The Everlasting Sky: New Voices from the People Named the Chippewa
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THE EVERLASTING SKY NEW VOICES FROM THE PEOPLE NAMED THE CHIPPEWA by Gerald Vizenor In
Gerald
Vizenor’s
and
thoughtful
provocative account of the Chippewa Indians of Minnesota, the oshki ani-
shinabe (new people land) city
the
wood-
speak about home and
family,
of
and reservation, law enforcement
and education. They
tell
of elders
who
are afraid of change, of young people
who
are out of touch with their past
and drop out
in
the present, and of
men and women who
are asserting
anishinabe identity and trying to
re-
claim their heritage. After readers share the anger and
dreams and fears
of these
shinabe speakers, they
oshki ani-
will
wonder
what the words Indian and Chippewa really mean, and will reconsider them
and the stereotypes they represent.
W
•
f
I
I
Department Mldstate R
RFD #4 Montpelier,
Vt.
Digitized by the Internet Archive in
2016 with funding from
Kahle/Austin Foundation
https://archive.org/details/everlastingskyneOOvize
The Everlasting Sky
The New
Everlasting Sky Voices from the People
Named
the
Chippewa
by Gerald Vizenor
Crowell-Collier Press
York, New York Collier-Macmillan l>td., London
New
Copyright All rights reserved.
No
(c)
1972 Gerald Vizenor
book may be reproduced or in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the part of this
transmitted
Publisher.
The Macmillan C’ompany, S66 Third Avenue, C ollier-Macmillan
New York, N.Y. 10022 Canada Ltd. Toronto, Ontario ,
Library of Congress catalog card number: 70-189729 Printed
I
the United States of
3
4
5
6
7
8
America 9
10
he author wishes to thank Ted D.
Mahto for [yermission poem Uncle Tomahaw k and passa^ies from his novel Cry I
his
2
in
and William
J.
Lawrence for permission
to quote
from
to include in
the Night
his research
pape
“Legu/ Systems of the Red Lake Reservation. " I
he
e.\t facts
on pp.
1-4. >9-60, 62.
and 70 are from anishinabe
adisokan. Copyright© 1970 hy Gerald Vi:enor: those i>n pp. 7. 4.L >1. 6>. 109. and /.O (ory/o/n anishinabe nagamon. Copyright (c) I96> hy Gcndd Robert Vi:enor. Copyrii>ht 1970 by Gerald Vizenor.
©
Litle
pugc.'Ihe pictomyth shows the human heart, with varying lines for human feeling.
The author and publisher wish
to
acknowledge
the contribution of Stan Steiner in
making
this
book possible.
1
For the old anishiiuihe
who cannot
woman
read this book
because she speaks only the language of the people
on the White Earth Reservation
She
lives
still
naming the children
and staying beautiful on sacred herbs from the woodland
{ i
I
Foreword
In the
tribal past the families of the
language of the
woodland spoke of themselves as the anishinahe until they were named the ojibway and cliippewa. The osliki anishinahe ‘ciYQ the new people of the woodland. Before white contact the people used the collective name anishinahe in general reference to the human beings of the woodland
The
who spoke
the
same language.
name was not an abstract concept of identity. The family was the basic political
collective
national
woodland and the primary source of personal identity. Individuals were known by personal nicknames. The anishinahe referred to
and economic unit
unknown
families
the
in
who spoke
a dilferent
language as
— the foreigners or strangers.
the maia^is anishinahe
IX
lOREiWORI)
Today
X
—
amshinahe meaning the new people of the woodland are known to most of the world by the invented names ojihway and chippewa indians. The names ojihway and chippewa are not from the language of the woodland people of the past. oshki
the
—
In this
book the oshki anishinahe author refers
to
the people of the tribal past as the anishinahe and to the new people of the woodland of today as the oshki
anishinahe.
The
plural terminal
collective
names
form anishinaheg.
are used without the
Contents
Foreword
ix
Introduction
xiii
The Woodland Reservations The Four Ages of Man 1
10 2
ii
/
The Sacred Names Were Changed Something the White Man Named White School
5 14
27
3
I3aydreaming
4
Making
Reservation
43
5
Keeping the Family Together
5/
6
Dreams
65
7
The People Are Afraid
8
What
9
No One Little
1
xi
1
off the
in
the Fourth
Dimension of
the People Believe P]lse
in a
Change
SO
True
^5
Is
Can Represent My Conscience
More Phan an
Buried
Index
It
in a
Blue Suit
Inside d'oilet
109 116
I2S
137
5
y
ft
*
'‘if
f
‘i
*
*-**.
'
i' J**-
.
i
X’
»
•
,'.JV
14
V
4
*:
Introduction
Before you begin listening to the oshki anishinahe
book, please write a short definition of the word Indian. Your brief organization of thoughts about the word Indian will help you understand the speaking
in this
problems of identity among
burdened society.
with
Then
names as you
tribal
invented
who
people
by
are
dominant
the
read and listen to the oshki
— the new people of the woodland who bear invented names chippewa and ojihway— express-
anishinahe the
and dreams and fears, remember what you think the word indian means. If you have been a good listener you will change your definition perhaps ing their anger
—
you
will
erase the whole idea of the indian
in
the
mind XIII
INTRODUCTION
XIV
— respecting the unique cultural diversity of the
oshki
(inishinahe of today.
The author has
italicized tribal
names and anishin-
ahe words for emphasis. The phonetic spelling of anishinahe words the people did not have a written
—
— conforms
language
Dictionary
A
to the entries transcribed in
Otchipwe Language by Bishop Baraga, which was first published about a century ago. The italicizing of certain other words such as the invented names indian and chippewa and ojihway is intended to emphasize linguistic usage and ethnocenof the
—
—
tric
semantic blunders.
The anishinahe people in this book are alive today. They are young and old, angry and affectionate, committed and
selfish, but
they are not invented for
the pleasures of cultural hobbyists in the society.
not
The people
in this
book are
real
dominant people and do
the comfortable mythologies of the indian
fill
in
minds of white men.
Some is
readers
may
be sensitive to the author
anishinahe heritage
of
— using
pronoun they when referring to
use
the
first
the
person pronoun
we
person
third
to the people. in
It
— who
is
easier
passionate
speeches and ideologies, but in writing this book about what many oshki anishinahe have thought and said, the author
is
not always a passionate collaborator with
every point of view. The author prefers to use the
more objective pronoun they
to distinguish the
subjective feelings of the oshki anishinahe in this
book; the author
is
more
who speak
an oshki anishinahe listener.
INTRODUCTION
XV
The oshki anishinahe with comfortably use the
first
a college degree cannot
person pronoun we when
talking about high school dropouts, nor can an affluent
when
oshki anishinahe use the pronoun we
talking
about the poor living on colonial reservations. The we is reserved for personal collective experiences, the /
and they for the differences among the seems to me that the expectation of the
for biographies
people.
