PLUMMER — Many paths lead to wellness and recovery.

Every journey is different. Some lost souls walk the hard road alone. Many give themselves over to faith. Others rely on those around them for strength and stability in their darkest times as they try to reclaim their lives.

The Wellbriety Movement is all these things, but it also incorporates the important cultural aspect that many treatment programs are missing. It's a movement to help American Indians heal from past trauma and present vices while connecting on a spiritual level.

"As I understand it, 'Wellbriety' is a generic term that describes not just defeating addiction, but it's a movement to getting healthy," said Coeur d'Alene Tribal member Caj Matheson, lead pastor of Amotqn (formerly Living Waters Ministries/Schint), a ministry dedicated to seeking God-driven solutions to the spiritual and social problems of the community.

"There have been a lot of really good things happening more recently. Obviously, addiction and alcoholism impact a lot of us. We have a lot of family and friends that struggle in those areas," he said. "It's an important thing for us to figure out: How do we help our loved ones overcome these struggles? I view them as symptoms of deeper causes, which lends to this concept of Wellbriety."

The movement was developed by Don Coyhis, a member of the Mohican Nation who is also president and founder of White Bison, Inc., an American Indian/Alaska Native nonprofit formed in 1988 to offer healing resources to Native America.

White Bison is a facilitator of Wellbriety, which means "to be sober and well." The movement teaches to find sobriety from addictions to alcohol and other drugs and to recover from the harm that affects individuals, families and whole communities.

Bybee’s journey

"Everybody knows somebody close to them that’s either died or is in prison. Everybody,” said Coeur d'Alene Tribal member Frank Bybee, who embraces Wellbriety and supports others on their journeys.

“Drugs and alcohol," he said. "It’s death.”

Bybee published a book in 2011, "The Worley Warrior," chronicling the spiritual journey he took through severe alcoholism at a young age to his long road to cleaning up, his professional boxing career and the blessing of fatherhood. Heartache, fist fights, hospital visits, jail time and destructive behavior pepper his past.

"I grew up in a party house. I grew up in a broken family. I didn’t even know my mom until I was 21," Bybee said. "It’s my belief, 100 percent belief, that a person is doomed and there’s no escape; people die or they go to prison. The only way that I know of is with God, a higher power."

On Aug. 26, Bybee will celebrate 18 years of sobriety.

"People die, you know. People die every year,” he said. "Families are broken up, kids are fatherless and motherless, all because of drugs and alcohol. But in spite of all that, there’s our Wellbriety Movement. We’re staying sober and we’re here to help you stay sober if you want."

Bybee sees the good work of many others around him who are finding their way to wellness. He encourages others, lifts them up, shares his story and offers a listening ear and open arms for those who need them.

“There’s hope. You don’t ever have to drink or use again. You don’t have to. That’s what I was trying to tell somebody. ‘You don’t have to.’ There’s a way out, with God’s help,” he said. “I believe with my whole heart, I have absolute faith. Our people are proud, they're strong. People are getting sober. Not only that, but they're helping people, too."

Kin on course

Bybee's younger cousin by marriage, Billy Moffitt, is contributing his own take on Wellbriety through the Warrior Strong men's recovery group he leads each week in the Marimn Health Wellness Center in Plummer. The men are in all phases of recovery. They pray with and for one another, speak aloud their hardships and work out together, creating a social, physical and spiritual support unit.

"Everybody goes through things in life, and not a lot of times people are open to share them, and that’s the stuff that, over time, people suppress and they learn not to share,” Moffitt said. "They go through it alone: ‘I’ll be all right, I can do this.' You can’t do it on your own.

"Some of that stuff, that’s how we get generational curses in our family. ‘This is a family secret, keep it on the low, don’t let anybody know.’ Now we need to bring it to the light and deal with it."

Moffitt spent 15 years addicted to various substances, including heroin and meth. Repeatedly he went to jail, where he finally heard God speak to him and he knew he needed to change his life and help others change theirs.

This led him to create Warrior Strong.

Warriors wanted

"I wanted a network of strong men. We need more warriors,” Moffitt said. "All my life, when everybody needed a warrior, when they were looking for the warriors in the family, we’re all locked up or getting high in a room somewhere. When my mom needed somebody, she wasn’t calling me because I’m out of my mind on drugs or locked up in prison. And it broke my heart because this last time around I started losing family. People started dying and that's something you can't get back."

Moffitt, who has since been baptized and is now a husband and dad/stepdad of four, said Warrior Strong means "to be strong, not tough. To be a warrior for your family, not yourself. To be legacy, not legend."

"I had plenty of time to think about it," he said. "And I cried a lot, but I had to. It was how I had to heal."

Other community Wellbriety activities that are taking place on the Coeur d'Alene Reservation are sobriety campouts, huckleberry-picking outings, talking circles, sweat lodge sessions, Bible studies and many more events to include entire families in every stage of recovery or support.

Marimn Health implemented intense Wellbriety training last fall to support cultural and community healing for the population it serves. The medical center offers a White Bison 12-step program as well as Mending Broken Hearts, which provides culturally-based healing from grief, loss and intergenerational trauma.

Culture included

"When I stepped into my recovery, what I felt like I needed was that cultural piece," said Coeur d'Alene Tribal member Ryan Ortivez, a recovery coach and certified peer support specialist who is six years into his recovery path.

"When I walked into the sweat lodge, that, for me, was my first real step into healing," he said. "Along that journey, I was taught about some of the historical trauma and the generational trauma that I didn’t know about previous, so that helped me understand my self-identity.

"I can identify with a lot of people on a lot of different levels, but as far as cultural and historical trauma goes, I need to know about my own ancestors, how that affects me today," he said. "So understanding some of the trauma and the pain they went through affects the way I’m acting and behaving in my recovery today. That is really what helped me design and shift my recovery so I have a full understanding of who I am."

Moffitt said he feels that more and more people are working toward living better lives and giving themselves to God rather than giving in to addiction, on and off the reservation.

‘Ain’t no different’

"That whole lifestyle of the Native American and this and that and you're on the reservation and it's a different way of life, it ain’t no different. Life here ain’t different from anywhere else. Addiction is just as hard on the rez as it is off the rez," he said. "If anything, we need to start embracing that."

He said he believes the Wellbriety work that is being done will have a positive lasting impact, potentially breaking generational cycles and strengthening an already tight-knit community.

"I’m reaching people and helping them change their lives for the better — 100 percent God is getting ahold of these people through the prayers that we’re praying," he said. "The younger ones are looking up to us now. We’ve had a chance to change in front of their eyes. They’ve seen us at our worst and at our best now.

"I do believe that we're going to have a generation below us that is completely drug- and alcohol-free because they’ve seen the damage that it’s done."