Lea Wetzel, Poonoakki (Elk Woman), is from the Blackfoot Confederacy and is a member of the Amskapi Piikani band. She has held many roles across the state of Montana, where she has worked to strengthen support systems and cultural connections for survivors of human trafficking. Ms. Wetzel was a member of the leadership team at Big Sky MMIP and with human trafficking initiatives across the state. She works with the Montana attorney general, the Montana Department of Justice, and many grassroots organizations. Ms. Wetzel is the technical assistant and liaison for Montana’s Peer Network. She is a master trainer in cultural humility and a certified trainer for SAMHSA’s GAINS Center’s How Being Trauma-Informed Improves Criminal Justice Responses.
You were the drop-in center coordinator for Montana’s Peer Network and served as the director of Big Sky MMIP, which plays a crucial role in addressing human trafficking and missing or murdered Indigenous people. What pivotal personal or professional moments led you to this work?
What led me here is my passion and my own lived experience. I came to this work with intergenerational and historical trauma. I am a survivor of human trafficking, and I am part of the sixth generation healing from the effects of residential school. I claim the movement of “intergenerational healing.” When we heal ourselves, we heal seven generations: three generations back, three forward, and ourselves.
I was an addict for much of my life. And from ages 18 to 35, I was involved with the criminal justice system. I went to the women’s prison when my brother Scott passed away. I came out and reoffended. After this, I was able to go through a women’s trauma treatment center and graduate from the drug court program. I wanted to give others a voice by utilizing my own because I know how it is to not have one or have yet to find it.
What innovative approaches did you implement that earned you the Montana Board of Crime Control’s 2022 Innovative Community Improvement Award?
In 2022, President Biden and SAMHSA were talking about trauma-informed care and peer support, so peer work gained attention. And that year was huge for me—I was doing all kinds of things in the peer field.
I piloted a peer project with the 8th Judicial Veterans Treatment Court for Indigenous and non-Indigenous Veterans, I developed a Native American peer program with the state, and I came back to Montana’s Peer Network and created a peer support training specific to Montana’s treatment court. I was doing speaking engagements across the state, I was getting involved with the MMIP community, and I was going out and saying, “Me too.”
I think the Montana Board of Crime Control saw that and saw the power in the peer voice. And here we are almost 2 years later, and we now have four peer advisory councils in the state. We’ve come a long way in Montana, but there is still a lot of stigma and bias against people with lived experience coming out and being seen as people who are is valuable.
As a Blackfoot (Amskapii-Piikani) woman and an advocate for cultural connections, what are some ways that you integrate traditional practices and beliefs in supporting the healing and empowerment of individuals who are involved in the criminal justice system?
There is a well-established universal platform for Native American communities that we lean on called White Bison’s Wellbriety. Wellbriety is a program to provide culturally based healings for Indigenous people from tribes all over the country. Creator is in the middle of all our teachings. The medicine wheel represents the interconnection of all: that is, Mother Earth, animals, humans, water, land, and all that’s within the universe.
A lot of what I do with Wellbriety is implement my own tribal teachings that were transferred to me by my family and our elders. For example, we have hard winters up here in Montana, and the “winter count” represented what our people made it through in the prior season. It consisted of things like counting coup, or counting battles, births, deaths, loss of horses, ceremonies, maybe even being captured into society, and other significant circumstances that happened during that season.
I implemented that concept into a peer support group I did with the 8th Judicial Veterans Treatment Court program. We took leather, leathering tools, paint, and other art supplies, and all the participants made their own “winter count” to represent their personal recovery journey and their resilience.
As someone with the training and personal experience to understand the impact of trauma, how can being trauma-informed change criminal justice responses for Indigenous women and their communities?
It is vital that we have trauma-informed approaches at all intercepts of the criminal justice system. Let’s say a woman has lived through a sexual trauma and human trafficking and gets arrested for possession of illegal substances; every single interaction with her from that point forward needs to be trauma-informed. So, when she gets picked up by the police, this may be her chance to make a statement about her experience being trafficked. She needs connections to victim advocacy services, and she needs peer support. If she becomes incarcerated, she needs trauma-informed services.
The last time I was arrested, I was given a chance to go to a trauma-informed treatment center for women called Riverside. The correctional officers were called counselors; they called us by our first names and treated us with respect and dignity. Changing perspectives regarding women who have been sexually victimized from “What is wrong with you?” to “What happened to you?” can reduce stigma and create healing, especially in a criminal justice setting. This is really a matter of life or death for many women.
Engaging in such impactful and emotionally demanding work requires resilience and self-care. Could you share your practices or strategies to maintain your wellness and healing?
Self-care is so important for every individual, especially those of us in recovery. My self-care is time at home with my teenagers, who are my best friends and bring me down to earth. I also love the routine of yard work, housework, fresh air, and caring for my animals.
Still, number one for me is connection to my Creator; being a part of and connecting to my traditional ways. Creator is why I am able to do what I do. Every day I start with gratitude and prayer. These things all keep me well.
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