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Stay Unconquerable
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everyone and welcome to today's training. We do have a slight change today with presenters. Dr. James will be doing the presentation for us this afternoon. I want to just encourage everyone to just enter your names, where you're from in the chat box, and we will get started very shortly. Hey, once again, if you're just joining us, just going to wait a minute or so here for some additional people to stroll on into the conversation. Again, if you're comfortable, please feel free to enter your name, tribal, and organizational affiliation into the chat. Like I said before, we do have a slight change in the presentation. Dr. James is going to be doing a presentation for us. Dr. James is from the Chickasaw Nation. Again, we will get started very shortly. All right, I think we will get started with today's presentation. Again, presentation today is going to be with Dr. Jonna James of the Chickasaw Nation State Conquerable is the name of the presentation today. Just a land acknowledgement before we get started, we acknowledge that the land that now makes up the United States of America was traditional home, hunting ground, trade exchange point, and migration routes for more than 574 American Indian and Alaska Native federally recognized tribes and many more tribal nations that are not federally recognized or no longer exist. We recognize the cruel legacy of slavery and colonialism in our nation and acknowledge the people whose labor has been exploited for generations to help establish the economy of the United States. We honor indigenous enslaved and immigrant people's resilience, labor and stewardship of the land and commit to creating a future founded and respect justice and inclusion for all people as we work to heal the deepest generational wounds. And then this is just an acknowledgement that SAMHSA is funding today's conversation and presentation and does fund the opioid response network. Here at the opioid response network, our goal is to assist states, tribes, urban and Native organizations, cities, communities, and individuals by providing culturally responsive education and training to address the overdose crisis. We also help to advance or enhance prevention, treatment, recovery, and harm reduction efforts. These trainings and technical assistance is provided at no charge or free training from the opioid response network and we provide the consultation to help fill the gaps as defined by each of the requesters. Orange's foundational premises is to assume Native brilliance, assume Native community strengths and expertise, support sovereignty, follow local community leads, and as you'll see on this call, there'll be several people from what we call the Indigenous communities response team. They focus on tribal requests or tribal opioid response grant recipient requests. Each of the states in the country as well as U.S. territories have a designated technology transfer specialist who will respond directly to your requests when you submit them at the opioidresponsenetwork.org website. And this is a map of the states and territories served throughout the United States. Each of the colors represents a territory that is served by your designated technology transfer specialist and again, you can certainly reach out to those individuals at opioidresponsenetwork.org to submit a request to the opioid response network. Also at this time, just like to thank SAMHSA for their support and OTAP as well for their support to the work that we do here. I'm going to pass it over to my co-facilitator. Sorry, my name's Norm McLeod. I am the facilitator, one of the facilitators for this presentation today. Gonna pass it on to Ethylene who is also assisting with the facilitation of this presentation. Thank you so much, Norm. Good morning, everybody, or good afternoon, depending on your time zone. I am Sheena Ikekichunwi, Teixiraq woman. Ethylene, I am Cloud Two Dogs. I'm Oglala Lakota. I also have Crow tribal ancestry. And my role is as a consultant with the Mountain Plains Rural Opioid Technical Assistance Center under Western Interstate Commission on Higher Education, WICHE. So I'm so glad to be with you all today and so glad that you are able to join us. We did plan to have Dr. Elytra Royer due to some unforeseen circumstances. We're so happy that Dr. James is able to step in and provide us with a wonderful presentation on staying uncomparable. I'm just very anxious to hear her. But before we do that, before we go into Dr. James's presentation, then we always start with an opening, an appeal to the creator. We always start with, you know, how, you know, how can we improve the lives of our relatives? We depend on creators. So I'm so happy to introduce Ramona White Plume. She's Oglala Lakota. She's from the Oyukpe Band of the Oglala people, the Seven Council Fires, Oceti Sakowin. She is a mother to eight children, a grandmother to many. She's been doing traditional cultural teachings and healing for many, many years. Lakota name is Ta'oie Wakawi. Her words are sacred woman. So I'm going to turn it over to her to do our cultural opening. Oha. I just want to share a sentence or two that one of our grandfathers stated in the early 50s was that, so that I know it is a good thing I am going to do. And because no good thing can be done by any one man alone, I will first make an offering and send my voice to the spirit of the world so that it will help me to be true. That was said by Grandfather Blackout. But thank you for allowing me this time. I'd like to say a wóch'éki, a prayer in my language. So if you can help me envision your grandmothers and grandfathers, that's who we appeal to. Wóch'éki, a prayer in my language. So if you can help me envision your grandmothers and grandfathers, that's who we appeal to. So if you can help me envision your grandmothers and grandfathers, that's who we appeal to. Wopila. Wopila. We have such great appreciation for that opening, the appeal to the creator, opening the door so that we can have that spiritual strength. I just want to say again, thank you. I'm very, very pleased to introduce our presenter. Jonna James is a citizen of the Chickasaw Nation. She currently serves as the Director of Health Access Training and Technical Assistance for the Opioid Response Network. She consults with local, state, tribal, and federal governments, providing collaboration and technical assistance. Jonna is a member of the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition and the National Indian Education Association. In 2021, Jonna served as the United States Ambassador to the United Nations for the 65th Commission on the Status of Women. Jonna earned her undergraduate degree in Business Administration from the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma. Prior to earning her master's degree in Native American Leadership from Southeastern Oklahoma State University, Jonna is currently a doctoral candidate at Southern Nazarene University, researching historical trauma, American Indian education, and culturally responsive teaching. Welcome, Jonna. So glad you could be with us today. Thank you. We can go to the next slide. I'm a citizen of the Chickasaw Nation, and you got to hear a little bit about what I do, but I want to tell you a little bit about who I am. So, I'm an Ishki. I have six children, but I raised a lot more than that. I'm an Oposi. So, these are two of my grandkids. They're from four tribes. They are Chickasaw, Choctaw, Kiowa, and Apache. And then, I also have other grandchildren that came this year. So, we've not got that picture updated. They are also from several tribes. I'm an Epoch Teague. So, I'm a granddaughter, and I appreciate Ramona's prayers as she brought in our ancestors for us. I'm proud of my grandmothers and the work they've done, and I hope that, you know, one day my grandkids can look up their grandma and say the same thing about me. I'm an Osha Teague. So, I