HANCEVILLE – A Wallace State student has been invited to share her story of recovery during the Indigenous People Must Survive conference Feb. 18 – March 5 in Aotearoa, New Zealand. The conference is an invitation-only event presented by Two Feathers International Consultancy, a nonprofit organization that works around the world to help indigenous people maintain their cultures.
Firehawk Warren of Vinemont, who will graduate in May from the Human Services program with associate in applied science degrees in Mental Health Technician and Substance Abuse/Addiction Counseling, is one of the presenters invited to the conference. She plans to use her degree to help others who are facing situations similar to what she faced more than 20 years ago.
Warren, who will celebrate her 54th birthday during the three-week conference, is a native of the Echota Cherokee Tribe of Alabama. The mother of five has been sober for 22 years, but still recalls the pain and suffering she and her family experienced because of her addiction to alcohol.
One of seven children, Warren was born in Indiana, but lived in Michigan before moving to Alabama when she was 12 years old. Her father, she said, was a bootlegger, which put in her contact with alcohol at an early age. The alcohol her father would sell was hidden underneath the floor of her bedroom, giving her easy access to sneak a six-pack of beer when she wanted to impress her friends.
Warren said her addiction didn’t really begin until life brought obstacles she could more easily deal with through the alcohol. At 17, she found herself pregnant and married to an abusive husband. After her first son was born she found when she couldn’t control much of anything else in her life, she could control alcohol. But as many addicts come to learn, it didn’t take long for her addiction to start controlling her.
As life moved on, Warren had four more sons. “I never drank when I was pregnant,” she said. But after her children were born, the need for alcohol would return. By the time her youngest son was born, his father, Warren and the four older school-age children were all living in in a motel outside of Branson, Missouri. Warren said she came home from work one day and found her 1-month-old infant alone in the room, his father nowhere to be found. When he came back, Warren said they got into an argument during which the police were called. Because of the situation they were in, with both parents suffering from addiction, the children, ages 1-month to 9 years, were taken into state custody.
For a year after that, Warren said she did everything the state asked of her. She’d moved to Tennessee, gotten a job, a house and stayed away from alcohol. Still, when she sought to get her children back the state wouldn’t grant her request. Her parents took care of her children for another year before she was granted custody once more.
Losing hope after that first year, Warren attempted to take her life with a bottle of pills combined with a bottle of whiskey. “But the Creator woke me up and said ‘you aren’t going out like that,’” Warren said. She admitted herself into treatment and began the process of turning her life around, despite losing a dear aunt and her father one right after the other.
Even 22 years later, it’s still hard battle against addiction, she said. As a clerk at a local grocery store, she handles bottles of wine and other spirits every day as customers check out. The urge to take a drink is always there, she said, but she knows if she indulges in just one sip it would lead to a relapse in her recovery.
Warren said she’s blessed to be alive and to have her children surrounding her without judging her for her actions long ago. She still regrets the choices she made when she was younger and hopes she can use her experiences and what she’s learned at Wallace State to help others.
“If I can tell my story and for that young girl who is going through the same thing that I did, if that helps her not go through as much as I did, then that makes it all worthwhile,” Warren said.
The conference in New Zealand, she said, will also be a learning experience. Her lodging and meals are taken care of with the invitation to present, but she will need to pay her travel expenses. Warren has set up a GoFundMe account for those who wish to support her efforts. Visit https://www.gofundme.com/vnhnpzcs to make a contribution to the account by Jan. 22.
