Siksika Nation officially opens 76-bed recovery community

Members of the Siksika Nation came together on Wednesday to celebrate the opening of a new culturally grounded addiction recovery centre.

The 76-bed Iitaisokinaapyoyis Healing Lodge Recovery Community sits on reserve land roughly 95 kilometres east of Calgary.

Chief Samuel Crowfoot described the facility as a major advancement that lets community members begin healing without leaving home.

“For a very long time we’ve struggled with addictions, so being able to bring a facility like this to Siksika means a lot,” Crowfoot told CJWE.  

 He linked the high rates of addiction among First Nations people to intergenerational trauma stemming from residential schools and the foster-care system—trauma far more prevalent than in most other Canadian communities.

Many Siksika residents face challenges with opioids, alcohol or fentanyl. While treatment has been available off-reserve, Crowfoot noted that travelling to distant centres often meant entering an unfamiliar environment far from family support.

“We’re not actually asked to leave our homes for once. We don’t have to leave our families, we can still be in our communities,” he said. “It was a suppression of our culture that caused that harm. It will be the flourishing of our culture that saves us.”

Instead, the lodge will offer long-term residential care with dedicated cultural spaces right in the community.

The building is one of five recovery communities developed jointly by Indigenous nations and the Alberta government under the Alberta Recovery Model.

The first set of clients are expected to begin their healing process this fall.