am from the Bird Clan. My family is from the Bird Clan. And then, Chickasha Sia. So, I'm a citizen of the Chickasaw Nation. Next. So, today, we're going to talk about staying conquerable. So, the Chickasaw Nation, we like to say that we're unconquered and unconquerable tribe of the Chickasaw Nation. And so, that's where the title of this presentation comes from. We're missing our, my dear friend, Dr. Warrior, today, who was going to talk about self-nurturance. So, we're still going to talk about wellness and how we're going to take care of ourselves. So, just pivoting a little bit, and we're going to start with talking about ancestral strength. Next. So, in my tribe, you know, we're storytellers. And this, I think many tribes, you know, we tell our stories, and it's about where we came from, and then also remembering seven generations ahead and what stories they're going to read, and also what stories they're going to have for us. And we're keepers of the flame. And so, what that means is once a keeper was given the oral stories, his or her responsibility was to continue the tribe's legacy and become a storyteller. So, for some of us, we're going to go over what our jobs are later, which really is the roles we play in this life. And for some, their role really is being a storyteller. Next. Storytelling is the journey of our ancestors with all of their stories that give us wisdom. It's in our own journey we create the next stories that will be given to the next seven generations. In our collective journeys with all of our stories, we continue to weave a legacy of strength, perseverance, and survival. Next. So, this is just about culture, but it's so important. You know, our culture is the sum total ways of living, and it includes your values and your beliefs, your aesthetic standards, your linguistic expressions, patterns of thinking, behavioral norms, styles of communication, which a group of people has developed to assure its survival in a particular physical and human environment. For far, we know that our culture is healing and it's protective. Next. So, protective factors of culture. So, traditional family values lend strength to native-led efforts to prevent suicide among youth and young adults. These are some things we know about culture. One study of American Indians living on reservations found that individuals with a strong tribal spiritual orientation were half as likely to report a suicide attempt in their lifetime. And First Nation communities that succeed in taking steps to preserve the heritage, culture, and work to control their own destinies are dramatically more successful in insulating their youth. Next, please. So, community, and we're all here as community today. Community is a group of people living in the same place or having particular characteristics in common, a feeling of fellowship with others as a result of sharing common attitudes, interests, and goals. Next. Strength in American Indian communities. So, this is one of my favorite slides. I have it in so many of my presentations. You know, there's so many things that are strong that, you know, I recognize there are 574 tribes, but every tribe is strong. And there's so many things together that we share that make us strong. One of those is extended family kinship ties. And so, if you know, you know, your aunties aren't always your mom or dad's brothers and sisters. Your aunties are those that look out for you. And so, my kids have hundreds of aunties from their community and from their tribe. And having those kinship ties and those family tribes or family ties are really important in our community. You know, when we're talking about wellness today, you know, in our work in opiate response, we deal with a lot of heavy stuff. And we work with a lot of people that are relatives that we know are struggling in that. And we want to be there for them. And so, it's innate for us to have the extended family and kinship. And so, we can pass that to the relatives that we're working with, both in being part of their community and also helping them strengthen their community ties. And so, just remembering the strength that that is in our community. Long-term natural supports, you know, our ancestors and leaning on them for guidance. We have lots of places and spaces that have been there for generations and have stories behind them. And those are natural supports. We go to those places and spaces and we think and we heal. Shared sense of collective community responsibility. You know, again, I worked in Indian child welfare in my past life. And so, you know, when we worked with our children, that children was our children, was all of our children. You know, we take care of one another. We have this shared sense of collective and community and the way the communities would step up for our children. And we do that in opiate response. We step up for one another and we become community. Physical resources. We share our food, our plants, our animals, and our waters. Indigenous knowledge and wisdom. You know, there's knowledge that Indigenous pathways that we share and that wisdom and their strength in that. And Ramona shared some of that with us during her prayer time. And so, it's a strength that we have inside of us and that we can use in our work and that we can use with our families. And just passing that knowledge and wisdom back and forth. Again, there's a historical perspective and a strong connection to our past. Survival skills and resiliency in the face of multiple challenges. So, we know that when we are faced with challenges in our community, we come together and we become a very resilient community and we become really strong. We know how to find answers and help one another. Retention and reclamation of traditional language and cultural practices. There's an ability to walk in two worlds. And then there's a community pride. We are happy to be Indigenous and know where we come from. Next. And so, what's important is when we give our children back their culture and their language and their community, we're giving them back the perspective of their ancestors. We're giving them back that wisdom and that knowledge that we know worked and is productive. Next. And so, Indigenous resilience. Honor that American Indians and Alaska Natives have resisted cultural suppression and are overcoming a legacy of historical trauma. And that Native youth have long been taught to stand tall and strong, try their best, and to never give up. Next. So, now we're going to talk about being well. And in my language, in Chocmaw means be well. And it is one of my favorite words I like to use in Chocmaw at the end of my emails. But just a reminder to be well in our everyday life. And we're going to talk about what that looks like today. Next. So, beginning with, we're not going to go into historical trauma, but we know the treatment of historical trauma that our communities struggle with. It's aimed at renewal of destroyed culture, spiritual beliefs, customs, family connections, and focus on reaffirming one's self-image and place within a community. So, without proper treatment and understanding, historical trauma will continue to plague generations of affected communities. And that's from Maria Yella, of course, Braveheart. And so, the reason I put this slide in here is because what we're going to do is we're going to talk about the areas of wellness today and how we can fill in some of these gaps that we know still exist. Next. So, balance. Many of you have probably seen this. This is a medicine wheel. And there's different medicine wheels in different cultures and different tribes. And they look different. Many of them have the four directions. And we talk about body, mind, emotions, and spirit in this one. And the important thing about balance is, you know, knowing that, you know, there's no such thing as illness. Illness is the absence of wellness. And so, when we are well, we're not, we don't have that sickness. And so, we want to practice the things that we can within our