SandeBea Allman, nonprofit and community leader, Oglala Lakota, Nimiipuu

Jackleen De La Harpe

Guest Writer

Portrait of SandeBea Allman by Mel Ponder Photography

Oregon

Indigenous leadership, Storytelling

SandeBea Allman is the Chief Community Engagement and Development Officer of the Native American Rehabilitation Association of the Northwest and President of the Bow and Arrow Culture Club. The 2024 Indigenous Leadership Awards honors her her decades-long role as guide, convener, and cultural ambassador for the Portland urban Indian community.

For Indigenous people living in urban environments away from their homelands and tribal communities, staying connected to traditions and ceremony is vitally important. SandeBea Allman, Oglala Lakota, Nimiipuu, has served the Portland Native community for more than 45 years to reinforce and uphold Native traditions.

“Culture is prevention,” she said. “It’s a whole way of life, always knowing where you come from, practices, belief systems that you have to help.”

Allman is honored for her decades-long role as guide, convener, and cultural ambassador for the Portland urban Indian community.

Those who know Allman describe her as a “servant leader,” someone who puts the needs of others ahead of her own. She is known for her humility and, for more than four decades, consistently contributing to the urban Indian community to “make things happen,” whether it’s supporting families when an elder walks on or organizing the many details for the annual Delta Park Powwow and Encampment.

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It was important to her parents that they kept their traditions as a family, even if they didn’t live near their ancestral lands.

An enrolled citizen of Oglala Lakota Nation, Allman was born and raised in Portland. Her mother and father both attended Indian boarding school, and despite the trauma and indoctrination intended to assimilate her parents, they never lost their traditions, she said. Her mother kept her language, continuing to speak fluent Nez Perce all of her life, and her father reconnected to his Lakota spirituality. During WWII, her father served in the Marines, and her mother worked in the Portland shipyards. When the war ended, her parents relocated to Portland for work and to start a family.

“My parents were cultural leaders their entire lives,” she said. They raised her to respect Indigenous ways: helping others, caring for elders. It was important to her parents that they kept their traditions as a family, even if they didn’t live near their ancestral lands. Growing up, their family visited Celilo Village at least twice a year and the Nez Perce and Umatilla reservations for celebrations.

“We were always given the opportunity to learn tradition and cultures and practice our spirituality. Our parents made certain that we (children) had the reservation experience, often sending us to spend our summers with relatives on the Nez Perce, Umatilla, or Pine Ridge reservations,” said Allman.

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Helping others, being patient and kind is a commitment I made. I put those deep cultural beliefs into practice, not only in my work but in my daily life, serving Portland’s Indigenous community to help Native people with common beliefs and practices.

—SandeBea Allman, Oglala Lakota

Portland’s urban Indian population is the ninth largest in the U.S. and a regional hub for tribes. The Portland Native community represents more than 380 tribes, many of whom ended up in Portland because of federal policies that included termination, relocation, and boarding schools.

Allman’s parents helped to establish many nonprofits in Portland that continue to thrive more than 50 years later, including the Bow & Arrow Culture Club, the Urban Indian Council, Pi Nee Waus Elders, and the Delta Park Powwow. As important avenues for urban Native people to connect to their beliefs and practices, Allman continues to be involved in these organizations today.

“My folks were foundational leaders of the Portland Native community,” she said. “Culture, tradition and spirituality are part of my life and are very important to what I do today. I instilled this in my own children and grandchildren.”

Allman is also the Chief Community Engagement and Development Officer for the Native American Rehabilitation Association of the Northwest (NARA NW), a Native-led nonprofit that provides medical, mental health, housing, youth services, and substance abuse treatment for American Indian and Alaska Native adults and youth. It operates from a philosophy of honoring the emotional, physical, spiritual, and mental health of Native people. Allman oversees community engagement, development, the youth prevention program, and co-leads elder services.

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“Helping others, being patient and kind is a commitment I made,” she said. “I put those deep cultural beliefs into practice, not only in my work but in my daily life, serving Portland’s Indigenous community to help Native people with common beliefs and practices.”

Allman started a family early, chose to become sober at 23, and went on to finish her degrees at Portland State University. She was recruited to work at NARA NW, where she helped establish a child development center and moved into leadership for the next 10 years. She served two years as executive director at the American Indian Associations of Portland. She worked for nearly a decade at the National Indian Child Welfare Association and was recommended to work and guide a youth residential mental health program for Native youth, leading that program for four years.

Her work in the community has been to act as a liaison between Indigenous people in the Portland Metro area and city and state officials. There are multiple needs in the Portland Indigenous community—lack of housing, food insecurity, elders who have retired and are now at risk of losing their homes.

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I really think my upbringing, things I’ve learned—spiritual, traditional, cultural—are the way I’ve lived my life.

—SandeBea Allman, Oglala Lakota

“I learned early that I had to knock on doors, literally. Some doors are harder than others to open,” she said. “The urban environment can be hostile for Native people. We need a community center, a cultural center, an Indigenous community gathering center, where traditions can be honored.”

Allman has been called “everybody’s auntie,” a woman who does her work with great humility to make Native events and gatherings more cohesive through tradition and sharing her cultural upbringing. She pitches in. Keeping Native traditions strong and visible and helping Native people stay close to their culture, especially far from home, is no different than the way she was raised.

“I really think my upbringing, things I’ve learned—spiritual, traditional, cultural—are the way I’ve lived my life,” she said. “It’s about the practices, belief systems that you have to help and always knowing where you come from.”