Daniel Carbajal and Shirley SneveICT
Tom Brewer first visited Ukraine in the spring of 2022, right after the country was invaded by Russia and the countries have been at war ever since.
Brewer, a citizen of the Oglala Lakota nation and veteran of the Nebraska Army National Guard, has made eight humanitarian missions to the war-torn country in four years and has also made similar trips to Afghanistan.
With many displaced by the war, especially many elderly people, Brewer took on humanitarian work because he saw a need for it.
“We’ve worked through a number of different organizations to secure food mostly, as well as stoves, the very things they need just for survival,” Brewer said. “We plan missions, some day missions, some night missions to go and get into those areas and drop off supplies and then get back out. They’re so grateful for us being there.”
He added the reception for the locals of the country is much different than similar work done in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“It’s so much different in Ukraine. It doesn’t matter if we’re in a small town, big town, little ladies will come up and hug you and thank you and if we’re going to sacrifice blood and treasure that’s the places we should look at doing it in, not in places where we’re not, how shall I put it, welcome,” Brewer said.
He started his 36-year military career in 1977 with the Nebraska Army National Guard, ultimately retiring with the rank of colonel. He is also the only Native American to serve in the Nebraska Unicameral.
Col. Brewer was term-limited last year and an out-spoken member of the Republican party (while the Unicameral is bi-partisan), the citizen of the Oglala Lakota nation has mixed emotions about the recent military actions in Venezuela that removed the President on Jan. 3.
“I hope that we’re very careful in the future, that we let the people figure out a course of action, and sometimes governments have to be motivated through sanctions or whatever technique, but let them decide who they’re going to put into power rather than to jam it down their throats because as much as we’d like to think we’re smart enough to know what’s right that doesn’t necessarily sell worldwide,” Brewer said.
Closer to home, Col. Brewer is pleased that 40 acres of land at the site of the Wounded Knee Massacre, on the Pine Ridge reservation has been returned to the tribe.
Something, he says, should have happened a long time ago.
“We have a story that has not been told accurately,” Brewer said. “The failure on the part of the administration to pull back the Medal of Honors that were given there really kind of hit home for me and bored a hole in my soul because there’s no way to justify a Medal of Honor for literally a massacre.”
Watch the full interview on the ICT Newscast.
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