Taking a Stand Against Meth:
Recovery is Possible
April 20-23, 2006
Conference Summary

	We must heal—our health, mind, spirit and soul. It's so important because without that healing we can't really get anywhere. It starts with the individual, leads to the immediate family, extended family, and community. The healing that we put in place as Indian people in our own communities can bleed off into healing for our neighbors, to whatever healing must be needed in those communities. In New Mexico we are surrounded by Hispanic communities. Some of you are surrounded by other ethnic groups and they probably need as much help as we need. If we work together we can solve our problems because we aren't isolated. Use your traditional spiritual ways incorporated into your solution. Joe Garcia, (Ohkay Owingeh) President, NCAI From the Opening Address
One hundred-fifty participants heard NCAI (National Congress of American Indians) President Joe Garcia deliver the opening address at the Conference.

Healing From Meth
A summary of the Wellbriety Movement conference on methamphetamine
Taking a Stand Against Meth: Recovery is Possible
Held in Denver, Colorado from April 20-23, 2006

It's no secret that the drug methamphetamine has struck Indian country in a big way. Reports of meth are all over the news media. But more than that, the tragedy it produces is probably right down the road or even closer, inside our own homes. Meth is an equal opportunity destroyer of individuals, families and communities––but there is hope for recovery and there are solutions.

The Wellbriety Movement conference on methamphetamine met in Denver in late April, 2006 to take a stand against meth and to present some of the many solutions that make recovery from meth possible. One after another, a multicultural mix of presenters from all over the nation offered 150 attendees solutions to meth problems in both Indian and non Indian communities with the bottom line message––we are not paralyzed! Let's get to work. Here is what we can do.

The Conference also featured grassroots participation in five workshops designed to showcase what's working at the grassroots level. Participants then took part in five Discovery Circles that mind-mapped community-based solutions to the problem of methamphetamine. From these workshops and Circles, people went back to their communities armed with information and inspiration so their people could take the first step.

Don Coyhis (left) gives an eagle feather to NCAI President Joe Garcia. The feather is a gift from the Wellbriety Movement community in Sitka, Alaska

The meth problem in Indian communities became a top priority for the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) at an executive session of that sixty-two year-old organization held in Washington, DC in late February and Early March. Fresh from its commitment to do something about meth, the Conference was honored to have NCAI's President Joe Garcia (Ohkay Owingeh, formerly San Juan Pueblo) deliver an opening address that set the tone for the four-day Wellbriety gathering.

"NCAI will commit to partnership, cooperation, collaboration, and united effort," he said. "The fact that we are here at this conference and also promoting this effort means we can go a lot farther together. … The impact of meth, alcoholism, disease, and other substance abuses has been devestational to our communities. But just as the first principle of alcoholism is to quit denying there is a problem, so it is for meth. I think what's different about meth is that we can't deny it. It's too obvious it is devastating our communities. It's too obvious that something is not right," he concluded.

This year's Wellbriety Movement conference was co sponsored by White Bison, Inc. of Colorado Springs, CO; the Native American Rehabilitation Association of the Northwest of Portland, OR (NARA); the National Indian Health Board (NIHB), and the NCAI. The Wellbriety Council of Elders was also present in order to offer the guidance and inspiration of the Elders. Council of Elders member Theda New Breast (Blackfeet Nation) set another tone at the opening when she remarked, "We're about Indians healing Indians. We have to listen to other Indian stories around meth use, meth recovery, and how the family got it back together."

Healing, Not War
In the spirit of Indians healing Indians, the meth conference was inspired by a slogan and a solution taking a slightly different road than the mainstream efforts. "No war on drugs, let's declare healing on meth. Resist, Reach Out, Recover" said a banner and a tee shirt prominent at the conference. No War on drugs? Why not? Don Coyhis (Mohican Nation), Founder and President of White Bison, Inc. explained that in the Indian way, to think of efforts against the effects of methamphetamine as a healing rather than war would bring our thinking more in line with how Native people relate to problems. To heal, rather than to make war, would rally the People's efforts in a more effective manner.

