| Playing Games To Keep Drugs Away
There's nothing quite as innocent as playing marbles,
and there's nothing quite as sinister as methamphetamine.
For Cherokee children in Oklahoma, the traditional game of
Cherokee marbles has been passed down for generations, but
in the past 2 years it has taken on a different meaning. At
public elementary and middle schools across 14 counties, a
demonstration program called Use Your Marbles, Don't
Use Meth sets up the game as a strategy to prevent use of methamphetamine,
or meth, which is the fastest growing drug threat and the most
prevalent synthetic drug manufactured in the United States.
Clandestine meth production, distribution, and use are having
a big impact on the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma, a state with
approximately 1,400 meth labs. Many meth labs are operating
on Indian lands across the country, where they are contaminating
individual properties and the environment at large, endangering
children, and putting law enforcement, firefighters, and the
general community at risk. The Cherokee Nation's Principal
Chief Chad Smith has asked for a 50-percent reduction in meth
use during the next 5 years.
According to Levi Keehler, Methamphetamine Prevention Coordinator
for Behavioral Health Services for the Cherokee Nation, prevention
specialists have to get away from the shotgun approach of going
into a school, saying "don't use drugs," and
leaving. Long-term investment and involvement of the community
are necessary. The Cherokee Nation Methamphetamine Task Force—which
includes U.S. Marshals and many local, state, and federal organizations
involved with human services, environmental services, and housing—stresses
to communities that they must support prevention and treatment
activities themselves and that task force members can act only
as technical advisors.
Keehler developed the marbles program and a chess program
called Keeping Meth in Check to use the games as metaphors
for positive life choices. The two programs are part of a comprehensive
approach to the meth problem that focuses on enforcement, control
of sales of precursor chemicals, environmental cleanup, child
protection, prevention, and treatment.
Keehler visited eight schools that have high percentages of
American Indians and contacted more than 100 schools, many
of which are tiny country schools. Oklahoma
does not have any reservations—Indian lands are spread
out and the tribal and non-tribal boundaries make for what
is often referred to as "checkerboard lands"—so
it difficult to find high concentrations of American Indian
youth. That and a lack of funding are challenges that hamper
Keehler's ability to spread the programs' message
easily.
When he talks to children about meth and other drug use, Keehler
reinforces the importance of making the right moves at the
right time. "It's all in the way that you plan," Keehler
said. "I also tell them you have to think ahead a lot
of times."
Cherokee marbles are traditionally made of stone. Players
team up on a course and attempt to get the marbles into small
holes in the ground while playing defense and attempting to
knock out their opponents. The game, which Keehler describes
as "partly croquet, partly golf, but really neither," teaches
strategy, camaraderie, and critical thinking. Elders have expressed
interest in teaching the game and how to make the stone marbles
because they want to protect their culture. Keehler notes that
he gets a better response to his meth education classes at
the end of the school year from children who play the game
as part of his program.
With chess, Keehler tells students that the game is a battle. "That's
kind of like life," he said. When there are problems,
he tells them, you have to analyze them and not turn to drugs
as the solution. "There's always a way out," Keehler
said, adding that he hopes that next year at least one county
will have a chess club in every school.
For more information contact:
Levi
Keehler
Methamphetamine Prevention Coordinator for Behavioral Health
Services for the
Cherokee Nation
918-458-6285
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