The Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe held it’s 2nd annual tribal Opioid Response Summit on December 12-14, Northern Lights Casino.
The three-day summit attended by nearly 200 Band members is the collaborative effort of 14 Leech Lake programs.
Reporter Kayla Duoos has the story.
Transcript
HOST INTRO:
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MARIE: [over the music]: This is Minnesota Native News, I’m Marie Rock.
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MARIE: The Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe held it’s 2nd annual tribal opioid summit December 12-14. Reporter Kayla Duoos has the details for us. The event started with a Welcome from the Leech Lake Chairman.
FARON JACKSON: “As we come together to deal with these issues we deal with today Our relatives they dealt with alcoholism, we got more issues that we’re dealing with today. Our family, relatives that are addicted, they’re very special people. We don’t ever talk bad about people dealing with addiction because we’re talking about our families.“ (0:45)
REPORTER: That's Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe Chairman Faron Jackson at the Band’s 2nd annual Opioid Response Summit at the Northern Lights Casino.
The three day summit attended by nearly 200 Band members is the collaborative effort of 14 Leech Lake programs.
It aims to inform the community about recovery resources and hold culturally focused discussions regarding addiction.
In 2017, American Indian and Alaska Native populations had the second highest overdose rates from all opioids.
That’s according to the most recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data.
Leech Lake is only a small portion of Indian country, but the numbers here are still at crisis level.
That’s why this event is necessary.
Patricia Bittner is the Leech Lake Tribal Police, Methamphetamine Policing Community Coordinator.
She sat down with me to discuss how the opioid crisis is impacting the community by the numbers.
PATRICIA BITTNER: So for the state of Minnesota all of drug and alcohol, out of every group of 1000 people we have about 89 people who go to treatment. We have the most babies born with neonatal abstinence syndrome, We have the most females who go to treatment. More of our Native Ladies are in prison than any other race. (0:22)
REPORTER: Patricia's statistics show a troubling pattern. A majority of the charges women go in for are drug related, and Neonatal abstinence syndrome, also known as (NAS) is a group of problems that occur in a newborn who was exposed to addictive illegal or prescription drugs while in the mother's womb.
I later asked Patricia, what people should know about tribal resources when it comes to fighting addiction and combating these figures.
PATRICIA BITTNER: Know that Leech Lake is resource rich, all you have to know is where they are and how to get them. Anyone who’s struggling with addiction or anything else there's a lot of resources out there. (0:12)
REPORTER: A group that has seen success in keeping folks clean on the reservation is the Sober Squad.
It’s a community run group that hosts events and family friendly activities to keep those in recovery busy.
There's one sober squad on the reservation and 20 within Minnesota and 5 more throughout the country.
CURTIS JACKSON: We’re a support group, we advocate for each other. We’re like a big family. When one person is down—it's not just one person, that tries to pick them up, it’s everybody.
**Curtis Jackson a sober squad leader defined how the group works. [moved from above the cut in order to cut Curtis’s quote into 2 shorter ones instead of 1 big one.]
When I was really in recovery, I didn’t feel like I had nobody and that's one of the biggest things you can do for somebody is be there for them because they’ve always had people give up on them. I’ve said it a bunch of times but you know they always say “”it takes a village to raise a child””, we need that same village to help fight this opioid epidemic. (0:45)
REPORTER: While the sober squad is one of the most notable services on the reservation, it’s not the only.
The Leech Lake Band currently offers OVER 10 different programs that help treat members who are battling addiction and working on recovery.
For more information on the Opioid Response Summit including addiction recovery resources, please check out LeechLakeNews.Com
I’m Kayla Duoos with the DeBahJimon for MN Native News.
STORY #2 - FDLTCC PRESIDENT
In other news, the Fond Du Lac Tribal and Community College interim president Stephanie Hammitt will be filling the role permanently.
Hammitt has served as interim president since July 1, 2018 after previous president Larry Anderson retired.
STEPHANIE HAMMIT: It’s a very humbling experience, there's so many good people that work here and believe in the mission of the college and so I think it’s a great place to work and hopefully other students and staff feel that way too.”
Hammitt’s new appointment became effective in November.
FUNDER CREDITS