"I talked to some Elders about four months ago," he said, "and they were explaining to me how things work in the spiritual world. They said that when you declare war on something, each of those words gives an instruction. When you declare war on something, spiritually you actually call the enemy. When somebody pushes on your hand, it pushes back. The very thing you declare war on, you are destined to lose."

He went on to explain that we must take back our power as Native people in the coming tsunami, the meth epidemic, which is here, now, and growing fast. He said, "Even though the dominant society is a war-declaring entity, we don't do that. Not for this one. Not for our children. We declare healing. We must demonstrate the right way to solve problems. When something huge comes along that's a threat to us, we provide healing. So when we arrest someone and they are incarcerated, we provide healing. We try to help them. We try to heal in that way. It's within our power, its within our culture, its within the Elders' teachings."

Education is a first line of prevention and the beginning of healing from meth. What is the drug methamphetamine? How is it different than the other drugs and alcohol that communities have been dealing with for years and years? How does it work? How is it being used? Where does it come from? How does it destroy people? What is the best way to reach out and warn Indian communities about this tsunami of meth?

Holly Echo Hawk

Community Education About Meth
Holly Echo Hawk (Pawnee), an advocate for better health care in Native American communities, presented part of the education picture about methamphetamine. She pointed out that those who have been on the front lines of drug and alcohol healing for years and years aren't necessarily up on this new threat. She emphasized that meth is not the same as the pharmaceutical grade methadrine or "white cross" of years ago. There is a huge difference between the speed of the past and today's toxic junk drug. She went on to say that in many Indian communities meth has overtaken alcohol as the most dangerous drug. She revealed that there is a terrific economic incentive to make and push meth, something that separates it from alcohol and other drugs. It is cheap, easy to make, and very toxic.

Treatment programs and protocols for meth must also be different than we know them for alcohol and other drugs. Meth addicts a person very quickly and attacks the brain. It impairs the brain's abilities to change and to learn from experience. She revealed that many of the alcohol programs just don't work for meth. She said, "Our alcohol treatment work (group meetings, watching film, reading) and alcohol treatment design is very cognitive. That means it's very much based on reasoning, intuition, and on the thought process. With meth addicts, their brain is different because the drug has impacted their brains. They don't have that logical thought process ability anymore. We have to change the way we design our programs to match how the brain really works with meth addicts. Program designs that are based on reasoning and the thought process—what's called a cognitive focus––those kinds of programs won't work with meth addicts. We have to re-think that part of the treatment."

Lynette Willie

The Navajo Nation has an effective, multi-pronged effort taking place to educate, treat and eliminate the trafficking and use of meth on the Reservation. Lynette Willie (Navajo) is the Public Information Officer for the Navajo Nation Department of Behavioral Health Services. It's her job to educate this over-276, 000 strong community about the enemy in their midst. Her uplifting presentation had two strong messages. The first is about holding to traditional Navajo values and traditions—the Beauty Way––because it can help people survive the attack of meth. The second, Education and mobilization of the people is prevention, is very much what her job's about.

It was necessary to reach out to people in the Navajo language with visual information, community Chapter meetings, and videos detailing all aspects of meth. Three or four years ago people simply didn't know how dangerous the drug is. They didn't know how it is manufactured or how the youth and others were using it. They didn't know the warning signs. For example, they didn't know that it is sometimes given surreptitiously to grandparents by grandchildren caring for them. They didn't know the truth of methamphetamine is that on your first try you could die.

The closest word for meth in the Navajo language means, It eats your body. One of the most successful outreach efforts happened when the local radio station donated time for weekly programs about meth on the Rez. Ms. Willie shared what happened. She said, "Our radio station KTNN donated radio time, an hour every Sunday for two months. For two months, we had a radio show on methamphetamine. We brought people that used and they talked about it. I asked in those interviews if they would have used methamphetamine if they knew what was in it? Every single time they said no."

