1. Walking in Balance: Native American Recovery Programmes
Suzanne Owen, Senior Lecturer in Religious Studies, University of Chester
Jerry Evans, ‘I honour my Mi’kmaq blood’ (1997)

2. Source of pan-Native American practices
Legacy of colonisation (Joseph Gone [2011], “The Red Road to Wellness”)
Use of traditional practices part of decolonisation
Lakota (Sioux) origins, e.g. Black Elk Speaks [1932] reissued in 1972
The American Indian Movement (1970s)
Conne River Mi’kmaq
powwow in Newfoundland
(photo: S. Owen)

3. Pan-Native American ritual practices
Talking circle
Medicine Wheel
Sweat Lodge
(Nat’l Anthropological Archives)
(US Nat’l Library of Medicine)

4. Community
Native Americans (and First Nations) often first learn about their culture at treatment centres
Community participation
Involvement of traditional leaders and elders
Lakota ritual saying: “All my relations”
White Bison (founded in 1988): “it takes everyone to heal the community”

5. Adaptations to 12 Step
Laurence Amand French (2000) Addictions and Native Americans
AA as rooted in the “Protestant ethic”
Competition, Ownership, Honour Self, Verbalism, Individualism
Native “values of harmony ethos”
Cooperation, Sharing, Honour Elders, Silence, Tribal Values
Step 11 reworded: “Seek through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with the Equality and Brotherhood of all Mother Earth’s children and the Great Balancing Harmony of the Total Universe.”

6. Controversies
Joseph Gone (2011): “the ‘self’ becomes a “therapeutic project”
Christopher Ringwald (2002): “Will practicing ceremonies outside their original context or locale lead to misuse or even mutation?”
Talking Circle at Native American
Connections (treatment and
support services) in Arizona

7. Balance Ojibwe concept of wellbeing
Herb Nabigon (2006) The Hollow Tree
“The people who walk the red road attempt to balance their lives”
A. Irving Hallowell (1960)
“A balance, a sense of proportion must be maintained in all interpersonal relations and activities.”
D. Manitowabi and M. Shawande (2011)
“In essence, wellbeing means a balanced way of life.”

8. References
Laurence Armand French (2000) Addictions and Native Americans. West Port: Praeger.
Joseph P. Gone (2011) “The Red Road to Wellness: Cultural Reclamation in a Native First Nations Community Treatment Center.” American Journal of Community Psychology 47: 187–202.
A. Irving Hallowell ([1960] 2002) “Ojibwa ontology, behaviour, and world view.” In Readings in Indigenous Religions. Ed. by Graham Harvey. London and New York: Continuum, pp. 17–49.
Darrel Manitowabi and Marjory Shawande (2011). “The Meaning of Anishinabe Healing and Wellbeing on Manitoulin Island.” Pimatisiwin: A Journal of Aboriginal and Indigenous Community Health 9: 441–58.
Herb Nabigon (2006) The Hollow Tree: Fighting Addiction with Traditional Native Healing. Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queens University Press.
Christopher D Ringwald (2002) The Soul of Recovery: Uncovering the Spiritual Dimension in the Treatment of Addictions. Oxford University Press.