It
white dominant society to hear the pronoun we
The new people
racist attitude.
of the
is
a
woodland are
complex, and they have many different views and ideologies, but we share the secrets of the heart from the tribal past.
The author has been involved organizer
and
described
in
writer
this
in
many
as
a
incidents
passionate that
are
book. The material was organized
from past experience and reanimated from memory and taped interviews with people who have been actively involved in programs and organizations on
reservations and
in
“The Four Ages
the city.
of
Man” was
first
printed almost a
—
The Progress a weekly newspaper published on the While Earth Reservation. The tales of the anishinahe which were first published in The Progress have been edited with anishinahe words by century ago
in
the author of this
book and published under the
anishinahe adisokan
The author
—
title
tales of the people.
named and quoted in this book and to the oshki anishinahe who have given so much of themselves for a better life. The is
indebted to every person
IN
1
RODUC ION I
dreams, We will sing again people have not lost their of the anishinahe endurance the together and praise listening any dominant society can start spirit.
The
time now.
Gerald Vizenor
Walker, Minnesota
The Woodland Reservations
The
six reservations in the State of
Minnesota were
governestablished by nine treaties with the federal reserment. The Red Lake Reservation— the seventh vation
in
the state
—
is
original tribal land
which has
never been ceded to the federal government. Before the federal government created a democratic
system of government on the six reservations the families people were politically organized by large are with hereditary leaders. 1 oday the six leservations governed by an elected tribal business committee. I
wo
elected
members from each
reservation’s tribal
Chippewa business committee serve on the Minnesota XVII
THE WOODLAN[) RESERVATIONS Tribal Executive
Committee, which supervises
land and general business for
The
XVllI
White Earth
all
six reservations.
Reservation
northwestern part of the
tribal
is
located
in
the
Only 8 per cent of the original treaty land established by the federal government in 1867 is now owned by the oshki anishinabe. More than two thousand oshki anishinabe live on the state.
communities of Pine Point, Ponsford, White Earth Village and Naytahwaush, Minnereservation
in
the
sota.
Community
library at Pine Point on the White Earth Reservation
THE WOODLAND RESERVATIONS
XIX
The Leech Lake Reservation
located
is
in
the north
Only about 20 per cent of the now owned by the people. The
central part of the state. original treaty land
reservation
is
was established
ahe population
is
in 1855.
estimated
thousand. The people
be
to
live in the
The oshki close
anishin-
to
three
communities of Cass
Lake, Walker, Squaw Lake, Bena, Ball Club, Inger, Onigum, Federal Dam and Deer River, Minnesota.
Lacs Reservation is located in the central of the state. The reservation was established by
The part
Mille
treaty in
remove
1855 by those anishinahe
who
refused to
About six hundred communities of Onamia,
to the other reservations.
oshki anishinahe live
in
Garrison, Vineland and
the Isle,
Minnesota.
The Nett Lake Reservation
is
located
near the
Canadian border in the northern part of the state. About 40 per cent of the original treaty land established by the federal government in 1866 is now owned by the people. Less than six hundred oshki anishinahe live on the reservation and in the nearby communities
Lake and Tower, Minnesota. The Fond dn Lac Reservation is located about
of Vermilion
twenty miles west of Duluth, Minnesota. More than half of the original treaty land established in 1854
is
About seven hundred oshki anishinahe live on the reservation and in the communities of Cloquet and Sawyer, close to the reservation. ITe Grand Portage Reservation is located on the shores of Lake Superior in the northeastern corner of
now owned by
the people.
the state. Close to 80 per cent of the original treaty
land established by the federal
government
in
1854
is
THE WOODLAND RESERVATIONS
now owned by
XX
About two hundred oshki anisiunahe live on the reservation in the community of Grand Portage and about one hundred people live in the town of Grand Marais, Minnesota. The Red Lake Reservation is located in the northwestern part of the state. The land on the reservation the people.
— with the exception of Northwest Angle — to the
has never been ceded by treaty tribal land
holdings on the
federal government. Close to three thousand oshki
anishinahe
on the reservation
communities of Red Lake, Redby and Ponemah. About fifty years ago the people on the reservation were the first to organize under a written constitution by a council of live
in
the
The reservation is now governed by a council of eleven members elected by the people for four-year terms. The hereditary leaders still serve hereditary leaders.
in
an advisory capacity to the elected
tribal council.
Because the reservation land has never been ceded to the federal government the tribe has criminal and civil jurisdiction. There are tribal police officers and tribal courts on the reservation. The public school on the reservation
is
operated as an independent
the other six reservations under the
pewa
district.
On
Minnesota Chip-
Tribal Executive
Committee, oshki anishinahe students attend high school in white communities near each reservation.
More than Fwin Cities
ten thousand oshki anishinahe live in the
— Minneapolis
one thousand
live in
and
St.
in
— and
about
Duluth, Minnesota. White Earth,
Leech l.ake and Red l.ake are the by population
Paul
the state, but
largest reservations
many
oshki anishinahe
THE WOODLAND RESERVATIONS
XXI
point out that the largest reservation militants have argued this issue of
they have
demanded equal
The population when
is in
the city.
services and program funds
from federal agencies which have traditionally only served the people living on or near the reservation. While the reservation population has decreased the
amount
of funds
spent on the reservation has
in-
creased.
Very few oshki anishinahe live in small rural towns and cities in the state. When the author and the oshki anishinahe speaking in this book refer to “the city,” we mean the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. There are five reservations in the State of Wisconsin. The federal government signed treaties more than a century ago establishing the Bad River, Red Cliff, Lac du Flambeau, Lac Courte Oreille and Sokaogon-
Mole Lake reservations. The
tribal
and individually
allotted lands of the oshki anishinahe
on reservations
Wisconsin have been reduced
some areas by
in
in
more than half since the original treaties were signed. The Bad River Reservation in northern Wisconsin near Lake Superior is the largest reservation in the state. About four hundred oshki anishinahe live in Odanah, a small village on the reservation. The Red Cliff Reservation is located on the northernmost point of Wisconsin near the town of Bayfield across from Madeline Island on the shores of Lake Superior. About three hundred oshki anishinahe live
on the reservation and another one hundred people live off the reservation in nearby white communities.
The Lac da Flamhean Reservation
is
located
in
the
IHE
WOODLAND RESERVATIONS
XXII
northern part of the state. About nine hundred osliki anishinahe live on the reservation.
The
Laic Coiirte Oreille Reservation
is
located
in
the
northwestern part of the state near Hayward, Wisconsin.
About
reservation
eight in
hundred
the
osliki
anishinahe
live
on the
communities of Reserve and
New
Post, Wisconsin.
The Sokao^on-Mole Lake Reservation, of
all
the reservations in the state,
is
the smallest
located
in
its
northeastern portion. Less than two hundred osliki anishinahe live on the reservation in the community of
Mole Lake.
