29-year-old man to lead Rapid City’s new cultural effort

RAPID CITY, S.D. (AP) – A Native American man who in the past five years has overcome jail and problems with alcohol and his mental health will lead the Rapid City Police Department’s new effort to increase cultural understanding between law enforcement and the community.

Vaughn Vargas was selected by Rapid City Police Chief Karl Jegeris on Friday to be the department’s first cultural advisory coordinator. His appointment comes at a time when Native Americans make up 12 percent of Rapid City’s population but account for 59 percent of people arrested.

“Mr. Vargas is connected. He has street smarts that I myself don’t have, and the members of the Rapid City Police Department don’t have,” Jegeris said. He added that Vargas also “has a deeper understanding of what leads young people in our community down the path of being on the receiving end of criminal justice services.”

Vargas is a member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, the Rapid City Journal reported. He has overcome his troubled past to become a community activist and a top student at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology.

The advisory committee’s goal is to represent all races and cultures, with an emphasis on representing Native Americans in the community.

The city’s long-standing racial divide was put on the spotlight following a January incident in which a white Philip man allegedly harassed a Native American student group at a hockey game in a city-owned arena. The man, Trace O’Connell, is scheduled to stand trial later this month on a disorderly conduct charge.

“This is generational,” Vargas, 29, said. “This issue has been going on a long time. But now’s an opportunity. Leaving everything else aside, this opportunity’s here, and we’re taking advantage of it.”

Vargas’ $19.24 hourly wage will be paid from the Police Department’s existing budget. Vargas has three semesters left before graduating from the School of Mines and will work part time around his college schedule.

Vargas was incarcerated for a 2010 fourth-offense driving under the influence conviction. He said he had been contemplating ending his life before his arrest, and he credits his turnaround to the arrest, work-release program while in jail and subsequent help from a number of people.

“While I was walking to work, I was seeing people go to school and seeing people be active and enjoying their lives, and I wanted that,” Vargas said. “I wanted it severely.”

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Information from: Rapid City Journal, http://www.rapidcityjournal.com