After a several-year hiatus, Nations of the Four Directions is re-establishing to serve as a support group for Native Americans within the GLBT community.

The organization previously existed in the early ’90s, for approximately five to six years, eventually ending for undisclosed reasons. Now, one of the club’s previous leaders, Karen Vigneault, has begun work to re-establish San Diego’s first and only Native American GLBT group.

“After talking to other friends and other gay and lesbian groups I belong to, I just saw the need for the community,” said Vigneault, who is from the Kumeyaay tribe. “We have 18 reservations here, which is the largest concentration in the Untied States. There is a very large Indian community here, with some people living on all the different reservations and also a large urban community. We are bridging a gap between my brothers and sisters on the reservations and my brothers and sisters living in the city.”

Bringing the GLBT Native American community together is one of the main goals of the organization. Nations of the Four Directions hopes to provide a support group for the local Native Americans and to unify the community.

“There is no place in Southern California that reaches out to the Indian community, especially the urban community. That’s what I want to be there for,” Vigneault said. “There are not many of us that are visible. If you notice, we already have groups for the black community, for the Latino community, for the Asian Pacific Islander community, but there is nowhere for us. I want to bring that support back out to our people.”

Ricky “Cricket” Kimble, also a previous member of Nations of the Four Directions, is looking forward to the local group reforming.

“Right now, we need to have some kind of support group to show the Indian community that there is a big need for fellowship, and also caring and understanding of individual needs,” Kimble said. “I’m very excited about it. I look forward to Nation of the Four Directions for fellowship support.”

While the organization is still in its formation stages, Vigneault hopes Nations of the Four Directions can also educate the GLBT community about Native American culture, and how accepting the Native American population once was of the GLBT community.

“That’s one of the things I cannot emphasize enough to the whole gay community,” Vigneault said. “Everyone starts to think of Stonewall as the beginning of our gay history and our activist times, but it’s not. No one seems to remember that we are the first homosexuals in the country, and it was freely accepted. We knew the creator made no mistakes; you are who you are meant to be. It was just accepted amongst our culture.”

Vigneault did say that not all tribes recognized GLBTs, but the majority did accept them as part of their culture. That changed when American settlers introduced religion to this country, she said.

Vigneault said that educating her own people, as well as the non-Native American population, of their queer history is another one of the organization’s goals.

“[People’s beliefs] vary in our community. It just depends on whether they are willing to acknowledge the truth about our culture and our history, or whether they are still thinking in terms of religion,” Vigneault said.

She is reluctant to call the club’s goals political, or even classify them as activism; for her, sharing her cultural history is just teaching the truth. “We are here to support our community and to stand up for who we are, and to educate the public … the gay community, our own culture and the community at large,” she said.

From her previous experiences with Nations of the Four Directions and her current involvement in the community, she recognizes that the club is going to be a relatively small group. Before, the organization had 10-15 members during its history; Vigneault said she does not expect the club to grow beyond 40 people.

“We’re a small community,” she said. “I don’t want to say an exact amount, but each reservation has at least one gay person, whether they are out or not.”

Connecting with those people and reintroducing Nations of the Four Directions is Vigneault’s current task. To learn more, or to join the group, contact Vigneault by e-mail at kumeyaayindian@hotmail.com.