A Culturally Rooted Healing Path for Native Peoples
At White Bison, Inc., the Medicine Wheel & 12 Steps program was created specifically for Native American and Alaska Native individuals seeking recovery from trauma, substance use, and the legacy of intergenerational wounds. It blends the traditional teachings of the Medicine Wheel, the Four Laws of Change, and the cycle of life with the well-known 12-Step framework—offering a culturally responsive, spiritually anchored path to healing.
Why This Program Matters
Many Native individuals face not only substance use and mental-health challenges, but also deep-rooted trauma that spans generations—boarding school legacies, loss of culture and language, historical & intergenerational trauma, and marginalization. The Medicine Wheel & 12 Steps program addresses these layers by:
- Centering culture and spiritual identity in recovery.
- Recognizing that substance use or trauma symptoms are often expressions of deeper wounds.
- Promoting healing for the whole person—emotional, mental, physical, and spiritual.
- Connecting recovery to community and tradition, not just to individual behavior change.
Program Framework & Components
Core structure
The program is divided into modules guided by the Medicine Wheel teachings: Four Directions, Four Seasons of Change, the Laws of Change, and principles drawn from Indigenous worldviews.
The 12 Steps are interwoven with values taught by the Elders: for example, Step 1 is linked to Honesty; Step 2 to Hope; Step 3 to Faith; Step 4 to Courage.
Three major phases:
- Finding the Creator (Steps 1-3)
- Finding Yourself (Steps 4-6)
- Finding Your Relationship with Others (Steps 7-9)
- Finding the Wisdom of the Elders (Steps 10-12)
Key program elements
- Use of video lessons, participant workbooks, talking circles, and “mind-mapping” applying the Medicine Wheel concepts to one’s life.
- Group process that fosters connection, trust, and mutual support within culturally anchored recovery circles.
- Emphasis on values, character development, and reconnecting with traditional teachings as a pathway to wellness.
Who This Program Serves
This curriculum is designed for Native individuals (men, women, youth) who are:
- Acknowledging how trauma (historical, intergenerational, cultural) has affected them.
- Open to integrating cultural identity, spiritual connection, and traditional worldviews into recovery.
- Seeking a program that speaks to more than symptoms—addressing roots such as disconnection, loss of language/ceremony, grief, and community rupture.
- Ready to transform not just their own lives, but to participate in healing families and communities.
Benefits & Outcomes
Participants in the Medicine Wheel & 12 Steps program may experience:
- A deeper sense of identity, belonging, and spiritual connection.
- Greater emotional and mental clarity—understanding how trauma, loss, and cultural disruption have shaped the present.
- Enhanced coping skills and healthier patterns of behavior rooted in values rather than symptoms.
- Strengthened relationships—with self, with others, with culture—and the ability to move into service and giving back (Steps 10-12).
- A foundation for sustainable wellness that honors the next seven generations, grounded in the vision of the Wellbriety movement.
Integrating the Program Into Your Healing Journey
Here’s how the program might be incorporated into a trauma-recovery pathway:
Review history of trauma (personal, historical, intergenerational), readiness for change, and connection to culture/spirituality.
Teachings on the Four Directions, Four Seasons, and the Four Laws of Change: establishing the world view and structure of healing.
Self-exploration: honesty, hope, faith, courage, integrity, willingness. Mapping one’s life and relationship to these values.
Healing relational wounds: humility, forgiveness, justice; repairing damage, reconnecting with family/community.
Perseverance, spiritual awakening, service: participants move into giving back, mentoring, becoming community healers.
Integration of talking circles, smudging, elder teachings, traditional story-telling, and community gatherings.
Guidance on maintaining the path, peer support, community-based healing, and nurturing cultural identity.
Why It Works – Culture + 12 Steps That Honor Tradition
- The Medicine Wheel provides a map for the cycle of healing, aligning personal change with natural and spiritual rhythms.
- The 12 Steps offer a time-tested structure of recovery, adapted through cultural lenses so the language, values, and processes reflect Indigenous world-views rather than external models alone.
- By honoring both individual and collective trauma—especially historical and intergenerational—the program addresses deeper roots rather than only surface symptoms.
- Participants move beyond “addict” or “victim” labels toward roles as warriors, healers, leaders within their communities.
Get Started
If you’re ready to walk a healing path that honors your culture, your history, and your spirit—this program may be the bridge you’ve been seeking. You’re invited to contact our program team to learn more about how the Medicine Wheel & 12 Steps component is offered within our broader trauma-recovery initiative. Let’s walk beside you on the journey to wellness, rooted in tradition, tuned to spirit, and designed for Native people.