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The Wellbriety Movement
Don Coyhis’s Talk at the 2003 Circles
of Recovery Conference
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| Don
Coyhis (back row, center) poses with a group of
Conference participants at the close of the festivities
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| Don
Coyhis, Founder and President of White Bison, Inc.,
addresses the Conference |
Good morning everyone. I thought we would give a very
brief status of the Wellbriety Movement to start off
the Conference today. At White Bison, our mission is
to have 100 communities in healing by the year 2010.
We are looking for 100 communities that are free of
domestic violence or family violence. We have the ability
to include that in our vision, as well as the vision
of sobriety. We are looking for 100 communities to sign
up to do that.
Some of you know our website (www.whitebison.org)
on which we get about 147,000 hits every seven days.
There is a lot of information there that can be passed
on. If you have conferences or other events in your
communities you can ask us to include them. We have
tried to make it an easy place for Native people involved
in the movement to get information.
We started we called what we are
doing a Wellbriety
movement—not a sobriety movement but a Wellbriety
movement. We got the idea and word for Wellbriety from
the Passamaquoddy language from the tribe in Maine.
The actual word the Passamaquoddy Elders used wouldn’t
come across in English so we had to make up the word.
It means wellness—emotionally, mentally, physically
and spiritually. The word in their language means the
whole person. So that is how
the name of the Wellbriety movement got started.
Start of the
Wellbriety Movement
Shortly after the white buffalo calf was born in Janesville,
Wisconsin in August 1994, we were instructed to put
this Hoop of 100 eagle feathers together. The feathers
came from many different communities from throughout
the United States. We also had feathers come from New
Zealand, Australia, Hawaii and many other places. We
were instructed to take this Hoop on a Journey. They
said that wherever the Hoop would go, healing would
occur. We took the Hoop to the white buffalo calf in
Janesville in June of 1995 and held a gathering of Elders
of all four colors—red, yellow, black and white.
They did a ceremony where they put four Powers into
the Hoop. The first power was the Power of Healing.
The second power was a power of Hope.
The third was the power of Unity.
And the fourth was the Power to Forgive
the Unforgivable. They said those were the four
gifts that would be needed because we had entered what
they called the “coming together time,” the time of
healing.
We asked them, “How do we know this is
the time of healing?” Different tribes then shared what
the old people told them about this time that would
come. One community said this is how we know it will
come. It will happen shortly after an eagle lands on
the moon. That’s the story that was told in their community.
I was working for NASA (National Aeronautics and Space
Administration) when they put the men on the moon in
1969 and I knew that they had put eagle feathers on
the lunar module. When the module landed on the moon
they made an announcement, the first words ever spoken
from the moon. It said, “The Eagle has landed.” So in
the tribe that had that prophecy they started getting
excited because they said that change was going to come.
In another community they said an Elder
had a vision, and his vision was passed on. He saw a
spider building a web around the whole earth and he
watched it. When it was done that spider hopped off
and a woman came forward and spoke on that web and the
voice was heard by all nations saying there was a web
around the whole earth that we could talk on, which
today we believe is the Internet.
There are many, many things that they
told us about this time. They said at this time you
would see young people with old spirits. They said you
are going to see healers—the red, the yellow,
the black and the white—and that each healer is
given a talent and a gift. Some are given the gift to
write, some to talk, some to lead, some to do art. Each
one would have a gift. They said that no gift alone
could do it, no gift by itself could heal the peoples
of the earth. But all the gifts together could bring
about that healing. This is the way they started to
talk to us. We had never heard them talk like that.
After the four gifts were put into the
Hoop we began to go on a journey that is still happening
today. At that time we had made the program we call
the Medicine Wheel and the 12 Steps. I’ll quickly tell
you how we arrived at it. We took the 12 Steps of Alcoholics
Anonymous to the Elders and we called it the white man’s
program. But when we got done explaining it to them
they said, “No, that’s not a white man’s program, that’s
our program, too.” They talked about it being a natural
order of how something that is out of harmony comes
back into harmony. They said that the only thing they
would change if they were to change something was to
put the Steps in a circle. So they had us put the Steps
in a circle: three in the East, three in the South,
three in the West, and three in the North.
The East
is the direction of the New Sun, the new day. That’s
where you find your relationship with the Creator. In
the South when you do
the inventory Steps, that’s where you find your relationship
with yourself. When you do those steps you then know
your strengths and your weaknesses. In the West
is where you make your amends. You correct whatever
hurt you did to somebody else. You ask for forgiveness,
set things right, and then you find your relatives.
