OTTUMWA —
For former Ottumwa resident, Dr. Nancy Iverson, swimming in the frigid waters of the San Francisco Bay is a metaphor for life.
The pediatrician started swimming in the San Francisco Bay because the cold waters relieved her back pain. That soon inspired an idea.
Iverson cared for families living on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation at the Indian Health Service Hospital in South Dakota in the 1990s. It was there that she became passionate about American Indian issues.
Iverson is a 1970 Ottumwa High School graduate who currently works as a pediatrician in San Francisco. She produced and directed “From the Badlands to Alcatraz.” The documentary follows five Oglala Lakota youth on their journey to reclaim spiritual power through a 1.5-2 mile swim from Alcatraz to the San Francisco shore.
The film has won several awards. It will be showing at the Landlocked Film Festival at 5 p.m. Aug. 27 at the Englert Theater in Iowa City. Iverson will be at the festival to screen the film, followed by a panel discussion about health issues.
“You have to take care of yourself to achieve something,” she said. “Swimming is a beautiful metaphor, it does apply to life lessons. It’s an incredible experience to know people are supporting you.”
An estimated 40,000-45,000 people live on the Pine Ridge reservation in southern South Dakota. Unemployment among people there is more than 80 percent. Diabetes and suicide are common and the life expectancy is 20 years less than the U.S. average, Iverson said.
“We get much further when the drive to do the right thing and desire to do the right thing comes from the inside,” she said.
Iverson founded PATHSTAR in 2000, a nonprofit agency aimed at encouraging healthy lifestyles and nutrition mainly among Lakota at Pine Ridge. The organization funds the swimming program featured in the movie.
Every year, Iverson brings Pine Ridge Lakota to San Francisco for a week-long program that ends with the Alcatraz swim. She decided that the best way to show how the program works is to make a film about it. The documentary was filmed in 2005 and completed four years later.
The film follows the struggles of poverty among American Indian youth and how they manage to overcome it through Iverson’s swimming program.
“We make sure every time they’re in water there’s a swimmer next to them. There’s something very deep about having that support and encouragement,” she said.
She lived in South Dakota before her family moved to Ottumwa. She went to Evans Middle School and graduated from Ottumwa High School. Iverson later attended Michigan State University and then went to the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine.
The film has won the Director’s Award at the Hearts and Minds Film Festival in Dover, Del.; and the Silver Lei Award for Excellence in Filmmaking at the 2010 Honolulu International Film Festival in Hawaii, among other honors.
On the Internet
The DVD, “From the Badlands to Alcatraz,”can be purchased at www.pathstar.org.
The Landlocked Film Festival is Aug. 26-29 in Iowa City. For more information, go to www.landlockedfilmfestival.org.
Local News
Related Photos
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Alkapoane White Calf swims from Alcatraz to the San Francisco shore in September 2005. Former Ottumwa resident, Dr. Nancy Iverson, started a program in San Francisco to encourage healthy lifestyles among Native American people. Iverson also directed and produced a documentary “From the Badlands to Alcatraz,” which will be screened at the Landlocked Film Festival in Iowa City later this month. Photo provided
Film follows former Ottumwan to Alcatraz
Documentary showcases doctor's work on American Indian issues
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