Shondiin Mayo
ICT
Wákwahst unę́hkwát, meaning “good medicine” in the Tuscarora language, will serve as a guiding light for the United Katehnuaka Longhouse which will host an International Overdose Awareness Day event on Thursday. The nonprofit organization led by Native individuals, located in eastern North Carolina, is dedicated to fostering cultural connections and revitalization as a means to address the historical, intergenerational, and lifelong traumas that lead to substance use disorders within Native communities.
To promote community support and outreach, the event aims to bring together Native people from the region spanning from South Carolina to Virginia. The event will take place at the Coharie Tribal Center in Clinton, North Carolina. It will include traditional songs and dances, speakers addressing the overdose crisis in their communities, and a special tribute to loved ones who have passed away due to overdose. Although Aug. 31 is International Overdose Awareness Day , the community social reflects the heavy impact that Indigenous people have faced from the overdose crisis.
Kaya Littleturtle, program manager, shares that the awareness day event is, “… one of the big ways that we promote our sovereignty, being able to take back control of our tribal communities, to be able to help our people that are being so negatively attacked by this spirit of substance abuse, by these, these things that are hurting our people.”
Ultimately, the United Katehnuaka Longhouse aims to provide a safe space for people to gather in tradition and strengthen the traditional knowledge and activities of each other.
“…when we gather like this, you know we’re making a stand to say that we’re not going to lose any more of our people like this, that we’re going to help one another,” he said.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2021, on average, over 290 Americans died every day from a drug overdose. That same year, 1,358 non-Hispanic American Indian and Alaskan Native people died from overdose, which was the highest rate of any racial or ethnic group.
Historically, the Longhouses of the region have acted as beacons of cultural resilience and are still passing on the responsibility of cultural preservation. However, the rise of the overdose crisis after COVID-19 prompted the United Katehnuaka Longhouse to begin a wellness movement such as the social. The initiatives carried out by the nonprofit illustrate an Indigenous approach to addressing the overdose crisis, setting an example for other communities. Littleturtle explains that the nonprofit emphasizes the importance of replacing negative coping strategies with positive coping mechanisms by utilizing cultural dances, songs, and language.
“Because ultimately, our culture, not only does it help as a recovery supportive service, but our culture ultimately, is prevention. You know, our young people that’s going to be there, we get them involved in their identity and their songs and their dances and their languages, we uplift them, and then they are less likely to want to participate in things that will be harmful to them.”
Littleturtle is looking forward to the event not only to celebrate his Katehnuʔá·ka·ʔ Tuscarora heritage but also to spread awareness of the overdose crisis occurring in Indigenous communities.
For him, this is good medicine and he hopes that “…when they leave from this social they’re going to take all that goodness back with them, and that that that fire that we ignite here is going to be ignited all over and that we’re going to continue to pick up each other’s minds, that we’re going to continue to engage in that responsibility of putting our minds on the table as one and figuring these things out in a meaningful fashion.”
The free event is open to the public. More information can be found on the Vital Strategies website.
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