Meet Doug Good Feather of The Healing Hoop dba The Lakota Way Healing Center

Today we’d like to introduce you to Doug Good Feather.

Doug, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
In 1997, I was working as a union carpenter in Minneapolis, MN building a homeless shelter for Native Americans next to another non-profit Native American organization. One day I was working and my coworkers were one floor below me laughing, I went to see what they were laughing at and I saw a group of drunk Native Americans on the street. It broke my heart to see my people that way and see anyone laughing at them. I made a prayer then and there for Creator to show me a way to help my people and all people live in sobriety, compassion and love. A week later, I ended up walking off the job because of the racist treatment I received by my superiors and coworkers. I applied at the Native American Indian Center for a position as a chemical dependency case manager and I was blessed with the job.

From there, I moved to Denver and joined the Army in 2000, just as my basic training was complete I was sent to war. I served two tours in Iraq and completed my service in 2005. Upon my return from Iraq, I began the process towards building a non-profit to help the under-served in Denver. From there, the non-profit has grown and serves over 6,000 people a year. We are working on expanding our services and just purchased 40 acres in Hartsel, Colorado to begin building a permanent place for Veterans and all people to come to learn, heal and reconnect.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
It has not been a smooth road to building this organization. We have faced obstacle after obstacle from the beginning. The first obstacle was a lack of financial backing and systematic racism. Banks don’t want to loan Native Americans money and there was virtually no grant funding for off-reservation Native American organizations at that time. We had to start small with fundraising dinners, coat drives and even paying for needed expenses out of pocket for more than ten years. We also began meeting with other non-profits to begin networking and building a relationship with our community members and the people serving them. From there, we began to build awareness of the dire need in our communities to look at these issues and face them head-on. We cannot look away and think these problems are going to just disappear.

Knowing that it was going to be very difficult to get funding for an organization that no one has ever heard of, we began to sell t-shirts at local events and started a website to allow for online donations. We did a lot of in person marketing to let people know that Lakota Way Healing Center is here to help everyone in the community. Eventually, we sold enough t-shirts to open a weekly food bank and talking circle to help people facing addictions and mental health issues that cause their homelessness. Over the years, we have expanded our services to include a 24-hour suicide prevention/mental health hotline and offer holiday meals, winter coats, homeless gear and a youth program to help guide our inner-city youth to sobriety and pride in who they are.

In 2017, we were finally able to secure a long-standing grant from a private donor and have done so much to help our veterans, the house-less, families and individuals suffering with addictions, PTSD, trauma, mental health issues, and hunger. Unfortunately, that grant ended early in 2020 and we are back to fundraising grassroots, but we are hopeful that we can raise enough donations to begin building a permanent location within the next year and continue to serve the community no matter the obstacles ahead. We are fully dedicated to serving the community especially now that the need has grown much greater because of the pandemic and so many millions of people are out of work and facing homelessness for the first time. We are here to serve and we stand committed to our purpose.

We’d love to hear more about your organization.
The Lakota Way Healing Center is a 501(c) 3 non-profit organization dedicated to helping people with trauma, addictions, homelessness, illness, PTSD and mental health issues. We offer services to assist in the process of ending food insecurity, homelessness, gaining sobriety, and learning to re-balance themselves through indigenous Native American spirituality and assistance. We are focused on creating community-based and community-led solutions that strengthen the cornerstones for a good quality of life: spiritual connection, education, financial stability, health and community involvement. The Lakota Way Healing Center is continuing to support the people needing assistance with medical transportation, those suffering from lost work and people shut in for unknown durations in multiple ways. The Lakota Way Healing Center has ensured the support and services we provide continue without interruption – moving some of our programming to virtual delivery where possible and offering additional resources for those grieving the loss of loved ones during this pandemic.

As the needs of our community evolve, we also have evolved to meet those needs. We are currently providing the following resources:

• Weekly delivery of food, needed household supplies, face masks and sanitary items to the homeless and community members in need.

• Daily delivery of essentials kits to the house-less population including: water, hygiene wipes, toothbrushes, toothpaste, undershirts, socks, soap, hand sanitizer, garbage bags, sleeping bags, detailed local resource lists and words or encouragement/prayers.

• 24-hour grief counseling and suicide prevention hotline.

• Delivering bus passes to those in need of transportation to medical appointments and work.

• Online counseling as an alternative to meeting in person to provide answers to day to day issues, sobriety, mental health checks, PTSD recovery and veteran’s assistance, background, ethnicity or history.

• Officiating of funeral services for the Native American community.

• Online detailed local resource list available 24-hours a day on our website.

I believe what sets us apart from other organizations is the Lakota Way Healing Center is based on the indigenous Lakota spiritual values and virtues. We integrate the wisdom of the elders and the healing energy of ceremony to assist in recovery and give assistance to spiritually disconnected people that are suffering and at the crossroads of their life. The Lakota Way Healing Center focuses on programs that support health, wellness and ceremonies that spiritually connect us with Mother Earth and our ancestors. We understand our connection to each other and our Mother Earth. This connection makes us all related and helps people to feel welcomed, supported, and loved no matter their background, ethnicity or history.

What were you like growing up?
I grew up in a small wood cabin on the Standing Rock reservation in a village called Rock Creek district. In my youth, my days were filled with riding horses on the prairie, running and playing in the creeks, catching fish and learning from my elders about the ways of living off the land. I learned to hunt, sing our traditional songs, Lakota language and the philosophies of our ancestors from my elders. I was very athletic and played all the sports I could. I was on the basketball team, football team and ran track. I struggled in my studies in my younger years, but once I got to high-school my love of reading and math blossomed.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.lakotaway.org
• Phone: 720-276-7558
• Email: lakotawayhealingcenter@gmail.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lakotawayhealingcenter

Image Credit:
Photo credit: Doug Good Feather and Carol Plain

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