of Warrior Role as a Cultural Coping Mechanism. According to Holm (1996) U.S. governmental policy has been one of militarizing American Indians. This endeavor has tapped into an older tradition of service, but has also resulted in a sort of secondary and fragmented military tradition amongst American Indian peoples. Because the role of the military soldier in terms of dominant culture, accounts for only a portion of the warrior role, it does not fulfill all the traditional societal and spiritual functions of the warrior. Though American Indians have used the military and tribal policing to fulfill some aspects of the warrior role, these fractured versions of warriorhood are lacking in balance and leave many in need of the spiritual/social aspect originally contained within the warrior role: “I rode bulls, I drove stock cars, I piled up my own cars and a couple of motorcycles. I drank all the time...Goddamn war put me in a world of shit. I think now that I had some sort of death wish” (American Indian Vietnam veteran quoted in Holm, 1996, p. 184). Research has also documented the tendency of such warriors to seek traditional spiritual means of healing this incongruency: “My people honored me as a warrior. We had a feast and my parents and grandparents thanked everyone who prayed for my safe return. We had a Special and I remembered as we circled the drum I got a feeling of pride. I felt good inside because that’s the way the Kiowa people tell you that you’ve done well.” (Kiowa Vietnam veteran, quoted in Holm, 1996, p. 187). One limitation to our understanding of the relationship between the soul wound, the warrior role and vocational choice is that the data about modern-day American Indian warriors have been gathered from those serving either in the U.S. military or for tribal police departments which have their origins in the U.S. federal/military tradition. No research has been done on the segment of the American Indian population that has sought employment in non-tribal police departments and agencies. Virtually no data are available on the numbers of American Indians serving in the various levels of law enforcement throughout the United States. Additionally, the information on American Indian police officers is negligible. Most of the vocational research, including that in the field of psychology, has focused on other ethnic minorities (Byars & McCubbin, 2000), particularly African Americans and Latinos in law 2 A Special is a ceremony observed at Pow Wow, and usually sponsored by the honoree’s family. Common reasons to have a Special include the recognition of an important event (birth of a child) or accomplishment (return from combat). enforcement. There is a significant gap in the literature for law enforcement and vocational psychology regarding the American Indian population. The law enforcement occupation offers many of the elements of the traditional warrior role. The policing (e.g., enforcement, maintaining order) aspect of a career in law enforcement is obvious, and the combat role (which has been greatly hidden from the population at large until recently) is now starkly apparent after September 11, 2001. There is also a significant social role played by law enforcement in that they are able to become deeply involved with community beyond enforcement. What a career in law enforcement does not explicitly provide, is the spiritual component of the warrior role. Here again, we find that the adaptation of a dominant culture “warrior” role is lacking in the holism that is a core component of the American Indian understanding of the warrior role. Unfortunately, there are no data to document why these American Indian police officers chose their career, how they are fairing in their chosen field, how they are managing the spiritual aspect of their culture and vocation, and how they manage the resolution of the historical injury of Soul Wound. We are thus left to seek some explanation through received theory and currently available models of stress and coping that assert their relevance to this population. Vocational Psychology: Beginnings of an American Indian Body of Literature. Due to the paucity of vocational literature specific to AIs, little is known about the issues facing this population around career choice and development. A small, but growing body of literature does exist and it is warranted to summarize the knowledge in this area for the purposes of this study. Three relatively recent studies have focused on including AIs in research around career interests (Day & Rounds, 2000; Day, Rounds, & Swaney, 1998; Hansen, Scullard, & Haviland, 2000). All three found that the Holland RIASEC interest structure (Holland, 1959) was a useful model of identifying career interests for AIs— though they determined that there was a gender difference, with a better fit for women in this population, than with men. The Occupational Scale scores of the Strong Vocational Interest Blank-Strong-Cambell Interest Inventory have been found to correspond with college major (Haviland & Hansen, 1987). The overall General Occupational Theme scores of the Strong Interest Inventory have been determined to effectively predict occupational membership, even more so than for whites in the study (Lattimore & Borgen, 1999). Other areas of career counseling research with AIs have revealed significant gaps in addressing the populations needs, particularly around self-efficacy norms (Lauver & Jones, 1991), career maturity (Lee, 1984), and specific assessment tools such as the Self-Directed Search (Gade, Fuqua, & Hurlburt, 1984; Krebs, Hurlburt, & Schwartz, 1988), and the Kuder-E (Epperson & Hammond, 1981). The literature on AI career