White Buffalo Recovery Center grounds intergenerational healing in culture and connection

On a white plastic table in an Arapahoe office, Lance Oldman is pounding a mixture of ground cedar, water and honey into something a little unexpected: an empty Chapstick tube.

“Fill it with cedar and use a stick, push them outwards and they make perfect little cylindrical circles,” he said.

Oldman is a Northern Arapaho and is a certified peer specialist at White Buffalo Recovery Center, an outpatient substance abuse treatment center in Riverton and the Wind River Reservation.

He makes cedar incense sticks. Cedar, he says, is traditionally used to heal the mind, body and spirit.

“We usually harvest the green cedar from the juniper. After they are dry, we will say a prayer and put it on the hot coals. The smoke coming out of the cedar itself is a cleansing,” he said.

Hannah Habermann

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Wyoming Public Media

But Oldman said burning cedar this way isn’t always possible.

“Time goes by and we don’t have chimneys like we did a long time ago,” he said. “And we don’t always have a fire going.”

So he and his colleagues began figuring out how to make cedar incense, which took a lot of trial and error. But a tube of Chapstick on the table gave him a eureka moment.

“Bing!” There’s just this little flash, it’s like, “All right, man! I took it out, put some (ground cedar) in it and pushed it. And everyone says, “Wow!” That’s great.'”

Making cedar incense is just a small part of what Oldman does at White Buffalo, where he has worked for nearly 10 years. The center supports all enrolled tribal members and their descendants, and offers both clinical services and a variety of culturally appropriate programs led by peer specialists, such as language and craft classes, drumming, a 12-step medicine wheel program and sweat lodges.

“All of our families and communities need this healing, here and now,” Oldman said.

Luke Brown, a member of the Northern Arapaho tribe, works in the White Buffalo office in Riverton and agrees.

“The solution to addiction is not abstinence. The solution to addiction is connection,” he said, referencing a TED talk on addiction by author Johann Hari.

One of Brown’s primary roles as a Peer Specialist has been to facilitate Mending Broken Hearts, a three-day biweekly workshop that provides healing for grief, loss and intergenerational trauma.

Hannah Habermann

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Wyoming Public Media

“Mending Broken Hearts is itself an effort to help resolve unresolved grief and bring closure to some incomplete relationships. It helps us see where our trauma comes from,” he said.

Brown said much of this trauma is rooted in colonialism.

“From the wars, from the murder of our indigenous people in the past, to the boarding school system where our culture was banned and, in some ways, kicked out of young children in boarding schools – this type of history is always present. affects us today,” he said.

In the past, the workshop was reserved for adults. But today, this practice extends to the whole family. Brown will co-host the new program with White Buffalo adolescent peer specialist Kenzie Monroe. She said bringing young people to the workshop was the logical next step.

“Many of our teens are struggling and don’t understand where their grief, feelings or healing comes from. So I think it’s good to be part of that (conversation),” she said.

Monroe is a Northern Arapaho and recently took the adult version of the Mending Broken Hearts workshop herself. She said she came away with a better understanding of the ripple effects of intergenerational trauma. She said bringing learning to families would hopefully have some sort of reverse ripple effect.

“There will be this understanding and forgiveness and ultimate healing,” she said. “I think it’s a good thing.”

Hannah Habermann

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Wyoming Public Media

Back at the White Buffalo office in Arapahoe, Brandon Brown said drumming was a way for him to heal.

“I grew up around the drum. I mean, my dad got me into drumming at a very young age and my first memory is falling asleep to the drum,” he said. “Now I’m sitting here with him singing.”

Brown is also Northern Arapaho and began working as a specialist with White Buffalo two months ago. He grew up in an alcoholic household, but he says drumming and staying connected to his culture helped him.

“That’s what helps me in my sobriety is being on the drums and expressing myself. And when I sing our cultural songs, it’s like praying,” he said.

Brown is 36 years old and wants to share this tool with others. He said many of the people he works with are a generation or two older than him and may have been cut off from their culture. But he is happy to be able to share what he knows with them.

“They are really interested in me and want to know more. They appreciate what I have to say because what I say is true and honest,” he said.

Even though he is new to the position, Brown said he is passionate about connecting with clients and that healing can go both ways.

“I can help them and tell them about my experience and they can tell me about their experiences. We help each other with sobriety and recovery,” he said.

Hannah Habermann

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Wyoming Public Media

Above Brown’s desk is a large drum. Its sides are painted blue with a white bison on it. When he talks about the drum, his eyes light up.

“It’s a circle because of the circle of life. And when we drum on it, it makes a beat and that beat is a heartbeat. And it’s not just his heartbeat, it’s the heartbeat of our tribe,” he said.

Brown points out the crisscross links forming triangles all around the exterior of the drum, which he says represent mountains and teepees.

“It’s not just his heartbeat, but it’s my heartbeat.” You know, it’s my love. This is my passion. It’s the drum,” he said.

The first Mending Broken Hearts workshop for families will take place June 12-14 in Riverton. It is open to young people and their parents or guardians, with a suggested age of 13 and over. However, parents and guardians are encouraged to use their discretion to assess whether their child is at an age where they can address difficult topics like colonization and intergenerational trauma.