marines, he found a renewed sense of purpose. he said, when i came back from the marine corps i had straightened up. it taught me to be responsible. most people who served in the marines are proud of it. before the marines my life wasn't structured. i lived my whole life since structured and i learned that from the corps. he established and coordinated the first native american studies program in the united states at u.c. berkleigh in 1969, has since taught at university of california-san diego, sacramento state university, d.q. university in davis, brightman is the author of numerous articles on the history of indian education and the federal indian boarding schools. he is former editor of the first national american indian newspaper warpath and was involved in the occupation of

alcatraz, a takeover of wounded knee and led the occupation of mount rush more in south dakota in 1970. he was also one of the national coordinators in the longest walk in 1978 and a long walk for survival in 1980. president the -- at the present time mr. brightman is writing a book on the history of indian civil rights movement from the 1960's to the present. i'd also like to add a note that helen would like to thank lehman. he was called upon to advocate and represent the friendship house when they were fighting for parity in funding from the city and county of san francisco. they did receive their grants from the city and county of san francisco for substance abuse treatment and because of lee brightman's efforts, we thank you, lee, appreciate that very much. at this time i'd like to call up on his son to say a few

words on behalf of our honoree. >> god, you know, there's a lot of heroes here today that really need honoring. this month is very important for all of our people. this is, of course, native american heritage month. we have a lot of work still left to do. because the trail blazers, likemy father, lehman brightman. he's done so much work. he's done so many things that he's never asked for a dime. he's never asked for an award. he's never wanted money. he's never done it for the money. he's never done it for the fame. he did it because he loves his people. he loves all of our people. he's now 79. he's an elder and quite honestly, he means so much to me and i'd just like -- i want to thank each and every one of you for coming out here and honoring all of these heroes,

all of these people, all of these organizations that have put on this event. this is truly beautiful. what we still need to do, of course, is get a federal holiday in honor of all me native american people. that's something -- of all native american people. that's something we should do. that's something we must do. that's something we need to do peacefully. that's something we can do. i want to thank you, my father, forgiving me the heart, giving me the soul, giving me all that i am today. you and my mother mean so much to me. i want to thank you and -- [speaking foreign language] >> do i read the proclamation before the awards or is that going to come later? before we call lehman to the stand, i have a proclamation

that we'd like to present to the -- >> on basket american indian heritage month, our local hero, lehman brightman, united native americans incorporated. we have the friendship house, native american aids project, the mayor's office of neighborhood services to present you this award, lehman brightman. thank you for all your hard work. >> i didn't know i was going to have to talk. i came out here in 1958 and i was hunting a job. i finally got a job as a bouncer in a night club on

broadway street overnight and i was working as a parking lot attend dant during the day on stockton and shutter. one day i met a guy in a bar and he said, you ought to get involved, get a better job. i said, where? he told me about united parcel. i went down there and started working at the united parcel delivering furniture. one day i made a delivery in the mission district. and there was an indian center there. i didn't know that. i went out there and i looked and it had holes in the sign, the neon sign. and so i looked at that and i decided to go in. i thought i was the only indian in san francisco. i'd never seen another. so i went in and the guy was there and he said, who are you? i said, i'm just -- i just made a delivery and i didn't know there was an indian center, i thought i'd come in and look around. i said, i drive a truck during the day and i'm a bartender at

night on broadway. he said, you want to get involved? i said, i don't really know what i -- whether i can or not. i was telleding, you ought to fix your sign in front. you need this place painted. your chair there's got a leg missing. the pool tabling out there, -- table out there, the pockets are all wroten and -- rotten. he said, do you want to help? and i said, no, i'm working two jobs. he said, that's the trouble. we have too many damn indians like you, you don't want to do a damn thing, you just want to stand around and criticize. and i thought, i ought to punch him in the nose. and i thought it over and how i said he was right. so i came down and volunteered and i started helping out with a saturday night dance and started helping out here and there. then they said, you ought to get on the board of directors here. you were the only one who got an education. so i did, got on the board, we got our program funded through the poverty program. and they gave money to hire an

indian center director and different people working there. and we were able to buy a car in which we could transport older people and other people to the dances and the meetings and so forth we had. and we got that place painted, fixed it all up and eventually said, you ought to be the director and i said, i don't want to get involved. well, i did. i got involved and that changed my life. i started -- i didn't know indian people had that many problems in urban areas. they come in on the programs sponsored by the bureau of indian affairs. anybody between the ages of 18 and 35, they would find you, transport to you an urban area like san francisco, los angeles, san diego and get you in a training program for a job. and if you watched out, they were stranded in a city. so we started helping indians find employment, legal aid and housing. and we got that going real good.

