The Red Road to Wellness: Cultural Reclamation in a Native First Nations Community Treatment Center

This article explores how Native American cultural practices were incorporated into the therapeutic activities of a community-controlled
substance abuse treatment center on a “First Nations” reserve in the Canadian north. Analysis of open-ended interviews with
nineteen staff and clients—as contextualized by participant observation, program records, and existing ethnographic resources—yielded
insights concerning local therapeutic practice with outpatients and other community members. Specifically, program staff adopted
and promoted a diverse array of both western and Aboriginal approaches that were formally integrated with reference to the
Aboriginal symbol of the medicine wheel. Although incorporations of indigenous culture marked Lodge programs as distinctively
Aboriginal in character, the subtle but profound influence of western “therapy culture” was centrally evident in healing activities
as well. Nuanced explication of these activities illustrated four contributions of cultural analysis for community psychology.