Coyote's Swing - by David Edward Walker (Paperback)

About the Book

Using a traditional Yakama tale as a motif, "Coyote's Swing" combines the author's firsthand experiences as a consulting psychologist with rare history and sociocultural critique, revealing how the U.S. mental health system reframes Native American reactions to oppression and marginalization into "mental disorders" and "mental illness," and how the Indian Health Service's contemporary practices echo historical injustices.

Book Synopsis

A Native foster youth brings a completed Pfizer Corporation's "PTSD Self-Quiz" she found in a U.S. Indian Health Service clinic waiting room to her psychologist, hoping a new diagnosis will allow her to discontinue her current stimulant medication. After advocating on her behalf and that of other Native clients in his care, the psychologist is put on a "performance improvement plan" by clinic supervisors. Subsequently, a nurse practitioner at the clinic sends a letter to the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services regarding concerns over poor medical care and infection control, only to be transferred out shortly after.

Coyote's Swing reveals how the U.S. mental health system reframes Native American reactions to oppression and marginalization into "mental disorders" and "mental illness." Contemporary practices of the Indian Health Service echo historical "Indian lunacy" determinations, false imprisonment in the Hiawatha Asylum for Insane Indians, stigmatizing of Native children kidnapped to federally- and mission-run boarding schools as "feebleminded," sterilizing of Native people evaluated by white psychologists as "unfit to reproduce," and long-standing doctrines of impairment and deficiency foreign to Native values of spiritual balance and wellbeing.

Immersed in this system and its history for two decades, David Edward Walker develops provocative connections between past and present while using a traditional Yakama tale as a motif. Combining narrative ease and a scholar's eye, he exposes how the "white man's Cat" continues to push Coyote, Sacred Trickster, on a "swing" of Western mental health ideology that has threatened Native lives and culture for over 150 years. Coyote's Swing combines Walker's firsthand experiences as a consulting psychologist with rare history and sociocultural critique.

Review Quotes

"A comprehensive account of how Native Americans... continue to be re-traumatized by a U.S. mental health profession that has exacerbated rather than reduced violence, suicide, and substance abuse. Original and compelling."

--Bruce E. Levine, author of A Profession Without Reason

"A great piece of work... I can't emphasize that enough...Incorporating his personal experiences of adversity and willingness to acclimate into our community was greatly appreciated."

--Lucy Smartlowit, MSW (Yakama Mexican), Interim Executive Director, Peacekeeper Society

"A tour de force [and] an extraordinary work of heart, spirit, incisive intelligence, and unflinching truth telling. I highly recommend it."

--Steven Newcomb (Shawnee-Lenape), author of Pagans in the Promised Land and co-producer of the documentary, "The Doctrine of Discovery"

"An engaging and highly informative read that expertly weaves a much-needed counterpoint to the prevailing narratives of the mental health profession."

--Dr. Amber Logan, psychologist, public health professional, Indigenous historian, and traditional Kahungunu Maori wahine

"In the IHS, dissension is often suppressed as blasphemy and whistleblowers are rarely tolerated. Walker is to be commended for his thorough research and timely recommendations for reform of the agency's delivery of mental health services in Indian County...I join him in praying that this period of tribal history comes to an end."

--Toobshudud Jack Fiander (Yakama), attorney