and i got my first indoctrineation into indian affairs. i got out of there and eventually went over to berkley. i played football for oklahoma state. and i found out they have some scholarships there for minorities at berkley. they had plenty of blacks, mexican and asians and no indians. i asked him about scholarships and they said, are you an indian think? said, yeah. and he said, you interested in going to school here? and i said, yeah. he said, you're in. and i said, you're kidding. they're going to give me money, they were going to give me money toward living expenses and books and so forth. so i went in and they said, i took the scholarship and said, you have to get the -- the dean turned me down. i had to go see the dean and i said, why did you turn me down to get in here?

and he started tell meg, well, your grades aren't high enough. you have to work on a master's program, you have to have a 3.8, 4.0 or better. i had a 2.8. 2.8. so anyway they said, we were thinking of letting you in, but the dean over here doesn't want to let you in. so i went to see him and i said, why aren't you going to let me in? and anyway we started talking and he said, where are you from? and i said, i'm from oklahoma answered said, where? and i said, i'm from a little town called you follow, oklahoma, it means twin rivers and he told me, he said, after the war, world war ii, he said, i work with different people, we worked in different states and he said, we were working with states, the 10 worst states in america. the 10 worst states, they led the nation in unemployment, welfare, illiteracy and

whatever else you can think of. he said, oklahoma was the worst state in the union. now he said, let's find out where you're from. and i said, it's a little small town called u.f.o. lo in the eastern part of the state and i said, nobody -- even in oklahoma nobody knows where it is, it's so damn small. he said, you know what? i know where it is. i worked after the war was over and worse state in america was oklahoma. they led the whole nation in welfare, illiteracy, unemployed wharvings the hell else you could think of and he said, the worst town in oklahoma was ufalo, oklahoma, and you came from there. anyone who would come from such a god awful place should get in here. so i got in because i came from the worst damn town in america. and i made use of it and i finished my master's, did the work for my doctorate and got involved in indian affairs and

started the indian studies program there which was first in america. they started programs for blacks and asians and i went over and said, if you're going to do it for them, you are going to have to do it for indians and i forced them so start a native americans study program. they were looking for an indian ph.d. to start the program. out of a whole race of people, we only had 10 indians in america in 1969 who had ph.d.'s. 10. they were about 15 doctors and two or three psychologists and so forth. so i went to work on my master's, finished that and started on my doctorate and they started an indian studies program and since they couldn't find the ph.d.'s that they wanted, they gave it to me. it was an opportunity. i took it. and i started that one and i got kicked out thereof for my indian affairs and started the one at u.c.-san diego and i got kicked out. i started the one at sacramento

state and i got kicked out. and then i came and i started this one in an indian community college in san pablo and my second year there i got arrested by the f.b.i. for harboring a guy named dennis banks they were hunting. and they were going to kick my ass out of there, too. and the f.b.i. dropped charges on me in the interest of justice, they said. so they didn't fire me. but i taught there for 34 years. how beautiful -- had a beautiful time. and i don't want to bore you. but it's been a nice life. i get kind of choked up. i've lived a damn good life. and thank you very much for listening. >> thank you, lee brightmental.

this time we'll call jonbenet and derek english for the next award presentation. >> hello. i'm derek english. >> andersen john ben with a. the native american aids project is one of the country's most comprehensive h.i.v. programs for native americans and the only native-specific h.i.v. organization in california. we're committed to providing a wide range of culturally competent services for all native american people affected by h.i.v. and aids and other diseases by promoting and maintaining the overall health of our diverse community. we worked to build a community or an extended family which

serves as a foundation for personal growth and healing. all of our services draw upon native cultures, spiritual, behavioral and medicinal traditions to communicate h.i.v. messages and care for our h.i.v. positive brothers and sisters. >> it's my pleasure to introduce our second nominee -- honoree, it gale burns. she was born in new jersey. her mother, her paternal grandparents relocated to new jersey and new york from the southeast homelands and they were descendents of muskogee. many of her uncles served in world war ii, the korean war and the vietnam war. her grandfather was a storytell teler and through his stories she learned about her family history. a few of the lessons that she learned growing up, respect my elders, believe in my city of,

