Wellbriety Kooteeyaa
A Wellbriety Totem Pole will be carved and dedicated by the Tlingit community in Sitka, Alaska!

Three Totem Poles (Kooteeyaa) at Totem Park in Sitka, Alaska. The Wellbriety Kooteeyaa in Sitka will be ready in about a year.

A Wellbriety Totem Pole for Sitka, Alaska

A totem pole raising ceremony in Sitka. This is similar to the Wellbriety pole that will be completed in 2005.

A Wellbriety Kooteeyaa is coming to the community of Sitka in southeast Alaska. Kooteeyaa means totem pole in the Tlingit language and totem poles are part of the cultural heritage of many coastal Alaska Native tribes. The Wellbriety Kooteeyaa to be carved over the next year will stand for sobriety, addictions recovery and healing from the many illnesses that Tlingits and others in southeast Alaska suffer from. The project to create the Wellbriety Kooteeyaa in Sitka will involve the entire wellness community and be an opportunity for Wellbriety to become visible among local people.

Roberta Sue Kitka, a Tlingit and an addictions counselor at the South East Alaska Regional Health Consortium (SEARHC), is the guiding force behind the traditional totem pole that will be a commitment to healing the multigenerational hurt in this region of Alaska. It’s her job to lead the fund raising necessary to engage the traditional carver who will construct two poles. It was also her responsibility to represent the community in presenting the story of the Wellbriety Kooteeyaa to the carver. (please see the story in this article) “When I met with the Elders about this they said, ‘What is your story? What you need to do is have a story so that the carver can create a design from that story,’” she said.

Now, in June of 2004, the fund raising is in full swing and the poles have already been donated. The US Forest Service, a logger, and the Alaska Marine Line already came forward to deliver two, forty-foot red cedar logs for the project back in December of 2003. Part of the fund raising effort will be to obtain a hut inside which the carving can take place. As the carving proceeds over the next year, people who are on their own Wellbriety journeys—people recovering from alcohol and drug abuse, as well as other aspects of intergenerational trauma and illness––can come to visit the hut and participate ceremonially in the process. It’s a way to add another dimension to recovery and deepen a person’s cultural healing.

Roberta Sue Kitka explains the story that will be carved into the poles. The story is centered around the two main Tlingit clans––Ravens and Eagles. Here is what she says:

“The design includes Ravens and Eagles. In the dark side of the design, tears are coming down the Raven’s eyes. The other part of the pole is coming into the light. It creates a balance. In Tlingit culture, we need to balance things out. We want the project to last about a year so it can involve as many people in the community as possible. We have three treatment programs at SEARHC. One for adolescents, one for adults (men and women) and one for women with children. We will have a sign-up sheet for people in the community. When we get 10 people, we’ll have a talking circle. Then we’ll have the staking ceremony and the option of a sweat lodge before they even walk up to the pole and put their mark on it. Each individual will be putting a small mark on the pole as a commitment.”

Roberta Sue Kitka in front of Sheet' Ka Kwaan Naaka Hidi, a community clan house that houses all clans of Sitka

Once complete, the poles will reside on the SEARHC campus. One may go near the treatment facilities, and the other in front of the hospital. Their presence will help people stop buying into the messages of cultural oppression and thinking they are not as capable as others. They will help empower people to make healthy choices. “Grant yourself the power of choice” will be one of the messages of the Wellbriety totem poles.

Ms. Kitka came through her own recovery process using AA and the 12 Steps for seven years. As time went on, she discovered the Medicine Wheel and the 12 Steps way of working the Steps. But it was returning to her own culture that helped answer the question Who Am I? “I didn’t feel I fit too well in society,” she says. “I didn’t understand or agree with a lot of things that are happening in society. I’m a full blooded Tlingit. I think in Tlingit. I was OK after I began to come back to that. Now I live, and pull myself in and out of both worlds as part of my life and my work.”

The Wellbriety totem pole project in Sitka is exciting. How many other Native and non Native cultures alike could use elements and traditions specifically from the local area to aid and assist the recovery and wellness journey in a way that has meaning for their community? What kind of projects might those be?

What will the Wellbriety Kooteeyaa mean to Sitka? “This community needs a nudge,” says Roberta Sue Kitka. “This is going to be a wonderful way to get started. It will include not only Native people but any people who are interested, I don’t care what color they are. We are one human race dressed in our different Earth suits. I’m hoping it brings people in the community together and helps us see some of our similarities, rather than not wanting to be involved with each other because of our differences. That’s why I wanted that Sacred Hoop to come here because I really believe in the Spirit of that Hoop.”

The Hoop will go back to Sitka and other Alaska and other Alaskan Native communities as the months and years roll on.

Richard Simonelli

Marching in parade during Celebration, in Juneau, Alaska

WELLBRIETY KOOTEEYAA Ravens and Eagles were very sad about the many things their people have endured. Diseases that wiped out many Ravens and Eagles and their Shamans Missionaries that told them their ways were wrong, not to speak their language, or to do their ceremonies, burning the regalia and totems. Shamans were thrown in prison and their hair was cut short, causing much grief amongst the Ravens and Eagles. Ravens and Eagles grieved for generations to come: Multigenerational Grief. Many illnesses followed, such as alcohol and drug abuse, mental health problems, domestic violence, HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis C virus, and cancer, to name a few. Ravens and Eagles are stepping out of the darkness. Ravens and Eagles have come full circle, moving back to cultural ways for healing the mind, body and spirit––Transformation that occurs from moving from the dark into the light. Ravens and Eagles have entered a time of healing and regenerating the mind, body and spirit. Ravens and Eagles are coming into the light and healing multigenerational grief issues so they do not pass onto the next generations. Ravens and Eagles are coming into the light and healing from alcohol and drug abuse. Ravens and Eagles are coning in to the light and helping the people with HIV/AIDS, cancer, Hepatitis C, and other diseases. Ravens and Eagles are coming into the light and entering a time of the Wellbriety Generation. GRANT YOURSELF THE POWER OF CHOICE!