Yamni Jack has an iron for every fire

Back in 1999, when Yamni Jack played basketball for the Pine Ridge Thorpes, most people knew he had the talent to play college ball, but they could not predict all the things he would do after his playing days. It took some years and a lot of stops before he amassed the teaching credentials necessary to be Athletic Director at Lower Brule.

Yamni was also the boys basketball coach, and he knew Kul Wicasa was a good team, but they were getting no coverage. The closest paper was in Mitchell and Lower Brule was not on their radar. It was hundreds of miles west to Rapid City, but Yamni sent an email to Native Sun News, telling them about how good his team was and politely asking for some coverage. NSNT gave him that coverage, and the email he sent revealed a talent Yamni had greater than even his playing or coaching talents: he could create things, good things, that brought people together, that best mentored his charges.

He was good enough at coaching basketball to take defending and frequent LNI champ White River down to the wire, before losing two memorable nail-biters. When you can go toe-to-toe with a coaching legend like Eldon Marshall, you can coach basketball.

To adequately cover all the hats Yamni has worn in his life, would take several articles and so we will focus on his latest job, Public Relations and Communications Director for the Oglala Sioux Tribe (OST) tribal council. The tribal president has his own PR person, but Yamni proposed to the tribal council they needed their own guy, and they agreed. Another example of Yamni’s ability to reach out to his players, a newspaper, a tribal council, and have them believing in, and supporting, his vision.

After a stint as Activities Director at Lakota Tech, Yamni’s new full-time job is PR for the tribal council: “I attend all committee meetings, Monday through Friday, and try to do the specials and the work concessions on weekends.”

But one hat is not enough for Yamni Jack: “I’m working for LiveTicket, for the schools, kinda doing a little sales and broadcasting where I can.” He is also one half of the popular Bert and Ernie Show on KILI radio. So, add color commentator for sports broadcasts, sales rep for LiveTicket, and radio personality at KILI, to his PR job with OST.

In high school, Yamni played every sport, including going out for the cross country and football teams at the same time. In one indoor track meet he placed seventh in the 60 meter dash, and then won the mile race. This combination of speed and stamina is unique to Native athletes.

As a broadcaster, Yamni said, “We did a dual kind of deal with both KILI and LiveTicket for volleyball, the Pine Ridge v Mahpiya Luta game, and then Pine Ridge and Winnebago (All Nations football).”

Winnebago was bent on revenge for the upset loss to Pine Ridge last year for the All Nations title, and Yamni was even at that game in the Dakota Dome: “I did that game for South Dakota Public Broadcasting.”

Yamni wanted to coach at Lakota Tech: “They told me the policy, you are an administrator you can’t put in for coach. I was really down and out, so I started volunteering my time. Casey (Means) said come and help me. I did their stats for them, did a lot of video, sat on the bench, went to practices. When I left (Lakota Tech) last year, I just really wanted to do something different.”

Yamni went to work at OST in the revenue department, as a data and collection specialist, since he had handled “accounting stuff and purchase orders” at Lower Brule. At the same time he was a volunteer assistant coach for Christian McGhee at Mahpiya Luta.

Normally, a Jack of All Trades becomes a Master of None. But it worked out differently for Yamni, all of the experiences he had came together and made him the first choice when people needed help for something. They all figured, Yamni can help, he knows about this.

“Another thing that they did this year,” Yamni said, “is KILI radio for middle school, the Big Foot conferences, the basketball tournaments. I covered all those. They said, ‘Can you just come on as a full-time employee or part-time?’ I said, okay, and then they talked me into the DJ gig.”

KILI was short on radio personalities, so Yamni got a show: “I started out, just myself, and I had a good friend, Marjoe Janis, who’s funny, has a crazy old laugh, and we kind of just meshed good together, joking back and forth, so I asked him to come up and he stopped in. At first, we called it the Fallin’ Off the Wagon show, playing those old school (country) songs, like George Jones and Hank Williams Jr. Man, a lot of people tuned in.”

Yamni eventually changed the name of the show to the Bert and Ernie show: “It was a comedy show with the music, and we went on from 6 to 10 on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. It just took off. There were memes on Facebook, the phone would ring every other minute, there were shoutouts, people listening from all the way down from Arizona, Apache reservation, and tuning in from Louisiana. Someone even checked in from New Zealand.”

At that time, Yamni said, “I had a full plate.” He had survived a two-week hospital battle with Covid, and then at a council meeting he had a mini stroke, which he has recovered from. Yamni said, “I had to step back.” But stepping back for Yamni Jack, is trimming his activity from five jobs to three. His “stepping back” is a full plate for most of us.

(James Giago Davies is an enrolled member of OST. Contact him at skindiesel@msn.com)

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