American Indian Perspectives on Addiction and Recovery

Deloria (1970, p 13) compared the tribal-nontribal orientation this way: Where the tribal society is "integrated toward a center," the nontribal society is linear; a circle surrounded by tangent lines represents the two orientations. Where the circle and the lines touch, opportunities for the joining of tribal and nontribal perspectives exist "between spirit and science." This makes a case for an emic perspective for American Indian women in recovery - with acknowledgment of the diversity among Native Americans. An emic perspective calls for a cultural-specific framework in which behavior within the culture can be examined and American Indian women can be understood on their own terms. This perspective is certainly not new to social workers trained during the past 20 years. However, the literature on addictions and the American Indian usually ends with recommendations for culturally based or spiritually based interventions. This narrative report is purposefully organized to reflect the movement between "spirit and science," to reach beyond an intellectual understanding of what constitutes "healing the spirit" for many American Indians addicted to alcohol and drugs. Four broad concepts are presented: (1) balance and wellness, (2) the colonization experience and addiction as a crisis of the spirit, (3) issues of abuse, including sexual abuse, and (4) a time of healing illustrated by a Lakota commemorative event. I have divided these concepts into four circles noting that all four circles intersect, The first circle speaks to the spiritual and cultural understanding of American Indian wellness and health based on Ottawa, Eastern Cherokee, and Ojibwa medicine wheels and supported by Antonovsky's (1979) salutogenic theory; the second circle frames alcoholism within the context of the colonization experience for Native Americans, integrating the spiritual work of Napoleon (1991) and theoretical framework of Antonovsky. The third circle discusses issues of abuse or "betrayals of the spirit." A qualitative model for Indian women's long-term recovery focused on "reclaiming the spirit" is reviewed and an intervention for "betrayals of the spirit" is introduced (Lowery, 1994, in press b). The fourth circle recounts a story about the Big Foot Memorial Ride, which speaks to Lakota prophecy and the Seventh Generation as a time of healing for Indian peoples. FIRST CIRCLE: AN AMERICAN INDIAN WELLNESS PERSPECTIVE - SCIENCE OF THE SPIRITUAL Deloria (1995) told a story of the introduction of a new field of study at the 1992 American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Chicago. Zoopharmacognosy describes the use of medicinal plants by animals. The potential use for human beings was somehow "a startling departure from ordinary scientific insights" (Deloria, p. 58). Deloria cited Harvard ethnobotanist, Shawn Sigstedt, who was quoted in a laudatory report by Newsweek, as suggesting that "bears may have taught the Navajos to use a species of the Ligusticum plant, just as they had claimed!" (p. 59). Although this idea was a seeming breakthrough for Western peoples, Deloria (1995) questioned, "Why didn't people take Indians seriously when we said that animals and birds give us information on medicinal plants? Why is such knowledge only valid and valuable when white scientists document and articulate it!" (p. 59). "Science" The word "science" comes from the Latin scientia or knowledge, rooted in"scire," to know (Webster's new universal, 1983). Science is systematized, organized knowledge based on observation, study, and experimentation - a process not unfamiliar to indigenous groups who transmit knowledge orally from generation to generation. From an American Indian cultural perspective, acknowledgment of the world of the spirit provides another knowledge base and another way of knowing and provides power through perception for understanding and healing. Spiritual Science: The Medicine Wheel The medicine wheel is an ecological concept and organized knowledge used by many Plains tribes - with tribe-specific details - that demonstrates the wholeness of life and the significance of health and balance; it has been tested through observation and experience over time. …