Thundermaker Cultural Ceremony Program

The Thundermaker Cultural Ceremony Program offers a 4-day immersive experience that integrates culturally appropriate teachings and practices, emphasizing behavioral health and wellbeing within Native American tribal communities. The program aims to foster prevention and community-based recovery support systems by helping participants recover their cultural identity. It provides a space to reconnect with traditional teachings, ceremonies, and cultural roots through cultural practice and community building.

The program is structured over four days, each dedicated to one of the four directions and colors of the medicine wheel, with the sweat lodge ceremony serving as the program's introduction. Each day features a presenter from a different tribe, representing the east, south, west, and north directions of the medicine wheel. This approach unites the cultural communities within the circle, demonstrating our interconnectedness and commitment to supporting one another as a unified people.

In addition to traditional teachings, each day includes activities focused on personal growth and healing through cultural teachings, practices, group presentations, and discussions on various topics. Upon arrival, participants will receive an overview of the program's expectations and preparation for the initial sweat lodge and subsequent activities.

The sweat lodge ceremony offers an opportunity to establish a spiritual, physical, mental, and emotional foundation of well-being, which serves as the groundwork for the entire program.

Thundermaker Cultural Recovery currently offers three distinct programs:

• Culturally based prevention programming for Native Youth (ages 13-17)

• Culturally based prevention, recovery, and after-care programming for Native Adults (ages 18-24)

• Culturally based prevention, recovery, and after-care programming for Native Adults (ages 25+)

These programs provide a platform for prevention and recovery through traditional cultural practices and are designed with flexibility to incorporate additional cultural practices or traditions as requested.