counseling, though still quite scant, provides information suggesting that career counseling does not meet the needs of AIs (Darou, 1987; Herring, 1990; Martin 1991). Much of this literature argues that career counselors as a profession are unprepared to comprehend the worldview of, and thus address the vocational needs of, AI students. In response to a lack of theory in this area, McCormick & Amundson (1997) proposed their Career-Life Planning Model for First Nations People. The model reflects an attempt to meet the career counseling needs of First Nations persons in relationship to cultural/spiritual worldview. It consists of components such as connectedness, balance, needs, roles, gifts, and values; which are integrated with Western career counseling concepts such as labor market options, educational background, and interests. The model invokes a counseling process involving family and community involvement throughout the career-life planning process. The role of the counselor in this process is one of facilitator for the communal process. In another attempt to fill the gaps in this field of literature, Juntunen (2001) conducted an exploratory qualitative study of the meaning of career and related concepts for adult AIs. The study included 18 adult American Indian participants from 10 different Northern Plains tribes who were interviewed about the meaning of career and related concepts. The results revealed five major topics areas: the meaning of 3 “Lattimore & Borgen (1999) suggested that Enterprising interests might be minimized by ‘cultural factors ranging form a history of oppression and discrimination to traditional values’” (Juntunen, 2001, p. 3; Lattimore & Borgen quote p. 193). This study also included a small sampling of AIs, and the authors indicate that this may account for the high percentages of variance and an inflation of effect size. The data on AIs was included simply because of the population’s underrepresentation in the literature. 4 This research was found during a final literature review after data analysis was already completed for the present study. The literature review represents a final layer of checks and balances on this study’s qualitative procedure, data analysis, interpretation, and discussion section. It is remarkable to note the similar results of both studies, considering the lack of cross-contamination between studies, that the present study did not contain participants of any traditionally Northern Plains tribe, and did not originally contain vocation-specific psychological literature. career, definitions of success, supportive factors, obstacles, and living in two worlds. Out of these topics emerged domains of career meaning, success, supportive factors and obstacles: • career as a lifelong endeavor—emphasis on planning, goal setting future planning; • career to promote traditional ways; • success measured by one’s ability to contribute to the well-being of others—the impact one has on children was particularly important, meeting one’s own goals/sense of self (participants tended to exclude money and material gain, and a variant category explicitly rejected a monetary measure of success); • supportive factors—education, family influences, sobriety; • obstacles—lack of support from significant others, discrimination, alienation for those who left the tribal community and then returned (not fitting in two worlds). The results of this study indicate that American Indians may be impacted by a complex set of factors when making career decisions and choosing vocational paths. Gathered together, this small body of literature seems to present a case for this population making career-life decisions around a culturally/spiritually bound worldview. It is thus essential that this literature be considered when exploring the role of AI law enforcement officers’ career in their lives, and can be coupled with soul wound theory and research to approach a more complete understanding. Healing the Soul Wound: Received Theory. Few models are available for conceptualizing and researching the integration of the soul wound. Little work has been done in systematically researching and attempting to articulate the existence of intergenerational, historical trauma in any population. Even less information is available on how vocation may serve as a means of culturally-congruent coping with such trauma. A review of the literature revealed three possibly relevant models: Slavin et al.’s (1991) Multicultural Model of the Stress Process; Walters and Simoni’s (2002) Indigenist Stress-Coping Model; and Danieli’s (1996, 1998) Trauma and the Continuity of Self: A Multidimensional, Multidisciplinary Integrative (TCMI) Framework. Each model is reviewed and its strengths and drawbacks are indicated. Slavin et al. developed their Multicultural Model of the Stress Process based upon Lazarus and Folkman’s (1984) Standard Model of the Stress Process. The Standard Model includes five major components: “(a) the occurrence of a potentially stressful event, (b) primary cognitive appraisal of the event, (c) secondary cognitive appraisal of the event, (d) the implementation of a coping strategy, and (e) physical and mental health outcomes” (Slavin, 1991, p. 157). In the standard model, the process begins with any potentially stressful event that is then appraised by the individual who asks, “Am I in trouble?” This appraisal results in the event being categorized as irrelevant, benign/positive, or stressful. A secondary appraisal then takes place with the individual asking, “What can be done about it?” Here, coping options, efficacy expectations, and available resources are weighed and events deemed to be stressful