Indigenous Family System
A three-generation Navajo (Diné) family genogram illustrating the extended kinship network, matrilineal clan system.
Interactive Indigenous Family System
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About This Genogram
A three-generation Navajo (Diné) family genogram illustrating the extended kinship network, matrilineal clan system, and the lasting effects of historical trauma including boarding school experiences. Demonstrates the central role of the grandmother as matriarch, the resilience of cultural traditions alongside intergenerational trauma, and the tension between reservation life and urban relocation.
How to Read This Genogram
Cultural genograms extend the standard notation to capture heritage, immigration history, and the values or practices a family carried across geographic and generational transitions. Country of origin is often noted beside or below a generation's symbols, and arrows or migration lines track when and where family members relocated. Dates of immigration anchor those movements in historical context, which matters because the political or economic conditions that prompted a move frequently shape the story the family tells about itself and the coping strategies it transmitted to the next generation.
Reading a cultural genogram well requires attending to what changed at each generational boundary and what remained constant. Language retention, religious practice, occupational patterns, and naming conventions are all data points that appear in or alongside the diagram. When a cultural practice persists across three generations in a new country, it often carries psychological weight for the family and deserves attention in assessment. When it disappears in one generation and reappears in the next, that gap can mark a period of assimilation stress or intergenerational conflict worth exploring in a clinical or educational context.
Key Patterns in This Genogram
Cultural Context
How cultural values and traditions shape family structure and relationships.
Family Roles
Culturally defined family roles, expectations, and intergenerational dynamics.
Immigration & Adaptation
How families navigate cultural transitions while maintaining identity and bonds.
Family Analysis
This 3-generation genogram maps 11 family members with birth years spanning from 1938 to 2001, comprising 5 males and 6 females (1 deceased). The genogram tracks 5 medical/psychological condition categories and 3 emotional relationship types across 7 documented dyads. The index patient is Nicole Nez (b. 1990), social worker (indian health service).
This culturally-informed genogram captures family dynamics across 3 generations, representing Navajo/Diné heritage. Occupational roles across generations — Alice as weaver, traditional healer (herbalist), Samuel as rancher, uranium mine worker, Mary as community health representative, Raymond as unemployed (formerly construction) — illustrate the family's socioeconomic trajectory.
Emotional relationship mapping reveals 4 close relationships, 2 distant relationships, 1 cutoff_repaired relationship. Specific patterns include a close relationship between Alice and Nicole, a close relationship between Alice and Sarah, a close relationship between Alice and Mary.
Medical and psychological conditions are documented in 9 of 11 family members (82%). Substance appear in 4 members (Samuel, Raymond, Laura...), affecting 1 female and 3 males. Depressive disorders appear in 3 members (Mary, Raymond, Justin), affecting 1 female and 2 males. Trauma-related conditions appear in 2 members (Alice, Samuel), affecting 1 female and 1 male. Comorbidity is observed in 3 family members, with Alice presenting 2 concurrent condition categories. The multigenerational prevalence of substance suggests both genetic predisposition and possible environmental or behavioral transmission pathways.
This genogram demonstrates the importance of culturally-informed clinical practice. The Navajo/Diné cultural context shapes family expectations, gender roles, and help-seeking behaviors in ways that must be understood before clinical interpretation. Cultural genograms help practitioners avoid ethnocentric assumptions and recognize how migration, acculturation, and cultural identity intersect with family dynamics and psychological well-being.
Build a Similar Genogram
A practitioner documenting a family similar to this one would typically record three generations of household composition, significant life events such as births, deaths, marriages, and separations, any relevant medical or mental health history, and the quality of key relationships between members. That information comes from a combination of the client's verbal account, intake questionnaires, and, where available, collateral records. The completed diagram captures both the factual structure of the family and the practitioner's clinical observations about relational patterns, making it a reference that can be shared across disciplines or reviewed at future stages of treatment.
GenogramAI's AI genogram generator allows you to build a diagram like this one from a plain-language description of the family. You type or paste a narrative, such as the basic structure and any key relationships or health history you want to include, and the AI parses that text, places the correct symbols, draws the appropriate relationship lines, and arranges the layout automatically. The result is a fully editable diagram that you can refine, annotate, and export for clinical records or educational use. Try the AI genogram creator to generate your own genogram from a text description in seconds.
Genogram Symbols Used in This Example
The following standard genogram symbols appear in the Indigenous Family System. Each symbol follows McGoldrick and Gerson clinical notation conventions.
Person Symbols
- Male (Square)
- A square represents a male family member in standard genogram notation.
- Female (Circle)
- A circle represents a female family member in standard genogram notation.
Status Markers
- Deceased (X)
- An X drawn through the symbol indicates the person is deceased.
- Index Patient (Arrow)
- An arrow pointing to a person identifies them as the index patient — the individual who is the focus of the clinical assessment.
Structural Relationships
- Marriage
- A solid horizontal line connecting two individuals represents a marriage or committed partnership.
- Divorce
- A marriage line with two diagonal slashes indicates divorce or legal separation.
- Parent-Child
- A vertical line descending from a couple line to a child symbol represents a parent-child relationship.
Emotional Relationships
- Close
- Two parallel lines between individuals represent an emotionally close relationship.
- Distant
- A dotted line represents an emotionally distant or disengaged relationship.
Medical Conditions
- Anxiety Conditions
- Shading in the genogram symbol indicates anxiety-spectrum diagnoses (GAD, panic disorder, phobias, OCD).
- Depressive Disorders
- Shading indicates depressive conditions (major depression, dysthymia, bipolar disorder).
- Diabetes
- Shading indicates Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes.
- Trauma/PTSD
- Shading indicates post-traumatic stress disorder or complex trauma responses.
Related Resources
- Explore our guide to cultural genograms for mapping heritage and cultural context.
- See how genograms in social work practice incorporates cultural assessment.
- This example uses the close relationship symbol to denote emotional closeness between family members.
- The distant relationship symbol in this genogram indicates emotional disengagement.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Create Your Own Genogram
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Educational disclaimer: This genogram example is an educational illustration of genogram notation and family systems concepts. Examples based on public figures use publicly available information. They are not clinical documents. All examples are intended for learning genogram symbols and patterns.