South Dakotan offers Indian-oriented anti-meth posters

Tim Leeds Havre Daily News [email protected]

A South Dakotan who decided last year to make some posters discouraging the use of methamphetamine with an American Indian theme wants to let the Indian reservations in Montana know the posters are available. “I wouldn't go up and give a lecture from a podium,” said Lynn “Sota” Hart, a member of the Yankton Sioux Tribe, “but I thought these posters might deliver a message.” After reading a Havre Daily News article about a conference at Rocky Boy's Indian Reservation that included kicking off a culturally based initiative to fight the use of meth and help in recovery, Hart decided to send information to Rocky Boy about the posters his business, No Xcuses None, has available. He said he is producing the posters in association with the consulting firm Lamar Associates. Jonathan Windy Boy, a Montana representative and tribal council member at Rocky Boy, was in Billings Thursday working on setting up a Tribal, state and federal working group to implement the new intiative at Rocky Boy. He said the work by Hart is commendable. “The good thing about it is that this issue is at the forefront because of the effects of it,” Windy Boy said in a telephone interview. “We're all in this in the same boat.” He said that as the Rocky Boy initiative progresses it may look at Hart's posters, although Rocky Boy has some excellent artists that the Tribal initiative might use to make posters itself. Helen Gilbert, a former state-certified chemical dependency counselor, has been helping Hart with his project. She said she knows the effects of meth first-hand her daughter is a recovering addict. She said making posters and starting projects specifically relevant to Indian Country might help the battle against meth. “It's not going to be a cure-all,” she said, “(but we need to use) whatever Indian people can identify with.” Hart said he started working on the project last spring or early summer when he noticed that the posters he saw were all about the effects of meth people with rotten teeth and bad Hair but nothing specific to American Indian culture. “Nothing had an Indian motiff,” Hart said. He and Gilbert started working on posters, with him using Adobe Photoshop to design the posters. He had started using Photoshop the winter before on some other projects, Gilbert added. “He just sat there in Photoshop all winter. He's a quick study,” she said. “ You can teach an old cowboy some new tricks.” She said the posters should be effective in showing Indian youths the message against meth. When she was a counselor, she said, she was always looking for material. “It certainly enhances whatever your campaign is. It's relevant to reservation people, you just need to get the message out,” Gilbert said. “It devestates families; it devestates kids.” Hart said he is not out to make money on the project, and is selling the posters essentially at cost. The six posters each cost $3 each, with free placement of an organization's logo, with a minimum order of 50 posters. On the Net: http://www.noxcusesnone. com.