Traditional f>rave house dated with a license plate
The Everlasting Sky
«'
T I
I
i
The Four Ages of
Man
‘‘My grandson, the land which you intended to
visit is
many evil spirits and the followers of No one who has ever those who eat human t1esh. been within their power has ever been known to return. infested with
.
“First they
charm
.
their victims
their songs, then they strangle
your principal enemy has never been
will
.
.
would beseech you not
by the sweetness of
and devour them, but
be the ^reat gambler
beaten and
realm of darkness
.
who
therefore,
.
to
lives
my
who
beyond the grandson,
I
undertake so dangerous a
journey.”
And nuinahozlu)
listened to his grandmother.
the folk hero of the anishinahe ic\{ that he
But
was brave 1
THE EVERLASTING SKY
9
and should know no fear. The warning words of nokomiss, his grandmother, were unheeded.
Manahozho consulted animals and good
darkness.
.
.
and
spirits
owl would lend him
accompany him
with the different birds and it
was decided
eyes and the
his
would
the realms of
.
The path which manahozho was through
firefly
way through
to light the
that the
swamps and over
high
traveling led
him
mountains and by
yawning chasms where he saw the hideous stare of a thousand gleaming eyes and he heard the groans and hisses and yells of countless fiends gloating over .
their
many
that this
.
.
victims of sin and
was
the place
shame
.
and he knew
.
.
where the great gambler con-
many
signed the spirits of his
victims.
.
.
.
Approaching the entrance of the wigwam, manahozho raised the mat of scalps which served as the door and found himself in the presence of the great gambler.
He was
almost round
in
a curious-looking being
shape.
.
.
who seemed
.
manahozho, you, too, have come to try your luck, and you think am not a very expert gambler,” the great gambler said, reaching for his war club and chuckling a horrible sound of scorn and ridicule. '‘So
I
‘‘All
of these hands you see hanging around this
wigwam to
gamble, d’hey thought as
rhey played and those that
lost their lives.
seek no one to
‘‘I
I
who came here you are now thinking,
are the hands of your people
come and gamble
me but who would gamble their lives. Remember demand the lives of those who gamble with me .
.
with .
THE FOUR AGES OF MAN and
...
lose.
3
keep the scalps and ears and hands of the body is given to my friends the flesh The spirits of those who have lost their I
and the
rest
eaters.
.
lives
consign to the land of darkness,” the great
I
.
.
gambler said, still grinning with confidence. “Now have spoken and we will play.” The great gambler took in his hands the anishinabe dish game and said to manabozho: “Here are the four figures, the four ages of man, which I will shake in the I
dish four times, and
each time, then
I
am
if
they assume a standing position
the winner
.
.
.
should they
fall,
then you are the winner.”
Laughing, manabozho looked four ages of
man and
the realm of darkness,
the dish and the
at
told the great
“Very
well,
gambler beyond
we
will play.
But
customary for the party who is challenged to play any game to have the last play.” The great gambler consented while taking up the dish for the first time and striking it on the ground. The it
is
four figures were
all in
a standing position. This
was
repeated twice more by the great gambler and each time the four figures representing the four ages of fell in
man
a standing position.
The destiny of manabozho and the anishinabe people depended upon the one chance remaining. Should the four ages of man fall in the standing position manabozho would lose and the spirit of the anishinabe people would be consigned to the flesh eaters in the land of darkness.
When
the great
gambler prepared
to
make
the final
shake of the game manabozho dvQv^ near and when the
THE EVERLASTING SKY dish
came down
to
the ground
whistle on the wind and of
man
all
he
4
made
a teasing
four figures of the four ages
fell.
The anishinahe people had not land of darkness.
lost their spirit to the
When nianahozho
seized the dish
from the great gambler he said, “Now it and should win, you will lose your life. I
is
my .“
.
.
turn,
The Sacred Names Were Changed The
traditions
handed down from father
held very sacred
.
half
however
the white people,
have extended.
.
.
were of these are not known by
.
to son
far their researches
may
.
.
— George Copway,
missionary
,
1847
In the original tales of the people the sacred ini^is shell
of the anishinahe spirit rie,
which
ments the
is
— arose
inland
—a
shell
resembling the cow-
used to decorate ceremonial vest-
still
from the eastern sea and moved along
waters guiding the
people
sleeping sun of the woodland to
through the
— the
long
hawitig
rapids in the river.
— the
The anishinahe
original people of the
wood-
— believe they
were given wisdom and life color from the reflection of the sun on the sacred shell during this long migration. Five hundred years ago the land
migis shell appeared
moningwanekaning
in in
the sun for the last time at
anishinahe
— La
kitchigame
5
THE EVERLASTING SKY Pointe on Madeline Island
in
6
Lake Superior
— the great
sea of the anishinahe.
The people measured
life in
the circles of the sun
and moon and human heart. Trailing the summer shores of kitchigame to the hardwoods and maple
— wild
sugar
swamps and
many
families of the anishinahe returned each winter
stands of
moningwanekaning and
to
manomin
rice
summer
told stories of the
past. In the
seventeenth century the
first
voyageurs and
missionaries of the Old World established a fur-trading post on the island near the sacred
people. While showing the
how
New
community of the World discoverers
endure the long woodland winters, less than half of the anishinahe survived the first pestilence of to
man
the white
More than and
legislator
— a severe smallpox epidemic. a century ago the anishinahe historian
William Warren described
in his
History
of the Ojihways a copper plate with incised marks
showing three anishinahe generations living on the island before the voyageurs arrived. Warren wrote that he had viewed the copper historical record of the people
in
the middle of the nineteenth century, by
which time it had eight incised marks. Warren estimated each generation to be forty years. d he expanding interests of the predatory fur trade in the
woodland
demand
— spurred by the Old World bourgeois hats — drew the anishinahe other
for fell
to
fur-trading posts families
with
among
beaver
the dakota and other tribal peltry
and
other
hides
in
exchange for firearms and diluted intoxicants. The
THE SACRED NAMES WERE CHANGED cmishinahe C'dmQ
in conflict
tribal families of the
7
with the dcikota and other
woodland.
With rifles the anisliinahe easily defeated the woodland dakota and drove them from the rich wild-rice lands
in
northern Minnesota. The anishinabe sang this
song about the wounded dakota men
—a
song of
woodland peace: moving forward and back from the woodland to the prairie dakota women weeping as they gather their
the
The
trade
fur
between the
wounded men
sound of their weeping comes back to us
economic anomaly rhythm of woodland life and the
interposed an
intuitive
equipoise of the anishinabe
spirit.
were reluming the human unity of
While the people tribal
life,
thou-
sands of white settlers took their land under new laws
and enslaved the anishinabe
in
the fury of discovery.
woodland was broken by the marching cadence of Christian patriotism. The anishinabe orators of the nian^ odem, the loon family, the
The rhythm
of the
legions of the niakwa odeni, the bear family, and the
people of the amik odeni, the beaver family, were colonized and mythologized and alienated from their
woodland
life
and religion while the voices of the
conquering crusaders freedom.
in
the
New World
rang with
Ihe woodland identity of the people was
homogenized
in
patent
histories,
and the religious
THE EVERl. ASTING SKY songs of the anishhiahe were
8
by nervy
Latinized
missionaries.
