Brave Heart was raised on South Dakota's Pine Ridge Reservation, where he said he remembers watching his father and friends get drunk. "They were the first generation on the reservation, and I think they confused alcohol as a gift from the creator because it seemed like it changed the world. They even called it minniwakan-the Lakota word for "sacred water"-and they'd open a bottle and spill some of it on the ground like an offering. But alcohol doesn't change the world; it only changes the drinker. I think of alcohol as chemical warfare that was used to decimate and weaken us."

Like many other American Indians, Brave Heart was placed in a boarding school where Indian traditions, beliefs, and values were suppressed. He started drinking as a high school sophomore because he wanted to "fit in." His drinking accelerated in the military service, where his experiences as a combat soldier in Korea led to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

After Korea, Brave Heart returned to South Dakota to get a teaching degree, but his drinking got so bad that he lost jobs, got arrested for drunk driving and disturbing the peace, and contemplated suicide. He said his journey of healing began 34 years ago when a Lakota medicine man took him to a sweat lodge, made a circle in the dirt with a stick, then planted the stick in the center of the circle. "He told me, ‘This is you in the center, and alcohol walks around you on the outside like the trickster coyote. You chase it up a hill, but it circles around and fools you. Don't let it sneak up on you. Turn around and embrace it so it can become one of your most powerful teachers.'"

Blending Steps and Indian traditions
Brave Heart credits his Higher Power and a nun who worked on the reservation for directing him to Hazelden, where he met Dave Johnson, who helped him get admitted to treatment in 1972.

At Hazelden, Brave Heart saw the parallels between Twelve Step philosophy and the ancestral teachings of his people. "In AA they talk about alcoholism being a powerful, cunning, and baffling disease," says Brave Heart. "It was another way to say what the medicine man had told me."

"In a culture that usually distrusts the white man's ways, Basil found that the Hazelden model of treating alcoholism spoke a universal language," says Johnson, who has worked at Hazelden almost 40 years. "Basil is living proof that the Hazelden process works for people of all faiths and backgrounds."

Brave Heart's ability to blend the tenets of the Twelve Steps with Native American spirituality, a master's degree in psychology, and a rich and challenging life, have given Brave Heart a way and a language to communicate with young and old, regardless of their diverse experiences or cultural differences. While Brave Heart may not use AA terms like "enabling" or "tough love" with a Lakota grandmother, he'll talk about waunshila, the Lakota word for compassion, and explain how sometimes the most compassionate thing you can do for a loved one is to let go and trust that a Higher Power (or the Great Spirit, or Grandfather) will help them surrender to the mystery of healing.

Using an approach that incorporates western psychology, Twelve Step philosophy, and Native American ritual and ceremony, Brave Heart works with alcoholics, drug addicts, and persons with PTSD. He said that he has also had great success using Indian traditions, such as sweat lodges and ceremonies, to help people overcome smoking addictions.

He often serves as a spiritual guide (which he likens to being an AA sponsor) for individuals who desire to become clean and sober. "If they want me to guide them, I may ask them to prepare for a vision quest by being free from alcohol for one year." A vision quest is a spiritual "time out" where a person goes alone to an isolated place for a number of days to communicate with the creator and rediscover one's authentic self, explained Brave Heart. This agreement is sealed in a sweat lodge, where the person makes a commitment to certain members of his community whom he has asked to attend. Water, earth, air, and fire are used to engage all the senses and remind everyone present that they are connected to everything around them as well as to each other. The sweat lodge symbolizes the womb.

"It is a moist, safe, dark, and trusting place where people can bare their souls with confidence. Just like at an AA meeting," said Brave Heart.

Brave Heart "carries the message." He shows by example and story telling and listens attentively to the stories of others-practices that are familiar to both the Twelve Step and Native American communities. He and his wife Charlotte are also popular presenters at Hazelden's Renewal Center, where they conduct weekend retreats each year.

"Basil and his retreat took me to the next level in my spiritual growth," said Buck Carlson, who has attended two of the Brave Hearts' renewal workshops. "Thanks to Basil, I view things differently now and see how we are connected to all things. Just today I went to a nature reserve to read a book on my lunch break. A fox appeared, and I was able to appreciate just sitting quietly and watching the fox as a gift from the Great Spirit. Two years ago, I wouldn't have even noticed it."

Taku wakan skun: Setting things in sacred motion
For Brave Heart, reclaiming the spirit also means reclaiming the land, the rituals, and the ways of his Lakota people. Basil and Charlotte Brave Heart recently retrieved the family's 720 acres on the Pine Ridge Reservation from the Bureau of Indian Affairs land-leasing program and ceremoniously welcomed their first 10 head of buffalo that were donated by a Colorado rancher.

"We are pte oyate-of the Buffalo Nation-and the return of the buffalo to our land is very symbolic," said Brave Heart. "My grandparents used to say when they saw the breath of the buffalo in cold weather, they were actually seeing spirit. It was sacred breath, and now the spirit is returning."

Brave Heart's son and daughters are coming back to the reservation to build houses on his land and join their parents and several other families in their endeavor to create a sustainable environment on the reservation. Volunteers have also been helping Brave Heart build the "People's House," a ceremonial lodge for hosting celebrations, various rituals, and Twelve Step meetings.

"Ritual provides a container-a sacred space-for the spirit to participate in healing," says Brave Heart. "The Twelve Steps are a form of ritual. I recommend that people in recovery do rituals and ceremonies and also go to AA. Alcohol takes over the whole person. Spirituality is one thing, but you also need others who have been sober for a while to help you in recovery. Ceremony helps you live within yourself; AA helps you live in the world."
     --Basil Brave Heart

Basil to receive Hazelden's CARE Award
Just as Hazelden had a huge impact on Basil Brave Heart's life, Basil has generously shared his Twelve Step wisdom with fellow Native Americans seeking recovery. And that's why Basil will receive one of Hazelden's highest honors, the CARE Award, in May at the Alive and Free celebration of recovery in Center City.

CARE stands for Consistent Activity in Recovery and Education, and Basil clearly has demonstrated his passion to pass it on. "Basil was a true pioneer in fighting addiction among Indian people on reservations," said Gordy Grimm, former vice president and spiritual care coordinator at Hazelden. "He started treatment and prevention efforts for Native Americans when very little help was available."

After achieving sobriety, Brave Heart returned to Hazelden to complete the Counselor Training Program. From there Basil began a crusade to help the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota battle alcoholism. Through a grant, he brought Grimm and Dan Anderson to the reservation to provide training. "They wanted someone within the state to do the training, but Basil said others wouldn't have the sensitivity to Native Americans that Dan and I have," said Grimm, who spent a month on the reservation in 1973.

That was the beginning of many Hazelden trainings. Many teachers, counselors and spiritual leaders from the Lakota tribe came to Hazelden for training. And over the years, Basil arranged Hazelden training for tribes from several western states. The trainings helped Indian people diagnose alcohol problems and develop treatment that blended components of the Hazelden approach with Native American traditions and spirituality. In addition, Basil personally guided Native American people to the "Red Road" and referred many to appropriate treatment sources.

--By Cynthia Orange

Published in The Voice, Winter 2006