can be further appraised as: (a) those that will involve harm or loss, (b) those presenting a threat, or (c) those presenting a challenge. Coping efforts are then enacted. Two major categories of efforts are identified by the standard model: problem-focused and emotion-focused coping. Problem-focused strategies are active/behavioral efforts to change the stressful environment. Emotion-focused strategies involve efforts to control one’s emotional responses to the stressful environment, as well as efforts to make meaning of the stressful event(s). Neither type of strategy need be conscious nor effective (e.g., alcohol use to cope with depression). Finally, coping efforts result in adaptation outcomes in social functioning, morale, and somatic health. The process in this model is cyclical in that stressful events strain the individual’s available coping strategies, and thus increases the person’s vulnerability to stress, which can result in outcomes such as social isolation, a feeling of hopelessness, or poor health. Slavin et al.’s model uses the standard model as a base, and then expands upon it by using a simple series of questions to help explore the impact of stress in a manner that considers the effects of culture on the process. The first question addresses the stressful event stage of the process: How does belonging to this cultural group affect the nature and frequency of potentially stressful life events that one experiences? Slavin et al. assert that culture can affect this stage in that stressful events may be related to one’s minority status, through discrimination, one’s socio-economic status, or may be related to the practice of specific cultural customs. The second stage of the model asks: How does belonging to this cultural group affect the way events are defined or the way the stressfulness of the event is evaluated? This question adds culturerelevant dimensions such as one’s cultural or family definition of the stressful event and the degree of “fit” between the stressful event and the cultural frame within which it is understood. The third stage asks: How does belonging to the ethnic group affect perceptions about the availability of resources, expectations for successful coping, and the coping options available? This question expands the standard model to include cultural definitions of behavioral options, role definitions, beliefs about fate and how the system works, ethnic identity and beliefs about group efficacy, and the definition of family, community, and social network. The question asked at the forth stage of the model is: How does belonging to this ethnic group affect choices about ways of coping with a stressful event? The Standard Model’s forth stage is thus expanded to consider the affects of culture-specific behaviors, cultural and mainstream sanctions against some coping strategies, and biculturation, or the acquisition of skills to negotiate both minority and majority cultural settings. Finally, at the fifth stage one inquires: How does belonging to the ethnic group affect the psychological and physical health problems that develop in response to stress when coping efforts are inadequate? Here, Slavin et al. have added cultural influences on symptom presentation and cultural norms for behavior to the standard model’s outcomes stage. Slavin et al. note the strong Euro-centric worldview inherent in the Standard Model, and thus in their own. This is a significant drawback for the Slavin model regarding its potential use with American Indians. As noted by the model’s developers, “[q]uestions regarding the issues of event ‘ownership’ in the stress process are especially important to consider. If a culture defines an event as belonging to the family as a whole or to the father as head of the family, studying the coping efforts of just one family member...may provide a very misleading picture of the process of adjusting to that event” (p. 161). The model approaches the issue of stress and coping from a position that is diametrically opposed to the Indigenous theory of healing and integration of the soul wound. Though the model does attempt to integrate issues of culture into traditional Western stress and coping theory—and one could argue that vocation in a cultural context such as the warrior role could be assigned to either the third or forth stage of this model—the individual, linear, and single-generational nature of the model present innate deficits for its use in understanding issues with American Indians. The model developed by Walters and Simoni utilizes the work of Dinges and Joos (1988), and Krieger (1999). Dinges and Joos’s model elaborated on an earlier model of stress and coping by including stressful and traumatic life events. They also identified environmental contexts and person factors as potential mediators or moderators of such events and the resultant outcomes. Krieger’s model incorporates the health outcomes of discrimination and ecosocial theory. This model highlights the importance of considering identity processes and expressions of self as moderators of the discrimination-health outcome relationship. The Indigenist model expands upon these two models and “delineates the pathways between social experiences and health outcomes, thus providing a coherent means of integrating social, psychological, and cultural reasoning about discrimination and other forms of trauma as determinants of health” (p. 521), and does so with the intent to be pan-culturally specific for American Indians. The Indigenist model incorporates historical trauma into the possible stressors for an individual. Thus, the model acknowledges the legacy of Soul Wound. Cultural buffers are