Web design & hosting: Local Bulletin Board creation help needed

Local Bulletin Board creation help needed

We horse-Indns up here in the northern Plains NEED a local online bulletin board / contact center. We're in one of 3 known states in the U.S. that has no physical Indn Center anywhere in the state, and I'm not far from the state capitol, where there certainly ought to be one, given the population of our People up here.
An online center would help a lot. I haven't been able to get anyone from The People to pitch in and do whatever needs doing. Just the same, I'm tired of the status quo.
So while I don't know enough to design a site without a template and don't have the money to pay someone, still I figure there must be some free downloads that would enable this to happen..
I can pay for hosting on a local server, but first there has to be something to host. No email, just a place where people can post notes and maybe discuss them. Flaming being what it is, I expect I'd have to be able to monitor the site and bar flamers and/or lock down threads every so often - I just don't know how.
Surely there's software that enable ignorant, low-budget sorts like me.... Thanks for your help!