IMMEDIATE RELEASE

March 26, 2008

Contact:  Sarah Kariko

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802.863.1640

Northern Arapaho Traditional Healer and Horse Trainer Stanford Addison Coming to Vermont

Stanford Addison,  a Northern Arapaho spiritual leader, traditional healer and horse trainer with a demonstrated gift for working with youth will speak on:

Saturday,  April 19  at the University of Vermont's Davis Center in the Silver Maple Ballroom at 7 PM and on Monday, April 21 at St. Michael's College's McCarthy Arts Center at 6 PM.

Both events are free and open to the public.  

Addison is the subject of the documentary Silent Thunder, a September 2003 article in Smithsonian Magazine and a forthcoming book, Broken:  A Love Story, to be released by Scribner in 2009.

With a training crop duct taped to his arm and his long braid swinging behind, Addison gentles wild horses off the plains near his home on the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming.  He does this sitting in his wheelchair. 

Addison lost the use of his legs 29 years ago when the truck he was traveling in hit a herd of wild horses.  While struggling to recover from his accident, Addison developed an approach to horse training that preserves the spirit of the horse and brings people beyond their self-imposed limitations. "If we can communicate with a horse," he says, "we can communicate with each other." 

His non-profit The Heyteyneytah Project (heyteyneytah means "respect" in Arapaho) uses his intuitive training methods with wild horses to teach others to look beyond self imposed limitations and differences to find the commonalities to build bridges among all people. 

In the process of working with wild horses, Addison shows people positive alternatives to many of the obstacles they face. Social Services and the justice system request his assistance to help youth find positive ways of dealing with hardships on the reservation; he helps them draw strength from traditional Arapaho ways. 

Addison also provides a valuable window into another culture that exists in our own country but is often invisible.  This is particularly the case in Vermont where we have a Native community that is neither federally recognized nor has control of their ancestral land. 

Addison is a testament to the ability to overcome tremendous obstacles and emerge with an unbroken spirit.