scope of change and power and being and control and do what we can to stay in balance. Next. All right, interconnectedness. I want to preface, I didn't say this, but one of my favorite things about discussing these eight areas of wellness is it's a great way to go from pre-recovery to recovery. So while this presentation is aimed at bringing wellness and talking about wellness for this group, it's also something we're able to take back into our work and work with our clients on this. So I hope that you are able to take that away from this today. And we want to talk about our interconnected and how it affects us all, it affects us, it affects the people we're working with and our relatives. And so an example of that is like, when we worry about money, for example, like debt or being able to afford what we need, then we can sometimes experience anxiety, which is emotional. And this can lead to medical problems, which are physical problems. That can lead to trouble at work, which is our occupational wellness. And so when this happens, we may even question our own sense of meaning and purpose, and that's affecting our spiritual wellness. Another example at the same time when we're not working, so that's occupational, we may lose opportunities to interact with others, and that's our social wellness. And that may not be able to afford the good food and medical care we need to stay well, and that's gonna affect our physical wellness. And we may even need to move to our home and to a place that feels less safe and secure. So then there's our environmental wellness. So it's all interconnected. Next. So these are SAMHSA's eight areas of wellness. I love this wellness, Will. Thank you, SAMHSA. And basically, if you're well in these eight overall areas, then you should be having a happy, healthy life. And so what we talk about is doing an inventory in these eight areas. Those areas are emotional, coping effectively with life, financial, and we'll go over these individually in a moment, but social, spiritual, occupational, physical, intellectual, and environmental. So those are our eight areas of wellness, and I wanna take you through them. Next. And we're gonna start with emotional wellness. And so emotional wellness is an ability to cope effectively with life and build satisfying relationships with others. Next. So this is a list, and I'm gonna have this with each area of wellness. So this is a list that's kind of come from giving this presentation many times and feedback, and I'm gonna give you guys time for feedback at the end. So be thinking as we go through this and things that you may want to add for yourself, for your community, or if you wanna share it, that's great. But in emotional wellness, we talk about our introspection, stopping to think about things, harmony, ascension, practice, testing, and power, our perseverance, our self-care, monitoring our stress levels and our feelings. And self-care, again, is so important. Sometimes I know as a mom and as a grandma, I think, well, it doesn't matter how I am, it matters how my family is. But when we talk about that interconnectedness of our nation, our family, our plan, our community, and ourself, we have to take care of ourselves so we can take care of our family. And so that's part of our emotional wellness is making sure we're practicing self-care and monitoring our stress levels. Next, please. Financial wellness, satisfaction about your financial situation. Next. So financial can look more than just money. It's a lot, a contribution is really important. It's at the top of the list for our communities. Sometimes when you think about how well you're doing financially, it's not how much money is in your bank account, it's are you able to help your grandma with her groceries this month? Are you able to help her auntie get her medicine? And how we're able to contribute to our community is a huge wellness area for us. It's something that we want to do, that we're driven to do, that we know to do for one another. And how we contribute to our own homes and again, our community. And so that is a measure of financial wellness. And so making sure that we're being even in our contributions also is a way to stay well in this area. Our family, again, I just shared that we wanna share with our family, we wanna take care of our family, make sure their needs are met, community, work. Work is, it looks different for everybody, but this can be a place that our financial wellness comes into play. Checking and savings, that is important. We do have bills to pay. And so how are we doing financial in those areas? Our debt and retirement. What does it look like when we become elders? And are we, my plan for retirement is to get back and work for my tribe and to give back to the community in that way. So it may not be financial money planning, but to be able to give back. Again, that's contribution. And so retirement can also look different. And that's what's important about these areas of wellness is we wanna look at it from our point of view and how we are contributing, again, to our communities that are so important. Next. Social wellness. So a sense of connectedness and belonging. Next. So this looks, again, in our communities, our sweat lodges, our purification ceremonies, our powwows. We have stomp dances. I'm sure you saw that's not on here, but we have stomp dances. Talking circles, traditional crafts, singing, dancing, community. One thing about our traditional crafts, here in Oklahoma, we have a group called Matriarch and we get together and we make our earrings or weave baskets. But it's during that social interaction, we're also learning wisdom and these other areas that we've already talked about. And we're learning how to contribute and we're learning from our grandmas and our aunties and we're teaching our youth as they're sitting in the circle with us. And we're doing that, again, at our ceremonies and in our community. And so social wellness, again, is that whole interconnectedness and how we're connecting with one another. And I'm just gonna put a little pitch in here for MOUD. When we talk about medication-assisted treatment, I know there could be a lot of stigma around that. And so one of the things is there's a belief that sometimes if we're not sober, then we don't get to be in the circle. But one of the things that medication-assisted treatment does is it helps our relatives reach sobriety so they can get back to their circle. And that's so important because we know once we get back to our circles, back to our communities, then our culture can do what we know our culture can do and that is heal us and protect us. And so that's my pitch for MOUD is that it gets us back into that social circle and helps us take care of our relatives. Next. So our spiritual wellness is your values and beliefs that help you find meaning and purpose in your life. Next. Spiritual wellness permeates all areas. It's part of the person, the relationship, the beliefs, the involvement in the time. And so again, it's all of our areas of our own being and this looks different for every person. A spiritual wellness is something that's very personal. It's our relationship with ourselves. Sometimes it's our relationship with our nature, a higher power, our ancestors, but it's those relationships that we have that bring us that spiritual wellness. And those beliefs, again, they look different, but when we talk about historical trauma and what was kind of taken from us, we need to plug our beliefs back in and do an inventory of what are our beliefs? I'm a fan of inventories. We're gonna talk about inventories here in a minute, but what are our beliefs? What are our beliefs? And fill those gaps back in so we know what that area of wellness looks like for us. That involvement, that taking the time, whether it be, again, sweat lodges or powwows, prayer to take care of our own spiritual wellness, and time, setting aside time. Meditation is a great practice. It's a time to listen and be still. And so time is also a