However, as is often the case, good lessons are good lessons, and instructors are encouraged to adapt these concepts for all of their students. More detailed lesson plans for these concepts and additional plans are available in the seven units of the Four Winds Curriculum. We were very much in control of our lives and had high self-esteem with strong character skills. Being unsure of how to handle the fast moving change of our way of life started the substance use and abuse. Freedom from these addictions must start by relearning and regaining our personal powers.
Wisdom is a respected part of our heritage.
Our elders teach us that people have the wisdom, when they see what needs to be done, to do it successfully without being told what to do. Wisdom and independence go hand in hand. There have been a number of different schemes proposed to explain susceptibility to alcohol and drug misuse among Indians. Most indicate that misuse is affected by a tribe's traditional cultural and social integration patterns as well as by social change factors exerted on the tribe by modernization. The susceptibility of each individual Indian, who is subject to two systems of social control, is also linked to these variables.