Healing plan destined for Native communities Montana’s Sacred Hoop Journey begins at Capitol in Helena on Aug. 20

By Jodi Rave, Lee Enterprises - 07/26/07

MISSOULA — Don Coyhis can feel the electricity building, growing daily with a healing energy that will one day burst upon Indian communities.

For the last 19 years, Coyhis has been traveling to tribal communities and sharing a message of healing and well-being. His plan is to enlist 100 Indian communities into the “Wellbriety Movement” by 2010.

Coyhis, founder of White Bison Inc., a nonprofit wellness organization based in Colorado Springs, Colo., has developed a multifaceted program designed to help Native people, particularly men and women who are returning to reservation and urban communities after having served time in prison or who are recovering from a drug or alcohol addiction.

Coyhis, who is of the Mohican Nation, uses an analogy where he compares Native communities to forests. Some are healthy, some not. Some are sick to the root. Others sprout trees that rise and grow from tainted soil.

Participants work on the advice of elders, which has been developed into cultural practices specific to each community and are supported by the tribal leadership. Here’s how it works: Coyhis and a team introduce community leaders to the Wellbriety Movement, a term coined to mean sober and healthy living. The message has been delivered on the road in what the Coyhis calls the Sacred Hoop Journey. To date, four national journeys have been organized across trails that led from coast to coast.

Journey organizers carry a sacred hoop from which hang 100 eagle feathers, each symbolic of the first 100 tribal communities to lead the way for a better life for their people.

The Passamaquoddy Tribe of Maine was the first to embrace the Wellbriety Movement. Coyhis said initially, 85 percent of the tribe suffered from alcoholism. Today, 65 percent of tribal citizens are sober. The Johns Hopkins University is now assisting in tracking the progress of Wellbriety participants.

Tribes who come full circle in the White Bison program are given a handmade drum. Five drums have already been delivered to communities, including the Fort McDowell Tribe in Arizona, the Cherokee in North Carolina, the Ojibwe in White Earth, Minn., the Native American Rehabilitation Center in Portland, Ore., and the Passamaquoddy. Another 25 tribes are in different stages of completing the Wellbriety program.

The next step is to bring the Sacred Hoop Journey into specific regions. Montana tribes are the first in line to be introduced to the White Bison healing concepts. In all, 13 sacred hoop stops have been scheduled from Aug. 20-31, beginning at the state Capitol in Helena, moving to all seven tribal colleges plus four state correctional facilities.

Tommy Stiffarm, a member of the Montana Re-Entry Coalition, will join forces with White Bison’s Sacred Hoop Journey and introduce participants to Four Nations Warrior Down, a project modeled after another White Bison program.

The Warrior Down project reaches out to fallen warriors trying to change their lives. Like the Wellbriety Movement, it relies on cultural practices specific to each tribe and teaches communities to create a support system for the wounded. And there are a lot of them. Consider: The Foundation for National Progress reports the following 2000 statistics for Inidan population figures vs. Indian prison figures: Nebraska, Indians represent 1 percent of the overall population and 5 percent of the prison population; South Dakota, 8 percent versus 21 percent; Idaho, 1 percent versus 4 percent; Wyoming, 2 percent versus 7 percent; Iowa, 0 percent versus 2 percent.

North Dakota has the country’s third highest incarceration rates where Native prisoners represent 5 percent of the population and 19 percent of those in prison.

When I talked to Coyhis, he said elders reminded him that traditionally, if a warrior had fallen, he was never left behind. He reminded me of how we should not give up on those suffering from addictions and bad choices. The good news is that grassroots leaders are now contacting Coyhis and asking to participate in the Wellbriety Movement. They want to be among the first 100 communities to receive a drum.

These are the people who are looking to the future and contributing to the well-being of their communities. They are the ones creating a bone-chilling electricity like that in a cloud. One day, we’ll all feel that healing energy, like a powerful lightning strike from the sky.

Reporter Jodi Rave can be reached at 406-523-5299 or at Jodi Rave

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August 2007 Reports

Last updated on August 13, 2007