Rita Means walked into a recreation area at the Jameson Annex of the South Dakota State Penitentiary and triggered an upsurge of hope.

Native American inmates in tan jumpsuits gathered around the 66-year-old Rosebud tribal member, offering hugs and sharing memories as she made her first visit to the prison in several years.

A longtime advocate of fair sentencing and equal treatment for Native prisoners in South Dakota, Means knows better than most how even the smallest of gestures can work wonders within these walls.

“Some of these guys don’t have anybody,” says Means, who attended a Lakota/Dakota/Nakota Spiritual Group cultural conference and powwow this weekend at the maximum security prison. “They haven’t had a phone call or letter in years, so it helps to know that there is somebody out there who cares.”

Rita’s status in the Native prison community stems from the tragic death of her daughter, Kimberly Rose Means, at the age of 11 in 1981. Appalled by the prison experiences of her father, uncle and other Native inmates, Kimberly took part in a “Run for Freedom” demonstration that involved traveling in stages along rural highways from the Pine Ridge Reservation to the state prison in Sioux Falls.