Lisa Waters

Lisa Waters

Lisa Waters Kaulaity first heard of the PATHSTAR program when Richard Iron Cloud swam from Alcatraz in 2003.

Born on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota on December 4, 1979, to Agnes (Red Elk) and Albert Waters Sr., Lisa and her six siblings grew up in a single parent home, living on the reservation or in nearby Rapid City.   As a fitness aid with the Oglala Sioux Tribe Health Education Office, working with Mary Tobacco and Arlene Iron Cloud (Richard’s wife), she was invited to participate in the 2004 PATHSTAR San Francisco program.  She returned as a ‘veteran’ in September 2005, providing guidance for new participants, one of whom was her younger sister, Kelly.

She returned to the fitness field for another year after her second Alcatraz swim, working for the Diabetes Program’s Okiciyapi Wellness Center as a fitness technician through the Indian Health Service.  Exploring another way to work with her tribal community, she completed the Basic Corrections Officer Program through the Indian Police Academy in Artesia, New Mexico, in 2007 and worked as a Correctional Officer for the Pine Ridge Adult Offender Facility and for Standing Rock Detention Center in Fort Yates, North Dakota.

Lisa, her husband, Henry J. Kaulaity Jr.(Kiowa) of Lawton, Oklahoma, and her two year old son, Sebastian, currently live in Whiteriver, Arizona, on the Fort Apache Reservation.