utilized by the model in relationship to coping with stress, including such buffers as spiritual coping and traditional health practices which have been noted in the aforementioned soul wound studies as significant factors in healing. Also, one might argue that the cultural role of warrior can be held within these cultural buffers. The final “stage” of the model includes three health-related outcomes; (physical) health, alcohol/drug, and mental health. These outcome sub-categories are somewhat ambiguous in label and meaning, and the authors provide no explanation as to why the ‘alcohol/drug’ sub-category stands alone. One is left to wonder about their possible meanings and implications. Furthermore, though the model acknowledges the occurrence of historical trauma, it is nevertheless linear in structure and theory, and is unable to account for the multi-, trans-, and intergenerational nature of the soul wound. Danieli’s (1998) framework, Trauma and the Continuity of Self: A Multidimensional, Multidisciplinary Integrative (TCMI) framework, was developed in an attempt to avoid the reductionistic tendencies of most psychological models. The framework utilizes a conventional ecological model consisting of concentric circles placed on a horizontal plane and representing the individual and the multiple systems that make up one’s identity. At the center (the smallest circle) is the individual. The concentric circles moving outward from the individual include the following systems in order from the center: the family, the social/communal, the religious/cultural, the national, and the international . These systems are placed upon a vertical vector representing a time dimension from past to present, through one’s future. According to the model, any of the systems may move independently from the others along the time dimension. Moreover, any of the systems may be subject to any number of disciplines regarding theory, research and/or intervention. Thus, there is a recognition of the process of trauma being intergenerational and holistic in its conceptualization, integration, and healing. This model postulates that the individual in a state of healthy, non-traumatized equilibrium should have access to, and movement within all identity dimensions (systems). Traumatization causes “a rupture, a possible regression, and a state of being stuck in this free flow” (Danieli, 1999, p. 7). This rupture is represented as a fragmenting of the concentric circles affected by the trauma. Over time, this rupture may be repaired in some places, and not in others. Danieli refers to being stuck in a state of free flow—persistent traumatological symptomology—as fixity. A variety of factors play a role in determining, “the elements and degree of the rupture, the disruption, disorganization, and disorientation, and the severity of the fixity” (Danieli, 1999, p. 7). Such factors include the time, duration, and extent of traumatization, the meaning made of the trauma by the individual, the coping mechanisms utilized to deal with the trauma, and any postvictimization traumata experienced by the individual. The experience of fixity may lead to future vulnerability of the individual throughout the lifetime, particularly in relation to future traumatic events. The TCMI framework facilitates the process of identifying the most appropriate system(s) of intervention for mental and social health professionals, in that the model “allows evaluation of whether and how much of each system was ruptured or proved resilient” (p. 7). Complete resolution and integration of the trauma must take place within all the relevant dimensions/systems within the framework, and therefore, cannot be achieved by an individual alone. Given the idiosyncratic nature in which fixity develops and is resolved, investigations that study this phenomenon need to respect the idiosyncratic nature of the process. Danieli asserts that the family (however defined) is the vehicle of the transmission of culture from generation to generation, and transmission takes place with the backdrop of the cultures of each of the systems. “Thus, beyond the familial, from parents to offspring, entire bodies of human endeavor are vehicles of transmission: oral history, literature and drama, history and politics, religious ritual and writings, cultural traditions and the study thereof, such as anthropology, biology and genetics. And different disciplines examine, from their different perspectives, these identity dimensions” (Danieli, 1999, p. 10). In perspective then, multigenerational effects of trauma can be manifest as psychological (e.g., PTSD), sociological (e.g., familial abuse), legal (e.g., restitution for victimization), and/or political (e.g., war cycles, ethnic cleansing). The TCMI framework possesses many of the qualities articulated by the American Indian concept of healing the Soul Wound. The model allows for multigenerational reparative and preventative strategies, such as the maintenance of cultural roles or vocations as a method for healing the soul wound. The TCMI framework makes an accommodation for the multidimensional approach to healing trauma that American Indian culture espouses, through the many systems affected within the individual’s ecology. The framework recognizes the fluidity of time and system interactions within the coping process that follows trauma, and does not take a perspective on the outward appearance of resilient or vulnerable coping styles, but views all coping as a multi-level adaptational process. Furthermore, the framework’s time dimension recognizes that time does not necessarily heal all, but may actually magnify the affects of a traumatic event for some