Federal funds increase Native American well being companies in San Francisco
One of the leading addiction cure programs in San Francisco is set to receive a big boost thanks to a recent amendment to the U.S. Infrastructure Bill that allows urban Native American organizations to use the funds for health-related projects.
The directors of Friendship House, an inpatient drug and health treatment center that works with Native Americans in San Francisco and tribes across California, say the funds will be used towards a new six-story building in the Mission District that will serve as a one-stop shop for local health, housing, culture and spiritual practice. The project, called The Village SF, is in the planning phase and is expected to open in 2025.
“When COVID emerged, there was an urgent need to develop a broader vision for Friendship House,” said filmmaker and former Friendship House board member Peter Bratt. “The irony and tragedy is that Native Americans have no physical place to call home. The village will provide a physical space for the indigenous people to gather for social services and youth programs, and a cultural space where we can sing, dance and celebrate. “
According to the US Census, an estimated seven in ten Native Americans, representing approximately 2.8 million people, live in or near cities. But San Francisco and many other cities lack the resources or attention even to the health needs of indigenous communities, said Bratt, who briefly lived on Alcatraz as a child during the protests against the occupation of Alcatraz.
Community leaders at Friendship House had to fill the void created and left by traditional health and safety channels. The center offers a 12-level program and other services to help individuals recover, including education and professional maturity, but all work is focused on building local community and cultural connections.
This could look like spiritual guides coming in and performing ceremonies, like a sweat lodge ceremony and discussion group, or wiping away tears. Plans and ceremonies are individualized based on what a person may have experienced before finding Friendship House. Many who have gone through the program have been homeless or incarcerated or raised in foster care, Bratt said.
“There is a tremendous need for culturally rooted medical and behavioral health services. All data across the country, whether in cities or on the reservation, Indians often do not go and get their social services from mainstream portals, “said Bratt. “We get better results and more engagement when the services are culturally oriented.”
The Urban Indian Health Facilities Provider Act, introduced by Senators Alex Padilla (D-CA) and James Lankford (R-OK), amended the Infrastructure Act, signed by President Joe Biden in November, to allow organizations like Friendship House to do the To spend funds on construction projects to improve the quality of care for urban local patients.
The heads of state and government hope that enlargement will open up opportunities not only to bring more people into need, but also to connect families with basic needs such as housing, health care and culture at an early stage in order to break the cycle of drug use.
“You can’t isolate a person; You need to treat them in families and in the community. This is how people act and interact. Even sequoias are related, ”said Abby Abinanti, President Emeritus of the Board of Directors of Friendship House. “People naturally need to understand why they do something, and when they don’t, it’s really hard to change.”
An essential part of Friendship House’s approach is to help people understand and process the trauma they have experienced directly and through generations of violence that their ancestors faced.
“Not so long ago we had boarding schools, forced slaves and massacres. These incidents create trickle down behavior and you need to be aware of this. Thousands of years ago we didn’t have this problem, ”said Abinanti, the chief judge of the Yurok tribe and the first Native American woman to be admitted to the California Bar.
Those painful memories are still fresh to many who come through the doors of Friendship House.
Helen Devore Waukazoo, age 13, was taken from her family and forced to go to boarding school. It was part of a government plan that expelled American Indians from reservations and forced them to integrate into non-American Indian communities. Waukazoo landed in San Francisco and founded the Friendship House in 1963.
After working in San Francisco for more than 50 years, the organization now claims that 92% of customers who come through the 80-bed facility are clean six months later. And compared to 41% at admission, nearly 92% of Friendship House graduates have not used alcohol or illegal drugs in the past 30 days.
As San Francisco confronts a swelling drug overdose epidemic, Friendship House executives see an opportunity for its expanded services and the newly formed American Indian Cultural District to share insights with the wider community.
“The people who have come here also have many of the same problems and their solutions are not right for them,” Abinanti said. “Perhaps we can also become partners and help them, while living up to our responsibility.”
This can start with more open discussions about shared stories. Many communities who came to San Francisco for various reasons are grappling with the aftermath of traumatic pasts experienced by many around the world following the protests of George Floyd and, more recently, US Secretary of the Interior Deb. on display was Haaland, who recently visited Alcatraz Island to recognize the Red Power Movement and the American Civil Rights Movement.
“It was a real head-turner,” said Bratt, who was visiting Haaland. “It helped the American Indians see what was happening in Minneapolis, including the Bay Area, and it ignited our imaginations.”
sjohnson@sfexaminer.com
