Published by Te Rau Matatini, 2016 Eyininiw mistatimwak: The role of the Lac La Croix Indigenous Pony for First Nations youth mental wellness Volume 1 | Issue 2 a potential key player in First Nations youths’ healing journeys. A culturally-responsive Article 6, December 2016 framework is offered that highlights the ways in Angela Snowshoe which a mutual helping relationship can be built University of Regina between First Nations youth and this critically endangered Indigenous horse. Noel V. Starblanket University of Regina Keywords: Equine-assisted learning, equine- assisted therapy, Indigenous horses, First Nations, youth, decolonising, culture, mental Abstract health, Lac La Croix, land-based. First Nations youth across Canada face Dedication. This article is dedicated to the four considerably higher risk to develop mental health original mares and all their descendants, in the issues compared to their non-First Nations physical or spirit world: May your legacy live on counterparts. These disproportionate risks have forever. arisen within the context of an extensive history of harmful treatment of First Nations peoples borne of political policies aimed at the Introduction destruction of First Nations cultures. Research Equine-assisted learning (EAL) is a relatively new has demonstrated the importance of culture for approach to knowledge acquisition that draws positive mental health outcomes among First primarily on the tenets of experiential learning, Nations youth. Like other land-based initiatives, that is, learning through hands-on experience there has been growing interest regarding the with the horse (Dell, Chalmers, Dell, Sauve, & importance of equine-assisted learning and MacKinnon, 2008). In many EAL programs, therapy for First Nations youth mental wellness. participants engage in structured, facilitator-led However, there is limited scientific sessions that provide opportunities to become understanding of the mechanisms by which First involved in situations that require interactions Nations youth can heal with horses, and even less with the horse, and to reflect on these is known about how equine-assisted programs experiences. The overall intent is “to create can be adapted for cultural relevance. The current opportunities whereby participants, through paper addresses this gap in the literature by direct experience with the horse, learn about self, introducing the Lac La Croix Indigenous Pony as internalize this awareness within the sessions, and 60 Volume 1 | Issue 2 | Article 6 – Snowshoe & Starblanket generalize it to other life situations” (Dell et al., Seven Directions Equine-Assisted Therapy Program 2008, p. 91). Although the core elements of EAL with Lakota youth; Whitbeck & Parsells, 2015). are quite similar, equine-assisted therapy (EAT) is While these attempts have shed some light on the considered a distinct approach in which the horse usefulness of these programs for First Nations is viewed as “an integral part of the therapeutic youth, there is still little understanding about process” (Masini, 2010, p. 30) and “central to the what components are essential for positive model in large part due to its ability to read and outcomes, and even less is known about how to sense humans’ feelings and emotions” (Gergely, modify these components for cultural relevance 2012, p. 89). In EAT programs, the sessions often (Whitbeck & Parsells, 2015). focus solely on groundwork with horses (Lee, Dakin, & McLure, 2016). Regardless of the Although the horse is an undisputedly specific modality, EAT incorporates horses fundamental element in EAL and EAT, there has experientially for emotional growth by facilitating been little to no attention paid to questioning a collaborative effort between a mental health whether the horse is indeed a neutral, objective professional and a horse specialist to address party in the healing process. The current clients’ specific treatment goals (EAGALA, manuscript utilises a social justice and 2009). Despite the growing interest in both EAL decolonising lens to challenge (and dismantle) and EAT programs, there remains “a serious this dominant proposition by introducing the Lac absence of theoretical models and frameworks La Croix Indigenous Pony and its role for First within both the broad area of animal-assisted and Nations youth mental wellness through a more specifically equine-assisted interventions” comprehensive review of the literature (i.e., (Dell et al., 2008, p. 99). Kruger and Serpell research studies, academic publications, books, (2006) acknowledge this significant gap in the news reports, and radio interviews, as well as the literature by specifying that “[t]he field of animal- authors’ personal communications through assisted interventions currently lacks a unified, traditional