Is there a Johns Hopkins study behind the Native American grief ritual?

By How Minds Work · Updated October 2026 · Sources listed below

Key takeaways

• The study people link is about chronic pain, not grief.
• It describes 21 interviews, so it can't prove that any ritual works.
• The river-and-stone version online is a modern adaptation, not a documented Lakota rite.

What does the Johns Hopkins study actually say?

Many viral grief rituals point to a Johns Hopkins study when people ask for proof. The page that gets linked is a 2014 paper listed on a Johns Hopkins research portal. Researchers interviewed 21 American Indian adults who lived with chronic pain.

The participants described practices such as smudging, the sweat lodge, ceremonial tobacco, feasting, pipes, storytelling and traditional healers. That is what the abstract lists. It does not mention releasing stones, star feeding or grief.

It is also a qualitative study. People told researchers what they do and what it means to them. That is useful, but it can't show that a practice causes relief.

Where does the stone-release version come from?

We couldn't trace the river-and-stone version to a primary Lakota source. The closest real rite we found is Keeping of the Soul, called Wanáǧi Yuhápi. The Aktá Lakota Museum describes it as one of the Seven Sacred Rites.

In that rite, a lock of hair from the person who died is purified over sweetgrass and wrapped in a buckskin bundle. A Keeper of the Soul looks after it for about a year, and then a release ceremony is held. Stones in a river are not part of that description.

So the stone version is best understood as a modern practice inspired by older ideas. That is fine. It just means nobody should say it is a documented tradition.

Does that mean a stone ritual is useless?

No. It means the strongest evidence is somewhere else. Lab studies on ritual and loss, and clinical studies on unfinished emotional business, point in a helpful direction. Those studies are not about stones. They are about what a structured action does for the person doing it.

We cover the best of that research in Do grief rituals work if you don't believe in them?

What the research says

Greensky et al. (2014): qualitative interviews with 21 American Indian adults with chronic pain, describing traditional practices they use. The abstract does not describe a grief ritual or stone release.

Norton and Gino (2014): three experiments found that rituals after loss lowered grief, and increased feelings of control helped explain it. The losses were things like a loved one, a lover or a lottery, and the work was done in a research setting, so it is not a bereavement trial.

Keep reading

• Can you do a Native American-inspired grief ritual if you are not Native?
• Do grief rituals actually work, even if you don't believe in them?
• Does throwing stones into water or burning a letter help you let go?
• Lakota Keeping of the Soul (Wanagi Yuhapi) explained (blog)
• Native American grief ritual: what Keeping of the Soul teaches (blog)

References

1. Greensky, C., Stapleton, M.A., Walsh, K., Gibbs, L., Abrahamson, J., Finnie, D.M., et al. (2014). A Qualitative Study of Traditional Healing Practices among American Indians with Chronic Pain. Pain Medicine, 15(10), 1795-1802. doi.org/10.1111/pme.12488
2. Aktá Lakota Museum & Cultural Center (St. Joseph's Indian School). Keeping of the Soul (Wanáǧi Yuhápi), one of the Seven Sacred Rites. aktalakota.stjo.org/seven-sacred-rites/wanagi-yuhapi-keeping-of-the-soul/
3. Norton, M.I., & Gino, F. (2014). Rituals alleviate grieving for loved ones, lovers, and lotteries. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 143(1), 266-272. doi.org/10.1037/a0031772

This guide is for general information. It is not therapy, medical advice or a treatment. If grief is affecting your sleep, eating, work or safety, talk to a doctor or licensed counselor. In the United States you can call or text 988 at any time.