traumatized persons, holding implications for subsequent generations. Danieli indicates that her model is useful for understanding traumatized populations, on an inter-, trans-, and multi-generational level. She has addressed the models applicability to police officers and their families (1994), as well as to traumatized populations such as American Indians (1999). The framework is yet to be tested; however; and there is some question as to its applicability to cultures that emphasize the family or the community, versus the individual emphasis demonstrated in Western psychology. Studying the Soul Wound Received Method. A literature review revealed two main lines of research on soul wound: (a) studies seeking statistical support for the existence of an overrepresentation of symptoms and disorders indicative of the existence of soul wound, and (b) studies that examine the benefits of psychoeducational groups in helping to heal soul wound. The primary method of investigation for such studies has been positivistic or exploratory in nature. The aim of these studies has been to substantiate the existence of soul wound, and to demonstrate the beginnings of its integration through some culturally-sensitive intervention. No published studies have examined the role of vocation in relationship to soul wound. In fact, no published studies have specifically examined the concept of soul wound in its entirety. Clearly, one barrier to doing such research is the complexity of the topic. Given that the available theory of soul wound is undeveloped due to a lack of research, there is a plethora of possible constructs that have been used to describe the phenomenon. Quantitative methods of investigation into soul wound, therefore, are quite problematic. At this time, there is very little direction as to which factors are most important. Developing an investigation that seeks to control, manipulate, or quantify the experience would suffer from a degree of arbitrariness that would be a built in threat to the validity of the study. It is thus not surprising that the three stress/trauma theories discussed earlier are in their present states, insufficient and incomplete in articulating the nature of soul wound and its healing. There is a need to explore and better articulate soul wound, and quantitative measures are insufficient and unsuited for exploring the totality of the phenomenon. Legitimate Ways of Knowing. Worldview has been recognized as significant in psychological healing (Ibrahim, 1991; Wampold, 2001). A case has also been made in the field of multicultural psychology for cultural competence on the part of the healing practitioner; including a working understanding of the client’s culture and worldview around healing practices (Ibrahim, 1991). In considering an appropriate method for researching soul wound, the reader must be cognizant of the concept of holism and balance that is core to American Indian worldview. Noncompartmentalization is tantamount to this understanding. Within the American Indian Worldview (AIW), there is no separation of mind, emotion, body, and spirit. Likewise, there is no separation of cosmological systems. All are connected—all systems, all organisms. AIW suggests that it is only through this awareness and persistent observation of the systems around him/her, can one acquire further knowledge and wisdom. More elegantly put: “The American Indian principle of interpretation/observation is simplicity itself: ‘We are all relatives.’... ‘We are all relatives’ when taken as a methodological tool for obtaining knowledge means that we observe the natural world by looking for relationships between various things in it. That is to say, everything in the natural world has relationships with every other thing and the total set of relationships makes up the natural world as we experience it. This concept is simply the relativity concept as applied to a universe that people experience as alive and not as dead or inert.” (Deloria, Jr., 1999, p. 34) It then follows that when thinking of events and the passage of time, it is not the what of the event that is most important, but the how and wbere. Process thinking is emphasized. In such, all relationships are historical, enduring in time, and susceptible to any of the same disruptive forces that characterize human history and relationships. Within this historical process of relationships, each instance of connectivity is characterized by the space it occupies. In this process understanding of the spatial aspect of relationships, each organism and system must find the proper living space in order to function in balance and harmony with all others. The implications of the spatial relationship of systems and organisms to each other in more traditional Western terms, are that in knowing the sets of relationships between various entities, one is enabled to predict patterns of occurrences and/or behaviors. Another concept pertaining to the American Indian time/space perspective holds significant implications for the research among American Indians—the passage of time. “Time is a complicated concept in a living universe. The basic pattern seems to be that of growth processes, which is to say that time has qualitative packets of quanta that are regulated by the amount of time it takes an organism or entity to complete a step in maturation. Thus all entities are regulated by the seasons, and their interaction has a superior season of its own that encompasses their relationship and has a moral purpose. Tribes broke human patterns down into several steps: prebirth, babies, children, youths, adults, mature adults, and elders.” (Deloria, Jr., 1999, p. 57) Thus, generations within