Paul Bickford
Northern News Services

Hay River (Aug 22/05) - David Poitras knows the difficulties of becoming sober.

When the Hay River alcohol and drug counsellor stopped drinking many years ago, he recalls being insulted by people he used to drink with while living in Fort Smith.

David Poitras is an alcohol and drug counsellor at Nats'ejee K'eh Treatment Centre on the Hay River Reserve.

"There was lots of peer pressure," he says. "I wanted to stay sober so badly I used my will to fight for it."

In 1983, over a decade after becoming sober, he became a counsellor, and he says helping people over the last 22 years has been very satisfying.

His own experiences - he drank from the time he was 13 until he was 28 - allowed him to help other people, he says. "I gave me the understanding."

Poitras and his wife, Martha, abandoned alcohol in 1972.

"I started to feel a lot of guilt, remorse and shame about my drinking behaviour," he says.

Poitras says it got so bad that, after three or four days without a drink, he would become tense, start to shake and hear things. "Nothing calmed me until I had a drink."

Thoughts of suicide even began to enter his mind.

"That's when the miracle happened," Poitras says.

A stranger from Edmonton - a Metis political organizer - arrived in Fort Smith. The man, who was originally from Fort Simpson, talked to Poitras and his wife about his own experiences with alcohol.

Years later, Poitras discovered his brother Tom had met the man in Edmonton and asked him to see Poitras if he was ever in Fort Smith.

"Otherwise, I'd be dead now," said Poitras, 61, who is originally from Fort Chipewyan, Alta. He moved to Fort Smith in 1963.

There, he worked at construction and various other jobs, including helping build what is now Paul William Kaeser high school.

He also became involved in Metis politics, serving as a board member and vice-president of the Fort Smith Metis Council.

Later, Poitras became a member of what was then the Fitz-Smith Native Band, and served as a councillor and sub-chief.

The current member of Salt River First Nation says he sometimes misses politics and may become involved once again in the future.

Poitras lived in Fort Smith up to 1998, when his wife, also an alcohol and drug counsellor, got a job at the Nats'ejee K'eh Treatment Centre on the Hay River Reserve.

Poitras also got a job at the centre, where he now works. His wife worked there up to two years ago.

The couple have been married since 1968, and have five children and 20 grandchildren.

To know the couple now, Poitras says many people would not guess about their past. "They don't know our lives were pretty messed up at one time."

These days, when not working, Poitras relaxes by racing sled dogs, and writes and sings songs.

Over the years, he says his counselling has helped many people. "I would say hundreds."

And he has no plans to retire. "I think I'm going until I'm 70, at least."