American Indian culture as substance abuse treatment: pursuing evidence for a local intervention

Contemporary tribal commitments to traditional cultural reclamation and revitalization find continued expression by recent generational cohorts of American Indians who, when it comes to matters of recovery, healing, and wellness in the context of substance abuse, routinely assert that "our culture is our treatment." And yet, empirical investigations of this culture-as-treatment hypothesis--namely, that a (post)colonial return to indigenous cultural orientations and practices is sufficient for effecting abstinence and recovery from substance use disorders for many American Indians--have yet to appear in the scientific literature. Preliminary activities of a research partnership dedicated to the empirical exploration of this hypothesis for reducing Native American substance use disorders are summarized. Specifically, collaboration between a university-based research psychologist and a reservation-based substance abuse treatment program staff has thus far resulted in a detailed blueprint for a radically alternative, culturally-grounded intervention developed for reservation residents. This proposed alternative intervention--a seasonal cultural immersion camp designed to approximate the day-to-day experiences of prereservation ancestors--was designed for eventual implementation and evaluation with adult clients referred for residential treatment on the Blackfeet Indian reservation. It is anticipated that the proposed intervention will eventually afford empirical evaluation of the culture-as-treatment hypothesis.