a family (or other) system are the units of measure for the passage time. Decisions are measured by their affects on seven generations (three above and three below the decision maker); however, the passage of time over generations is understood to apply to all systems and not merely to humans. It is only over the course of the passage of time that systems and organisms choose to reveal themselves, all of course being alive and volitional. Because all elements of the living universe have power/soul, they are all capable of managing their own existence within cosmology. Humans, therefore, need only remain diligent observers to the unfolding of the process over time, add newly gained data to data existing from previous generations, and they will acquire the necessary data for all knowing. This holistic process of gathering data contrasts with the reductionist epistemology adopted by traditional Western science. In the AIW, no phenomena are discounted, labeled as outliers, insignificant, or anomalous. All phenomena are weighed and considered in light of its relationships with the whole, and the space and time it occupies before any knowledge can be developed. “...science in the western context describes human behavior in such restrictive terminology that it describes very little except the methodology acceptable to the present generation of academics and researchers. While an increasing number of American Indian students are mastering the language and theoretical frameworks of western knowledge, there remains the feeling of incompleteness and inadequacy of what has been learned.” (Deloria, Jr., 1999, p. 147). As the literature reviewed above suggests, there are several ways in which American Indians have learned to cope with the soul wound. The much more public considerations of coping have focused on deficits within the AI community. The image of the drunk or poor Indian isolated on a barren reservation has become an all too common stereotype. This stereotype is a companion to the media driven image of the AI as a “heathen” who threatens the white settler, or at best, a “noble savage” who needs to be tolerated or used to the advantages of European colonialist. Much less public or scholarly attention has been paid to healthy ways in which AI’s have learned to address the soul wound. Initial efforts in this area suggest that vocational choices that allow AI’s to express the warrior spirit serve, in a part, to facilitate recovery from the soul wound (e.g., military service). The purpose of this investigation is to extend this research to explore the degree to which the vocational choice of being a police officer may be a modern method for AI’s to address the challenge of the soul wound. To that end, this investigation seeks to address several relevant questions. One of the questions addressed in this investigation is how does the law enforcement vocation constrain/facilitate healing the soul wound and serve as an expression of the warrior spirit? Related to this question is the role of community/family in relationship to vocation and the connection of duty to community/family in vocational choice and satisfaction, and how that affects the integration of soul wound? These questions are important as a result of the literature existing in the vocational and other fields (Juntunen, 2001; Deloria, 1999, 1994; McCormik, Rod, & Amundson, 1997) that identifies the difference between traditional American Indian and traditional Western values around collectivity and individuality. This literature attempts to outline the value placed upon a collectivist orientation held Pan-culturally by American Indians. AI worldview is played out in values around sharing, cooperation, community and extended family. Embedded within this collectivist orientation are worldviews toward the tribal community, elders, and children. Traditionally, “[t]he extended family (at least three generations) and tribal group take precedence over all else...Among tribal members, a strong sense of belonging relies on cultural values, social relationships, as well as a sacred sense of connection with one’s ancestry and tribal history...As a result, many who are asked to describe themselves will most likely describe some aspect of their family or tribal heritage and affiliation.” (Garret & Walkingstick Garret, 1994, p. 136-137). Family is a highly important source of intrinsic worth for AIs, and it extends well beyond blood ties to the claiming of “fictive” kin, clan members, and community members. The orientation is one of process living with family/community. Connection to family/community has been observed to facilitate healing soul wound in the existing research. Furthermore, many AI people view family/community as the main focus of living, rather their careers (Morgan et al., 1986). This study seeks to explore how American Indian law enforcement officers view their vocation in relationship to community/family, and how this worldview facilitates/constrains healing soul wound. Another goal of this investigation was to enhance our understanding of the role American Indian spirituality plays in relationship to vocation choice of AI police officers and their management of the soul wound. Traditionally, for American Indian persons, every-day living is considered to be a spiritual expression. Vocational or cultural role could, therefore, be considered an expression of one’s spiritual nature, and this assertion has been made in respect to mainstream culture as well (Hansen, 1997). Akin to the collectivist orientation of American Indian values, is the spiritual worldview that everything is connected. At the center of AI spirituality is the sacred circle. The