really big part of our spiritual wellness to take care of ourselves, to set aside some time. And I know that can be hard when we're busy and we have busy schedules and busy calendars, but it is part of our spiritual wellness and something we can work on. Next. So our occupational wellness. This is a sense of satisfaction with your choice of work. And so, next. Again, work does not look just like the job that makes you money. Our occupational wellness is really the roles we play that are so important to us. Our community roles. Maybe you're an elder. That's such an important role. We're giving wisdom to our youth, a parent, youth. It's important to be a young person, to play and to learn and to grow and to sit at your elder's feet or your auntie's feet and uncle and learn from them. Storytellers, again, that's another important role. You're passing that wisdom along to your community when you are a storyteller. Medicine keepers are important. A drum. Work relationships. A balance and accomplishment that comes with occupational wellness. We want to think about all of our roles and make sure that our roles are balanced and that we're taking time to fulfill all of our roles, that one role's not taking us from fulfilling another role. And then accomplishments that come from that. There's, again, an inner wellness that comes from our occupational wellness. Next. So what about our physical wellness? Physical activity, healthy nutrition and adequate sleep. Next. So, you know, physical wellness is one of those that we're probably on top. We think about it's in our wheel. So physical strength, it's also our heart health. It can also be our generosity, our loyalty, our sacrifice. Our nutrition is important, our sleep and our medicine. And so when we think about physical wellness, we think about these areas. And again, just taking care of our bodies and our health is so important. And listening to our bodies, taking time to be still and know what our bodies are asking for. If we need more sleep or if we need more exercise. And again, just taking care of ourselves within our communities when it comes to the loyalty, generosity and sacrifice that we are putting out there. Next. Intellectual wellness. So recognizing your unique talents to be creative and seeking out ways to use your knowledge and skills. Next. So intellectual wellness, there's wisdom, honesty, acceptance, prayers, synthesize, analyze, interpret, education, personal interest and conversation. And so our intellectual wellness are all our knowledge pathways, the way we're sharing our information. We can pick up wisdom so many ways. We can read a book, listen to a podcast, sit at the feet of our elders, talk to an auntie or an uncle. We can learn from our children. You know, one of the recommendations I make for many tribes when I'm working with them is to have a youth council and an elder council. That's where your wisdom comes from. So making decisions to always include your youth and your elders. And because there's so much wisdom there they can share with us. And honesty, you know, opening ourselves up to what we need to learn, acceptance. So again, being ready for those stages of working on our wellness, acceptance and prayer. And our education, again, there's so many ways. We can watch YouTube videos and TED talks. We can go to school. We can read a book. There's lots of ways that we can receive education. We can go outside on walks with one another and learn from one another. Educate yourself about your plants and your medicines. And, you know, that's an area of intellectual wellness. Learning your language, that's huge. That's so healing. We know during the boarding schools, our children were not allowed to speak their languages or even say hello. Sharing a little story about that, my grandmother was a boarding school survivor. And when she left boarding school, she knew six languages because they split the tribal kids up so that they couldn't speak their own language. They'd have to speak English. And instead of speaking English, the children taught each other their languages. And so they learned each other's languages. And so, you know, it's really important to bring our language back. We know that that heals our neural pathways. And so intellectual wellness is really important. And we wanna make sure that we are paying attention in that area and taking care of ourselves. Next. Our environmental wellness, it's a relationship to surroundings you occupy in your safety. Next. So our environmental wellness, you know, it's not just cleaning your home. It's about feeling safe and secure in your home environment, in your work environment, in your social environment. I know the stories working with tribes. One of our tribes in our domestic violence program, when a woman or man is put into a new environment, it's a safe environment. They're giving sage and cedar and sweet grass. And so with that medicine, they're able to use their medicine in their new house and feel safe and secure. And so are we using our medicine to cleanse and to bring good things in? That's our environment. And so we wanna make sure that, again, safety, safety, safety, safety is so important. You've got to feel safe in your environment. And so we wanna help our clients feel safe in their environment and in our work environment, you know, making sure that we have a healthy work culture, that we're taking care of one another, that we're talking about wellness with one another, that we're not going to struggle with burnout. Next. Okay, so this is the part where we talk about inventory and a personal wellness plan. So these are the eight areas of wellness. So this is based on basic recovery principles. An inventory is sitting down and looking at where you're at. And so going through the eight areas and taking an inventory. So, you know, you can look at like your physical self and say, what is it that I need to work on? Maybe it's, I need to drink more water. Maybe it's, I need more exercise. Maybe you're doing really great in this area. Maybe you're taking runs four days a week and you have plenty of water going on. And you look at your area of physical wellness and you're like, I'm okay here. So good. And then looking at a next area. So our social wellness, where are my friends at? Where's my community at? Am I, do I have my community around me? Am I being a good friend? Do I have good friends? Maybe your social wellness is good. Maybe you're getting out there and you're going to your community events and you're participating and you're great in that area. And that's good. So we wanna go through each. I have literally, I use this all the time when I'm filling out a place. I, going back to, I grew up in my home on my reservation and going to Indian Health Services. And I was 12 the first time I got to talk to a counselor and he introduced the wellness wheel to me or the, our medicine wheel and explained how to use it to me. And I still use that. And so I remember one time I was just kind of filling down and I got out my wheel and I was like, you know, like what's going on? And I realized like I had taken a lot of trips and had done a lot of travel. And in that there was a lot of sitting. There was a lot of car riding, plane rides and I had not had any physical, any physical activity. And so I knew I needed to go take care of that. And so looking at this like it's a medicine wheel, looking at your eight areas and doing an inventory in each area, anytime you're filling out a place, this is gonna help you pinpoint what place you need to work on and what place you're doing great on. The other thing I want to say is if you get out your eight areas, your wheel, and you say, oh my goodness, I'm in trouble. Like I'm out of place in eight areas. We'll pick the two most important. It's kind of like two one-year-olds. You may have a one-year-old over here that's running and you know, running through the house and you've got one one-year-old here that's talking but not walking yet. And the difference is you have so