Elder consultations and horse dance widely accepted, or empirically supported ceremony), with special consideration given to theoretical framework for explaining how and the voices of the Indigenous peoples from Bois why relationships between humans and animals Forte Band of Chippewa and Lac La Croix First are potentially therapeutic” (p. 27). Nation. Based on the review of the literature, we offer the Four Blankets of Indigenous Horse-Based Despite the unequivocal links to other land-based Healing and discuss how each component of the programs (Wildcat, McDonald, Irlabacher-Fox, framework must be integrated into equine- Coulthard, 2014), EAL and EAT have only assisted programs to promote optimal wellness recently been identified as a culturally-relevant outcomes for First Nations youth, where the Lac strategy to facilitate learning and promote healing La Croix Indigenous Pony is positioned as the among First Nations1 youth (Dell et al., 2011). most pertinent and central agent of the healing Both types of programs are a particularly process due to its long-standing relationship with promising for use with First Nations youth First Nations peoples and shared history of because they utilise an experiential approach to colonisation. Our findings support the much- learning that fits with Indigenous ways of knowing needed paradigm shift away from a Western and being which regards a relationship with the viewpoint of “horses as mere objects” in therapy land and all its cohabitants as a priority and towards an Indigenous perspective that (Greenwood, de Leeuw, Lindsay, & Reading, considers the ethical implications for the care and 2015). There are, however, only a few known agency of these horses (Matamonasa-Bennett, programs that have been specifically created for 2015, p. 35). and used with First Nations youth (e.g., Shonga Ska: Sacred Horse Society with Omaha youth and 1 The term First Nations refers to the descendants of the original inhabitants of Canada who lived here for many thousands of years prior to European contact. The term Ojibwe refers to a specific group of First Nations peoples. The term Indigenous refers to First Nations, Métis, and Inuit peoples of Canada collectively. 61 Published by Te Rau Matatini, 2016 Decolonising the History of commodity (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, 2012). the Horse As archaeological technology becomes more [H]orses were not introduced, necessarily, by the sophisticated, however, the colonial history of Spaniards; these are Indigenous horses that the horse is being increasingly challenged. originated here. And, I know the Spaniards Contrary to what the dominant society continues introduced horses to the Plains Indians and so forth, but we had Indigenous ponies here, and the to believe today, the oldest known fossil remains Lac La Croix Ponies, that are Indigenous to his of the horse have been reportedly located not in land – Larry Aiken. (Kleffman, 2013) Europe or Asia, but in North America (Collin, 2014). Furthermore, Henderson (1991) contends Despite numerous claims from traditional Elders that there is no reason why the horse could not and knowledge keepers that horses were vital to have survived the Pleistocene era (commonly First Nations ways of life prior to European known as the Ice Age) along with the deer, bison, contact (Black Elk & Neihardt, 1932; Collin, and elk, while larger species such as the woolly 2014; Lawrence, 1998), First Nations peoples’ mammoth perished. Henderson (1991) presents oral history of the horse is not treated as evidence related to ancient artifacts, petroglyphs, “historical fact” from the views of dominant and oral history to support these claims. society (Collin, 2013). As such, the Indigenous According to an article in Canadian Geographic horse2 remains scientifically invalidated and thus Magazine (Singer, 2005), “there is clear evidence non-existent. The basis for presumption appears of horses until 12,000 years ago, with isolated to be rooted in the context of an extensive history finds indicating there may have been horses of aversive treatment of First Nations peoples; closer to 3000-1000 years ago.” That means there along with the arrival of the Europeans came could have been horses in Canada as late as AD their belief that anything that was civilised or 1000, about 500 years before the arrival of advanced originated from their homeland. In the Europeans and well after the presumed 1500-1700s, one of the marks of civilisation was extinction, and those horses would have one’s possession of the horse and mastery of numbered in the millions. horsemanship skills. Because the horse was used for travel, buying, selling, and trading, the Scientific evidence is building that supports the number of horses an individual owned