Humble library is life-changing for the Hoopa Indian reservation

On the misty, pine-scented Hoopa Indian reservation, a river valley 60 miles from the nearest stoplight, a cedar building filled with 9,000 books and a lot of hope is changing lives.

In this community, which is fighting 30 percent poverty, 27 percent unemployment and crippling substance abuse, the agent of change is the Kim Yerton Branch of the Humboldt County Library.

It's a fountain of knowledge that's practically all things to the Hoopa people, said "library lady" Kristin Freeman.

"In December, 11,000 people came though my door not just to check out books, but to sit and do homework, read newspapers, apply to college, do their taxes, or apply for unemployment insurance, medical or financial assistance though federal agencies," Freeman said.

Today, the small library will be honored at the White House by first lady Laura Bush, who will present Freeman with $10,000 and a 2007 National Medal for Museum and Library Services.

The library is one of 10 institutions nationwide being recognized – the only one in California. The winners, "through their innovative programs and services, engage citizens of all ages," Bush said in a statement.

On the Hoopa reservation, beneficiaries of the library's work are people like 72-year-old Beverly Bailey. She's one of several residents Freeman and her assistant Bonny Roberts have taught to use e-mail so they can communicate with children and grandchildren.

"Mrs. Bailey corresponds with her daughter in Oregon about her health issues," Roberts said. "She has arthritis really bad, and her daughter takes care of her via Internet."

The library has emerged as a critical link for people up the Big Foot Scenic Highway, in the town of Weitchpec, who don't have electricity. They drive an hour to the library to connect with their community, and beyond.

"If they don't have access to computers in their homes, they have a place where they can keep in touch with the world," said Freeman, who has four Internet stations along with a computer for writing documents and three for kids' games.

The Hoopa Reservation is home to about 2,000 Hoopa Indians, 500 Yuroks and another 500 Karuks, "but we serve everyone," Roberts said. "I had a young couple, non-Indians living in the old Indian village, in here a few minutes ago who were taking out books to help them build a pottery studio."

Humboldt County pays for books, and two of the computers came from the Gates Foundation. But what keeps the library open 33 hours a week is $60,000 a year from the Hoopa Valley Tribe. That's a slice of the $1.1 million the tribe gets, through a special fund, from the casino revenue of richer California tribes, said Hoopa Chairman Lyle Marshall.

The library, built in 1992, is named after Kim Yerton, a Hoopa tribal member who devoted herself to the preservation of American Indian history. Yerton studied at the Smithsonian and was a Newberry Library Fellow. In 1979, Yerton was killed by a drunken driver in Eureka, Freeman said.

"I grew up in Hoopa, and there was no library other than at school," said the 51-year-old Marshall. "My concern is education, and we have a lot of issues with failure.

"We come from an area where a lot of our kids never saw books and have never handled a pen or pencil until they got to school," he added. "If we didn't have the library, we wouldn't have much. We wouldn't have any place to do any type of research or study."

For Marshall, teenagers who routinely hang out at the library are evidence of improvement among school kids on the reservation.

Marshall is particularly proud of the high school dropouts who come seeking help getting their GEDs online.

Freeman, with the library since 2000, said "Japanese animé books fly out the door with sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders. Then I have a group of high schoolers who've moved on to adult fiction."

What's really struck a nerve with teen readers, Roberts added, is "The Smokehouse Boys," a poetry book by local writer Shaunna Oteka McCovey.

Connie McKinnon, a Hoopa resident who's also expected to be at the White House today, said the library has been a refuge for her five kids.

The library helped when she was turning her life around, after struggling with substance abuse, the 35-year-old McKinnon recalled.

"Kristin (Freeman) said 'they're fine here' until me and my husband got off work," McKinnon said of the librarian. "She always has this smile that really brightens up the place – it makes you want to be there."

The library has its mystery lovers, sci-fi fans and devotees of how-to books. But the librarians said its soul is the Indian collection and its outreach.

Last Veterans Day, local author Chag Lowry discussed "The Original Patriots," his book on Indians in World War II. "We had three local people in the book here for the program," Freeman said.

The library ladies even keep Chairman Marshall stocked with books. Right now he's reading "Winning," by former General Electric CEO Jack Welch.

"They like to give me inspirational books to keep me focused," he said.

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• Call The Bee's Stephen Magagnini, (916) 321-1072.