The connectedness is between the relatives. When you’re
out of harmony, you can’t connect with them because
you can’t look them in the eye. You’re ashamed. You
put your head down. The North
then is the Elder’s wisdom. The gifts we associate with
Elders begin to happen to us as we face the 3 Steps
in the North.
We put this all on videotapes that we
made with Native people in prison. They found out that
very few of the Native people who worked this program
in prison ever came back to prison. We didn’t
test it or measure it, but the brothers and sisters
who talked about it said, “Well so-and-so used
to come back here all the time, but he’s not coming
back to prison any more.” That was the beginning
of the Movement.
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| A
scene at the Conference |
Four Hoop Journeys
and the Firestarters
Then we started on the yearly Hoop journeys. The Journeys
started in the Longhouse of the Onondaga Nation in March
of 1999. We traveled across the United States to the
Tribal colleges, talking about the Wellbriety movement
at each Wellbriety Day we had there. As we went across
the country, we started to recruit people in recovery
to become part of our new program, which we called the
Firestarters program. Each Firestarter made a four-year
commitment to make a circle of recovery.
For the second journey that we made in
2000, we took the Sacred Hoop to Los Angeles. A group
of 25 of us ran, walked and drove to Washington, DC.
In 109 days we ran 4294 miles, stopping in communities,
talking about the movement, recruiting people in recovery.
We didn’t care if their earthsuits
were red, yellow, black or white. To be a Firestarter
it is OK no matter what the color of your earthsuit.
The third journey we made in 2002 was
a circle west of the Mississippi dedicated to the healing
of women and children. We went to 16 urban centers because
we know that over half of our Native population resides
in urban areas. The others are in our reservations or
non-urban communities.
We just finished the fourth Hoop journey
East of the Mississippi in May of this year, 2003. We
visited 20 sites dedicated to the healing of men and
children. This satisfied our commitment to four journeys.
The first journey was dedicated to Unity
of all nations. The second one was for Healing.
The third was for Hope
and the fourth was for Forgiveness.
During all four journeys we began to
recruit Firestarters. To date, the status is we now
have over 300 Firestarters groups going. We have a little
under 700 Firestarters trained. These are people who
know how to facilitate the Medicine Wheel and 12 Steps
programs in communities. By the spring of 2004 we will
have over 500 groups and 1000 Firestarters trained.
There are also about 75 Medicine Wheel and the 12 Steps
circles in prisons. It’s expanding on its own but it
wouldn’t work without you. Firestarters make a commitment
to show up and to be there whenever they say they are
going to be there. Whether anyone comes or not, they
show up to start the Circle of Recovery and to start
the wellness process.
Now we look at all of this as a web, we
don’t look at it as an organization with an org chart,
we look at it like a web of interconnectedness using
the Internet, the wire that goes to every country. The
information and teachings of the Wellbriety movement
that are available on our website are freely shared
with other directions.
As a result of the Firestarters groups,
we now have circles of wellness activities that have
sprung up in many of the communities. Those centers
in the communities are expanding. As this develops,
we always try to listen to the grassroots to develop
what needs to be developed. We started with the Medicine
Wheel and the 12 Steps for Men, and then through CSAT
(Center for Substance Abuse Treatment) we got a grant.
For example, CSAT, in part, sponsored this conference.
They have been very open and very supportive. Sometimes
we have to explain things to them because sometimes
they don’t understand how we do things. It’s not that
they are against us, but how we look at our own healing
is not something that they necessarily see right away.
We have to smudge sometimes, make a prayer, and come
back and talk again. But we have not found anyone who
has been against what we are doing.
Next we developed the Daughters of Tradition
program for 8-12 year olds. Now we have the Daughters
of Tradition II for older girls. And we’ve created the
Sons of Tradition Program for boys in the 14-17 year
age group. With the cooperation of Washington, we’ve
developed these kits for children of alcoholics. Working
with the people in Washington, as these kits were developed
we were able to develop a Native kit along with it.
These Native kits are being printed right now. There
are 5000 of those Native Children of Alcoholics kits
available without cost to people who are working with
children of alcoholics. That’s the kind of cooperation
we are able to muster. They’re free. You just have to
go SAMHSA’s website. They are modified to meet the culture.
Because we work together, and because our spirits are
right, the giveaway is starting to work.
We are just now beginning to put the Medicine
Wheel and the 12 Steps videos on DVD. Instead of having
them on 9 tapes, you can get them on disk. When you
get a copy of the program you can copy them onto your
own computer, make a disk, and hand them on. This is
the best marketing program we could create because it
is within our culture as a giveaway.
One of the things that became very clear
to us in this movement is the power of community. We
have talents, skills, knowledge, healing, and traditions.