The anishinabe
lost their
land and were renamed. In
government the people were given the invented names chippewa and ojibway. More than a century ago Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, a nine treaties with the federal
I
named
student of geology and mineralogy,
abe
the cinishin-
— the original people of the woodland — the ojibwa.
The meaning
of the invented
name
is
not clear
in
the
anishinabe language, but Schoolcraft reasoned that
meaning of the word ojibwa described the peculiar nasal sound of the anishinabe voice. George Copway, the anishinabe missionary among
the root
own
his
people, explained that the anishinabe were
ojibway because of the moccasins they wore, which were “gathered on the top from the tip of
called the
the toe, and at the ankle."
book The Traditional History and CharacterSketches of the Ojibway Nation, published in
In his istic
London
in
1850,
Copway wrote
that “.
.
indians wore this style of footgear, and
account of
this
peculiarity
they
that
ojibway, the signification of which
is
no other
.
was on
it
were
called
gathering."
William Warren takes exception to both definitions of the word ojibway. In his History of the Ojibway Nation, Warren, who was the first person of anishinabe iincesUy to serve in the Minnesota State Legislature,
wrote the following about the invented names:
"d^he word
abew np.
.
— to .
.
is
roast
—
composed of and it means
— pucker
ojib
to roast
till
up
— and
puckered
THE SACRED NAMES WERE CHANGED ‘‘It is
well authenticated by their traditions, and by
writings
the
9
of
early
their
discoverers,
white
that
made use of the firearm and other European weapons of war, instead of their primitive bow and arrow and war-club, before they became acquainted with, and
wars with other tribes were less deadly, and they were more accustomed to secure captives, whom under the uncontrolled feeling incited by aggravated
their
wrong, and revenge for similar by fire in various ways.
“The name
ahwena^
of
ways have given
to the
— roasters — which the
dakota
roasting their captives, and
ojihwa
— to
roast
same manner. “The name spelt,
.
.
till
injuries, they tortured
it
is
.
.
.
originated in their
as likely that the
puckered up
ojih-
— originated
word
in
the
.
commonly
of the tribe has been most
chippeway, and
treaties with them,
is
and
thus laid
down
officially
used by
ment.” Warren was born on
Madeline
different
in
o//r
Island
Governin
Lake
Superior before reservations were established. He may have been rejecting his anishinahe identity by
emphasizing the fantasies of savagery and cannibalism
minds of many white people a century ago. He had left the woodland family of his birth, and like many oshki anishinahe of today, he succeeded in the dominant society. His success changed the view of
common
his
own
in
the
past and the past of the anishinahe.
In a different
chapter of his book, Warren explains
without derogatory cultural fantasies that the invented
name
of the tribe
“does not date
far back.
As
a race or
THE EVERLASTING SKY
10
they denominate themselves anishin-
distinct people
ahe." Schoolcraft,
became an
who
official
married an anishinahe
Indian agent for the government,
not only invented the the
many
womnn and
name
ojihwa, but he categorized
woodland as the algictribes. He invented the word al^ic from the word algonqnin, which was a name invented earlier by the French to identify a different woodland tribe they had discovered. The word algonquin is still used to families of the people living in the
describe several tribes of the people
who speak
a
similar language.
The
story
is
told that the
word ojihwa invented by
Schoolcraft was misunderstood by a traveling federal bureaucrat who heard chippewa for ojihwa. Once
recorded
between the anishinahe and the federal government, the invented name was a in
the treaties
matter of law.
The anishinahe must still wear the invented names. The tragedy is that today many young oshki anishinahe do not know the difference between the names.
Some
believe they are the chippew'a, or the ojihw'ay.
Almost
a century
ago Bishop Baraga published the
dictionary of the anishinahe language. Baraga, while living on Madeline Island, interpreted anishinafirst
hemow'in
— the
language of the anishinahe
— according
Old World Latin linguistic structures. The dictionary is one of the few records to understand the to
words of the
anishinahe did not have a written language, d he anishinahe past was a visual past.
I'he
THE SACRED NAMES WERE CHANGED
memory and and
oratorical gesture of
tales incised as
II
dreams and songs
pictomyths on birch bark
The following anishinahe words with quoted from Baraga’s
scrolls.
definitions are
Dictionary of the Otchipwe
Language to show the confusion caused by invented names for the people:
the
— the personal pronoun anishinahemowin ojihiwa — write or mark on some object ojihiigan — writing, writ, document odishkwagami— algonquin indian otchipwe— Chippewa indian otchipwemowin — the chippewa language anishinahe— human being, man, woman or child anishinahemowin — the indian language anishinahe ijitwawin — indian pagan religion nind anishinaheni — speak indian nind anishinahew— am a human being, also, am nine!
in
nine!
I
I
I
1
an indian
otchipwemowin as the chippewa language and anishinahemowin as the indian language and he defines indian as anishinahe. There is of course Baraga defines
no such language as the indian language because the
word indian was
also invented, homogenizing
more
than three hundred distinct tribal cultures.
Today
the
people named the odjihwa,
ojihway, chippewa, chippeway and indian
themselves anishinahe.
in
otchipwe,
still
speak of
the language of their religion as the
THE EVERl. ASTING SKY Not only have many the
12
names been invented, but personal descriptive names of the people have tribal
been changed and translated without meaning. In the past an anishinahe child was given a sacred name by a
member of the family. The sacred name was not the last name of the family but a unique spiritual name known from a dream or vision. The descriptive names close
translated by missionaries and
government officials were translations of nicknames. The actual anishinahe sacred names were not revealed to strangers and were seldom translated. Only two generations ago the anishinahe were systematically
forbidden to
speak their language and
practice their religion. White people in the dominant
society thought that tribal people were pagan primitives
who must
removed from
be changed. Anishinahe chWdrQn were
and placed in federal boarding schools where they were physically punished for speaking the language of their heart the language their families
—
woodland identity. Today few young people speak the anishinahe language. The culture of the anishinahe past has been homogenized by the dominant society for use in patent of their
educational curriculum
units.
oshki anishinahe children are
In
classrooms today
summoned
to be
proud
of their invented indian and chippewa heritage.
When
a
young oshki anishinahe
is
expected to know several
thousand years of his history only in the superior language and superior cultural values of the dominant society his identity is a dangerous burden.
