Notes from Indian Country
Where is our Lakota ‘Community Organizer?’By Tim Giago (Nanwica Kciji – Stands Up For Them) Former President Barack Obama billed himself as a “Community Organizer” before and during the time he ran for office. After giving it some thought I began to realize that every city with a large minority population should have a “community organizer” in its midst. The reason: Too often we so-called Urban Indians are fragmented. We had no cohesion, especially when it comes to organizing politically. If you live in Rapid City, Albuquerque, Phoenix, Cleveland or any of the big urban centers with large Native American populations you know this to be mostly true. Let’s start with Rapid City since that is where I reside. As far as I can remember we have had only one Native American serve on the Rapid City School Board; Daphne Richard-Cook and she gained that position by default to fill a position that suddenly came open. When she ran for re-election she was defeated even though she had shaken up the all-white School Board Representatives by fighting for the rights of the Indian students. Why? Because Rapid City is so gerrymandered that it is nearly impossible for any Indian living in neighborhood that are predominantly Native American. The gerrymandered districts preclude and Indian from winning an election. Why aren’t we doing something about it? Native Sun News Today newspaper, an Indian-owned newspaper based in Rapid City has written about it extensively, but that is all we can do; write about it. What we need is a community organizer to get out there and bring the Native American population together and march on City Hall. Also, we just do not stick together as a people. I asked several Lakota people working at the newspaper if they are going to vote and they just shrug. I immediately told them that if they wanted things in Rapid City to be better for their children they had to get out and vote. We have got to end the apathetic attitude towards voting. That is where we must start. African Americans stood tall in the major cities of America by organizing while being led by people like Obama. They searched out qualified candidates for every political job, got behind them, and voted for them. They were successful because they had the numbers and finally figured out that they could win any city position if the stuck together and voted. Rapid City and all of the cities I named can do the same thing. Rapid City and Pennington Country has a population of 80,000 and the Indian people make up about 20 percent of the total population. If we can convince Native Americans to run for office, including the office of mayor, we have the numbers to win. I suppose that we as Native Americans have always felt that we are not a part of the City. We have been excluded from nearly every city function including the elections. We too often think of ourselves as residents of our home reservations and that is fine, but we are also disenfranchised from most of them. We need to do a complete mind-change and start thinking of ourselves as citizens of the towns in which we live. Our children go to elementary and high school in these cities. We either rent or own homes in these cities. We pay taxes in these cities. We are supposedly under the protection of the police and fire departments of these cities. If we are to be labeled as “Urban Indians” let’s fight to be leaders in the cities where we live. We should have many more police officers and fire department personnel that are Native American based on our population base, but we have not put up a strong enough fight to see that happen. Why not? Sure, we have a lot of our people moving to the city from the reservation and then back again. We are transitional in that respect, but while we are in the city we are citizens of the city. The mind-set that we do not belong must change. We were here long before the first foundation of any building went up. This is as much our city as it is of the non-Indians. We not only belong, but we have the numbers to elect an Indian to nearly every city office in Rapid City. All we have to do is organize. We need some young and dynamic Native American youth to step up and do the job Barack Obama did in Chicago: Organize. Why are the students at Oglala Lakota College so silent on this very important topic? Where are the student organizers? At this moment in history we need new leaders to step up. So many of those elders who fought a losing battles beginning in the 1940s are gone. They fought for the land at Sioux San and they fought for better housing and jobs and they won some and lost some; but they went to their graves trying. Now it is time for a new generation to step up. Find your community organizers and then organize. There is strength in numbers and we have the numbers. Positive change is in your hands, you just need to get out and do it. All we can do is write about it and encourage you, but the rest is up to you. Tim Giago was born, raised and educated on the Pine Ridge Reservation. He is the recipient of the H. L. Mencken Award from the Baltimore Sun, the Honor Award for Distinguished Service to Journalism by the U. of Missouri School of Journalism and the Golden Quill Award from the International Society of Weekly Newspaper Editors. He can be contacted at najournalist1@gmail.com.
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