Native Americans struggling with substance use find healing and connection through sweat lodges

Photo Courtesy: Osage Nation Health

This story is part of VNN Oklahoma’s “Returning to Balance” Solutions Journalism Series. Using a solutions journalism approach, these stories highlight Indigenous led, culturally informed strategies to address challenges that disproportionately affect Native communities. "Returning to Balance" aims to inspire leaders, health organizations, and community members to consider new, community-grounded pathways for change. Our team spoke with people who are transforming their communities through culturally rooted solutions. At VNN Oklahoma, we believe Indigenous communities should not be defined by the problems they face. Instead, they should be recognized and supported for the positive change they create, honoring their culture and their wisdom.

These stories are made possible in part through the support of Native Oklahoma Insurance.

(NATIONAL) Charles Barrone credits who he is today to his creator - and hours he spent seated in silence inside a sweat lodge, inhaling scents of cedar and surrounded by warm sage coals. As someone who has struggled with amphetamines and alcohol, the time he spent inside the lodge detoxified and purified his body, ridding him of the “poison of substances,” he said.  

Barrone is a member of the Osage Nation and serves as The Transitional Housing Supervisor for Osage Nation Health. He also operates the Nation’s sweat lodge that exists to help tribal members dealing with substance use. 

Native Americans make up just under 2 percent of the U.S. population. However, they have some of the highest rates of substance use disorder of any ethnic group according to The Red Road. 

The organization lists causes that have contributed to the Substance Use Disorder crisis as trauma, social isolation, high rates of incarceration, and inadequate access to healthcare on reservations. 

For Barrone, the use of the sweat lodge has been highly beneficial in addressing addiction to amphetamines and alcohol. 

He has been sweating since 2010 and finds it to be one of the most helpful aspects of recovery, allowing him to have a spiritual connection. 

“I found my creator there and he helped deliver me from this disease,” said Barrone. “I continued to sweat throughout the years and it was consistently the same no matter how the world changed. All of the elements that are used, cedar, sage coal, and snake are all elements that the creator has given us where we have our grandfather rock.”

Tribes inside and outside of Oklahoma have also been turning to sweat lodges as a cultural solution to address substance use disorder. 

Justin Bible, a member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, uses sweat lodges and builds them. A few years ago he was approached by the Seminole Nation Courts Program because of his expertise. 

“They asked if I would build them one, but they didn’t have anybody to run it,”  said Bible. So I started running it, and then they started sending clients for their drug programs to me to count for meetings.”

For many of the individuals that use the sweat lodge as part of a drug treatment program, it becomes about more than just checking a box. 

Bible says they start to come more often on their own time. 

“I would say, everybody that comes to the lodge prefers coming to the lodge,” said  Bible. “They feel obligated to go to the meetings, the NA meetings.”

Western University in London, Ontario published a study titled: The Sweat Lodge Ceremony which offered the option of going to a sweat lodge to Indigenous people with Intergenerational Trauma and Substance Use Disorder.

One of the study’s participants stated: “What I found most helpful was the sweat lodge. Trying to connect, to find myself, to know me. It was really helpful to go in there. It helped me a lot.”

Due to the popularity of the sweat lodge, Bible says there have been conversations about building another one. 

“The one we have now, I think it only holds up to about 15 people, but most sweats I've gone to, they're about that size, but there's been talk of building another one,” said Bible. “I just have to find somebody that can run it.”

Bible says for court ordered clients that need community service, he also offers an opportunity for them to complete that. 

“I have them just weed around the lodge, help me get water, cut wood and just be a part of something,” said Bible. 

Bible says he believes that one of the reasons many people want to come to the sweat lodge as part of their program is because of a shared cultural and spiritual connection that they don’t always get at Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous meetings. 

“They help a lot of people, but there is a disconnect with some of the other attendees there —  ‘Their problems aren't our problems,’” said Bible. “The sweat ceremony, because everybody kind of knows each other, or knows of their family, there is a more, a closer relation.”

That connection is echoed by Barrone. 

“It's important for us as people to be connected to our culture and to each other because recovery isn't something you can do by yourself.”

Bible says none of the clients who are in a court-ordered program are ever forced to go to the sweat lodge because not everyone is comfortable doing so and has the religious freedom to say no. 

However, he says he believes that because it takes people back to their roots it has become popular and a much cheaper solution, as using the sweat lodge is free. 

Jacquelyn Poulin, the Behavior Health Director for the Mi’Kmaq Nation in Presque Ile, Maine has also been working with Tribal Members with Substance Use Disorder who want to use Sweat Lodges. 

The nation built the sweat lodges with money from the Opioid Settlement Lawsuits. 

Since implementing the sweat lodges as an option for people seeking help with substance use disorder, Poulin says there’s been a larger turnout at these types of events. 

“We also hear from people that maybe they felt like something was missing in their life, in their healing, but they didn't know what it was until they've been exposed to different opportunities and then felt better from it.”

Poulin says there has been a lot of support from leadership at the Mi’Mmaq Nation for utilizing sweat lodges as an option for substance use disorder treatment. 

“This has been something that was wanted from leadership before it even happened,” said Poulin. “It was more of a fact of taking that request and that acknowledgement of how important it is and how to put that into practice.”

Despite the positive feedback both Bible and Poulin have gotten, they both acknowledge that there are limitations to sweat lodges as a solution. 

Poulin says creating more opportunities that are culturally informed requires a great level of recognition about the importance of those practices for healing. 

Western University in London, Ontario published a study titled: The Sweat Lodge Ceremony which offered the option of going to a sweat lodge to Indigenous people with Intergenerational Trauma and Substance Use Disorder.

One of the study’s participants stated: “What I found most helpful was the sweat lodge. Trying to connect, to find myself, to know me. It was really helpful to go in there. It helped me a lot.”

“I think there's some hope that somewhere down the road there will be some larger recognition about healing taking many forms,” said Poulin

Bible says, people also have to be trained to run a sweat lodge and must be informed about the cultural and spiritual practices. 

“You start training somebody and if they stay interested, it could be a year or two before they're ready to pour,” said Bible. “And then you want to make sure that whoever's pouring isn't going to hurt anybody or try to exploit any kind of cultural knowledge.”

Barrone also emphasized that the sweat lodge can teach humility. 

“It's difficult to sit in there and handle the heat to sacrifice your comfort.”