entire universe is viewed as cyclical and seeking to remain in harmony and balance. American Indian spirituality focuses on the harmony that comes from connection with all parts of the universe. Through the millennia, AI peoples have developed ceremonies and rituals to facilitate and maintain this state of balance. This worldview permeates all aspects of life, and is seen in traditional societal organizations. All roles, including that of the warrior, have their spiritual meaning and are grounded in the position they hold in maintaining the balance. Warrior societies have their own origin stories, behavioral codes, and ceremonies and rituals. Pan-culturally, a harmony ethos is emphasized. One essential role of the warrior was to reinforce proper spiritual behavior amongst tribal members. In policing and punishment roles, this translated into a communal emphasis on justice. Restorative justice was the focus, as the ultimate end sought was one of a re-balanced community (Holm, 1996, Barker, 1998). This study seeks to explore how American Indian law enforcement officers make meaning of their career choices in relationship to community, and their traditional AI cultures. An integral part of this aim is to explore how AI officers view themselves in relationship to the traditional warrior role, and how this constrains/facilitates healing soul wound. An additional goal of this investigation was to examine and interpret these constructs using a method that is congruent with American Indian indigenous methods of information gathering. Such an approach could not be achieved using a positivistic conceptualization of the phenomena that emphasized the relationship of constructs through average scores and variance from the obtained mean. Such an approach implies a hierarchy of values among the phenomena that is anti-theoretical to AIW. In searching for a method that would allow this investigation to use all the related phenomena within the analytic process, it has been determined that this investigation would best be served using some form of critical ethnography (Burawoy, 1991) within an ecological perspective (Brofenbrenner, 1979; Coleman et al., 2003; Miranda 2002). Therefore, Extended Case Method and histography will be used to develop an understanding of the process of soul wound and the persistence of warrior spirit, and the way it may influence the meaning participants ascribe to their vocations. Such a methodological approach allows for the researcher, as the primary instrument of data collection and analysis, to place value on human perception, observation, and to gather data from a number of sources. Finally, this approach accommodates the need for theoretical induction based upon detailed data gathered in the study. Outcomes from such investigation can include new, more complete theories for explaining the role of vocation in the integration of Soul Wound, or can help to inform and augment existing theory in that area. Methodological Framework: Extended Case Method. The Extended Case Method (ECM) (Burawoy, 1991), provides a theoretical alternative to positivistic methods, or those that seek to suggest that structural variables such as race or ethnicity do not have inherent influences on an individual’s way of being. ECM allows the researcher to rework existing theories through the addition of data gathered in a field of interest. Unlike interpretive methodological theories that seek to create new emic-based conceptual theories, ECM offers the opportunity for the researcher to scrutinize existing theory and systematically explore what appear to be enigmatic data. ECM asserts that research method and technique of gathering data are interrelated, but independent of one another. Thus, ECM allows the researcher to gather data through the most appropriate vehicle for the study’s aims. This study employs the use of historiography, which will serve as the method for recording individual case histories of AI officers through recorded historical data and in-depth interviews. This, in accordance with AIW will allow the researcher to integrate the officers’ tribal history as it is unique and applicable to his or her experience in a manner that is not possible within other methodological traditions. ECM emphasizes theory development, thus this study’s findings may be helpful in expanding any of the three theoretical frameworks mentioned previously. Existing research on soul wound have not sought to explain the role of vocation as a potential mediating factor between the soul wound and its resolution. Furthermore, though some research has addressed the importance of spirituality and spiritual practices, none have examined vocation itself as an expression of spirituality and cultural role, and its possible healing qualities. Instead, previous studies have confined their attention to inventorying the symptomology of soul wound, and the benefit and healing affect of naming the condition for sufferers. ECM provides a unique opportunity to utilize contextualized phenomenological data to reconstruct existing theories of soul wound formation, transmission, and integration. As previously mentioned, American Indian information gathering traditions consider all sources of information. ECM provides a culturally-congruent method of data collection, in that it allows for the employment of a range of techniques, as well as multiple sources of data. This flexibility lends itself well to the endeavor of researching soul wound, which is historical and intergenerational in nature. The method allows for the utilization of historical data from colonization to recent times, and is able to mesh those data with information collected from individual