The First Annual Wellbriety Roast!
Took place at the White Bison Conference
Friday, September 19, 2003

Sam English, second from left, gets ready to sizzle as he’s roasted by friends Martin Waukazoo (to his right) and Willie Wolf, Ozzie Williamson, and Theda New Breast, to his left. But notice the Eagle that’s taking care of Sam.

Sam English

The First Annual Wellbriety Roast
Recovery advocate and artist Sam English receives a dose of Indian humor at the 2003 Conference in Albuquerque

Don Coyhis
Hello everyone! My name is Don Coyhis, I’m a member of the Mohican nation and also the turtle clan. We would like to welcome everyone here tonight. I think we get so busy in our own communities that we don’t take the time to purposefully thank one another. How often during the day do we catch someone in the act of being excellent, and tell them? How often do we catch someone in the act of messing up and let them know? Each of these gives a different result. Tonight we have a friend to many of us in recovery. Tonight we’re asking a few of us to come and tell Sam English a story.

I met Sam many, many years ago when his art shop was still in Old Town here in Albuquerque. Over the years we have supported one another. When one of us would have bad times, we would call the other. I think that the talent that the Creator gave to Sam is the ability to create with paper—to paint. Sam painted the Hoop Man standing for the Wellbriety Movement. You can go to almost any Native Treatment center from Alaska to the east coast—anywhere—and you will run into paintings that he contributed over the years. Sam makes a living from painting, but I know that if you needed something from him he’s been known in the past to help accommodate that. When you see his style of painting you know it’s about the Wellbriety Movement or a healing or helping organization. It’s a style that no one else in the whole world has, I believe. He has been strongly, strongly influential in the recovery movement. There was a time when there wasn’t much recovery for Native people, but Sam was there to help get certain things going.

For me, if I call him when I’m in trouble he’s one of those people who will show up. We have two kinds of friends. We have one kind of friend who will always tell you what you want to hear. You call them because you want them to agree with you. But there are a small circle of friends, who, when you call them, they tell you what you need to hear. Those are the ones we usually call last. My experience with Sam is that when you call him he says it like it is.

Now Kevin, from Well Nations Magazine, is going to help us find the truth, the whole story about what is behind this mystery man.

Kevin Peniska, Sr., Founder and publisher of Well Nations Magazine, hosts roast

Kevin Peniska, Sr.
Good Evening. The first thing that I need to say is that it’s a tremendous honor to be called a couple of months ago by Don Coyhis to be asked to host this First Annual Wellbriety Roast. I want to honor Don and White Bison for putting on this Wellbriety Conference for four years. It is one of the premier wellness events in Indian country.

The center of attention is this gentleman in the rummage sale shirt, Sam English. I’m proud to say he’s my uncle in the intertribal Indian way. To his far left is Theda Newbreast. If you look at this motley crew we could be roasting any one of them. Next we have Ozzie Williamson, with twelve thousand three hundred and forty two days of sobriety. Then we have Mr. Willie Wolf and Martin Waukazoo.

One of the first things I remember about meeting uncle Sam was when his studio was still in Old Town. I went down there with a friend of mine named Scott Means and we were talking with uncle Sam. He was sharing some wisdom with us. We were both going through some relationship turmoil as young recovering men. Sam shared a story with us that had to do with our ex wives and our children. He said, “Well, I want to tell you a story about relationships with your exes.”

Uncle Sam said, “You’ve got to be humble. When my daughter turned 18 I had the last child support payment to give to her mother. I called my daughter over and said, ‘I want you to take this child support payment over to your mom, and I want you to tell her this is the last child support payment she’s ever going to get out of me! When you give it to her, I want you to see what the expression on her face is and then come back and tell me what happened.’” His daughter went over there and gave her that check, and when she came back Sam was so excited. “What did she look like, what did she say?” he said. His daughter said, “She told me to tell you…you ain’t my daddy…”

That’s my uncle over there. He’s been a true uncle in the Indian way to me. I look up to him. There’s very little lying in him. He’s pretty honest. He’s a great guy and I love him. So now we want to start with our first guest. And you can’t say nothing, unc. You just have to sit there. Give him that box of Kleenex. He might start crying.

I’d like to call on my Auntie Theda to tell some stories of Sam.

Theda New Breast tells it like it is

Theda New Breast
Oh that guy! I also have to get on these guys. Did you notice how there’s not many women up here? But I remember the time we were first trying to facilitate relationship workshops. It was just pitiful. Everybody would come and say, what the…? We didn’t know how to do relationships.

