Coyhis joined a recovery group. He had a no-nonsense sponsor “who really kicked me into shape.” But he wasn’t connecting to the reasons for his alcoholism. “I looked around and thought this place should be full of Indians, but it wasn’t. I wonder if the Indians who wanted to quit drinking felt something was missing, too.”
Coyhis eventually met another Indian, “Johnny,” a recovering alcoholic. Coyhis looked up to him and implored Johnny to help retrain him, a now out-of-practice Indian, in the native ways.
When Johnny took Coyhis on a five-day fast in the mountains, Coyhis saw a white bison rise from the ground and gaze upon him with loving eyes. “It was like my angel,” Coyhis says. It became clear to Coyhis that his recovery would be incomplete without his culture.
“For me, culture is prevention,” Coyhis says. “In the English language, culture means that everybody does it, but it really is a set of principles, laws, and values that is in harmony with the Earth. It can be native teachings. It can be the Bible. Culture is going back to the principles, laws and values so that drinking isn’t something you want to do, because your culture has ways to help you deal with the hurt.”
After a decade of sobriety, in 1988, Coyhis formed White Bison to bring his ideas to his people. He worked nights, weekends, and vacations, but quickly found that his corporate training didn’t always serve him.
Take the standard organizational chart, for example — the boss at the top and the greatest number of people at the bottom. That structure wouldn’t help an alcoholic on a reservation, Coyhis reasoned, when the greatest number of people must help the person who needs it most.
Now, Coyhis’ chart is flipped. His methods include sessions not only with the alcoholic, but also the parents, siblings, elders, and others.
“In the forest you have the alcoholic trees, the co-dependent trees, all the other kinds,” he says. “But you have to work on the roots. If you only treat the trees, your forest won’t last.”
To Coyhis, “recovery” is not only about the work that the alcoholic must do personally — Coyhis uses the “Medicine Wheel 12 Steps,” which are the Alcoholics Anonymous principles organized in a circle — but also the group drumming circles, the healing ceremonies, the service to the community.
While in most cases, the alcoholic’s treatment consists of the alcoholic seeing a counselor or going to a meeting, Coyhis’ model begins by working with volunteers who have struggled with alcoholism and even their enablers, called Firestarters, and getting them to commit to sobriety and public service. Part of the recovery is inspiring others to be well, too, Coyhis says.
