Conference to provide tools to fight chemical dependency

I first started at the Bemidji (Minn.) Pioneer as an intern in the summer of 1996. That would begin six years as a news reporter, sports reporter and copy editor for a small, six-day-per-week daily newspaper in northern Minnesota. I wrote a large range of stories from multiple beats, to features to sports, my favorite being the coverage of the Red Lake Reservation High School basketball team named the Warriors. Here is a collection of my stories from my time at the Pioneer.

Aug. 3, 1997

By Devlyn Brooks

Staff Writer

There is a movement among Indian people to repair their culture and to remain drug free, and a conference to be held this week at Bemidji State University will provide one more tool in the fight against chemical dependency.

BSU will have the honor of hosting the 16th annual Minnesota Indian Institute on Alcohol and Drug Studies for the second consecutive year, beginning Monday and running through Friday.

The conference's theme is "First Family: Coming Home," meaning it will incorporate the focus of the Earth as the first family into its sessions all week long. But the conference's overall goal is to teach techniques in a holistic, integrative approach that uses culture, tradition and spiritually to overcome chemical dependency.

According to the institute's director, BSU professor Lance Egley, more than 130 chemical dependency counselors statewide and also a few from outside Minnesota will attend the five day conference.

The conference was held in the Twin Cities for its first 14 years, but was moved to BSU last summer to bring it closer to the many tribes the people the seminar was meant to help -- living in northern Minnesota.

the seminar's sessions are designed to provide intensive, advanced training for chemical dependency counselors who are working, or planning to work, with American Indians, Egley said. Among the session topics are spiritual healing and crisis intervention, storytelling as therapy, HIV/AIDS, as well as pharmacology and diabetes.

"We try to train chemical dependency counselors to work with Indian clients," he said. "They need to be both technically competent, and they need to know the Indian culture. By moving closer to the tribes, we're (hoping) more Native American people will become trained in chemical dependency counseling."

The conference will host more than 40 presenters. Most will come from the local region, but a few will come from as far as South Dakota or even Texas. Local presenters include Dorothy Sam, director of the Four Winds Treatment Center in Brainerd; Larry Aitken, president of Leech Lake Tribal College; and Adam Lussier, an Ojibwe spiritual leader and Mille Lacs Band cultural teacher.

Joe Johnson, BSU's assistant director of admissions and assistant director of the institute, said some have questioned why the state is focusing on the Indian population when there are already plenty of chemical dependency programs out there for everybody. It's simple, he said: The mainstream programs are not working for Indian people.

"The need is that some of the other programs are ineffectual in helping Indian people fight addiction," he said. "We have unique needs based on the world view we hold. What works for mainstream society doesn't necessarily work for us."

Johnson added there is a large movement among Indian people to repair their culture and to remain drug free. So the conference is one more tool in their fight against chemical dependency.

"I have been in the (chemical dependency) field for 20 years. So I know how many of the presenters coming have also been in the field for their entire career," he said. "For young people (starting out in the field) to be able to come here and discuss ideas with (the veterans) ... it is invaluable."

There also will be three events held during the week that will be open to the public, and that Johnson recommends people attend because the events will help educate the public about those with addictions.

On Tuesday, there will be a sobriety run in which runners starting from the Red Lake Reservation and the White Earth Reservation will meet in Bemidji and continue their race toward the Fond du Lac Reservation. The run is an effort to focus attention on sobriety within the Indian community and to help promote the connection of the two reservations with Fond du Lac.

About 2:30 p.m. Tuesday, the runners will be moving past BSU on Birchmont Avenue and the public is invited to show up and cheer for them. And later that day, a dance will be held from 7-11 p.m. in BSU's Beaux Arts Ballroom.

Finally, there will be a dance troop presentation and a lengthy discussion about chemical dependency Wednesday night. The Young Dreams Dance Troop, a group of youngsters from the Red Lake Reservation who have a theme of sobriety and traditional living, will perform starting at 5 p.m., and John Witherspoon and Jay Saros will present personal stories about chemical dependency after the dance troop.