Podcast: Play in new window | Download (27.0MB) | Embed
Addiction can have a devastating impact on individuals and communities. From health to financial ruin, addiction has created devastating consequences for all those touched by this disease. Have you ever thought about how addiction affects our cultural and traditional practices in Native communities? Some local leaders are now using traditional practices and culture to help addicts recover and heal. Have you or a loved one turned to tradition to overcome addition? If addiction has had a negative impact on cultural practices in your community, what do you think it would take to make those traditions strong again?
Guests:
Tasha Spillett (Swampy Cree) – university educator at the University of Manitoba and the University of Winnipeg
Elima Bird (Spokane) – chemical dependency professional trainee for the Spokane Tribe of Indians behavioral health department
Dan Nanamkin (Coville/Nez Perce/Okanogan) – director of the Nespelem Community Center
Break Music: Muskwa Dance (feat. Quinton Tootoosis & Dawn Desmarais) (song) Dallas Arcand (artist) Modern Day Warrior (album)
Due to our addictions, much has been lost. Generational traumas such as family breakdown, has taught many of us to try, and make it on our own, and failed, or struggled. We had no guidance, no one to teach us how to survive in the world off the reservation, no teachings on what kind of discrimination we would face, or how to address it when we came upon it. Many of us just went into the addiction deeper, to mask the depression, and anxiety. We came to hate the color of our hair, skin, eyes, and where we came from, shame, and wanting to just die, most of the time suicide was in our minds, on a daily, or moment to moment basis. It took me years of counseling to even get here. I am still a baby in the wellness arena, just still searching for where I am going. I just ask the Creator everyday, can you guide me, I am just like everyone else that struggles daily to stay sober, and keep working towards something better. We just have to keep fighting for life. Deby Stanger.
Dr. Eduardo Duran in Red Road To Sobriety mentioned the fact that the military used hard alcohol as a chemical weapon for social control and behavioral modification. He also talked about the comparative analysis of historic intergenerational grieving and surviving victims of the holocaust displaying the same symptoms from surviving genocide.
Gary Webb in Dark Alliance examined the crack cocaine explosion in South Central L. A. what was not included was the connection of the CIA Project MK-Ultra that studied hard narcotics as chemical weapons which was field operationalized in Project MK-Delta and an infamous feature in the drug war and terror war as evidenced in the explosion of opium production in Afghanistan thats follows the same pattern in the Contra War in Central America.
It should be carefully noted that Israel have been utilizing cannabis to effectively treat surviving victims of the holocaust to promote healing and recovery.
Tribal cannabis clinics are seriously in need of honest consideration to promote healing and recovery.
Mohawk medicine men went to study Chinese herbal medicine 3,000 years ago and were supplied with cannabis and cannabis seeds to manage pain associated with child birth that demonstrates it’s safety and quality of efficacy.
The etiquette of apartheid indoctrination in the name of education allows for the Indian Health Service to foist medical apartheid and iatrogenics medically induced genocide that exacerbates that problem of addiction and abuse.
The current approach has failed miserably and a return to traditional heal practice is in direct order!