THE SACRED NAMES WERE CHANGED
The
cultural
and
political histories of the
13
anishinahe
were written in the language of those who invented the Indian, renamed the tribes, allotted the land, divided ancestry by geometric degrees the federal government identifies the anishinahe by degrees of indian blood and categorized identity by the geography of colonial reservations. The inventions of the dominant
—
—
society have
people.
nothing to do with the heart of the
2 Something the White Man Named The name does not date people
r/?ey
— William and
far back.
As
a race or distinct
denominate themselves anishinabe.
.
.
.
Warren, anishinabe historian
legislator, 1852
Dressed
buckskin vest and beaded necklace, Harold Goodsky, the oshki anishinabe probation officer, in
leaned back
in his
top of his desk.
It
swivel chair with his feet crossed on
was
week and he was home on the Nett
the end of the
thinking about driving north to his
Lake Reservation.
He picked up The
city
pen and tapped on a pad of paper. was hot and oppressive and he wanted to tell his
stories in the anishinabe language
and laugh with
his
family and friends on the reservation.
He tapped the
denting the paper, and thought
home alone sun came up.
about driving
when
his pen,
to be there in the
morning
14
SOMETHING THE WHITE MAN NAMED
The sound
of honking horns from the cars
rush-hour
in
15
on the streets outside reached
traffic
On
courthouse.
office in the
crowded his
the reservation the air
would be clean and he could think about himself again.
He
pitched forward
dropping
in his chair,
his feet to
the floor, and started writing Indian, Indian, indian
my
‘T sat at
over again
myself
.
said
wrote
“I
later.
indian, indian, indian
.
.
.
.
desk one day and wrote the word
Goodsky
indian,^'
.
— why, how,
what does
it
.
mean
it
.
.
.
.
over and
and
asked
I
.
“I just sat there writing indian, indian, indian, over
and over again.
know what sitting
week
I
was
I
really befuddled.
was thinking about
on the front steps of
all
his
...
I
don’t
the time,” he said,
apartment
after he returned to the city
at
dusk a
from the reserva-
tion.
—
‘‘Who am I?” he asked himself, ‘‘ something the was chained in a white man named and made up dream and thought about us all being named by a psychopath like Columbus. “But couldn’t be me without my color,” he said, holding his hands up and turning them over and over. don’t “I would be nobody without my color. ... I
.
.
.
I
I
know about
name indian, don’t know but know have my color.”
the
about history,
Goodsky has language,
but
experience.
1
1
being an
and speaks the anishinabe indian
The dominant
culture, l^eing an indian
much
I
his color
homogenized history of
that
society
tribal is
a
a
is
very has
complex created
a
people for a television
heavy burden
anishinabe because white people
to the oshki
know more about
THE EVERLASTING SKY
16
the ifulian they invented than anyone.
The experts and
cultural hobbyists never miss a
the
scraps
of
chance
romantic history
travelers through the indicin
dropped by white
country centuries ago.
White people are forever projecting perfect
to authenticate
dreams of a through the invention of the Indian and their
—
life
then they expect an oshki anishinahe to not only
fulfill
the invention but to authenticate third-hand information
about the
expects
tribal
oshki
the
histories written
past.
The dominant society
anishinahe to
know about
the
by white people, while few white
people are familiar with the material written by the
What
anishinahe.
seldom
slips
the anishinahe has told of the past
through the pale template of homogen-
ized history.
For example, the organization identified as Indian
Guides
names
is
a
like
group of fathers and sons
who
take indian
lau^hin^ water, and running deer, and
little
hear and hig hear, and wear imitation feathers and
headbands and felt vests with monogrammed tribal names. All this imitating is for the stated purpose of bringing father and son closer together. d'he group responded to criticism from several oshki anishinahe leaders by inviting the indians to join Indian Guides, thus proving they were not discriminating against a minority group. I
he
names
of
many
lakes, animals, foods
rivers,
towns, mountains,
hills,
and private companies are words
bt)rrowed from the invented indian language and from the anishinahe language. Everywhere the oshki ani-
shinahe are aware of the invented naines
— chippewa
SOMETHING THE WHITE MAN NAMED falls
.
indian
.
.
chippewa springs and are summoned by white people
Indian chief inhaler
summer
—
17
.
.
.
.
.
.
many indian things are being shared by everyone. The oshki anishinahe ask that the to
be proud that so
dominant society share the burdens of poverty and high infant mortality and a shorter life expectancy
when
will
people
white
stop
playing
indian
long
enough to share the responsibilities of real people? White students at a small college in the southern part of the State of Minnesota were asked to define the word indian before two oshki anishinahe speakers were to discuss the programs of the people. The following are typical definitions offered by the students: Indian
They
is
a cultural nationality.
are a race with a distinct culture.
Real Americans.
Redskins.
A member Indian
means
A human Indian
is
Indian
is
A
of the mongolian race. friend.
being. a person.
an ethnic group.
wild savage.
Indian
means man.
The white students in the audience admitted that they often use the word indian in speaking or writing but the word meant something different to each person. Only two students of about five hundred who responded defined an indian as a native of India. Two students were aware that, through a navigational
THE EVERl. ASTING SKY
18
more than three hundred distinct tribal cultures on this continent were homogenized by mistake as the indians. Many of those white students who were in the error,
now
audience that day are
teaching school.
them may have oshki anishinahe children
Some
of
their
in
classrooms.
The oshki anishinahe high school students attending the Youth Leadership Training Program at Bemidji State College several years ago were asked to write
anonymously about what it means to be an indian. Four students from four different reservations in the state
wrote the following:
STUDENT FROM THE NETT LAKE RESERVATION I
think the chippewa indian
slowly dying. Right
is
now
there are plenty of indians in the United States but very
few full-blooded ojihways.
number
In
Minnesota there
is
of indians but also the fact that they're of
now
a large
mixed
modern indian has very many opportunities, the same as a white man. There are some that work their way up to a high position at their place of income and in the community. Yet there are others who don’t seem to care. blood.
Right
the
.
.
.
STUDENI FROM THE LEECH I
think the indians are great
have a little French blood supposed to be great lovers. are great lovers.
And
AKE RESERVATION lovers. ... A lot of indians them. The French are
in .
.
L
.
Maybe
that
is
why
they don't like to be seen making
love because they are not as proud as they used to be.
SrUDI N
I
they
.
.
.
FROM THE FOND DU LAC RESERVA ION I
difference between the indians and other people. 1'he indians have a little darker skin and I
think there
is
a
little
SOMETHING THE WHITE MAN NAMED some
19
Some
are smarter than the rest.
Indians by their outward appearance.
people judge the
They don’t know
what’s going on inside. The Indians also are very shy, and some talk right out when they are spoken to. Some
have a very bad temper, when they are joked around with they get mad and blow up. With others they take it as a
was meant to type whenever they see
joke as
make
it
a hit.
One
The indian girls are cute boy. They giggle
be.
the love
a
or try to
thing about being an indian, you have to
take things as they come, like
when other people
talk
about you, you just don’t blame them because they don’t
know what
they’re talking about.
.
.
.