What is in our communities is awesome. I think we are
coming to realize that we must look within ourselves
because there is some information we ourselves hold
that will help with our own healing. We are often taught
that we have to pay attention to the org chart that
has at its top the king, the boss, the Tribal Chairman
or whoever is on top. We are always waiting for permission
from somebody to do something. We believe that the only
way change can occur is through the formal leader. But
we are coming to the realization that the community
can also lead. When the community leads, the leaders
will follow.
We have the ability to insist on sober
leadership. If you are leading us, be sober. We have
the ability to stop domestic violence, to have violence-free
communities. But if we are waiting for somebody to do
that for us, we may be waiting a long time. At the community
level, we need to start to lead and to take an active
role in what the future of our children will be.
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John Bourdette from New Mexico (with name tag) talks
to his group during the Conference |
The Four Laws
of Change
The Elders told us that whatever we do in this whole
movement the test is: does
it fit with the principles, laws and values of how the
Creator made the universe? In all our communities,
we know about that. We all do it differently. The Onondagas
will do it one way, the Hopis will do it another way.
Alaska will do it a certain way. Each way is right,
just different. All of those ways are in harmony.
FIRST LAW
The Elders gave us the Four Laws
to guide this movement.. They said if you follow these
four laws, this movement will really grow, and it will
grow in a healthy way. The First
Law says Change is From
Within. To me what that means is that change
is not necessarily from the top down, but the meaningful
change comes right from inside us. As we continue to
develop things we always keep that in mind. It’s about
people changing themselves. The law is, change is from
“within-side,” not primarily from outside. Changing
in the spiritual world manifests itself in the physical
world.
Sometimes we hear this thing about principles,
laws and values and we say, where are they? Are they
in heaven, are they in a book? Where are these things
we are supposed to find? They told us exactly where
the Creator put everything we need to know. They said
inside every salmon is the innate knowledge of what
it takes to be a good salmon. As soon as that salmon
is born it knows exactly how to be a salmon. Inside
every bear is the innate knowledge to be a bear. Inside
every tree is the innate knowledge to be that very tree.
The principles, laws and values are written inside of
us. That is where we need to go. Sometimes we say, “Oh,
our culture’s lost.” It’s not. Where did our Elders
originally find it? A long time ago, they looked inside
of themselves through prayer. And then they came out
and passed it down to us. It’s not like it has disappeared.
It’s that we have to go re-find some of the things that
we already knew. In some places they call it the Good
Mind. You are able to look inside and that teaches
you to think in a certain way, with certain thoughts.
Your mind is good—meaning, we have the ability
to develop our minds to be in harmony with the principles,
laws and values.
SECOND LAW
In the Second Law, they
told us that In Order for Development
to Occur It Must Be Preceded By a Vision. If
there’s no vision, there’s no development. A lot of
us work in organizations where they make a vision statement,
like in the corporate world. This isn’t about a vision
statement. It’s much deeper and much bigger than that.
The universal principle that is behind that is that
the human being, because we were created with free will,
has to work with thought. This does not apply to salmon,
the moose or the bear. This is just for the humans.
The principle is that we move
towards and become like that which we think about.
We move towards and become like that which we think
about whether it is good for us or not.
If it’s really true that we move towards
and become like that which we think about, then is it
important to be thinking about what we are thinking
about? Are we thinking about wellness? Violence-free
communities? Are we thinking about healing? As we start
to create a vision, from mini-visions to big visions,
then things start to happen. The Law says if you start
to think about it, you move towards it. If the community
thinks about it, the community moves towards. If your
family thinks about it, the family moves towards. They
told us that these are the Laws that will really help
you.
THIRD LAW
The Third Law says that
a Great Learning Must Take Place.
We soon found that a lot of the things that were happening
just needed to be connected to one another. For example,
the Community Readiness Model is a program developed
out of Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado
by Natives for Natives by Dr. Pam Thurman and others.
The model tells us how to look at our community in terms
of readiness for change. GONA (Gathering of Native Americans)
is another incredible program that has come to Native
communities. Theda Newbreast was one of the authors,
writers and fighters who put the GONA into form. It
was already here, it’s not like we had to invent anything,
but it had to be put together and linked. You can find
out about the Community Readiness Model and GONA training
right here at this conference.
We also have something called the Seven
Trainings that we offer. We found out that when
we went and did the Firestarters trainings in the various
communities, when the group started into the recovery
process using the 12 Steps, the participants told us
it was really good but it was throwing their families
into disharmony. We realized that we had to provide
something for every member of the community. So we looked
at what we had and we focused on the Medicine Wheel
and the 12 Steps (men and women; Daughters of Traditions;
Sons of Tradition; the Family Series; and Alanon. Those
are the Seven Trainings.
