Old Minto Recovery Camp hosts annual Sobriety Potlatch on July 23

Old Minto Family Recovery Camp will hold its Annual Sobriety Potlatch on Thursday, July 23, at 4 p.m. AKDT, celebrating sobriety and the strength of communities through a traditional potlatch gathering at a culture-based residential treatment site in Interior Alaska.

The camp serves Alaska Native clients. Program materials require documentation such as tribal enrollment or a Certificate of Indian Blood for each participant, making it a resource specifically for Native people eligible for Tanana Chiefs Conference services. TCC, the federally recognized tribal consortium of 42 Interior Alaska tribes, owns and operates the camp and describes it as "a traditional alternative to substance abuse treatment" and "a place to begin healing in a traditional setting."

The camp sits roughly 30 miles downriver from Nenana on the Tanana River, about 42 miles west of Fairbanks, accessible only by boat in summer and snowmachine in winter. That remoteness is part of the design. On paper, Old Minto is a Level 3.5 Clinically Managed High-Intensity Residential Services program with a minimum 35-day stay. On the ground, it frames recovery through Athabascan cultural practice alongside clinical protocol. The camp uses the matrix model as its core curriculum, has added Seeking Safety to its substance-use disorder groups, and plans to add Moral Reconation Therapy.

The potlatch format connects sobriety milestones to community tradition. Tanana Chiefs Conference describes the camp as a traditional alternative to conventional treatment, one that situates healing within Athabascan cultural practice rather than apart from it.

The July 23 gathering is hosted by Old Minto Family Recovery Camp. Those interested can contact Tanana Chiefs Conference for more information.