STUDENT FROM THE WHITE EARTH RESERVATION Almost all of my heritage is European, about one fourth is indian. Of my four nationalities, French, English, Irish am most proud of my indian heritage. and indian, I
There are a
lot
of indians
their indian heritage, but
about
it,
why
I
if
know who you
really
are
ashamed of
stop and think
should they? They probably feel that their
ancestors were very barbaric but they were very artistic people.
.
.
.
The oshki anishinahe different religions,
are
many
colors and
many
and they have black eyes and blue
eyes, blond hair and straight black hair, and they live
on and
off the
reservation,
in
small towns, remote
communities and in the city. The new people of the woodland have intermarried with the French for more than two hundred years and with the Finnish, German, Swedish, English, Irish and Norwegian people who have settled in the state. In oshki anishinahe
—
—
humor those people with Finnish blood are identified as the findian tribe. Whatever the color of the skin and
THE EVERLASTING SKY the politics, the oshki anishinahe
complex
20
come
together with
and speak of themselves as
cultural diversity
being of one tribe. In politics the oshki anishinahe sltq conservative liberal, radical
and moderate, and
a
and
few people hang
in
the middle and are identified as the hang-aronnd-thefort indians.
A
small
number
of oshki anishinahe dismiss the
pagan and idolatrous
tribal past as a
life
and identify as
a special indian Christian in the organization of the
American Indian Evangelical Church. On the cover of a weekly church program
is
the
picture of Iver Grover, oshki anishinahe minister of the indian church, smiling in headdress and buckskin shirt
with an open Bible
in his
The Reverend Mr. Grover
hand. testimonial tells the
in a
few people attending his church each Sunday morning that he ‘Took part in all the religious ceremonies of my indian people
— the
and berries ... I had a sack full of idolatrous objects which reverenced skins of animals and birds and carved wooden images. For all those years followed this form of false worship faithfully. feast offerings of wild
rice
—
I
I
.
“Since ness for
my
conversion,
Him and
own people
— the
to
God
.
.
has called
win souls for Christ
indian American.
1
me to witamong my
preach
in
chip-
.“ pewa and Emglish. Most oshki anishinahe identify as Christians and belong in large numbers to the Episcopalian and Catholic churches, and some in fewer numbers attend .
other
Protestant
.
churches
in
the
city
and on the
SOMETHING THE WHITE MAN NAMED
21
Very few oshki anishinahe speak the anishinabe language or practice herbal medicine, and few understand the midewiwin the original spiritual life of the people but most oshki anishinahe would like to know about herbal medicine and the religion of reservation.
—
—
the tribal past.
Every year there are more and more special programs for young oshki anishinahe to learn the songs and dream language of the past. For example, the Minnesota State Department of Education offered a
summer anishinahe language camp where
oshki anish-
inahe children were taught language, culture, arts and
drumming and dancing by
crafts, singing,
the
tribe.
The
spiritual
links
with
the elders of
the
were
past
resumed.
The kiowa
who won of
Dawn,
tribal
the Pulitzer Prize for his novel told a
people
Momaday, House Made
novelist and teacher N. Scott
group of oshki anishinahe and other
at a
conference on education that
indian has been for a long time generalized
‘‘the
in
the
imagination of the white man. Denied the acknowledg-
ment of individuality and change, he has been made to become in theory what he could not become in fact, a synthesis of himself.
“Now American
this
is
indian
.
.
.
what but
conversely a Navajo.
mean: the Navajo
I
the
He
is
is
American indian
is
rather to the public
an not
mind
two hundred years in who was removed time and the way of civilization again by force and who was given in defeat that compensation which we call savage nobility. that lowly specter that stood for
—
.
.
.
THE EVERLASTING SKY “The relationship between was in a sense doomed from
22
the white
man and
the red
the onset by a conflict of
attitudes and the disposition of intolerance
.
.
.
the
persistent attempt to generalize the Indian has resulted
and a nomenclature of half-truths. A young oshki anishinahe coW^gQ student climbs off his motorcycle in front of the Minneapolis Institute of a delusion
in
Arts.
He has
.
long black hair and
is
dressed
in a
.
beaded
buckskin vest and an imitation bear-claw necklace. He is tall and husky and smiles most of his waking hours.
Ponemah on the Red Lake Reservation, he was three years old when his family moved to the city. He graduated from a public school in the city. He has dark eyes and dark skin and knows nothing about Born
at
anishinahe rcWgion and does not speak the language of the tribal past. Stretched out on a couch with his legs crossed over the arm, and smiling, he answers the following questions:
Do yon
htdieve in anishinabe medicine?
Never heard of
Lm
it.
I
was
not the only one
who
What is your religion? You could call me sort Would you
like to
Yes, sometimes
raised
among
the whites
.
.
.
and
was.
of an atheist.
know more about
the past?
uncomfortable and dumb, especially around people like you who ask questions can’t answer. 1
feel
1
What I
an indian? have no problems when is
I
come upon an
itidian.
SOMETHING THE WHITE MAN NAMED
How
do you know someone
who
Talking to someone
who can
talk
is
23
an Indian?
says he’s an indicin, someone
about Indian problems.
How
do people know yon are an Indian? Well, first of all no one ever looks at me as an indian. They say I’m Mexican or Italian, and tell them, no. I’m an indian, and they say, really, and say, yes. I
I
How I
do you dejine an indian? don’t define it, don’t feel a need
to define an indian.
I
Do you
speak the indian language? No, but did once. I
Do you want I’d like to
to
have
know about it
now,
I
the past?
carry part of
it,
but in today’s
you know the old folks on the reservation seldom communicate to the kids about the system I’m
in
step
.
.
.
past.
What
the
is
most serious problem
face? Unity and knowing
who
“white” other Indians
they are
are,
.
.
.
.
.
finding out
how
means to live on knowing who you can
and what
a reservation or in the city, or trust.
the oshki anishinabe
it
.
Why did
My
you decide to go to college? mother decided for me.
Why do
so /nu/iy anishinabe
men marry
white
women?
what kind of indian marries a white woman. Has the indian been raised on a reservathey would have to be around white tion or in the city people a lot to marry a white woman ... a lot of people First
you have
to figure out
—
say a person
who
marries a white
is
not an indian, but
it
THE EVERLASTING SKY
24
should be what you feel, love, and not have anything to do with being indian.
can education he improved? Both whites and indians have to learn about the indian. What good would it do for just the indian kid to learn about what happened to him in the past if the white kid H(n\'
know about
don’t
Ervin Sargent
it?
is
new coordinator
the
of the pro-
posed Urban American indian Center in the city. He was born on the White Earth Reservation and attended college for three years. He said more people are identifying as osliki anishinahe today because
become
my
'‘In
when
who is
good thing
a
to be this
has
decade.
we slumped down
generation
it
in
our seats
word indian was mentioned," said Sargent, married and the father of two children. His wife
the
is
oshki anishinahe. "I think
in
the next generation the
be more aware of the angles of identity and the invented things about being indian
young people
in
will
the white society.
