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After a five-year hiatus, the Native tradition of the sweat lodge has returned to Oregon State Hospital.  

The Native tradition of sweat lodge is rooted in healing, prayer, community and finding balance among one’s physical, mental, emotional and spiritual self. For those patients who follow Native traditions – it's an important part of their treatment process, said Kqalsan Mayuk, OSH Native Services program coordinator.  

“For a lot of Native communities, it is equivalent to church,” Mayuk said. “When people pray together, things happen. Healing doesn't happen by ourselves. You need that interaction. We learn from each other. We listen to that other person’s prayers, and it might help us.”  

For patients like Gary, it is like church.  

“We’ve been waiting a long time for it to happen again, so when it did, it was nice in a deep breath exhale kind of way because it’s so good for your system – both spiritual and physical,” Gary said. “It’s a purge at the same time. It symbolizes a rebirth, a cleansing. In a place like this – where things are so stagnant for so long with the same classes, same controls. It’s taking that deep breath, exhaling and moving forward.”  

Sweat lodges on both campuses paused in 2020 during the global pandemic, and a plan to safely resume the tradition is now in place. The plan includes a screening process to ensure patients are medically and psychologically in a place to participate.  

Patients have requested the return of sweat lodge for quite some time, noted Gerald Weller, an OSH Native Services team member.  

“I’m incredibly grateful that the hospital was able to bring back this very valuable and beautiful healing ceremony for those who choose to walk in this way. It was greatly missed by residents,” Weller said. “I witness that mind, body, soul connection in them. I’ve heard a sweat lodge called a rebirthing. You go in as one version of yourself, and you come out another.”   

Weller, Mayuk and other Native Services staff arrived early one November morning to the Junction City campus to prepare the sweat lodge and fire to warm the lava rocks referred to as grandfather stones that are used to heat the lodge, which is constructed out of willow branches and covered with blankets and canvas tarps. Separate gender-specific sweats were planned throughout the day, and a total of 13 patients participated.  

The practice lasts about two hours and is broken up into four parts or rounds based on the Medicine Wheel representing directions and seasons of nature and life – East: new beginnings, birth and spring; South: youth and summertime; West: adulthood and fall; North: elder and winter.  

Each round may include singing, prayer, storytelling or silence. The focus is on the physical, emotional and spiritual to achieve balance, Mayuk said.  

There’s a break after each round, and participants choose how long to stay in each round and whether to continue. It takes several staff members to prepare the sweat from fire tenders and the sweat facilitator to other staff to ensure the safety of participating patients. Even before the day of the sweat, work happens to split and stack wood.  

Patients have noticed the effort of the Native Services team and Junction City staff to help make the November and more recent sweat this month happen. Gary said he recently saw an OSH manager not directly affiliated with Native Services stacking wood for an upcoming sweat.  

“To see management involved making this happen, those are things that we don’t always get to see. It meant a lot. He didn’t have to do that,” Gary said.  

Many teams across the hospital have supported and been involved with the effort to ensure patient health and safety throughout the experience.  

“Everyone has a role. We’re there to provide role modeling but also safety in the lodge and a sense of comfort to guide them through the sweat,” Weller said. “You can’t be in the lodge or a part of it without getting some level of connection. Even those residents who were medically unable to participate were able to experience the healing by being in community outside of the lodge.”  

The sweat lodge is another way for patients to experience healing and community, Mayuk said.  

“Our biggest distraction is vision – when you’re in the lodge, it’s dark,” Mayuk said. “You're not seeing anything. You’re focused on what people are saying. You're listening to what people are saying, so it’s a very important part of community.” 

For now, the sweat lodge is being piloted on the OSH Junction City campus, which has a smaller patient population. The goal is to continue a monthly cadence in Junction City and learn from the experience to restart sweat lodges on the Salem campus in the new year, Mayuk said.