I am Yukpa hashi. I am adopted Chahta, Cherokee, English, Irish and Scots. Mitakuye oyasin. Yaqne.

I began a journey for smoke freedom on May 25th, 1998. My first year was difficult for me so I took refuge in writing.... and I wrote a lot. Those writings became known as the Talking Stick posts. In my second year, although I didn't write as much, I did write a few articles about subjects that were near and dear to my heart.

All of my writings were originally posted to the newsgroup, Alt. Support Stop-Smoking, also known as AS3. The folks I found in this newsgroup made the difference between my understanding what was going on with my body and my just hanging on for dear life, which is how I had tried to quit every time before. From the knowledgeable people in the newsgroup, I learned tools that I was able to utilize to help me get quit and stay quit. I wanted to pass those on. So this website was created to help me do just that.

My first year gave me my first quit family. We are known as the 5/25'ers. We met in AS3 and banded together within a week of our quit date of 5/25/98. We were all headed in the same direction with like minds and like souls. And we were determined to get smoke free together. We have been successful in helping one another stay smoke free too. We're very proud of our accomplishment. But my meeting wonderful friends didn't stop there. We (my quit sister, Selma and I) began mentoring a 2nd generation of 5/25'ers once we had reached a year smoke free (called in AS3, OFdom). And now, at our 2 years smoke free (called DOFdom), we have added a 3rd generation to the 5/25'ers roll call as well. We all feel it is important to share quit information and to walk the walk with one another. I'm a huge proponent of quit families. The success of the 5/25'ers is why.

I am continuing to update this website, so please stop back by from time to time. I hope you might find some inspiration here that will help you in your decision to become smoke free. I hope this website lets you know that you are not alone in what you are experiencing in your recovery from this addiction. And I also hope that this website will let you know that gaining your smoke freedom is doable. In travelling this path, I have found that I just needed an ATTITUDE (I will do whatever it takes, for however long it takes, to get smokefree) and a few tools to help me along the way. This journey that you will read about here gave me both.

Thanks for visiting the site. If you have any suggestions or comments, please feel free to e-mail me.

Yukpa hashi