She further revealed that the Navajo Tribal government committed to three different Tribal goals to heal from meth. These are: 1-Provide information in the Navajo language. 2-Establish a clinical protocol for treatment issues in meth. And 3-Change the laws, making meth illegal in Navajo country

Jerry Moe

Jerry Moe has been a children's therapist for 28 years. In his role as the National Director of Children's Programs at the Betty Ford Center in California, he is a powerful advocate for kids. In a passionate, energetic and even child-like presentation to the conference, he speaks for the little ones who can't speak for themselves. "Today if you will allow me," he says, "let me be their voice. Little boys and girls who don't have a voice and who are dealing with so much stuff in their life. I also want to bring you a message of hope. We know how to help these little boys and girls. It saddens me to say, but I want to tell you, some of their moms and dads are probably not going to get better. But guess what? We cannot lose another generation of our children. We need to do something for these boys and girls. It's time for all of us to stand up and be counted and to be a part of the solution."

Jerry gets right down with the kids whose parents and other adults in their lives are drug, alcohol, and especially, meth users. He works with them in many different ways to give them the self confidence and love to understand that they didn't do anything wrong. He reveals that so many children think at first that their parents' addicted behavior is somehow connected to them. He works so effectively with them by finding the kid in himself. He reported that one nine-year old, when asked later how he liked Jerry, said he did and then grew silent. He thought for a awhile and told his grandmother, "But that kid has a mustache."

Children's art is one mode of healing that Jerry Moe uses to help children express what they can't express in words. He shows the conference samples of kid's drawings that reveal horrible green monsters, scenes of parental fighting and child abuse, and prison images. "I've never at any time during my professional career had more boys and girls whose parents are incarcerated," he says. He closes with a very sober wish and a question. "How much more in our families, in our communities, in our tribes, how much longer is addiction going to be a legacy that gets passed from generation to generation? We are down stream and all these people are drowning. We go in and try to save them. But isn't it also time to go upstream and get kids before they jump into that lake called addiction?"

Candace Shelton

She talks about the many characteristics of fetal alcohol individuals, which Indian country has known about for a long time. These include physical, mental, behavioral and learning disabilities that are possibly life-long. But what about the effects of meth? Is there something called Fetal Methamphetamine Syndrome? She says, "We don't have a documented meth syndrome yet. I think we are going to get one. There is a lot of research going on right now. The problem in research is how to do a controlled study. Women who use methamphetamine often drink in order to come down. The effects on the developing fetus and on the newborn can't be distinguished yet. How much is about meth, and how much is about alcohol?" Her presentation ends with a vision that looks far upstream and could be called Pregnancy is Sacred.

"The ancestors believed that life is sacred. The ancestors knew and believed that everything we have, whether the two-legged or the four-legged, or the winged ones, or the reptiles that live, everything around us, is sacred. We have to respect that. We respect life, we respect mother earth. I believe we have to go back to that. If we started living as though life is sacred, we would start to believe that pregnancy is sacred. This is about the future of our nations. We have children born every day who are impacted by prenatal exposure to alcohol or other drugs."

Eduardo Duran

Ed Duran begins with a reading from the Tibetan Book of the Dead that widens the entire recovery discussion and paints a powerful picture of what healers in the field of addictions recovery are dealing with.

"From the Eastern quarter of your brain a white goddess will appear to you holding a corpse as a club in her right hand and a skull cup filled with blood in her left hand. Do not be afraid."

He has our attention. He casually remarks, "If you can encounter that image and not be afraid, then I think we will be able to help some folks." He talks about the work of counseling or therapy for Native Americans as much more than it is in the white world because the issues of decolonization and dealing with Indian Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome are always right up front for Native Americans. He gives a spiritual definition of decolonization as the exorcism of an energy or a spirit that has taken over our minds and spirits. What is that colonizing energy or spirit? An important part of his talk is about understanding why the spirit of meth is tormenting us today. Why is it here? We know how dark and serious it is, but does it have a positive purpose?

"I always ask the people I work with what do you think this energy, of whatever it is, whether its meth or crack, what is the spirit trying to tell you? What is it trying to teach you? …I think the Indian community, and not just the Indian community but the whole society, is being taken over by this energy, by the spirit called methamphetamine. It must want something otherwise it wouldn't be here. …most of the songs and the ceremonies we do are about forming harmony in a relationship with the sacred. A lot of times these things that we consider as evil or dark, or that we want to get rid of, a lot of times they are there to try to teach us something."

