"Living a sober life balanced emotionally, mentally, physically, and spiritually."
Wellbriety Nation honors the grassroots Wellbriety Movement founded by White Bison and the hundreds of First Nations and Tribes across Turtle Island whose cultures carry the medicine of recovery for the next seven generations.
The Foundation
Elders teach that when a community follows these four laws, healing is not a hope. It is a certainty. They are the roots of every Wellbriety journey.
Healing begins inside the person, inside the family, inside the community. No one can be forced into wellness.
A community that can see a healed future can walk toward it. Vision comes first, then the work.
Culture, language, ceremony, and story are the curriculum of recovery. Learning the old ways builds the new path.
A healed tree returned to a sick forest gets sick again. The whole forest, the whole community, must become the healing place.
Core Programs of the Movement
Six pillars of the Wellbriety Movement, developed by White Bison since 1988 and carried into hundreds of communities across Canada and the United States.
The 12 Steps placed in a circle on the Medicine Wheel, grounded in the Cycle of Life and the Four Laws of Change. Separate journeys for men, for women, and for youth ages 13 to 21.
Healing intergenerational trauma: a three step process for grief, loss, shame, and fear passed through generations, rooted in the story of the sick forest and the healing forest.
Peer to peer recovery support for Native people returning from treatment or incarceration. Relapse prevention, community reintegration, and a relative who does not give up on you.
A physical hoop blessed by Elders in 1995 that has traveled more than 200,000 miles from community to community, carrying four gifts wherever it goes.
Communities that commit to building a wellness vision around the drum. The drum gathers the people, and the people gather the healing.
The heartbeat of the movement, present at all gatherings. When the drum sounds, the community remembers that recovery is a shared song, not a solitary walk.
Since 1995
Blessed by Elders and carried across Turtle Island, the Sacred Hoop of 100 Eagle Feathers brings the same four gifts to every community that receives it.
For the person, the family, and the community.
That the next seven generations will be born into wellness.
Nations standing together, one hoop, many peoples.
The power to forgive the unforgivable, and be free.
The distance the Sacred Hoop has traveled from community to community since Elders first blessed it, carrying the message that culture is prevention and healing is possible.
Find a Meeting
Every pin is a registered Wellbriety circle from the White Bison public directory. Search your city to zoom in, see the circles nearest you with their meeting days and times, and get direct links for your area. Schedules change often, so always confirm with the circle host before you go.
Listings come from the public White Bison circle directory plus community sources, and each one links back to where it was found. Wellbriety Nation does not host meetings and cannot guarantee individual schedules. If nothing is close to you, White Bison can help you start a circle of your own.
The Directory
100 First Nations across Canada and 100 Tribal Nations across the United States, with the cultural strengths each carries and the Wellbriety teachings their traditions speak to. Search, filter, and visit each nation directly.
Population figures are approximate enrollment and registered membership numbers gathered from public sources, shown to convey scale only. Teaching tags reflect how each nation's publicly shared cultural strengths align with Wellbriety programs; they do not imply formal affiliation with White Bison. Corrections are welcome and honored.
Questions
A Wellbriety meeting, often called a Wellbriety circle or talking circle, is a recovery gathering that joins the 12 Steps with Indigenous culture: the Medicine Wheel, ceremony, and community. Wellbriety means wellness plus sobriety, living a sober life balanced emotionally, mentally, physically, and spiritually.
Use the meeting map above: search your city and it shows registered Wellbriety circles near you with their meeting days, times, and locations, drawn from the White Bison public directory. Always confirm the schedule with the circle host before attending, because times change.
Many circles welcome anyone seeking healing, including family members and supporters, while some are held for specific groups such as women, men, or youth. Each circle sets its own availability, so check the listing and confirm with the host.
Wellbriety adapts the 12 Steps into a culturally grounded path developed by White Bison, Inc., placing the steps on the Medicine Wheel and rooting recovery in Indigenous teachings. It is its own movement, and many people attend both Wellbriety and AA.
About This Site
The Wellbriety Movement is the life work of White Bison, Inc., founded in 1988 by Don Coyhis of the Mohican Nation in Colorado Springs. Its mission is culturally based healing for the next seven generations of Indigenous people.
Wellbriety Nation is an independent educational resource built in respect and gratitude for that work. We are not affiliated with White Bison. For official programs, training, meetings, and materials, please visit whitebison.org.
If this site helps one relative find one meeting, one teaching, or one reason to keep walking the red road, it has done its work.
Hope for Wellness Helpline, 24 hours, phone and chat, service in Cree, Ojibway, and Inuktitut on request.
1-855-242-3310988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, call or text, 24 hours. Native and Strong Lifeline available in some states.
Call or text 988White Bison maintains the official directory of Wellbriety Circles and certified treatment centers.
whitebison.org