Culture Is Medicine: A Native American Approach to Addiction Recovery | Linda Oxendine Part 3Culture Is Medicine: A Native American Approach to Addiction Recovery | Linda Oxendine Part 3
Addiction Talk
Linda Oxendine shares how CORE North Carolina and tribal partners use culture, Narcan training and long-term commitment to shift addiction outcomes in Lumbee communities. The conversation highlights real-life recovery stories and a core belief that people affected by addiction are sacred stories to be understood.
14:23•21 Aug 2026
Culture Is Medicine: Linda Oxendine on Native American Healing and Addiction Recovery
Episode Overview
- Community partnerships like the Robeson County Consortium can reduce overdose deaths when they work consistently over time.
- Training everyday community members and tribal staff to carry and use Narcan can turn potential fatalities into survival stories.
- Supporting recovery means treating people as "sacred stories" to be understood rather than projects to fix, which reduces judgment and stigma.
- Combining addiction medicine training for healthcare providers with Native cultural practices offers a more complete approach to healing.
- Talking circles and other cultural traditions help uncover buried trauma, making it easier for individuals to begin a new recovery journey.
“People are not projects to be fixed. They are sacred stories to be understood.”
How do people find strength in their journey to sobriety? This conversation with Linda Oxendine offers a powerful look at how one Native American community is reshaping its response to addiction, with culture at the heart of the work. Linda talks about CORE North Carolina and the Robeson County Consortium, a group of partners who came together when overdose deaths in Robeson County were the highest in the state.
The county has since moved from number one to number three for overdose deaths, and Linda sees this as clear evidence that something is changing. She shares vivid stories of Narcan being used by everyday people, like a minister who remembered his training, grabbed the medication from his car and helped a volunteer fireman reverse an overdose that could have been fatal.
You’ll also hear about tribal staff trained to use Narcan, stepping in on tribal grounds before first responders arrived, and about a young mother who entered CORE’s programme, regained custody of her child, returned to college, and welcomed a healthy baby girl. These examples show how consistent support, rather than short-term projects, can shift lives. Linda stresses that meaningful change means understanding both medical and cultural needs.
She describes eight months of training for local doctors, pharmacists and nurse practitioners led by Dr. Robin Jordan, a psychiatrist and addiction medicine specialist, so that medications for addiction are seen as tools, not taboos. At the same time, the Lumbee tribe’s traditions—dancing, drumming, herbal medicines and talking circles—are treated as “medicine” too. At the heart of it all is a simple but striking message Linda shares from her colleague Tony Lock Lear: “People are not projects to be fixed.
They are sacred stories to be understood.” It’s a reminder that every person affected by addiction carries a story worth hearing. How might your community change if those stories were truly listened to?
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