# Animals as Relatives: Native Wisdom, Trauma & Healing with Brandy Tomhave | EAW 46

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/equine-assisted-world-with-rupert-isaacson-6332132/animals-as-relatives-native-wisdom-trauma-healing-with-brandy-tomhave-eaw-46
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/equine-assisted-world-with-rupert-isaacson-6332132/animals-as-relatives-native-wisdom-trauma-healing-with-brandy-tomhave-eaw-46.md
Podcast: [Equine Assisted World with Rupert Isaacson](https://stenobird.com/podcast/equine-assisted-world-with-rupert-isaacson-6332132)
Published: 2026-01-14T07:33:00+00:00
Episode link: https://share.transistor.fm/s/d7c42495
Audio file: https://media.transistor.fm/d7c42495/2055527c.mp3
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Duration seconds: 7136

## Resource

In this powerful and far‑reaching episode of Equine Assisted World , Rupert Isaacson speaks with Brandy Tomhave, Executive Director of the Native American Humane Society and an enrolled member of the Choctaw Nation. This conversation goes far beyond animal welfare. Together, Rupert and Brandy explore how animals—especially dogs and horses—serve as bridges between cultures, as carriers of medicine, and as essential companions in communities shaped by historical trauma, systemic neglect, and extraordinary resilience. Brandy shares her journey from decades of Native American legal advocacy into animal welfare, describing how colonial systems, poverty, and misunderstood cultural differences have deeply affected both people and animals on reservations. She explains why animal wellness cannot be separated from human wellbeing, and how concepts like relationality, balance, generosity, and One Health have long existed in Indigenous cultures. From the lived realities of reservation life to the ethical challenges of modern animal rescue, from horses as cultural relatives to dogs as potential lifelines in communities facing suicide and mental health crises, this episode invites listeners to rethink what it truly means to be humane. This is a conversation about humility, listening, ambiguity, and the radical idea that being a “good relative”—to animals and to each other—might be the most important work we can do. If you want to support the show, you can do so at Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/LongRideHome 🔍 What You’ll Learn in This Episode Why Native American identity is political and sovereign—not racial How colonial trauma affects animals as well as people Why many “rescued” reservation dogs were never abandoned How dogs and horses function as spiritual, emotional, and cultur…

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