MAYETTA, Kan. – The capacity at Potawatomi Addiction Recovery Resource (PARR House) and its six dedicated employees, who prefer to be called a team, are fighting hard to find funding to keep the halfway house doors open since tribal funding has been cut for the program during a restructuring of tribal funds. For Vernon Wattweotten, Evans Barr, Tim Mendez, Terry CrossBear, James Jurey and Evelyn Hopkins, it is not only a fight to stay open, but a labor of love. They want to continue working with clients and reintegrate them back into society. But the success stories they have witnessed in PARR House may end in September if funding for the inter-tribal program can’t be found.
The death knoll for PARR House came after a tribal election where Potawatomi tribal members voted to increase their per capita payments. The result has been cuts in tribal programs on the reservation. ”The community here on the reservation weren’t the ones who voted for the increase in the per cap,” Hopkins, PARR House head counselor said. ”From our understanding, it was from tribal members that don’t live here and have the ties to the community to see how much good PARR and programs for the elderly have done. They don’t have family members or friends who have benefited from them.”
Tribal funding was cut at the end of January and the halfway house is now operating on a grant from IHS that will only keep the house open until September. On March 1, two of the six-person team will have to seek employment elsewhere because of the funding crunch.
Potawatomi Tribal Chairman Steve Ortiz finds himself caught in the middle. ”The vote was by tribal members,” Ortiz said. ”Until we see what we actually have for a budget after the first payments are made, we can’t afford to spend money we may not have. Over the years we have donated money to many causes, but none have donated to us. This is a program that takes in members from all tribes, but we have been the only tribe that has funded it for years.” Ortiz added that the tribe’s transitional costs as Harrah’s was phased out of the casino and the tribe took over running it have been high, making the tribal government have to take a hard look at which programs can be funded and which can’t.
”It isn’t the money that makes me want to work here,” counselor Mendez said. ”I could make more money someplace else; but working with these men has made me a better man.”
Known as the ”Elder” to his peers, Wattweotten is well respected by his co-workers, residents of PARR and community members. ”I would estimate our success rate with these men at around 70 percent” Wattweotten said. ”The average for most halfway houses is around 30 percent. These men come here and learn about themselves and about their culture. It makes a difference.”
PARR House is unique among halfway houses even within Indian country. Paperwork is kept to a minimum, but rules and boundaries are in place and enforced with a three strikes you’re out policy. Each resident has duties and jobs to keep the house running smoothly and attend meetings for their recovery at least four times per week. Men from tribes across the country find themselves all working toward the same goal, recovery.
”Tribalism is something that we all need to forget,” counselor Barr said. ”We have to unite as tribes and forget past transgressions. Just because one tribe stole horses from another a hundred years ago doesn’t mean we have to hang on to that. We have to come together and that has been important at PARR. Tribalism is just something that was started by the government 200 years ago and has been continued to be used to keep us from really coming together even today.
”We take tribal members from all over the country into PARR and they learn about their culture. They aren’t required to, but most participate in the sweat lodge; those who do are the ones that seldom relapse. I’m a warrior. I’ve slept under bridges like many of these men have. I am not going to give up the fight to save this place. I see the changes that PARR has made in the lives of the men who come through here. We have appealed to tribes across the country, but so far nothing has happened. It makes me wonder where people like Bill Gates and Bon Jovi are. They go to foreign countries and help them, but they don’t want to clean up their own backyard.”
Other than an IHS offer for matching funds to keep the halfway house open, and possible help from the Kickapoo Tribe of Kansas, only the state of Kansas has made an offer to help; something that concerns the team members at PARR. ”We had a women’s halfway house here some time ago that was state funded and the women wouldn’t go to it,” Hopkins said. ”It didn’t address teaching them who they are or their culture. If that happens to PARR, it would mean more time on paperwork and less time to work with our clients.”
The team at PARR is working hard to keep the last chance many addicts have to return to a sober life. Fundraising from two dances and money from a future bake sale to try to raise some matching funds brings community members out to support the good that has been done by the program, but falls far short of the approximate $200,000 the house needs to keep its staff on and the doors open.
Wattweotten sees a grim future for his people on the Potawatomi Reservation if PARR closes. ”The people see the results of the men who leave here,” he said. ”They go back out in the community and let the others know there is a better way than the meth and the alcohol they had been using. If this place closes, we will see more meth labs and use here; there won’t be a strong presence of people to let the others know what it can do to families. There won’t be men who will go out and talk to the school kids. It will be a great loss.”
The team members at PARR are hanging on, looking at every possibility to continue to help men in recovery reintegrate back into lives free of drugs and alcohol. Even as the September closing grows nearer, they still dream of expanding the present halfway house and opening one for women, as they help miracles happen and wait for one of their own.
Alcoholism and substance abuse in Indian country
Alcoholism is not a new problem for Indian country. The problem began shortly after European contact with Indian people began. The first attempts by tribes to address the problem of what is now known as alcoholism was addressed by tribes on the east coast as early as the 1750s.
Curiously enough, the solutions tribal elders found at that time were very similar to those later used in the 12 step programs that are in use today. Asking the Creator for help was one of those first steps that elders suggested to tribal members who had succumbed to the spirits found in the bottles that had been offered to them in friendship by the newly arrived Europeans.
As with today’s substance abuse problems among Native people, some were able to walk away from drinking and walk, what is known to Indian people as, the Good Red Road. But for others, it has continued to be a problem that has plagued tribes for generations.
Now a meth epidemic that has swept across Indian country in the past few years, in much the same way that alcohol did 200 years ago, the old ways are finding their way into successful models to stem the flowing scourge.
Although modern Indian people have sought treatment for substance abuse problems over the past century, many have not succeeded. Those who have found the path of the Good Red Road credit not only 12 step programs, but the return to or learning of their traditional culture.
For many Indian people seeking a way out of the despair of substance abuse, learning about their ancestors has been a very powerful tool in finding a way to stay clean and sober. By returning to the ways of the old ones, alcoholics and addicts have found a new sense of who they truly are and a new self-esteem.
Tribal treatment centers and halfway houses have been one way in which modern treatment methods and traditional methods have been able to come together to help Indian people regain their sobriety and become responsible, hard working members of their tribes and also helped them regain ties to their families again.
Even IHS clinics have found that melting the two methods works to serve their clients in recovery.
Potawatomi Addiction Recovery Resource is one of a handful of halfway houses across Indian country that takes men from treatment centers and reintegrates them into society by using both old and new ways.
One of the house residents agreed to speak to Indian Country Today about the changes PARR and the team members have made in his life.
”I was on meth for a long time. I’ve been to treatment before and to one halfway house,” he said. ”But it was in my old neighborhood, nothing changed. I have a job now and I am fighting to get custody of my kids. I know now that I am a good person. I’ve been straight for 13 months. That’s the longest I have ever had that in probably 20 years. It was different here. I learned about who I am and about my culture. Now I just want to get a place to live and to work and live with my kids and show them that their dad isn’t messed up anymore. Maybe that can stop them from going through what I did.”
As he finished, another younger house resident came in beaming. ”I just got a 2 dollar raise,” he said, smiling broadly. ”They are going to give me a certificate as forklift operator and then in a couple of months I can get another 2 dollar raise!”
Although this is not an endor-sement for White Bison Inc., for information regarding addiction recovery in Indian country visit www.whitebison.org.