Story Published: Sep 30, 2010
Photo by Stephanie Woodard
Pictured, from left, are Mike Johanns,
Republican senator from Nebraska, and Frank LaMere, director of Four
Directions Community Center, who spoke at a town hall meeting the
senator recently hosted.
SIOUX CITY, Iowa – Already at the center of
a web of activity that encompasses much of Woodbury County, Iowa,
and the surrounding region,
Four Directions Community Center is poised for growth. A new
alliance with
Siouxland Human Investment Partnerships, a 12-year-old area
nonprofit, will develop Four Directions’ capabilities, said SHIP’s
director, Jim France.
The center’s building near downtown Sioux City is already bustling
with activity. As people arrive – for parenting classes; AA
gatherings; Lakota language instruction; domestic violence
education; meetings of the policy group
Community Initiative for Native Children and Families, a
University of Iowa
college-awareness program for youth; regular meetings with state
officials; community gatherings, including wakes and funerals; and
much more – the first person they’re likely to encounter is
administrative assistant Liz White, Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate, who
presides over the comings and goings with a grandmother’s affability
and authority.
White also heads up the organization’s volunteer effort, which
results in hundreds of hours of work donated monthly, and directs
countless daily phone calls from community members seeking help and
information to the organization’s executive director, Frank LaMere,
Winnebago, and program manager, Judy Yellowbank, Winnebago.
Four Directions’ major annual event is the Memorial March to Honor
Our Lost Children, held each year on the day before Thanksgiving.
Walkers proceed from South Sioux City, Neb., across a bridge over
the Missouri River to Sioux City, Iowa, calling attention to Native
children caught in the child-welfare system, including several who
died while placed with foster or adoptive families.
The relationship with SHIP will make possible more work on behalf of
Four Directions’ constituency. SHIP offers its partners – which
focus on child welfare, health, education, job training, juvenile
justice and more – access to nonprofit status and infrastructure,
according to France. “We already have our 501(c)3, and we have grant
writing and administrative capacity, so groups we work with needn’t
hire lawyers and other professionals to set this up themselves.”
When a group would benefit from networking with another agency, SHIP
can make that happen, said France.
LaMere agreed. “Working with SHIP means we’ll have increased ability
to take care of our own. It’s high time.”
Recent events at Four Directions included a two-day meeting of the
Iowa Commission on Native American Affairs, a group of gubernatorial
appointees that includes Yellowbank. The subject of the first day
was child welfare and featured a training session by Indian Child
Welfare Act specialist Allison Lasley, Meskwaki, who explained ICWA
provisions for commissioners and invited guests, including Iowa
human rights director Preston Daniels, a representative of the
governor’s office, and members of the Native American Unit of the
state’s department of human services.
On the second day, the commission took up several issues, including
a report on work in Iowa’s men’s and women’s prisons by Judy
Morrison, Cherokee/Osage, Native American spiritual and cultural
consultant for the department of corrections. Morrison called for
more support after release. “I want there to be services for our
people, including money for education and job training.”
LaMere added: “You can’t simply send them back to the situations
that got them off track to begin with.”
After the two-day meeting concluded, LaMere and Yellowbank
facilitated the presentation of the award-winning documentary, “The
Battle for Whiteclay,” directed by Mark Vasina, in the sanctuary of
St. Augustine Indian Mission, in Winnebago, Neb. Vasina and LaMere,
who appears prominently in the film, spoke following the showing.
The movie looks at the fight to control the flood of liquor and
despair from beer stores in the Nebraska town of Whiteclay to the
neighboring dry Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, which straddles South
Dakota and Nebraska.
The film also examines Nebraska officials’ resistance to
ameliorating what has been called a human-rights crisis. Some claim
the stores, which are licensed by the state, are legal businesses
and therefore cannot be shut down. Another refrain, heard in the
film and reported in Indian Country Today (“Nebraska governor’s
office on Whiteclay: No easy solution;” Aug. 18, 2010; Vol. 30, No.
11), is that the problem is just too complex to resolve.
LaMere, who is involved in local, state and national politics in
addition to his activism and community work, reported he has set up
a meeting with Sen. Mike Johanns, R-Neb., to discuss Whiteclay.
LaMere said the meeting was a breakthrough. “We may not come to
conclusions, but we’ll put ideas on the table and see where they
take us. That’s a very positive step.”
Going forward, Four Directions seeks “to elevate the discussion,”
LaMere said. “Our elders have told us to do this. Our people have
marched to accomplish this. We’re building bridges and fostering
understanding.”
For more about the center, visit
fourdirectionscommunity center.org, or call (712) 252-0811. For
more on SHIP, visit
siouxlandship.org.
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