From needing help to helping others
Each morning, he would awake and smoke a joint.
Each evening, he would roll a new joint for the next morning.
Somewhere in the middle, Tamatane I'atala would snort a few lines of cocaine and head to class.
Not that he had a problem. He was just your average college student.
"I still did OK in school," 30-year-old Lakota and Samoan says now.
His mother didn't think he was OK.
And neither did the law.
Concerned for her son, his mother called the Anpetu Luta Otipi treatment center in Kyle.
But it would be two more months before her son would reach out for help. He would do so only because a federal court — where he had been charged with mismanaging funds — ordered him to undergo a substance abuse evaluation.
The treatment center staff suggested I'atala spend 30 days in treatment.
"I was thinking, ‘This is ridiculous,'" he said.
He refused to live at the treatment center and persuaded staff there to allow him to continue taking classes at Chadron State College, where he was studying to be a dentist.
So in January 2003, he started treatment, driving two hours each afternoon back and forth to treatment sessions.
And somehow, he said, he came to realize he had a problem.
He credits his treatment counselor, a woman he said understood him and showed him she was sincerely worried for him.
"I thought, ‘If she's worried about me, I may have a problem,'" he said.
He eventually pleaded guilty to the federal charges, serving six months in prison.
When he was released, he knew he wanted to help others get sober, as his counselor had helped him to do.
He shares his story sitting in his Pine Ridge office, a warm breeze carrying the sound of ambulances and children playing outside. He's a counselor trainee for the treatment center that helped him get sober.
Just four hours away from a degree in dentistry, I'atala is now preparing for a new career and wants to return to college to get a degree in counseling.
"My own sobriety started with this program," he said. "I kind of feel like I'm paying it back a little."
Each evening, he would roll a new joint for the next morning.
Somewhere in the middle, Tamatane I'atala would snort a few lines of cocaine and head to class.
Not that he had a problem. He was just your average college student.
"I still did OK in school," 30-year-old Lakota and Samoan says now.
His mother didn't think he was OK.
And neither did the law.
Concerned for her son, his mother called the Anpetu Luta Otipi treatment center in Kyle.
But it would be two more months before her son would reach out for help. He would do so only because a federal court — where he had been charged with mismanaging funds — ordered him to undergo a substance abuse evaluation.
The treatment center staff suggested I'atala spend 30 days in treatment.
"I was thinking, ‘This is ridiculous,'" he said.
He refused to live at the treatment center and persuaded staff there to allow him to continue taking classes at Chadron State College, where he was studying to be a dentist.
So in January 2003, he started treatment, driving two hours each afternoon back and forth to treatment sessions.
And somehow, he said, he came to realize he had a problem.
He credits his treatment counselor, a woman he said understood him and showed him she was sincerely worried for him.
"I thought, ‘If she's worried about me, I may have a problem,'" he said.
He eventually pleaded guilty to the federal charges, serving six months in prison.
When he was released, he knew he wanted to help others get sober, as his counselor had helped him to do.
He shares his story sitting in his Pine Ridge office, a warm breeze carrying the sound of ambulances and children playing outside. He's a counselor trainee for the treatment center that helped him get sober.
Just four hours away from a degree in dentistry, I'atala is now preparing for a new career and wants to return to college to get a degree in counseling.
"My own sobriety started with this program," he said. "I kind of feel like I'm paying it back a little."
Copyright © 2002-2008 Lincoln Journal Star. All rights reserved.