The first couple to come in was an African American couple. They came in, sat down, and were nervous and fidgety. Next, a Latino couple walked in. They came and sat down and they were fidgeting too. Then Sam walks in, with one of his women. Our lesson for that night was you have to learn to say something romantic to your partner. To give her compliments. We want you to take her to dinner and use anything in the room to say something sexy, to say something nice. Well, the guys were just sweating. And Sam! I could just see that the beads were coming down. What was he going to say to be romantic?

Well, sure enough, the African American guy was fidgeting and nervous. He looks down on the table and he sees some sugar. So he says to his wife, “Pass the sugar…sugar!” Oh! That was a good one. He did it.

The Latino guy was getting nervous, too. He looked around and he saw some honey on the table. So he said, “Pass the honey…Honey…!” Ohhh! He’s doing good.

Well, I could see that Sam was sweating. “What am I going to think of that’s romantic here?” he was saying to himself. He was really sweating, and it looked like he was going to run out of the workshop. So then Sam looks down and sees that there’s tea on the table—and he says, “Pass the tea…BAG!” That’s Sam English!!

And then there was the time he was with one of his ex wives. They got along pretty good except when they were in the car. When they got in the car, if she was driving, he was bickering. If he was driving, she was bickering. They were always bickering, other wise they got along pretty good. So one day, Sam was driving and she was saying, “Now watch out!” They were bickering so much that when they looked up there was mama skunk, daddy skunk, and a couple of little skunks right in the road. And Sam hit them, plop, plop, plop, plop. So she looks at him and says, “Now look what you did, you killed all those skunks. We better go take a look at them.”

So they run out and go the front of the car and look down. There’s daddy skunk—as flat as a pancake. There’s mama skunk—flat as a pancake. And two little baby skunks, just flat. But all of a sudden, over in the bushes, they could hear crying. Waa! Waa! Sam’s wife said, “What is that?” So they went over and looked in the bushes, and there is this little baby skunk in there. And she said to Sam, “Look what you did, Sam. You made him an orphan.” And Sam says, “Oh just take him and put him under your skirt. Keep him warm. He looks like he’s cold.” So she puts him under her skirt and they go back to the car. But then his wife turns to Sam and says, “Well what about the smell?” And Sam says…”Well, plug it’s little nose…”

And that’s Sam English.

Ozzie Williamson
I’ve known Sam for a long, long time. One time Sam was married to a little slim gal and she didn’t have a whole lot of things up here, like some of us have. One day, he walked into the house and she was ironing her bra. So Sam says, “What are you doing that for? You don’t have nothing to put in it.” She looked up at him and said, “Well, I iron your shorts, don’t I?”

Most of you probably remember when that streaking was going on? Remember when somebody would strip completely naked and run through a crowd? Sam said he was braver than all the rest of them. He was going to show them you didn’t have to run through a crowd. So he got a paper sack and he tore two holes in it so he could see out of it. Then he put it over his head and took all of his clothes off and started walking down the street. The neighbor lady came-a-running out and she said, “Sam, you shouldn’t be doing that, that’s not nice!” The other neighbor lady was also there with her and she said, “How did you know that is Sam?” And she said, I saw his dogs following him…

I think it’s great that we can have fun with a guy like Sam. I met Sam through NANACOA when NANACOA was struggling when it first started. And every time he was at a conference, Sam was there carrying the message, and that’s what really impressed me. He never did forget anyone who was out there needing help. He is one of the few old timers in the program who still goes out and does the original 12 Step work that gets a lot of people into this program. He acts like a crabby old grizzly bear. But underneath all of that is a real, kind, gentle man with a heart of gold. And that’s the way I’ll always see Sam English. Thank you!

Willie Wolf
Well, I’ve known Sam a while. When I got here to the conference, I came upstairs to the escalator and there was Sam with a bunch of people around him. I went over and said HI to him, but I think Sam is getting a little bit of an identity crisis. I said to him, “Howya doin’ Sam?” And he said, “Sam, I Am…”

The other day I was here in town and Sam ran into this Catholic priest. This priest was really excited because he’d always wanted to meet Sam English. He heard all about him. So he said to Sam, “You can teach me about your Indian ways and all about your culture, and I can teach you about heaven and hell.” So Sam looks at the priest and he says, “Father, have you ever been married?” And the priest says, “Nope, can’t say that I have.”

“Well, then you can’t teach me anything about heaven and hell…”

Don and I had this idea. We’re always looking for ways for White Bison to be innovative and to venture out into new areas, so we came up with this idea for an Indian Psychic hotline as a good way to raise some money. We thought of two services we could provide. One was for people who want an Indian name. You could call in, and for fifty bucks you could get one. The other thing is for people who are looking for a vision. We are going to put Sam in charge of that because as an artist he has to know a lot about visions. We thought that would be a good job for him.

