ARHE Webinar: An Overview of the Wellbriety Movement

Kateri Coyhis will introduce the concept of Wellbriety as balance and connection to the natural laws that create healing within the native community. Culturally based tools are discussed as a way for changing families. A combination of immense losses and traumatic events that have perpetrated an entire culture need healing as natives across the nation are encouraged to seek to reinstate cultural ways, language and sacred traditions. The unfortunate consequences of trauma include not believing you have a future, difficulties within families and a distrust of the outside world. This is passed down through direct parent-child interactions and also through interactions with extended family and the community. Healing will take place through application of cultural and spiritual knowledge.

Kateri Coyhis, Mohican Nation, is the Executive Director of White Bison in Colorado Springs, CO. White Bison, Inc., is an American Indian non-profit 501(c)3 corporation dedicated to creating and sustaining a grassroots Wellbriety Movement that provides culturally based healing to the next seven generations of Indigenous People. Kateri joined the White Bison staff in 2001, after beginning her own journey into recovery. In her role as the Director, she coordinates national training events and conferences, collects data for evaluations of federal grants, assists in the development of culturally-based curriculum for youth and adults, assists the Chairman of the Board, and trains community leaders across the country to implement a youth prevention program entitled Daughters of Tradition. Kateri received a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs.