a nice welcome. our grass dancers.

>> all right, there you have it. our grass dancers. how about that? all right now we're going to go into our contemporary style of dancing. that's our fancy men's dance and we're going to start with our fancy shawl dance category. we have a couple young ladies, three of them that are going to come out. this is a modern style, contemporary style. it evolved into 1950's to present and they danced with a fancy footwork style of dancing. sometimes called the butterfly dance. so we're going to go over to the san francisco sobriety drum. let's give them a welcome. our young girls. shaul dancers -- shawl dancers.

>> all right. how about that? our girls fancy shawl. we're going to go to the men's war dance. this is a little earlier than the women's. it was back in the 1930's in oklahoma. came all the way to california so we're going to go to the native american aids project for a men's fancy war dance. pick it up, men's fancy. how about a round of applause for our war dancer? a lot of fancy footwork.

all right. there you have it. fantastic. all right. all right, ladies and gentlemen, all good things must come to an end. we're going to retreat the eagle staff with our dancers. let's give them one big round of applause.

all of our dancers, thank you very much. friendship house, if you would, take them out. appreciate you guys being here. give them a retreat song, exit song and we'll take them out and go into the awards part of our program this evening. so when you're ready, friendsship house, sobriety drum. retreat song. take out the eagle staff for us this evening. can we stand one more time, ladies and gentlemen, as the eagle staff makes its way out. thank you. let's give him another round of applause and thank you. from the black pee nations. thank you, dancers. thank you for being here. add to the heritage the culture that makes san francisco the

beautiful city that it is. with all the beautiful colors, all the beautiful races, all the beautiful tribes, thank you. our dancers represent the black feet, the die with a and others.

alaska natives. thank you. thank you, dancers. thank you for being here. thank you for celebrating with us.

how about a round of applause for our singers? san francisco sobriety drum. native american native project drums. thank you, thank you, you may be seated. thank you for standing one more time. how about a round of applause for our drums? san francisco friendship house sobriety drum and american native aids project singers. thank you. at this time as we go into recognizing our heroes, our local heroes, there are some individuals that are very deserving of being nominated

and selected for this very high award and honor among our indian people and if gavin newsom, the mayor, is here, we certainly want to acknowledge him. so please let me know if -- when he does arivene. we will give him special due recognition and thank him and the city of san francisco. let's do that now. a nice big round of applause. for mayor gavin newsom. city council. and all of the programs and departments of this beautiful city government. thank you. this time i'm going to call qwona to the stand with me. we're going to recognize someone that is well deserving and long overdue for recognition. it's my pleasure to introduce our first honoree, lehman brightman.

i've known lehman since i first arrived in san francisco in 1962. if fact, he got me my first shore side job when he was a director at the san francisco indian center. and he is a very upstanding individual, he's a member of the sioux and creek tribes. he was born on the cheyenne river sioux reservation in south dakota. he's the father three boys, lehman jr., gall and qwona here with me. he currently lives in pinot, california. he's the founder of the national president of the united founder and president of the national united native americans incorporated, a nonprofit indian organization formed in 1968 to promote the progress and general welfare of american indians. in his capacity of president of u.n.a., mr. brightman has testified in two u.s. senate

hearings on the deplorable conditions of indian boarding schools and hospitals on reservations. he's also led investigations of seven indian boarding schools, three indian hospitals, due to the poor service and abusive treatment of indian people. he's a former football and track star at oklahoma state university where he has earned a b.a. degree. he has an m.a. deling from -- degree from the university of california at birkly. mr. brightman is an ex-marine, served one year in the korean conflict where he was wounded in action. he was a disinterested student going through the motions during high school and college in order to play football. however, when he joined the 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 t, aprojec 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.