work hard at whatever you do and you believe in. she received training in hiv/aids prevention at the colorado department of public health in 1992 and she game a certified addiction counselor in denver and she worked in the erap hoe house residential alcohol and drug program in. in 1939 she moved to albuquerque, new mexico, where she worked for the indian peb low and was stationed theres as the alcohol and drug counselor, later becoming the prevention coordinator. in 1994 she received an award from the chapter of concerned parents of american indian children. she moved to the bay area in 1995, started working at the native american aids project in 2000 as an hiv/aids health educator and later as a preveppings case manager. in 2001 she became a council

member of the san francisco h.i.v. prevention planning council and was later elected and served two terms as the community co-chair for the h.i.v. prevention planning council. she was also a member of the transgender advisory committee. in 2003 she served as a board member at intertribal friendship house in oakland. on a national level, she's a member of the urban coalition of hiv/aids prevention services, a collaboration of nine cities in the united states working with aids actions, health and human services of washington, d.c., and lobbying on capitol hill. in september, 2009, she was asked to serve as the community advisory board member on the department of public health research prevention section national medical monitoring project, a c.d.c. surveillance probably designed to learn more about people living with h.i.v. she's also a member of the medicine warriors all nation singers pow wow and events

committee. and joan would like to say a few words about gale. >> in almost 10 years gale has been with the native american aids project she's been a beacon of hope for so many of our community members. gale has ensured native people i represented locally in policy decisions. she's become extended family to many of the clients she served, providing compassionate support to individuals supported from their -- separated from their families as a result of distance, substance abuse and/or gender and sexual orientation. she has assisted with the end of life care for many clients and -- -- clients and by making their final arrangement, provided comfort to numerous families sheafments a teacher, a leader, a voice for the underserved and the under-represented and has set an example for awful us on how to live a life of service. she cannot -- i cannot adequately express my gratitude to gale.

please join me in honoring gale. >> oh, my god, thank you. i have menopause. i may have to pull this blanket off. oh, thank you. oh, my god. you know what? i'm going to lighten this up a little bit. when i first found out that i was -- when joan told me that i was nominated for local hero, my husband works in los angeles, he works out of town so when he called me, years ago my husband told me i was my biggest fan. and so i had the pleasure of

telling him that not only am i my biggest fan but i have a lot of fans. i have a lot of fans out there. but, you know -- a lot of the people that i love and care about and that i work with are right here in this room and i want to thank my inlaws, my mother and father-in-law came over here and they're in their upper 0s. i really appreciate them being here -- 80's. i really appreciate them being here. i would like to thank kqed. public television is for the people and by the people. i was remembering when i was in high school, i grew up in the 1950's and 1960's. 10th grade history class i got kicked out of that class every week. because the little bit of history that they did have about indian people was very negative. it was not positive. and so i did my research, my friends and i, on our own and

any information that we brought into the classroom they wouldn't accept it as being accurate. and in the past decade, i imagine, i really honor kqed for honoring us and not only native american community but just about every month of the year is some community, whether it's asian pacific islanders, latino, it's like amazing to me. i accept this on -- my grandparents and my ancestors were alive today, we have a president this year, president of color. and so no one can ever tell me that things don't change and people don't change because we do. and a lot of the work, a lot of times when i leave work and i'm tired or if i'm going shopping, i have a big smile on my face and the reason i have that smile on my face is i think about all the people that i work with, all my friends, the once who love me and that i love them, that worked tirelessly, tirelessly. they even -- i'm a member still

of the h.i.v. prevention planning council in san francisco. they even ended the meeting early tonight so some of them were able to come over and enjoy me in this. dr. stevenson is here, one of the first people when i served as co-chair on the counsel council in israel, he was one of my biggest mentors when we went traveling to washington, d.c., and san juan, puerto rico. he really mentored me. when i was writing my bio i thought about him in the beginning that i would get really real about it. other than the education and things that you hear about all the time. the one thing with the work that we do, i am so proud of all of that you i want to talk about while i'm here, a lot of the people -- i don't know all the people that nominated me but i know a lot of the people that nominated me were elders and they were from the lgbt spirit community.