This is the question allowing us to look far upstream to understand the underlying causes for the tragedies we face with drugs and alcohol. An inquiry of this kind can help us discover why the babies are drowning in the river in the first place. They can take us beyond what he calls the "psychobabble" and the conventional recovery talk, which, he says is not working for many people as they deal with their own struggle with drugs and alcohol. He emphasizes the fact that as healers, we must help and support each other in a very honest and open way because none of us is big enough to carry the kind of illness we help our brothers and sisters with.

Beverly Watts Davis

Taking Back Our Communities
Beverly Watts Davis, now a senior policy advisor for treatment and prevention at SAMHSA, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, spoke about how the community took back a neighborhood of San Antonio, Texas from crime, drug dealing, prostitution and gang activities. Ya Basta! the community said. Enough is enough. They organized and began taking the community back. They photographed drug dealers and published their pictures in the neighborhood paper. They got police to walk their beats so that fire, ambulance and other services could come back. They arranged for 150 soldiers of the Army, the Army Corps of Engineers and the National Guard to demolish 54 vacant houses that were being used for harmful purposes. Finally, once the drugs and crime was gone they arranged for 700 military and Guard personnel to come once a week to be mentors to neighborhood children. She says, "It's about partnerships. It's about being creative with the resources. No one can tell you what you can't do. Only you can tell yourself what you cannot do to take back the community."

Running further with the theme, Education is prevention and healing from meth, the conference was spellbound by the personal survival and recovery story of a former meth addict and suicide attempt survivor. David Parnell (Eastern Cherokee) is a living, walking miracle. He shared a moving, blow-by-blow presentation called Facing the Dragon! telling how he descended into methamphetamine hell, tried to take his own life, and then, through what must be Creator's gift, lived on to tell his healing story to communities across the nation. In photo after photo, he shows what meth does to a person, physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually. He shows what it did to him. If a popular recovery story in the before-meth alcohol and drug recovery community was called "scared straight," David Parnell's story updates it to meth in a story that could be called "scared straighter."

David Parnell (center)

His recovery story was an important solution available at the conference. He makes it available to any community on request, as his own livelihood, in order to reach the youth and others who might be tempted to fall into the methamphetamine trap. When asked by Don Coyhis what single message he wanted participants to take back to their communities he said, "It would be hope that people can recover and that we can overcome this. That's what I hope to be for people, standing up in front and giving this presentation. An example of hope that they can recover and make it through. The second message is that this drug is so deadly that it is going to kill our country if we don't. But hope is the first one. I do it because I love you so much. The Lord gave me my love back."

There is so much more. There are the many good words from the Wellbriety Council of Elders, the sacred songs sung by elder Horace Axtell and others from the podium. The hard work of the workshops and circles as shared with the entire conference on the last day. The Indian jokes popped by Theda New Breast and good laughter we all shared. And the pictures. We will present some of these in the next few issues of Wellbriety! Online magazine. But if we were to ask what single message among the thousands we could take back to our communities, what would it be? I think it might be this:

Indian communities can eliminate meth from their midst. We are not paralyzed. There are solutions. NCAI President Joe Garcia spoke in truth and beauty of the solutions when he said,

"I encourage every one to continue to be a part of the solution. Don't give up, but don't forget your Indian way. Say your prayers. Pray for all those in need, pray for all those who are fighting this battle. Pray for your tribal leaders, because they need the help, they need the support. And if we can remain strong, then the dedication and the commitment will be there for the wellbeing of Indian country. We are a people that have every right to be on this mother earth. We are the ones protecting mother earth. I'll go one step further and say that the Indian People, Indian country, the spirit of Indians, is going to be the solution for this country because they will revert back to those ways. Sometimes it's hard to accept that we are right. But be that as it may, don't falter. Continue, and always ask the Great Spirit for help. Don't forget your way. Don't forget your children. Don't forget your language, your culture, your tradition. It's the one thing we've got over the dominant society and others, which is powerful, so powerful."

In Wellbriety!

Don Coyhis and Richard Simonelli