Culture and Healing
Pawnee Nation Behavioral Health is committed to being a trusted center of excellence for tribal sobriety.
We offer a full continuum of care, including detox, residential treatment, outpatient services, an intensive outpatient program, and medication-assisted treatment for adults.
Each program is rooted in cultural values and designed to support long-term healing through connection, tradition, and compassionate care, with more services coming soon.
Founded by Don Coyhis (Mohican Nation), White Bison is a trusted voice in Native wellness and recovery. Through the Medicine Wheel and 12 Steps teachings, White Bison provides a culturally rooted path that blends traditional knowledge with recovery practices that speak to our hearts and spirits.
At Pawnee Nation Behavioral Health, we integrate Wellbriety principles into our programs to help individuals reconnect with culture, reclaim identity, and restore balance in their lives. Healing happens when we come together; in talking circles, ceremonies, songs, and shared stories. Through Wellbriety and the wisdom of White Bison, we continue to build a place of hope, healing, and cultural renewal. Where our people can return to wellness and walk in balance again.
Wellbriety & White Bison
Healing Through Culture and Connection
At Pawnee Nation Behavioral Health, healing begins with remembering who we are as Native people: our stories, our teachings, and our connection to one another. We walk alongside our relatives on their healing journey through the teachings of the Wellbriety Movement, a Native-led approach created by White Bison, Inc. that restores balance, identity, and purpose.
Wellbriety means more than sobriety. It means living in wellness. It calls us to heal in all four directions of life: mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual. It reminds us that recovery cannot be separated from culture, community, and spirituality.
Our Wellbriety Values
-
Culture is the foundation of healing and wellness.
-
Recovery restores balance in the spirit, heart, mind, and body.
-
Connection to community brings strength and belonging.
-
Elders, ceremony, and traditional teachings guide our path.
Sweat Lodge
Healing the Spirit, Cleansing the Body
At Pawnee Nation Behavioral Health, our healing philosophy is grounded in culture, ceremony, and connection. One of the most sacred and powerful healing traditions we honor is the sweat lodge ceremony. A purification and renewal ceremony guided by an experienced cultural leader.
The sweat lodge is a place of prayer, reflection, and rebirth. It represents the womb of Mother Earth, where participants cleanse themselves physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. Through prayer, song, and the power of heat and steam, individuals release what no longer serves them; inviting healing, humility, and new strength.
From a medical perspective, sweat lodges offer measurable health benefits. The ceremony encourages detoxification, improved circulation, stress relief, and a deep sense of emotional release.
Sweat Lodge Construction In Progress Fall 2025
When guided properly, it supports both mental and physical wellness, complementing traditional behavioral health treatments with cultural healing practices.
Our sweat lodge ceremonies are conducted with the highest respect, safety, and cultural integrity by trained and trusted cultural leaders. These leaders carry the responsibility of preparing, guiding, and protecting the ceremony and ensuring that each person’s experience is safe, meaningful, and grounded in tradition.
At Pawnee Nation Behavioral Health, we recognize that healing is strongest when it begins with culture. The sweat lodge connects us to our ancestors, to creation, and to the sacred balance that sustains life. It is not just a ceremony. It is a way of returning to ourselves.