Did you know that they are going to have a new show starting on TV? You know that show Survivor? Well they are going to have one called Indian Survivor. The first episode will star Sam English. They’ll show early on when he was just a starving artist and what he used to do to make ends meet. One of the things he used to do was to go to this pawnshop on Central Avenue. Sam would go in there and show these pictures and they’d start laughing at him. They said, “Nobody’s going to buy those pictures. They all look the same. The people in these pictures, they don’t have any legs on them—what’s wrong with them?”

Sometimes Sam didn’t have anything to eat, so as Indian people we like to barter. And Sam Said, “I’m going to take some of my paintings and trade them for some commodities.” So that’s what Sam used to do for his food. He really liked the cheese and the peanut butter. One time I went over to his house and he had a spoon in that big peanut butter container and he was eating right out of it. He was really enjoying it.

Sam has always been there whenever you call on him. He always has a good word of encouragement and a good laugh. He’s inspired a lot of people with his paintings, and I hope he has a long and happy life and continues to paint many, many more drawings.

Martin Waukazoo
First of all, I’d like to acknowledge Don for all that he’s done here. It’s a real good feeling. This is the first White Bison Conference that I’ve been to and I want to acknowledge each and every one of you for being in attendance and being supportive of this Movement, which is absolutely critical for our people. I’m Martin Waukazoo and I’m a recovering alcoholic. Were here to roast Sam English.

Many of you don’t know it, but Sam is also a recovering workaholic—which means he hasn’t worked in 30 years.

I remember when Sam got up before a conference in Arizona some 30 years ago. Sam got up and made one of those bold statements that Sam likes to make. He said, “I want to work with my Indian people. I want to become someone.” Looking at him today, he should have been more specific.

In another session that we had in that training program, Sam was always the first one to jump up because he wanted to be noticed. He said to the instructor, “I want your advice. What should I do to help my Indian people?” The instructor looked at Sam and said, “Sam, just be yourself.” And looking at him today, that was the worst advice you could give him!

I lost contact with Sam in the 70’s for about 15 or 20 years. I used to come down to Old Town where he had a gallery. I’d come in at nine o’clock in the morning looking for him and somebody would tell me, “No, he just left.” A couple of months later I’d come down again and somebody would tell me, “No, he went to lunch.” It was nine fifteen in the morning and he just went to lunch! Then I’d go out to his house and one of the young ones would tell me, “Grandpa left. Grandpa said he left.” But one time I ran into Sam on the street when I was down for a Conference, 20 years later. He just stopped, reached into his wallet, and pulled out thirty dollars and handed it to me. I said, “What is this for Sam?” He said, “You mean you forgot?” He had been avoiding me for 15 or 20 years because he thought he owed me thirty dollars!

Sam reminded me that I pitched in for his bail money after he got arrested. He got arrested for indecent exposure. We were driving down the freeway and he jumped out to take a leak. The highway patrol came up and threw him in jail. Fortunately, they dropped the charges for lack of evidence. But he wasn’t afraid because he knew it would be a hung jury. At that time Sam was in recovery. We sat down under a tree and he shared with me about why he gave up drinking. He said, “It’s much easier believing in the Creator than raising bail money!”

Sam was the first person who told me the difference between a drunk and an alcoholic. A drunk will steal your wallet. An alcoholic will steal your wallet and help you look for it.

In the old days Sam was the only drunk who was limited to one phone call a month on the AA hot line.

Last month Sam and I were in the Bay Area and we went over to a casino. I looked up and there was a cloud of smoke coming from over in the corner. There were all kinds of people over in that corner, wondering what was going on. Sam was there, smudging the machine.

We’ve been through a lot of hard times, a lot of difficult times over the last 30 years, and I just look up to Sam. He’s an outstanding, compassionate and warm-hearted individual. He’ll give you that bear hug and make you feel better. He has good medicine. He’s what it’s all about, one of those people who blazed the trail back in the 1960’s and the 1970’s to get us where were at today. We got a long road ahead of us, a lot of difficult times ahead of us, getting our communities and our families and our people into recovery. But Sam, with his talent and his art skills that the Creator gave him, has taken that gift and applied it positively to help his people with a message. That’s what we’re about as Indian people. It’s about giving back to the community. It’s about helping to turn around those things, the resentment and the jealousies—we’re going to have to put those behind us. The rumors and the gossip—put them behind us. I look forward for that to come. Sam represents that.

