Submitted Photo Peyton YellowWolf, left, and Cleo Short are participants in the Sober Living Program in White Shield. They also have full-time jobs at Old #8 diner, a new restaurant in White Shield. Photo by Karen LoneFight.

Special to The Minot Daily News

Peyton YellowWolf didn’t think she needed to quit drinking. She grew up with older family members who drank.

“I didn’t understand what they were going through,” YellowWolf said. That changed when her drinking habit began to land her in legal trouble.

“Legal issues came up and to get out of them I would go into treatment and sober up, only to fall off the wagon when I got home,” YellowWolf, who grew up in Mandaree, said.

After several failed attempts she was brought into the Sober Living Program in White Shield. Part of that program is to have a full-time job. To help, Old #8 diner, a new restaurant in White Shield, opened its doors to the Sober Living Program and its recovering clients.

In the past, YellowWolf said she would work at a job only for a few weeks, then quit and go back to drinking.

“But at the diner, I love it. I love my coworkers. I love my bosses. I love coming to work. I am able to go to sweats. They have really helped me pray and it’s really a cool environment,” YellowWolf said.

Another worker at the new restaurant is Cleo Short, from Fort Belknap, Montana. She has been a drug user and alcoholic for 19 years and was surrounded by addiction and abusive men.

“I finally lost my kids, house and became homeless,” Short said.

A relative reached out and got her in contact with the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation’s Good Road Recovery Center in Bismarck. The center provided the logistics to get Short into the White Shield program.

“It was here that I finally found my sobriety. I have never had that with any other program. Being in White Shield has helped me so much. It’s like being home but not having all the substance abuse around me,” Short said.

“There’s always something going on in White Shield. We get to help people, volunteer at events, play basketball in adult tournaments, hit the gym. It’s so cool,” YellowWolf said.

Short agreed. “Volunteering here has really made a difference. It makes me feel good about myself and how I am helping elders,” she said.