much energy to focus in a certain area that we can't work on all the areas at once. And so focusing on two or three areas, plus it makes it more manageable. In breaking this down with our clients or our relatives when we're working with them, you know, it helps them identify. We can work with them in all eight of these areas to do an inventory and help identify, oh, this is the place I need to work. This is the place where I'm falling short, but then also seeing our strengths. This is the place I'm doing great at. This is the place I know, you know, we're doing good here. And so that's basically our inventory and what that looks like. And you can do an inventory once a week. You can do an inventory once a month. And you can do it every six months. You can do it with the seasons. I like doing it with the seasons. So in the winter, you know, it's time to let things go. And then comes the spring equinox, it's time to start putting things into place. And so doing it seasonally is also a good way to carry out your inventories. Next. So here's how we do this and here's how we work this out. You have to pick two to three areas, get an index card, basically like a treatment plan and think about three things you can start doing and three things you can stop doing. And so like, for example, again, if we're talking about physical wellness, we can start drinking water, we can start going on walks. We can start getting up early in the morning and doing some activities. Three things we can stop doing. Maybe we can stop eating so many cupcakes. I was giving this presentation one time and somebody said, what if we just do one cupcake instead of three? And I'm like, you know what? Let's meet people where we're at. So, you know, whatever that looks like for you, but three things that you can stop doing and then put that down and that's your plan. And you can, if you do an index card, you can pin it next to your bed. You want an accountability partner and that could be a coworker. It could be your spouse. It could be a close friend and just, and also it's great if you can do this with somebody else and hold each other accountable and just say, here's what I'm doing that's great. Or how these are the things I've started and this is how I'm doing and the things I've stopped. If you carry this out and you work in your areas and you keep working your areas, what's going to happen is, you know, especially if you're not satisfied, some of us may just be completely satisfied where we're at, but if we're not satisfied where we're at, we start working these areas, we're going to get to a place where we're satisfied and we can say, overall, I am practicing wellness. Again, that wellness is so interconnected. When we know like if you, flu is going around, it's so bad here in Oklahoma right now. You know, if you've had the flu for a week, at the end of the week, you're not wanting to probably go out and be social. Like your social wellness, your social battery is just not there. So my point is, you know, we know one area is going to affect the next area. Well, that also goes in reverse as we are practicing wellness in one area, we start getting well in another area and then overall we start feeling well as a person. Next. And so again, that interconnectedness and the importance of the message here is when our community is strong, we are strong. And so we have to start with ourself and then our clan, our community and our nation. And then we will be well. And I know that this is a short presentation. I wanna thank you for your time. I wanna stop here. There's a couple of things we wanna do. First, I wanna open the space to just ask if there's anybody that wants to share some things that you do in any of these areas of wellness, you can put it in the chat or you can just tell us. Looking to see who that was. You can tell us, and I see, well, let's start there. Is there anybody that would like to add anything to some practices that you may have in your everyday life and how you're practicing wellness right now? Thank you so much, Jonna, for that very informative presentation. And we invite anybody to comment, question. What are some of the personal wellness activities or strategies that you do? Can be related to your culture or... And if there's no questions or comments, I'd like to call on our relative, Holly EchoHawk, to make any comments that she might have. Any insights, Holly? Sure. Hi there, everybody. Good to see you all. Glad you're here. Thank you, Jonna, for that presentation that you went over. And you know what, I think about the TOR Grants and the reasons that your communities applied and received the TOR Grant and all of our communities have incredible, wonderful events and support that occur. But we also have challenges and the TOR Grants are wonderful because they're so broad that you can pursue all different kinds of activities and supports to build your community or re-strengthen your community. But I also often think about people like yourselves that are working in as a program manager or as a direct service person in your community. And I have a lot of heart feeling for the work that you do. And I think about in many of our communities, not always, but it's common that there are Native women that are leading the TOR Grants. And when they are giving everything, everything in their mind and their heart and their intellect to the work that they're doing under the TOR Grant. And all of us have children or grandchildren and there's just, so you're getting up in the morning, you're doing your wonderful work for your TOR Grant. You're dealing with crisis often and you're kind of touching community members that are in pain and doing everything you can to support them and help. And you do that all day long. And then you go home. You go home and you are already tired maybe and have been involved in good work to support people that are hurting in some way. And you go home and then you're trying to pay attention to your kids or your nieces and nephews or your grandchildren. You're trying to get some dinner together. You're checking on school. You're getting people in bed and maybe you have some reading you have to do to prepare for the next day. And then you yourself are the last person to go to bed. And then in the morning you do it all over again. And you do that day in and day out and week after week and month after month and year after year. So we don't often get a chance to think about what we do to take care of ourselves, to keep ourselves afloat, so to speak. And Jonna's presentation was really great in reminding us all these different areas and helping giving some examples of how to develop your own personal plan. But I'm also wondering if for you all in the audience and thank you my friends, I see a lot of people that I know and that we've worked with in the past and it's great to see you. But if any of you can think in your TOR community of the eight areas, are there any of those areas that kind of jump out to you that either need attention or that are really a priority for the communities that you've worked in? So I know Monica's on, Stephanie still well, good to see you. Erica, Anthony down in Fresno, people who are representing the Chippewa, some of the Chippewa folks house. So I'm just wondering if any of you all can come offline and just say, how does this relate to your TOR community? Is there some, one of these areas that you think are really important or hasn't really been touched yet in your discussion? Hello, I'm here, Sierra Tribal Consortium, we're based out of Fresno. Let me see if I can turn on my camera. Hey, Anthony, thanks for joining, you're in Fresno? Yes. Hello. There you are. Hey, hey, hey. So I think that for a lot of our Native American community that we have here, when they are using substances, whether it's heroin or any meth or alcohol, that they lose a lot of their spirituality, that they lost them, that they may have forgot about. And so when they come into treatment and they get that spirituality back, it's just