Healing the Children of Horse Nations | Season 3: Elders

Healing the Children of Horse Nations

A new multimedia package produced by The Imprint and Voices of Monterey Bay takes readers, viewers and listeners deep inside rural Oregon’s Indian Country, where elders are Indigenizing social work through equine therapy for young people who have experienced foster care and youth justice systems.

“Horses take us all the way back to our history before our land was taken away,” explains John Doug Spence, who leads equine therapy sessions across Oregon. “It’s a way of taking back our power.” 

The project, Healing the Children of Horse Nations, is a collaboration between The Imprint’s Indigenous Children and Families Reporter Nancy Marie Spears, an enrolled member of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma; podcast producers Julie and Mara Reynolds; and visual storyteller Josué Rivas, who is Mexica and Otomi.

This season, we’re hearing from elder survivors of systemic injustice and historical trauma. They’re showing newer generations what they’ve learned about how to address and prevent those kinds of harm. 

 

Our first episode for this season is titled Uncle John, and it was co-produced by Julie Reynolds, Mara J. Reynolds, and Nancy Marie Spears in partnership with The Imprint, as part of the multimedia project Healing the Children of Horse Nations.

LISTEN NOW: Episode 1 | Uncle John
READ: Healing the Children of Horse Nations at The Imprint
VIEW: The photographs of Josué Rivas