Page 5 - Chehalis Tribal Newsletter - February 2020

5

Classes teach inmates coping skills

Behavioral Health
guides individuals
along the path to
rehabilitation

The Chehalis Tribe’s
Behavioral Health Offender
Re-Entry program works with
inmates housed at the jail to
help reinforce new behavior
patterns.
Techniques they teach
inmates are intended to help
eliminate old destructive ways
of life. These could be a number
of things from substance abuse
and addiction to domestic
violence.
The Offender Re-Entry
program has a series of resources
that include GED classes,
chemical dependency courses,
relational life-skills training,
parenting classes and cultural
preservation classes.
Behavioral Health’s Bobbie
Bush teaches culture class at the
jail usually once a week. As the Behavioral Health’s Bobbie Bush and Chehalis tribal member Raven John prep materials for a culture class.
instructor, she brings in various
supplies to create arts and crafts and go through the process of are not allowed inside the jail.
items such as cedar weaving, getting accepted. Therefore, there is prep work to
beading projects, coastal “We work with the inmates The program has to make get everything ready for classes.
paintings and drums. to help them understand sure that inmates remain in For instance, in the creation
Soon, they will make compliance with the jail’s rules of the turtle shell rattle, it’s
turtle shell rattles, which that there is life after and regulations so they do not necessary to punch holes in
tribal member Raven John enable those locked up to get in the deer hide and use rulers to
volunteered to help Bush prep incarceration.”– BOBBIE BUSH further trouble. measure and cut the materials.
before the items were taken into There is a specific process the Participants will use a deer
the jail. program has to go through to hide, alder stick, turtle shell and
“We work with the inmates to for sustainability. Some items, get supplies approved by the jail synthetic stringing to create the
help them understand that there such as forms of art, were staff. They have to take inventory rattle. Items were purchased at
is life after incarceration,” Bush meant to guide the individual and keep count of all materials Centralia Fern and Hide and
explained. spiritually. Cultural classes brought into the jailhouse. Shipwreck Beads.
She described that “creating focus on the spiritual level of Inmates cannot keep the Classes are two hours long
something from nothing” has participants. items on them while in jail so and some of the deer hide needs
always been one of the strengths Twenty-one people are now they are kept in a storage locker to be damp to work with it.
Native American people possess. in the classes. To be a part of the or mailed to the inmate’s home Bush is doing test runs to
For generations, native people special program, inmates have address. make sure they can lace the
have taken raw materials and to be in good standing with the Arts and crafts supplies and rattle together within a certain
combined them to create items court, jail and probation office tools used in designing also timeframe.