Renewing cultural identity
Part of the problem we face as indigenous people is the fact that we are not truly connected to our traditional values and beliefs.
There are many communities and people that are still connected, but as a whole, we are lacking the much needed unification that is required for us to stand together and battle the issues that we are currently facing as indigenous people.
When the topic of traditional healing comes up, many of us feel a sense of discomfort and uneasiness.
Have we ever asked ourselves why?
Its believed that we are here due to generations before us providing a foundation of prayers that we walk upon today. We are the cultural and spiritual survivors from those prayers.
We are now the caretakers of those prayers, and it is our responsibility to continue to build on and strengthen that foundation by making those prayers again for the next generation.
To be successful in building our strong foundation, we need to heal and move past our own trauma and hesitation, to have the necessary acceptance that allows us to live a healthy and spiritual life. We are doing a disservice to those relatives who made this life we live possible by perpetuating this negative cycle we continuously feel the need to live in.
That is why Thundermaker Cultural Recovery dedicates itself to renewing cultural identities and reconnecting cultural bridges, to promote unity within the Native American communities.
OUR BEGINNING
Through a serendipitous meeting, Co-Founders, Hunter Eary and Arrow Funmaker, realized that they were both from the Ho-Chunk Nation, working and living in the high desert of Arizona, far from their home territory of Wisconsin. Hunter was newly involved in the sober community in Prescott, Arizona, and was connected to Arrow through a mutual friend. Arrow had been working and involved in the Prescott sober community for a year, working as a Cultural Programming Director.
Being of the same nation, Hunter and Arrow connected immediately and started growing more than a friendship, they started building a foundation of continued recovery through different cultural practices. Recognizing that there were not many recovery or after-care programs that focused on Native addictions, they began planning a cultural and spiritual based after-care program.
With Hunter’s background in starting and growing businesses, and with Arrow’s background in a traditional way of life and working in recovery programs, the seed of Thundermaker Cultural Recovery was planted.
Over months of practicing together and taking weekly steps to set up the nonprofit, Thundermaker Cultural Recovery grew. Starting with the Recovery Aftercare Program, Thundermaker Cultural Recovery now provides weekly traditional sweat lodges to the recovery community and continues to expand it’s Community Outreach.
OUR MISSION
Thundermaker Cultural Recovery focuses on connecting and bridging inter-generational groups through traditional practices, by creating an accessible event space to educate and bridge identity gaps. Through rekindling our cultural identities we are able to work with high-risk Native American people through their inter-generational trauma.
PLAN OF ACTION
Navajo Nation Emergency COVID-19 Relief - Due to the increasing issues for the Navajo Nation during this time of crisis, Thundermaker Cultural Recovery has stopped current plans and has engaged in fundraising to be able to provide much needed supplies to the ever growing COVID-19 infected Navajo Nation.
Cultural Recovery - Thundermaker Cultural Recovery provides 4-day camping retreats that use culturally appropriate recovery teachings and practices, with a focus on addiction and the opioid crisis within Native American tribal communities.
Thundermaker Recovery and Rehabilitation Center - Through our own experiences, we have found that addiction is different for Native Americans, and the recovery programs need to be as well, as we have cultural identities to address. Thundermaker Cultural Recovery’s future plans are to provide a long-term drug and alcohol addiction recovery facility run by Natives, for Natives.