awesome to see, right? It's awesome to see them saging, going to sweats, getting some of their languages that they may have forgot about. And the words are starting to come back to them and songs, right, singing songs. So I just, spirituality plays a big role in their recovery and it helps them recover, I believe. And so it's just an awesome thing to see. So spirituality comes to mind and it helps heal them and in all aspects, right? Absolutely, Anthony. And thanks for that. I know you work with a consortium of different tribes, a coalition out there in Fresno. And, you know, when you talk about spirituality, do you have an example of how, because you know, when people that are using, they've kind of, many folks like that have kind of joined a new community, right? The community of their running buddies and the people that they're using with and they've moved away from their culture and spirituality. I always say temporarily, because I'm an optimist. Well, it could be for several years, right? Because when we get down that dark path, we can make that a new lifestyle, right? And then we know that those creator are higher power there, but it's just like, we don't want to think about that because we're not in the right mindset. And a lot of time, we're not, you know, they're not welcomed per se to join like sweats and, you know, they're always welcome to pray, you know what I mean? Encourage praying and saging, but among the community, it's kind of difficult when you're still in your addiction and you want to join certain things because a lot of it is, you know, alcohol free, you know what I mean? Or, you know, they're free and a lot of people are ashamed. Maybe they've been in recovery before and they know the recovery circle, but they slip slip in their active addiction. So they're embarrassed to go back to, you know, the support system that they used to have. So when they get back into the community, they get more spirituality and all, and intellectual, you know, environmental, physical, all this, financial, social is very important to get back. And they lack all of that when they're in their substance use. Right. And, you know, you're bringing up some really important points that you all, everyone that has a TOR grant is aware of is those really deep feelings of shame and embarrassment and remorse, you know, and wanting to come back. So back into the circle, so to speak. So. Yeah. So I'm so grateful for this TOR grant. So it allows, you know, us to, you know, branch out more and to hit more of the community, you know, and, you know, do some more outreach, right. You know, hire some more counselors hopefully, and to, you know, just get the ball rolling with more outreach and services for the community. Right. I saw Dawn had her hand up, and Eric has your hand up. Dawn, did I misread you? Did you have? Yeah, there you are. Yeah, I had my hand up. I kind of changed my mind, but then I changed my mind again. Oh, good. We like that. I would jump in. So just kind of going along with Anthony, with what Anthony was sharing, I think that for those of us who are in the kind of work that we're in, where we're helping our relatives, that creates us an opportunity to be able to provide those spaces for our relatives. And I know that here in our department and with the relatives that we work with within our communities, we are working towards providing those spaces for relatives who are still struggling with addiction. So they don't feel that shame and that embarrassment. And so they don't feel like, kind of like they're not allowed to come around. And we're also bringing awareness to some of the elders in our community that to try to destigmatize, trying to lessen the stigma of addiction as being a problem and bringing awareness of it being a disease, just like diabetes or heart disease or something like that. So that there's, so that our relatives who are struggling with their addictions are being more welcomed back into their cultural communities and their cultural circles, and they can find that sense of belonging and connection again. Right. Yeah. Well, thank you Dawn. That's really great to share that. And, you know, you brought up a word that's really important that I think we don't talk about enough in our TOR world and we see it every day, right? And that's being ostracized and being kind of pushed even further away because of behavior and using and all of that. But there's different ways that TOR grantees have taken different steps to kind of bring those people who have been ostracized back step by step. And often it's connecting them with one person and, you know, going through a series of steps to get them back. But that's a hard nut to crack, right? When people are ostracized like that. So, but thank you. Thank you so much for saying that. And I love your earrings too. You look, you have a fabulous onscreen persona. So thank you. Yeah, there you go. Okay, Erica, my friend. Good to see you. You have your hand up. Oh, you're unmuted still. Hey, Tanaka, Ms. Holly, it's wonderful to see you as always. So, you know, for me, I was thinking about when, is it Jonna? Please forgive me if I pronounce that incorrectly. Was speaking about the ancestor learning the different languages. We're also very aware that many of our ancestors were punished for speaking those languages out loud. So, you know, incorporating our language, our language is healing and it is strength and power. That's a big, important thing for me. But too, with the fact that we all have voices, I'm thankful that in this role and with this grant, I'm able to go into a lot of spaces and meet people that I would not. And I take that, you know, responsibility very seriously in that I educate a lot of non-indigenous people about what they don't know about us, about what they don't know about our history and our particular experiences, because I think that what people don't know, they can learn. And I think that that makes more opportunities for us. So that's a really important part of what we do too. You know, put our people first and do everything we can to give them all of the things that they need, like I shared in the chat. But too, to make all of those around us aware of a lot of things that they don't know and say, okay, now that you have that information, what are you going to do with it? Right. Well, Erica, you reminded me, you know, you're talking about a really important area and that is educating non-native people about local tribes that they may or may not know about. And a lot of times the non-native clinicians and county workers and state workers, whether it's child welfare or whatever it might be, have a lot of power over the lives of native people based on their assessment and diagnosis. And treatment recommendations. And, you know, I'm all about brilliance, right? Native brilliance. And I always say that if any person, including non-native people, when they have the honor of being in a room with a native person that may be their client, if they assume brilliance, if they assume that the person that's there is not someone that some might call down and out, but in fact, it's a brilliant person, their whole assessment process, their whole diagnosis, everything would change if they assumed brilliance from the get-go. And that's the great work that you're doing, Erica, is helping non-native. And, you know, I know you do a lot more than just that, but the non-native education is really critically important. So thank you for all that work. It was good to see you. So, Augusta? Hi, everybody. Good afternoon. I just kind of wanted to give an update. The TOR Grant has been, well I'm from Taos Pueblo, I should say that first, New Mexico. The TOR Grant, we've had it for quite some time now, but they were the first ones really to support us building programming that included our traditional and cultural values in the treatment that we provide. We started out with what was called the Wellness and Recovery Program and it was kind of like where people would come to get