and the one thing i remember growing up was home phobia, internalized racism, external racism and the feeling of not being a part of or not being as good as other people and when i got married and i had ny children i moved to the state of georgia which is where my ancestors came from and before the civil rights law was passed in 1968 everything was secretary gated. i had to take my little girl to the doctor's office and we had to use the back door and wait in the back room until everyone was steamed and this was like four hours. my daughter had a really high fever. what i would like to take this opportunity to talk about is that -- and i know we made a lot of progress but we have a long way to go, i hear a lot of times from clients and people in our community about having to come out of the closet. they don't need to come out of the closet, we need to come out of the closet. stop making our kids, our

grandchildren, our nieces and our nephews, they know who they are, they accept -- they're waiting for us to accept them and i'm glad i had the opportunity to work in san francisco. it's only so big and some of the cities are only so big. we need to remember they need to have options of where they can live, they need to be comfortable in their homes where they live. they shouldn't have to relocate the cities out of their home to be accepted for who they are because i remember that feeling of not being accepted for who i am and it's not a good feeling. so, we have a lot of work to do, we have a lot further to go. you know, but i do see change and have a lot of hope and again thank all of you. thank you. >> good evening, everybody.

my name's pedestrian rosa and i'm mayor newsom's representative here this evening. he sends his regards and wants to congratulate every single one of the honorees that are here with us this evening. on behalf of the mayor, i would like to present to john ben with a the proclamation for --on ben with a the proclamation for native american heritage month. i think it's important that we recognize the strides the native american community has made in this country. whereas president barack obama has appointed kimberly tehee of the cherokee nation as his native american policy advisor and jodie jilett of the standing rock sioux rain to to provide a voice to the american indian nation within the president's white house senior staff. providing a critical seat at the table when important decisions are being made about the lives, nation and people of american indian dissent.

and whereas president obama and secretary of the interior ken salazar selected larry oako hawk of the pawnee nation to serve as assistant secretary for indian affairs and have held listening sessions on american indian and alaska native issues around the country. and the white house. and whereas american indian heritage month recognizes and honors the continued contributions of the american indian community and promotes awareness about issues facing the american indian population today. and whereas the mayor of the city and county of san francisco is proud to partner with kqed, friendsship house, association of american indian, american indian aids project and the american indian health center to celebrate five outstanding local heroes for their work in the san francisco bay area, american indian community. now therefore be it resolved that i, the mayor, do hereby

proclaim november, 2009, as american indian heritage month in the city and county of san francisco. at this time i'd also like to recognize the offices of several elected officials who are providing certificates of honors to all of the awardees this evening. the office of senator mark leno, assemblyman tom amiano and speaker of the house nancy pelosi. i'd also like to thank helen walkasou of friendship house, john ben with a of the american native -- john ben with a -- jonbenet, lindo brian from kqed and mark espinosa from the native american health center.

and i'd like to now introduce mark espinosa, executive director of san francisco native american health center. >> good evening, everyone. welcome. i'd like to congratulate all the winners tonight as well as thank all the sponsors for this great event. native american health center of san francisco was started in 1972 to provide health services very much needed for natives who are relocated to the bay area. we are still located in the mission district. we provide medical services, dental services, h.i.v. services and behavior health services. we're open to all city and county residents of san francisco as well as our native population. we are a safety net clinic and we do support the city and county in terms of providing health services for the city residents of san francisco. at this time i'd like to turn it over to darren for the

introduction of one of our staff members, kathy chapman. >> my pleasure to introduce our third nominee, kathy chapman, honoring -- honoree, parred me. she participated in the longest walk of 1978. she was a part of a group of young people who made a commitment to go back to their communities and to try to make a better way of life for her people. in 1981 she was recruited to become a certified labor coach in highland hospital for the native american health center in oakland. kathy worked full time for the native american health center as a c.h.r. community health worker. in the paranatal democratic. she was instrumental in developing a team of labor coaches from different tribal backgrounds and creating a cultural bridge between the patients and the medical staff of the clinic in the hospitals. kathy became involved in community radio in 1985. she was asked to participate in the first apprenticeship

program in kpfa-fm and produced there for 10 years. she still produced a few programs a year as an independent producer. in 1988 kathy produced a radio special on hiv/aids in indian country which profiled a new organization, national native american aids prevention center. the information presented in this radio special impacted kathy so much that she began spreading the word of h.i.v. in the native community. they began her work in h.i.v. prevention. she left the work in san francisco in 1998 to assist in the care of elder relatives in arizona. and and returned to native american health center in 2006 and began working with some of the same clients that she had worked with at native american aids project. she's currently employed as an h.i.v. substance abuse case manager in the circle of healing at the native american health center in san francisco. kathy chapman is of