"ITe
indians
who
.
.
.
identify the strongest today are
having trouble dealing with their identity when they marry white," he said, sitting in his otfice, “so they
make tions.
special .
.
rules
of
identity
in
their
organiza-
.
“Some
indians
who
don't have the pigment are
recognized as indian by their names.
“But
the
identity
thing
is
hard to understand,"
Sargent said, wrinkling his brow and tolding his hands neatly. “Some white men know more about being
SOMETHING THE WHITE MAN NAMED indiau than
25
do, because they have spent a long time talking to the old people. I
.
.
Kent Smith was born on the White Earth Reservation and grew up in the town of Cass Lake on the Leech Lake Reservation. He is a soft-spoken sculptor and
fine arts
graduate from the University of Minnesota. His mother is white and his father is oshki anishinahe and an ordained minister. Smith said in high school he thought of himself as an oshki anishinahe person only in the sense of cultural and social
deprivation. ‘'I
haven’t been told
was very family,
much about
the past
.
.
.
there
discussion about indian culture in our he said, standing by his metal sculpture in his little
studio. ‘‘One
day
I
came home from school and found
this indian outfit
was going
to
I
and started thinking about my culture. have never really had to be an indian because
old then I
on the wall and learned that my father be in a parade ... was fourteen years
1
I
wasn’t brought up to be an indian ... was not brought up with a cultural awareness of the past, paitly because was never exposed to powwows I
I
and indian social events.
‘Trying
to be an
whole thing
.
.
.
indian to
me now would
— the language and moving back
be the
to live
on
the reservation as an indian," he said, almost whisper-
“the other level of being an indian would be to involve myself in the whole urban political and social ing;
thing.
.
.
White people seem
to
know more about what
it
THE EVERLASTING SKY means
26
be an indian than the osliki anislunahe do because they have read the invented and standardized to
mythologies about the homogenized culture of the people. Most books that white people read about the indian are written by white people. When an oshki anishinahe gOQS to the library to learn about his past he finds that his past
was interpreted by white
historians
and anthropologists. An interpretation of the past without dreams.
The
tribal
that at the
people
in this
nation have never forgotten
same time they were forbidden
their language
and express
to
speak
their religion while living in
poverty on colonial reservations, the federal government was subsidizing anthropologists and sociologists to study the people on the reservation and record what
was being lost. “Being an indian is being related to the people,” said Lee Cook, who was born on the Red Lake Reservation. ”It is the beautiful freedom to go back to the reservation
— to the peace that
is
really mine.
3 Daydreaming in a White School He
has noble impulses, and possesses
in a
high
degree the finer feelings and affections, and there
is
no lack of evidence that he can be elevated and highly civilized.
.
.
.
— George Manypenny, commissioner of Indian
affairs,
1855
I'he footsteps of the oshki anishinabe
women
brushed
through the new snow past the black funeral hearse waiting to carry the body of a fifteen-year-old oshki
anishinabe
g\r\ to
her grave on the reservation.
She had committed suicide. rhe door to the church opened and closed, raising and lowering the mournful sound of the oshki anishinabe \^omcn wailing for the souls of
all
the anishinabe
dead. I'he
l\)int
day before the funeral the principal of the ifine elementary school on the White Earth reserva-
tion dismissed classes early in
who had ended
her
honor of the young
girl
life.
27
THE EVERl. ASTING SKY
28
She had attended the reservation school through the seventh grade with other oshki anishinahe students from the community and then transferred to the high school in the white community off the reservation.
She had been frequently absent from the white school and might have dropped out if she had been old enough. Her friends and the white school counselors said she could not adjust to the alienation
and cultural
anxieties of attending a white school while living on the reservation.
More than
half of the oshki anishinahe siudcnis
transfer from the
all
anishinahe school
at
who
Pine Point to
the white public high school in Park Rapids, Minnesota, drop out before they graduate. The few
oshki
anishinahe
who have graduated from
have
memories.
bitter
Paulette Fairbanks,
the white school
who
attended the Pine Point school on the reservation and then transferred to the high school in Park Rapids where she graduated with honors, said the most difficult transition she has ever
made
her
in
life
was when she transferred from the
reservation school to the white school.
‘The
transfer to college
ette said,
Rapids. students
.
.
was
easier for
me,"
Paul-
"than the transfer from Pine Point to Park It’s the other way around with most white .
— they
have problems when they transfer to
college."
After graduation from college, Paulette returned to the reservation to work with young oshki anishinahe students
who would
high school.
transfer as she did to the white
DAYDREAMING
WHITE SCHOOL
IN A
29
Jerome Buckanaga, who also attended the reservation school and the white high school, returned to the reservation as principal of the Pine Point elementary
He
school.
said he will never forget his feelings of
alienation in the white school.
was scared when
“I said,
when
'‘but
around
I
I
the
to
Park Rapids,” he
me
white kids kept pushing
fought back, and
“After that they
went
first
fought hard.
I
me
left
.
.
.
alone for the entire five
was there ... told myself that was an Indian and could do it better than the white, so worked harder than they did, put the screws on. could compete with the white students because was better than they were. Because was better in years
I
I
I
I
I
I
.
I
.
.
I
.
.
sports they finally accepted
I
.
me and
me
pulled
them.” Buckanaga is a soft-spoken idealist who acts more than he talks. He is married oshki anishinahe and has four children.
—
—
in
listens
with
and
his wife
is
At the Park Rapids high school Buckanaga competed
in
basketball, baseball, football and track and
reigned as
homecoming king one
competitive boxer and
is
still
year.
He was
involved
in
a
also a
boxing
program on the reservation. His father worked as a handyman and laborer in the woods. Jerome followed two older brothers to college. ”I
came back
to the reservation
change things,” he
because
1
wanted
to
said, sitting in the small library of
where he was a student. “This want o/ir people to look good here
the elementary school o///'
is .
.
.
I
school and
want
this
I
school to be an expression of the
THE
E V E R
1.
A
S
T
I
NG
SKY
30
change and social conscience of the people. “When went to school here all the teachers and the principal were white and their attitudes weren’t much .
.
.
I
better than
teachers off the reservation,” he
cradling his knee
in his
folded hands.
”We
be an indian school with indian teachers
environment so the students
when they
will
want in
know who
transfer to white schools.
said, this to
an Indian they are
.” .
.
Twenty-five years ago only eight oshki anishinahe students graduated from high school in the entire
About three hundred oshki anishinahe young people graduate from high school now, but still more
state.
than half of the estimated ten thousand oshki anishinahe students in public schools on the reservation and in
the city leave school before graduating.