connected to inpatient treatment and if they were having behavioral health services, if they were having involved in our judicial system. But since then, what we've been able to create is, I started with the TIWA Time Program and TIWA is an acronym for Tribal Integrated Wellness Activity Time and it's also the language that we speak. So what it is, is a holistic clinic where I have acupuncturists, massage therapists, but our acupuncturist, she's a dynamic woman. She's part Hopi and part Mexican from Northern Mexico, which means that she ties everything together and that's what she does here. She's also a healer and she's the real deal and she brought this medicine into this place and the effect that it's had on our community. A long time ago, we were medicine people here at Taos and when the conquistadors got here, they saw the strength in our medicine people and they killed them. They wiped them out and so it's something that was carried on, but kind of in secret. Patricia, her mission is to wake it all up again and so I'm happy to be working alongside her. The Tor Grant allows for this to happen. She offers kind of spiritual guidance to people on their recovery path. We are now starting to expand that program and we are going to offer somatic healing. Somatic healing is connecting mind, spirit, and heart and body. She is working on a lot of body healing with people. We're also bringing in somebody who does rolfing and somatic healing. His intention is not just to treat people in our community, but also to teach us how to treat each other. We're using this program, this funding to revive that medicine in our people. We've also created the Recovery Works program, which is actually very special to us. It's based in the traditional value systems of Taos Pueblo, specifically a prayer that we say at every event that we have. We're out here doing the work because we're a bunch of peers in recovery. I'm a peer in recovery even if I'm the program coordinator. I have seven years in my recovery journey. We're out there doing the work. We say the prayer. We were saying the prayer. Then when it came time to ask for funding from our tribal council, we go in there with a lot of humility and not unsure if they were going to accept us. And the response we got from them was, we're absolutely going to support you because you're walking our prayers. You're doing what we say we're supposed to do. You guys are out there in the community doing it. What do we do? We go out there and we focus on our elders and the children in our community, people who have chronic diseases, who have physical ailments. We help them and we do work for them, whatever they need us to do. It could be just sitting there talking with them, listening to their stories, or washing their dishes, cleaning their yard. The grandmas come out. When they ask us to come clean their yards, they'll come out and bring a chair outside and drinks. Just sit there and just, excuse my language, shoot the shit with us. Just talk with us and laugh and tease us. It's done so much to bring our community together. We're very grateful for the Tort Grant. Will, he's really understanding and he's helped our funding to what we need it to be. We reapplied and we're excited to have it again. Hope to be expanding into somatic healing. These things, they come back to, they came back to us in that way, but that's how we used to heal each other. It was all, we're so powerful and we just need to remember exactly how powerful we are. All the things that this dominant world, the dominant culture in this world calls, you know, magic and they refer to it as woo-woo, you know, that was our way of life. That was, you know, we were magic. We did have that power of the creator living inside our bodies, inside our minds, inside our hearts, inside our hands. We're getting to see that happen in real time. It's so amazing. It makes me emotional because it's so amazing to see people who were disconnected from our tribe their whole lives, you know, and spent most of their lives in prison come in and they can feel that power of their ancestors in their hands, you know, and they become healers and something in them changes. They're able to really be present in their life and for their families themselves, their communities, and it makes, you know, just the connection that it builds is just incredible. So, yeah, I wanted to come today to just give an update, you know, because I spoke many years, like many years ago, like five years ago, it seems like a long time. I spoke about, you know, the curriculum that we were building, you know, and I haven't been back for a while because I've just been so busy and I wanted to come and give an update and see what everybody else is doing and I see a lot of good work happening and kind of share what we're doing because this doesn't belong to us. This was a gift from creator and came through some of our relatives that live in the Amazon jungle. I did two ceremonies with them and I was able to see what's on the other side and it was such a gift and our grandmas and grandpas are over there and they're rooting for us and they're supporting us in every way they can and yeah. Thank you so much, Augusta. I just want to call attention to Andrea. Augusta would like to see your weekly program schedule. If there's an opportunity to share that, then yes, I can. I can show it to you right now. There's like, oh, it's not. Yeah, I can send it to everybody. I can send it to everybody on the feed, on the email that we got this link on. So you guys can see. Yeah, I really appreciate your comment, Augusta, about, you know, your visit, you know, with the ancestors and I think that's one area that society is kind of afraid to talk about and they stay away from it for fear of being labeled, you know, or for fear of being, I don't know, ostracized, but I do want to mention too, you know, O'aia Luta Okowakitia, which is based in Rapid City, South Dakota and Ramona White Plume, who did our beautiful cultural opening, is a part of that circle. And they do connection to traditional healing for people with substance use needs and spirit, you know, loss needs, spirit healing, you know, all of that. So I just wanted to mention that. But thank you so much. Thank you for having me. Augusta, that was really, you had us all leaning in, listening to you. So thank you for sharing. And I wanted just to touch based on your example that you gave of, if you look at the different, the eight areas here on the screen, your example really walked through a lot of them, like when you're working with elders, you're saying you go and you guys help clean their yard or their, well, that's the environmental section. You laugh and have a good time with them. You know, that's the emotional satisfying, you know, creating satisfying relationships. And you touched on the intellectual part, you know, the Native people are, well, brilliant, that goes without saying. But also, you know, we were astronomers before there was a field of astronomy. We were, you know, medicine people before there was a field of Western medicine. We were, you know, so we have all that history. So you touched on the intellectual part. You definitely touched on the spiritual side of this, the areas here. The social part, when you talked about some of our relatives that have been incarcerated, and then they come home and the power, it's sort of, I think it's, I personally believe it's like a genetic, right? It's in our, all of our ancestors' history and blood and knowledge is in all of us. And so when the people that have been, our relatives that have been incarcerated, when they come back, if they're in the right environment, all of that comes, it doesn't like it goes away, it just comes back to life. And you see that. And so you, we really shared a lot with this. And now you're going to share your curriculum, which is super important. And I know people are asking for that. So thank you so much. You're welcome. We have, Open Response Network has a couple of people in