A good place to be: Albuquerque Indian Center serves free Thanksgiving dinners to the hungry

She is graying, wrinkled and weathered, but aglow with some kind of inner light or fire.

Pausing over her plate of turkey, mashed potatoes, corn, green beans, dressing and a dinner roll, she introduced herself.

“My name is Maria,” she said. “My last name is Amos. Like in the Bible. I’ve been homeless for three years. I’m four years sober from crack and vodka.”

Maria, 70, was among the dozens of people eating a free day-before-Thanksgiving meal at the Albuquerque Indian Center, 105 Texas SE.

A nonprofit established in 1992, the center’s mission is to provide services to the urban American Indian community, but Wednesday’s holiday dinner was available to anyone — the homeless, those struggling with poverty — who was hungry. The same is true of center breakfasts and lunches served 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. and noon-1 p.m. Mondays through Fridays.

Amos is Lakota Sioux from the Sisseton-Wahpeton reservation, which is mostly in South Dakota.

She said she gets $885 in Social Security disability a month, which she supplements with money earned collecting aluminum cans.

“I don’t get food stamps,” she said. “I don’t have anywhere to cook it anyway.”

Talking turkey

More than 50 people — adults and children, families and people on their own — lined up outside the Albuquerque Indian Center Wednesday before the doors opened at 11 a.m. for dinner.

Inside, the staff prepared a plate which they set aside for the spirits.

Center cook Gordon Joe, 68, from Laguna Pueblo, said the center serves a total of 200 people per day for the weekday breakfasts and lunches. He expected to serve 300 to 400 at Wednesday’s dinner, which continued until 2 p.m.

“I baked 23 turkeys,” he said.

Most of the food the center serves is donated, said director Mary Garcia. Donations and contributions are what keep the Albuquerque Indian Center functioning. Garcia said she is concerned because donations of toys for December’s gifts for kids program have been slow this year.

The center also provides backpacks loaded with school supplies to students in the summer, hygiene packages for all who need them, small bags of dog food and treats for canine clients and offers substance abuse counseling, mental health assessments and therapy sessions for families and couples.

But Wednesday, the focus was on food.

Garcia pointed out that besides the main plate, coffee, juice, cake and pie were available.

Not all those eating at the center were homeless, but many were.

“There are a lot of people here I see on the streets,” Joe said.

Thinking of home

Amos said she moved to Albuquerque in 1985 to attend Southwest Indian Polytechnic Institute.

“I had a 3.5 GPA,” she said.

Amos also said she speaks four languages — English, her Lakota language, Spanish and Italian.

“My second husband was Italian,” she explained.

But drugs and alcohol plagued her life. She said she has done rehab three times, once for alcohol and twice for drugs.

“I had two cars, but they died on me,” Amos said. “Now, I’m sleeping outside. But it’s starting to get cold in the mornings around 3. I may try to get a room.”

She said that would take an $800 bite out of her monthly Social Security check.

“I’m going home (to the South Dakota reservation) in a year because it is getting too violent here,” she said. On the reservation, Amos said she would be able to get housing she could afford and federal money to pay for propane to heat the place.

Then she revealed the source of the glow that makes her stand out from those around her.

“I spend 4 to 7 in the morning with God, reading, praying, thinking,” she said. “I have a bunch of family on the reservation. They have a bad meth epidemic there. I want to go back to share my testimony and teach nursing at the college there.”

“Teach nursing? Are you a nurse?” a visitor said.

“I’m going online to study nursing,” she said.

“But you are 70,” the visitor pointed out.

“My grandmother lived to 97,” she said. “I’ve got 30 years. I’ve got to do something.”

Good wind

Like Amos, Ronnie James Trujillo, 56, has been homeless for three years. But he at least has a Ford Focus he can sleep in and drive. He drove the car from Las Vegas, New Mexico, to the Albuquerque Indian Center.

Originally from Colorado, Trujillo said he lived for 34 years in Albuquerque, much of it near the Indian Center. He said he went to Las Vegas to escape the Albuquerque gang life, but Las Vegas does not have the services for the homeless and the medical care that he can find in Albuquerque.

“I was in the Army,” he said. “I’m a disabled veteran. I have PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder). I don’t drink, don’t do drugs. Just smoke pot. I got a mental illness.”

He said he spent six months in jail in Las Vegas last year.

“I ran from the cops,” he said. “They got behind me. They thought I was smoking methamphetamine. I was just smoking pot, but I ran.”

But he said as long as he stays away from the gang life, he thinks he will be OK.

“To tell you the truth, I’m going to be on the streets for a while. I’m not going to lie to you,” Trujillo said. “I just thank God every day that I’m not drinking, not doing drugs.”

Trujillo, who said he is part Hispanic and part Pueblo, said he was also thankful to be at the Indian Center on Wednesday. He said there’s more to the center than free food.

“The good wind told me to come here,” he said. “It’s good here. Look, there’s kids and families.”

Indian Center dinner on the day before Thanksgiving