Back In History
Native Americans have resisted the effects of alcohol on Native societies and cultures from early in the European arrival on Turtle Island. There are well-documented words from tribal leaders going back to the 1600's and 1700's about the harm alcohol causes to Native people. Around the year 1800, Handsome Lake, a Seneca from the area that is now upstate New York, began to teach about alcohol recovery following his own successful sobriety and recovery from the effects of alcohol. It is for this reason that White Bison's book, The Red Road to Wellbriety—In the Native American Way is dedicated to Handsome Lake and the long history of resistance to alcohol that Native Americans are proud of.

In more recent history, Native Americans experienced increased suffering from alcoholism after returning from service in World War II. For Native America as a whole, World War II was the greatest exposure to the world at large Native people ever experienced. From 1945 onward the alcohol use rates in Indian Country climbed as they never had before. It is no wonder then, that with the revival of Native pride in the late 1960's and early 1970's, the drive for sobriety also began to surge.

Modern Times The modern Native American sobriety movement began to take shape in the late 1960's and early 1970's. The movement became visible by the early and mid 1980's as more and more people recovered from the effects of alcohol and began to become available to help others do the same. The people of the early sobriety movement used mainstream AA as well as their own cultural traditions to find sobriety. Some people accepted AA as it was, and others began blending it with their own cultural practices.

White Bison has been an energetic and proud member and supporter of the Native sobriety movement since its own founding in 1988. Some of the learning products found on the product page of this website date back to the decade of the 1990s and the sobriety movement. But by the mid to late 1990's White Bison began to realize that most people wanted to find sobriety and recovery from alcohol and drugs, and then go on to live lives of wellness and wholeness rooted both in their own tribal cultures and in the mainstream world. It was then that the sobriety movement began to transition over into the Wellbriety Movement, which White Bison developed and champions today.

Wellbriety means to be both sober and well. It means to have come through recovery from chemical dependency and to be a recovered person who is going beyond survival to thriving in his or her life and in the life of the community. The Well part of Wellbriety means to live the healthy parts of the principles, laws and values of traditional culture. It means to heal from dysfunctional behaviors other than chemical dependency, as well as chemical dependency itself. This includes co dependency, ACOA behavior, domestic or family violence, gambling, and other shortcomings of character.

The Wellbriety Movement
The Wellbriety movement was born with Hoop Journey I in 1999 and is carried through each succeeding Hoop Journey. During Hoop Journey I, the many Wellbriety Days presentations that took place at the Tribal colleges on the Hoop Journey showed what Wellbriety could be. Each local community shared what it meant to them. The birth of the Wellbriety Movement on Hoop Journey I was also the birth of the grassroots Firestarters program.

Firestarters Circles are made up of Native and non Native people in their own communities who work the Medicine Wheel and the 12 Steps program of sobriety, recovery and cultural healing with the help of learning videos for both men and women. They are people who use the White Bison book The Red Road to Wellbriety to learn how to heal in a cultural way. They learn about the traditional Red Road Journey, also known as being in the Good Mind. They meet in talking circles together and learn how to bring appropriate ceremony and their local traditional ways into their own healing journeys. There are now more than 350 Firestarters Circles throughout Turtle Island.

Culture is Healing
The Wellbriety movement teaches that culture is prevention of chemical dependency and other dysfunctional behaviors. It utilizes the Daughters of Tradition prevention program to help girls avoid negative behaviors before they start. Likewise, it utilizes the Sons of Tradition Program for boys and young men to bring preventative attitudes and behaviors to young Native Americans.

The Wellbriety Movement makes use of the Healing Forest Model and its many different practices. This means that elements of sobriety, recovery and community healing, which are often treated separately, are welcomed into the great Circle of Wellbriety. So, for example, Recovery, Treatment, Intervention and Prevention are not separate and unrelated parts of healing from chemical dependency. In the Wellbriety Movement they are all just doors that a person can walk through to enter his or her own healing process. Once you walk through any one door, you are interconnected to the other three. All must be worked on simultaneously.

Ever since the formal beginning of the Wellbriety Movement in 1999 there have been Circles of Recovery conferences for the Movement each September. Anyone interested in Wellbriety can participate in the September Circles of Recovery Conference. In addition, September is also designated National Native American Wellbriety Month, in coordination with the nationwide National Alcohol and Drug Recovery month that CSAT (Center for Substance Abuse Prevention) hosts in September. Each September, White Bison coordinates Wellbriety month events with a few Native communities which are willing to make a commitment to bring the Wellbriety message to their members.

News of the Wellbriety Movement is carried by the Hoop Journey Videos, Wellbriety! Online Magazine, and Well Nations--The Magazine that Connects People. The most recent additions to the Wellbriety Movement include Wellbriety for Prisons and Wellbriety for Youth.

The Wellbriety Movement is growing stronger. Wellbriety begins with the personal inspiration, desire and commitment to give up dependency on mood altering chemicals. It grows as each individual works his or her wellness program with others in a cultural way. It flowers as we are able to give back to our families, communities and nations from the strong grounding of our own wellness and wholeness. Its outcome is happy, productive, cultural people, as well as peaceful communities and nations. Welcome to the Wellbriety Movement.

Milestones for the Wellbriety Movement:
Click here to download Milestones for the Wellbriety Movement PDF Document