Woman focuses on Native youths
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By ERIN ANDERSEN/Lincoln Journal Star
I am an old woman, says Jennie Yankton. She just turned 66. But her health is not good — diabetes, heart disease. Her time is limited. And there is so much for her to do. So many young people who need to know about their heritage, their Native traditions, the stories that define them as America’s first people.
Long, lean, bare feet propel her wheelchair to the kitchen table. She methodically slices tomatoes and lettuce for a dinner salad. Chicken bakes in the oven.
Bags of beads and her many projects are pushed aside as she prepares dinner — her birthday dinner.
She smiles a broad, toothless grin, then shakes her head.
There are so many things her people — the young Native people — don’t know. And so she teaches at every opportunity.
“I know a lot of priceless things,” she says.
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Jennie Yankton was born in Denver.
Her family moved there “because it was cleaner,” Jennie says. A short time later, they moved to the Black Hills of South Dakota.
“I was a sickly child,” Jennie says.
Rheumatic fever left her partially paralyzed on her left side. The child will never walk, her mother was told.
“My mother would not ever give up,” Jennie recalls. “And I would would walk.”
Her father was the commission chief and U.S. federal officer. His job was to enforce liquor laws on the dry reservation.
The family traveled all over the United States.
Her father was Oglala Lakota. Her mother was Santee.
People tell Jennie she looks like her father.
They say I got the gift of gab from her Santee side, Jennie says, chuckling.
She has raised five children, eight grandchildren and numerous nieces and nephews.
She and her husband split many years ago.
“It came to the point of not what we wanted but what was best for the rest of the family. …
“They tell me he’s dead now,” Jennie says.
She’s seen so many losses — many brought on by the alcohol, drugs and poverty that plague her Native people. She’s watched some of her own family members succumb to the temptations — joining gangs, getting in trouble with the law, going to prison.
That’s why she came to Lincoln in 1990 — to take care of her grandchildren.
“I rented the place sight unseen,” she says of the tiny older home. “I figured if it was on the housing list, it would be livable.”
Two grandsons live with her — one is 11, the other is 16. Jennie’s adult daughter, Martha, and her family live in the upstairs apartment.
Jennie survives on Social Security. But it falls far short of her needs and the cost of raising two grandchildren. She had saved $400 to buy new dentures — the old ones don’t fit and hurt — but then the car broke down — again.
Forced to choose, she decided she needs the car more than teeth.
Jennie is matter of fact about her personal challenges. You do what you have to do, she says.
But when it comes to children — that’s where her passion stirs.
If she could, she would change the world.
But it’s a big world.
So she’s starting in Lincoln.
“I am trying to make a big difference with my organization,” she says, referring to JOURNEY (Joining Our United Resources for Native Youth), a nonprofit group dedicated to helping young people learn about Native arts, culture, language and traditions.
“Some of those kids have never had a (Indian) taco,” she says in amazement.
She began the program after an incident at school involving her grandson and the DARE program.
She was livid over the boy’s treatment.
But she was even more concerned about the lack of understanding of the Native culture by the general population, as well as by the Native children.
“I set out to do my own thing,” she says of JOURNEY.
She uses the tenets of Native culture to help youths see why drugs, alcohol and crime don’t mix with who they are and where they came from.
She drafted JOURNEY’s mission statement: “To strengthen the cultural life of Native American children in a manner that will help them understand the way of their people and prepare them for a meaningful future in a diverse society.”
The organization sponsors activities and programs that put Native youths in touch with their traditions.
Her dream is to buy a small piece of land, away from the bustle of the city, erect a tipi and have the kids come out to “learn things.”
“I know then they will understand the priceless things here and how priceless they are,” she says of the children.
“I want to go into the schools. I want to teach them (youths) to have pride — to speak up without alcohol and drugs,” she says.
These are lessons she learned from her father — lessons he tried to instill in the people over whom he enforced the law.
Jennie recalls how her father handled illegal distillers and alcohol purveyors. He shut them down in a way that was respectful, she says. He didn’t disgrace them or the tribe. And he helped those very same people participate in cultural dances, ceremonies and celebrations — providing them the appropriate regalia so they didn’t have to sell alcohol to buy the beads, dresses and leggings.
“They didn’t realize what they knew or what their culture was or who they really were,” she says of the people her father helped.
Decades later she finds herself filling a similar role — teaching, guiding and helping.
She takes her grandsons to powwows, where they participate. She is a pipe carrier and a sun dancer.
“I’m working on trying to walk again so next summer I can bring closure to this,” she says of her Native traditional roles.
She and her grandchildren travel to powwows throughout the area. A beader, she has taught them the art form — encouraging them to be unique in their designs.
A 6-foot-tall, gray metal shelf in her kitchen is filled with hundreds of little plastic bags holding beads in a multitude of styles and colors, which she will use to make moccasins, breastplates, necklaces, earrings and bracelets.
She wants to leave a lasting legacy.
“I’m going to expire one day, and when I do, I want to smile and feel I’ve done my job on Earth.”
Until then …
“As long as I am able to, I want to teach and help these kids to learn,” she says.
Reach Erin Andersen at 473-7217 or eandersen@journalstar.com.
Meet the family
Name: Jennie Yankton
Age: 66
Founder: JOURNEY (Joining Our United Resources for Native Youth), a nonprofit organization dedicated to teaching Native youths about their culture and traditions.
The artist: Santiago Cal
Editor’s note: This is the 11th in a series of stories profiling the 12 families chosen for the Lincoln Arts Council’s community art project Stories of Home. Artwork will be completed later this month and exhibited to the public June through February.
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