Name
Numpa Wayanke
Looks Twice
Tribal Nation
Oglala Lakota
Pine Ridge Reservation
Love
Louise Looks Twice Desersa was born and raised in the Wounded Knee community on Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. Her traditional Lakota parents instilled in her a love of culture and ceremony. She is a wife to Bryan Desersa, Jr., a proud mother to five children, and a grandmother to three grandchildren.
As a young girl, Louise expressed her love and commitment to children by babysitting for relatives and neighboring families. She explains, “I always loved the children and wanted to ensure the babies were well taken care of. I wanted to protect them, so I have watched kids all my life.”
Driven by her love and dedication for children, Louise embarked on a journey in childcare that spanned various roles and educational milestones. She worked in the Head Start program and the Special Education Department at Wounded Knee School District. Her pursuit of knowledge led her to earn an Associate of Arts (AA) degree in Early Childhood Education from United Tribes Technical College in Bismarck, North Dakota. Today, she serves as the Care Coordinator for Wakanyeja Gluwitayan Otipi—Gathering Our Children Home, a role that allows her to integrate her commitment to children with her passion for Lakota tradition, lifeways, and ceremony. She attends to the physical, social, cultural, and spiritual needs of children.
Along with her husband, Bryan, Louise extends support to youth in the community. While Louise focuses on young children and girls, Bryan focuses his efforts on mentoring young men, teaching them construction techniques, and providing them with moral support and guidance. They created and ran a youth center before it was lost in a fire. They are not deterred from their dream of creating a youth center and have completed their 501(c)3 paperwork to secure funding to rebuild a safe place for the children of their community in the near future.