Taos as well. Dr. Joan Kendale is a retired IHS physician that works really closely with us. And she lives in Taos and as does Veronica Sanchez, who does a lot of work with, as well with us, but they're both living in Taos. So we'll have to try and hook you guys up with them. Yes, that would be awesome. I would like that. We can do that. All right. Anybody else have some great core work that they want to share and that any of these areas have brought to mind for you? Holly Norman mentioned that, you know, if you're looking for technical assistance, just a reminder to visit the OpioidResponseNetwork.org and submit a request for free technical assistance. Awesome. And everybody, hopefully you're aware of that. And it's real simple to use the QR code or to go to the website and it's very simple to fill out. I want to talk to somebody about this or that, or we need specific, you know, ideas on a curriculum, whatever it might be, ORM will respond. And there's a QR code right there. So terrific. Thank you, Norm. And then there's the website in the link. This is great, Norm. Anybody else have, want to share? I can't see if anybody else has their hand up. I don't see anybody, Holly. You know, the one other thing I wanted to mention at the link. The work that you talked about, Augusta, and I think Monica, if you're on, I think you guys are also bringing in acupuncturists and other types of support that have been very resonating with Native people. The tribal programs that I know of that have expanded to bring in other types of, not just your usual Western treatment, of course. And in addition to the tribal cultural work, they're bringing in like acupuncturists and the other folks that Augusta mentioned. Every tribal program I know that's using those other kinds of healing supports, tribal people have really, really enjoyed it. That's another element to their healing and recovery. So thank you for sharing that. And I don't know if anybody else. Our elders can't, sorry, our elders can't get enough of it. Like we don't even have enough space for them to come in because they don't have to take pills, you know, and they can come in and get pain relief and, you know, like heart relief, you know, and yeah, she's always booked solid. So let me go back to the screen then. Thank you so much, Holly. I think, you know, I'm always interested in action and taking Jonna's presentation about all the different domains of wellness. So what do we do with this information? How do we turn it into action? What is it that we can do for, not only for the people, relatives that we work with, but also for our own selves, you know, our own wellness for ourselves. And one of the things that I noticed is rarely discussed is self-talk and soothing your own spirit, you know, talking to your own spirit, you know, and when something comes up, then to, you know, really talk to your spirit, you know, and to, and if there's something that you're going through to comfort your spirit, I think those kinds of, I guess, strategies or, you know, tactics are, are often, I mean, given our Indigenous history, you know, if somebody said, well, talk to your spirit or talk, and people heard you talking to your spirit, then you would get referred, you know, to, to somebody and saying, she's, she's talking to somebody that isn't there, you know, we're really concerned about her. So I just wanted to make that comment. And also, I don't know, Norm, do you have any, any final comments or Jonna, before we go into the evaluation? Yeah, I don't have anything, just want to say thanks to everybody for coming to the presentation today. I believe the original scheduled presenter will be here next month. And Ethelene, you can correct me if I'm wrong. Thank you, Norm. Any final comments, Jonna? You know, it's really inspiring to hear the stories and the way that this is all brought together in this presentation. I want to thank everybody that spoke up and shared your wisdom. And that's what it's all about, is we can get together in community and share what each other's doing. And I always learn from you guys. I'm just really grateful to be a part of this group. And you're doing really great work for our relatives and saving lives. So I take that with you today. And thank you. Yeah, and thanks again, Dr. James for stepping in today to fill in for Dr. Warrior. And like I said, I believe Dr. Warrior will be presenting the next month. I believe we're looking at doing a reschedule for that presentation. Again, if you could just scan the QR code on the screen here and just take a short survey that assists us with the work that we do at the Opioid Response Network and provides opportunities for us to give feedback to SAMHSA, who funds this program. Again, thanks to WICHE for hosting this call, this webinar series. Each month through the end of the year, we will have this webinar series. Again, if you want to submit a request to the Opioid Response Network, it's just OpioidResponseNetwork.org. And again, if you want to submit a request to the Opioid Response Network.org, the technical assistance is free. You can submit one request or 100 requests. We welcome them all. Also, I'd like to just say really quick that if you or somebody you know is interested in becoming a consultant for the Opioid Response Network, we do onboard consultants with special expertise all the time. If you have any interest, you can certainly reach out to ORN and just say I'm interested in more information on becoming a consultant and we will provide that information to you. So, thanks again.
Video Summary
The session began with a change of presenters, as Dr. Jonna James from the Chickasaw Nation led the training on "Staying Conquerable." The presentation included a land acknowledgment, honoring indigenous, enslaved, and immigrant people's contributions while recognizing the enduring impact of historical trauma. The session was funded by SAMHSA and Opioid Response Network (ORN), aimed at addressing wellness through culturally responsive education, training, and technical assistance. Dr. James emphasized the significance of wellness across eight distinct areas: emotional, financial, social, spiritual, occupational, physical, intellectual, and environmental. By performing regular inventories in these areas, individuals and communities can identify strengths, areas for improvement, and develop tailored wellness plans. The training stressed interconnectedness and the power of community in fostering support and recovery. Furthermore, it encouraged strategies like self-care, contributing to family and community, and utilizing indigenous wisdom and spirituality as healing tools. The presentation ended with an interactive discussion where participants shared experiences and strategies from their communities, emphasizing efforts to integrate traditional practices alongside modern therapeutic approaches in treating substance use disorders. Overall, the training underscored blending cultural strengths with practical wellness strategies to enhance personal and communal well-being in the face of challenges.
Keywords
Dr. Jonna James
Chickasaw Nation
Staying Conquerable
land acknowledgment
historical trauma
SAMHSA
Opioid Response Network
culturally responsive education
wellness areas
indigenous wisdom
substance use disorders
The content on this site is intended solely to inform and educate medical professionals. This site shall not be used for medical advice and is not a substitute for the advice or treatment of a qualified medical professional.
Funding for this initiative was made possible by cooperative agreement no. 1H79TI086770 and grant no. 1H79TI085588 from SAMHSA. The views expressed in written conference materials or publications and by speakers and moderators do not necessarily reflect the official policies of the Department of Health and Human Services; nor does mention of trade names, commercial practices, or organizations imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.
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