Kevin Peniska, Sr.
At this time I’d like to ask our guest of honor at the First Annual Wellbriety Roast, uncle Sam English, to come up. This panel is part of history now. I’m looking forward to Don doing it again next year. When they first said that they were going to roast Sam I said, “What do you mean roast him? He’s already done! He’s well done—put a fork in him.” Please give a real warm welcome to Sam English.

Sam with the People

Sam English
Ah Ho! Hoka! That sizzle is really funny. I’ve been an old drunk, I’ve been in those alleys, I’ve been in those bars, I’ve been around the country drinking and laughing with Indian people. This is a sober, healthy gathering of American Indian people and Natives, and I’m certainly honored, believe me. I love everybody. I love you all. It’s been one day at a time without a drink for 21 years and I love every second of it. These people sitting here at the podium, Theda, Willy, Ozzie, Marty, and Kevin are truly my brothers and sister. We’ve shared this journey of sobriety. It’s an amazing accomplishment. We American Indian people have suffered so much for 520 years of the worst colonization and the many horrors we’ve been through. To come together for an event like this and share recovery and laugh is just amazing. It’s a long ways from the old days.

My friend Don Coyhis and I share a lot of pain, a lot of laughs, but we tell each other like it is, too. That’s the honesty of the program and the respect and love that we can share with each other. I’m an Indian man, an Anishinabe-Chippewa, a warrior. When I grew up, warriors didn’t say I love you. In this movement of sobriety, we men tell each other that we love each other. We hug each other, and I never did that until I sobered up. I learn more and more each day of the horrors of our past and the trauma, the historical trauma of American Indian people. It does nothing but sadden me. We have discussions all the time about why it is we don’t cry. These are things we have to start sharing again, one day at a time with each other. We have no choice. I want a future. Don has a vision. These people up here roasting me have a vision. All of you here have a vision and you work in a business, addictions recovery, which is a tough business to be in. There are no big things of gratitude, nobody pats you on the back, and nobody gives you a raise. It’s a tough business and a lot of our brothers and sisters die on a daily basis from this disease called alcoholism, guns, violence, diabetes, and now a whole slew of new illnesses. We can’t sit around and blame this country, the people in this country, or the government any more. It’s time for us to stand up and take responsibility. That means we have to be sober one day at a time.

We have to learn how to share, to hug each other, and give each other that kind of supporting love, whether we’re right or wrong—to move forward. When I sit around and complain, there is always someone to say, “Get over it Sam.“ I remember when Kevin and Scott Means came to my shop and we shared. We shared recovery, what it felt like, the pain, the misery—being honest, taking responsibility for kids, past marriages, relationships. To say, “That’s my kid. I have an obligation to take care of that child. I’m doing that as an American Indian male—being responsible to our families and our women.”

I have four children—one son and three daughters, 10 grandchildren, 8 boys and 2 girls, and my mother in the hospital, who is 87. My dad left me in charge last October. What an awesome responsibility. I’m glad to be alive and to be able to be a part of them. What a wonderful life. I know we all share these gifts.

Despite the universal problems of American Indians in Indian country, this great Turtle lsland we call the United States of America, despite our trauma, our history, and the high stats for alcohol, drugs, violence, and now diabetes and all the other issues, like unemployment, lack of economic development—despite all that, we have a chance. Those challenges we should issue to Tribal leadership, to the Bureau of Indian Affairs, to Health and Human Services, to the Department of Justice, to anybody that funds us, need to give us an opportunity to survive. They need to support Indian community initiatives. We need to decide what is good for our communities. We are not white people, we are not Latinos, we’re not black, we’re not Asian—we’re American Indian people, and you can’t take the spirit out of the Indian, I don’t care what you do to him. We are Indians. We have culture, spirituality, language, community, and Elders. All that is important. We have our creation stories—all of us. I know mine. It was taught to me. It’s just as valid as any creation story of this world and I believe it. We need to take charge of our destiny, our children, our grandchildren, our governments, and our communities. That’s our responsibility, one day at a time without a drink or a drug. One day at as time, be in love with your wife, girlfriend, grandma, your mother, your auntie, your nieces, and show respect.

My parents were married for 62 years and were not alcoholic. They drank, but they were not alcoholic. My dad retired from the Bureau of Indian Affairs. My mom and dad had their fights but my dad never hit my mother. That’s what I want to be, I want to be like my dad. I want to be a warrior. I have role models sitting up here today. If there is anything I can ever possibly do to help you and your community or people, don’t be afraid to call me or come around.

I love you all. Thank you for all this you’ve given me tonight.