These programs are all part of the Great
Learning from the Third Law. But they are not separate
or isolated. We want to also talk about coalitions for
wellness in our communities. A coalition is a clan.
We know about how clans work and serve in the community,
what their rules are, their purpose and their focus.
CADCA is going to put on some coalition training. We
are sending six Native trainers to it and were going
to convert it to clan training in order to understand
the spiritual part of that. A lot of the funding from
Washington is about coalition building so we can’t be
afraid of that. We know a lot about coalition building—we
just have a different name. We are very familiar with
interconnected systems having focus and power. A coalition
has the power to bring the community together to make
a community vision. It’s got to be the community’s vision,
the people’s vision from the grassroots. It cannot be
four or five people doing a retreat and coming back,
Xeroxing a vision and handing it out to people. It’s
got to be from the people, including everybody: Headstart,
young people, elderly, unemployed, employed—it
must include everybody. From that community visioning
process, we train them how to make a vision book. After
the community makes the vision book you take the book
to the Tribal Council or the leaders for endorsement.
You need to get them to say the community will work
on creating this vision for the next 5, 10 or 15 years.
FOURTH LAW
The Fourth Law of Change
says You Must Create a Healing
Forest. The Elders said suppose you have a hundred
acre forest that has a disease or sickness. In other
words, it is a sick forest. But then suppose you go
to that forest one day and uproot a tree and take it
down the road and temporarily plant it in a nursery.
This is like taking a person out of the community into
treatment. So you give the tree good soil and minerals
and water and sun and all those things to make it healthy
and natural and how it was intended to be, out there
in the nursery. One day the tree is healthy again and
you bring it back to its community. You bring the well
tree back into as sick forest. What will probably happen
to that well tree? It gets sick again. Or we take one
of our young people to a very fine treatment center
and then we just bring him or her back to the old community.
What happens to that young person? Or to you, yourself?
You go off from your own community and
maybe you’ve done some recovery work, but then you come
back home to work with the people. In some places, if
you are a well tree in a sick forest the sick trees
will try to convince you, the well tree, that you are
the sicko. In some communities if you are a well tree
and you actually start to do things to make it work,
sometimes those sick trees will attack you. They’ll
badmouth you, come after you, gossip, and remind you
of your past. The work that we have to do is not easy
work.
It's Not Like
It Was Before
The Elders explained to us that every forest has two
parts, the seen world and the unseen world. If you look
underground at the roots you’ll see that alcohol is
not the cause of something, it is the symptom of something.
There is usually something else that goes with many
of the problems we are wrestling with. Maybe you
don’t know what you don’t know. The Elders helped
us to know what we didn’t know.
They told us about all the reasons that
our communities went out of harmony. They included historical
trauma, the boarding schools, intergenerational trauma,
internalized oppression and more. Now we are left with
a layer of anger, a layer of guilt, a layer of shame
and a layer of fear at our roots. They told us that
some of the trees became alcoholic trees and they were
filled with anger, guilt, shame and fear. When we married
someone, they soon became full of anger, guilt, shame
and fear if they didn’t have that already. Then we started
to have children trees. And how do you think our little
children grew up? Some of the children of alcoholics
are “parenting” at 5 or 6 years old. They have to be
the responsible ones. The Elders explained to us that
this is the forest we have to work with. We try to use
this “box top” or picture of our forest as a guiding
image in all our different healing programs. (Please
see the website address for a picture)
The way we begin to deal with this is
to begin to form our circles to start to talk and to
start to share. The knowledge that we have to have is
within us. This journey that we have to make is not
about the white man, it’s not a white man’s problem,
it’s not about the BIA, it’s not about the government.
All those things we talk about that happened to our
people did happen. But this is a journey that we must
make ourselves in our communities as Native people.
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Kathy Chapman of AIROS interviews a Conference participant |
We are bright, we are smart, we are brilliant,
we are educated. We are doctors and lawyers. We have
our own radio stations and TV stations. We have two
people here today, Peggy Berryhill and Kathy Chapman,
who are producing a program for AIROS (American Indian
Radio on Satellite) to be heard later in the year.
It’s not like how it was before. We are
starting to learn how to use those tools in the media.
We are coming together and being willing to share, to
help, and to exchange, using technology where it’s appropriate.
It’s not any one person who is doing this. It’s many
people here together. I feel really funny when I hear
people say I am doing this, because I’m not. There are
people from Alaska, to the Four Corners, to the Northeast,
and to Florida. People are doing incredible, incredible
things. They are willing to share and make that commitment
to show up and to help.
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