cases through in-depth interviews. There is the ability to examine previously collected data (both quantitative and qualitative) simultaneously with present-day phenomenological data. Phenomenological data is essential in understanding soul wound. Soul wound research is in its infancy, and conducting in-depth interviews with this population is the best technique for gathering relevant phenomenological information. The present study thus answers the calls of researchers in many fields, who have urged that the dynamic phenomena of soul wound be explored in a holistic manner congruent with American Indian methods and values. Finally, it is clear that though scant research is available on soul wound, the vast majority that does exist has been completed by American Indians themselves. Their “insider” status has brought invaluable expertise to the studies. They have been able to bring the knowledge base formally held by the immersed researcher, but have been able to also gather information objectively in the vein of the distanced researcher. ECM does not interpret the role of the researcher as dichotomized; distanced versus immersed, but conceptualizes the researcher as a uniquely informed, objective scientist. Research is viewed as a process and an interaction wherein a knowledgebase is constructed. This conceptualization of research is congruent with American Indian theory of information gathering, wherein all knowledge building is a process, dynamic, relational, and is transforming to all involved. It is asserted that this researcher’s insider status will enhance the unfolding of the research process in both the ECM and American Indian traditions. Historiography. The vehicle for technique of data acquisition within the ECM framework for this study is that of historiography. Historiography is an appropriate vehicle for working within the ECM model as well as the soul wound concept. Soul wound is by its very nature historical and sociological. Historiography allows for data collection through integrating historical text data with qualitative data. Historical text data can be used to inform qualitative data collection, and to augment theory development. Thus, historical data on the splintering of the traditional warrior role, for example, and be utilized to facilitate the collection of qualitative interview data with participants. A historically-focused data collection technique is congruent with AIW regarding past events, and is also complimentary to the traditional AI concept on information gathering which views all sources of data as worthy of consideration. Historiography holds that history portrays the events of real people whose actions mirror their intentions, and therefore, the researcher must examine the sequences of events to determine the structure and nature of a particular historical phenomenon. Furthermore, historiography espouses the concept of microstoria, which stresses the methodological need of testing historical concepts against existing reality on a small scale (Iggers, 1997). Microhistory seeks to define and measure historical phenomena with reference to the multiplicity of social representations they produce. This approach lends itself particularly well to studying issues of hegemony and social inequity. This study will utilize data from historical writings, and will collect qualitative data from participants that are both historical and contemporary in nature. Participants’ cultural and communal histories will be collected utilizing a comprehensive history form developed to gather soul wound and vocational data that is historical in nature. Contemporary data on soul wound will be gathered via oral history interviews. An oral history is a living history of one’s life experiences. Oral history utilizes audio and video tape as means of recording people’s experiences to be used as a vital tool for understanding past events in a contemporary timeframe. Oral history provides a culturally congruent means of data collection that compliments the oral tradition of AI cultures. Chapter 3: METHODOLOGY This study explored how American Indian law enforcement officers saw their vocation in relationship to the traditional role of the warrior, and if in turn, it may serve as a culturally relevant means of healing the soul wound (i.e., multigenerational historical trauma). Research Design. Sample. The study recruited twelve currently, or formerly sworn law enforcement officers employed by, or retired from any non-tribal agency and who also identified as American Indian. Previous authors on this topic (e.g., Holm, 1996) have made the case for Pan-cultural similarities amongst tribes regarding the warrior role, thus no specific effort was made to recruit participants from any particular tribal nation or geographic region. Primary recruitment targeted large departments in Wisconsin, Illinois, Colorado, and Arizona. Participants were recruited through advertisements forwarded by the department’s administration in IL, CO, and AZ. In Wisconsin, advertisements were forwarded to potential participants with assistance from the police officers’ association. The advertisement was also forwarded to the National Native American Law Enforcement Association (NNALEA), and was placed on law enforcement web sites and secure chat sites. Finally, nomination, snowball sampling, and informal contacts played a major role in the recruitment of participants. It is important to note that the principal investigator is formally an “insider” to the population being both an ex-law enforcement officer and identified as an American Indian. Table 2 provides information on the specific means through which each participant was recruited.