'We've lost enough people' — Tribal Health works to stem overdose deaths

LANDER — Eastern Shoshone Tribal Health Community Health Educator Jocelyn Dewey’s map of 2025 overdoses on the Wind River Reservation paints a concerning picture.

“We’ve had 81 overdoses, 10 overdose deaths, and only 22 times during those overdoses has Narcan or naloxone been used,” she said. 

That means that life-saving overdose treatment medications are only being deployed in about 27% of cases. Dewey wants to see that ratio change.

“If we’re not extending that hand of help, then nobody is going to be there to reach out for it,” she pointed out. “We’ve lost enough people.”

At the recent Eastern Shoshone Elder Conference, Dewey explained that it often takes the ambulance about 40 minutes to reach the reservation. And some people don’t call for help until the situation is dire – or at all.

Combatting addiction can be difficult, and friends and family members often feel that there is little they can do to turn someone away from drug use. 

“We can’t stop them, but we can help them to live,” Dewey told those attending the conference. “We’ve had four of our Native people die recently” due to overdoses.

Eastern Shoshone Tribal Health has worked with local schools to put Narcan and fentanyl overdose kits in each reservation school except Saint Stephens. And in the near future, it will be installing two harm reduction vending machines in the Fort Washakie area, stocked with Narcan, naloxone, and fentanyl overdose kits. 

It’s also weighing including condoms, Plan B pills, gun safes, and Deterra, a solution that deactivates prescription medications so they can be safely disposed of.

Dewey and some others also argued for including clean needles in the harm reduction machines to help minimize the spread of bloodborne diseases, but the Eastern Shoshone Business Council saw this as potentially promoting drug use, she explained.

These will be the first harm reduction machines in the state of Wyoming – but hopefully, Dewey said, not the last. “Just trying to keep everybody alive, I think is supposed to be the point of it … The whole idea is just to try to make it more safe.”

She knows Fort Washakie is a long drive for some parts of the reservation, but on the other hand, ESTH is being intentional about installing them in locations that it knows will allow people to discretely get what they need from the machine. One will be placed at the entrance to the ESTH building; the other will be in Rocky Mountain Hall.

Dewey’s numbers are just for the reservation, but the problem with substance abuse extends beyond its boundaries. 

In a recent presentation to the Fremont County Commissioners, Coroner Erin Ivie said that drugs and/or alcohol were involved in all six of the county’s homicide cases so far this year, and in 59% of non-natural deaths. 

The vast majority of these cases involved alcohol, but 11 involved methamphetamine, four involved fentanyl, three involved other opiates, and two involved kratom or mitragynine. Aspirin and wellbutrin, not typically drugs associated with substance abuse deaths, were also each involved in a Fremont County death this year.

People will often tell her that their drug use is safe because they know how much is OK to take or they trust the person who gave them the drugs, Dewey remarked. 

But illegal drugs like fentanyl are compounded by drug dealers, not medical professionals; people don’t realistically have a reliable way of knowing what the dosage actually is or what’s really in them. 

“You’re doing a Russian roulette every time you take something that you have no idea where it came from,” she observed. 

All drug dealers care about, she continued, is profit, not looking out for the people who are taking their products.

Dewey’s commitment to working to combat suicide, substance abuse, and domestic violence comes from her own personal experiences. She’s lost multiple family members over the years, and she wants to work to help prevent other families from experiencing those tragedies.

“Everything is out here,” she said. While programs exist to help treat substance addiction, ultimately, it comes down to each person to make a decision to seek treatment for their own substance use. “At least I can be there to help … Even if I only help one person each day, I’m doing my job.”

At the conference, Dewey encouraged people to consider carrying Narcan themselves. You don’t have to be someone who uses drugs yourself to acquire Narcan and keep it on hand, she pointed out; you can simply be a compassionate community member who wants to be able to help your friend, family member, or neighbor if their life is ever in danger.

Dewey herself will continue to do community outreach, putting up a booth at various events to help educate people about suicide, drugs, and intimate partner violence and resources that are available to them. 

“It’s one thing I can do to try to help our community,” she said. “My compassion for people is what drives me to get the job done.”

Dewey also stressed that she isn’t the only tribal health community educator working to make a difference. Across the board, she said, ESTH is committed to helping its community with health issues it faces, ranging from substance abuse to diabetes.

ESTH intends to install the harm reduction vending machines around January.

This story was published on Oct. 18, 2025.