With the exception of the public high school on the Red Lake Reservation, students living on six different reservations
in
the state attend high school in white
communities near the reservation, which means they are bussed to school from small oshki anishinahe communities. Not only are the oshki anishinahe alienated as minority people in racist educational institutions, but they are unable to participate in school and
community
activities after school hours. Their school
day begins and ends on a school bus moving between the reservation and the dominant society. I
he oshki anishinahe students living
similar
problems of alienation.
anishinahe siudcnis
in
in
the city face
A
survey of oshki the Minneapolis public schools
conducted by the League of
Women
Voters found that
DAYDREAMING
A WHITE SCHOOL
IN
31
hundred oshki anishinahe students only ten had graduated. Their dropout rate in the city is over 60 per cent. The overall dropout rate
of a population of thirteen
— including the oshki anishinthe per cent — one of the lowest rates
for students in the state
—
abe
only 8
is
in
nation. In an editorial in the
Minneapolis Tribune the writer
asked the white readers how they would react if more than half of their children were leaving school before they graduated.
.
The question happening
is
.
appropriate because that
to inclian students in this state.
sixty percent
enough
.
to get a high school diploma.
get the public attention .
.
just
From
it
.
is
.
half to
now beginning
leadership on what
today
is
in
the state.
among
rate
if
assume
one of the most serious challenges .
.
.
The dominant society would never accept dropout
to
should have received long ago
but studies and criticism will accomplish nothing
to education
is
.
public officials at the local and state level do not
a
what
and more of the students don’t stay long
.The scandal of indian education
.
is
white
students
that high
but
public
concern for the oshki anishinahe student was minimal until
college-educated oshki anishinahe returned to the
reservation and
demanded changes
in the
educational
system.
Few
oshki anishinahe students
parents
even
in
who have graduated from
fewer
have
parents
or
school today have high school and
relatives
who have
attended college. In the
past the anishinahe were forced to attend
THE EVERLASTING SKY federal reservation boarding schools
32
away from home
where suppression of anishinahe cuhurQ and language and religion was the basic formula of education. Speaking the anishinahe language at a boarding school was forbidden, and young people were punished if they forgot and uttered a word of their language of songs and dreams. Federal agents on the reservation
separated children from their parents
in
an effort to
remove them from the pa^an influences of woodland life and religion. The people were alienated from the dominant society now emulates. The people have never forgotten the experiences of corporal punishment and manual labor at boarding very
life
style the
schools.
Alexander Ramsey, an honorable white man in the history of the state a century ago, wrote the following about the anishinahe in this annual report on educa‘^Experience thus far confirms the opinion of
tion:
most practical men in the indian country, that education and agricultural efforts can only hope for useful results
when
treaties .
.
.
withdraw
.
indians are
removed
in
pursuance of
.
and when manual-labor schools that their
children
nearly
entirely
from
will
their
domestic intUience, are exclusively established, under economical management, amongst them, to educate their rising generation in the arts,
conveniences, and
habits of civilization.” I
he “habits of civilization” have resulted
in
the
education of young white liberals from isolated middle-class environments with buckled minds to teach
DAYDREAMING
WHITE SCHOOL
IN A
how
oshki anishinahe children
Few
past.
to
33
be proud of their
oshki anishinahe students can speak the
now
language of their grandparents and must personal security taught
the
in
the distorted
in
white
classrooms
historical
of
the
find a
values
dominant
society.
Three generations after Alexander Ramsey reflected on a racist solution to the indian problem, an oshki anishinahe girl quit school and left the reservation to live in the city.
“Before
I
moved here,"
she said, sitting
in
her
apartment shared with another oshki anishinahe girl who had quit school, “I didn’t look at myself as an indian, but not as a white either.
there were not too
They were not think they were
Where
I
lived before,
many people who cared
for indians.
really abusive, but they didn’t
human.
.
.
seem
.
“In school,’’ she said nervously, “the kids put
down, made me feel thing to be ashamed
You
to
that being an indian
me
was some-
Then got to know indians. ease with them you feel there is nothing of.
I
—
feel at
wrong with being an
//k//un.
.’’ .
.
Several years ago a presidential task force investigating education reported that public schools
dominant society “do not view
in
the
their task as that of
helping indian children adjust to changes within their
own to
culture, but to help
them.
them adjust
to a culture alien
.’’ .
.
produces an emotional stress forcing an oshki anishinahe student to choose between contradictory d his
sets of
values and attitudes which, the task force
THE
E V H R
1.
A
S
T
I
NG
SKY
34
found, ‘‘contributes to serious mental health problems, high dropout rates and unsatisfactory achieve-
ment levels. The people have endured for a long time and they have remembered, and now they have the leaders who .
will
.
carry out the
demands
of the people for justice
and reparations. Will
Antell,
director of Indian education
for the
Minnesota Department of Education, testified before the Senate Subcommittee on Indian education about the programs and problems of anishinahe education in the
state.
He explained
that
one
priority
of
the
Department of Education was to visit reservation communities and ask the people for the first time what they wanted changed in public education.
was born in a two-room log and tar-paper shack on the White Earth Reservation. He attended reservation elementary schools and graduated from high school in Bagley, Minnesota. Graduating from Bemidji State College, Antell went on to complete his graduate work at Mankato State College in Minnesota, l^efore joining the Department of Education he taught Antell
for nine years in public schools in white
communities.
After traveling on every reservation talking to
came “
in
the state
oshki anishinahe parents, Antell said he
to four general conclusions:
I’he
fidence
majority of indians have in
lost
respect or con-
the public schools and turning that
around
the schools have lost confidence in the people.
“Secondly there was
.
.
.
a distinct dissatisfaction with
the curriculum in the public schools, in the fact that
Harold Goodsky, thinking about the word indian Ted Mahto, poet and college teacher
Henry Boiicha
Kent Smith
Bonnie Wallace, university student and photographer
Jerome Buckanaga, elected
tribal official
and educator
Will Antell, educator born in a tar-paper shack on the White Earth Reservation
O Q.
John
Ka Ka Gee sick san^
death son^s
in a
his
nursing home.
DAYDREAMING
WHITE SCHOOL
IN A
35
materials have depicted the people in an unfavorable light
.
.
the real story of our heritage
.
told in the classroom.
.
.
was not being
“The parents thought
.
that the institutions
prepare teachers for teaching Indian children institutions
would not place teachers
in
do not .
.
.
the
Indian schools
for practice training.
“And
found was that there was a between the Indian people and the
the last thing
conflict in life style
dominant
social
public school
was
group
I
located.
community where
the
in
the
.“ .
.
community should run the people want is what he will work
Antell believes that the
schools, and what the
The people expressed
to obtain.
dissatisfaction with
obtained
library materials in the schools, so Antell
funds to establish an
federal
librarians to study
school
for
institute
and evaluate materials about the
anishinahe, past and present.
Another program Antell is supervising is an educational administration program in the graduate school at
The one-year academic
the University of Minnesota.
program
will
prepare oshki anishinahe college gradu-
ates and teachers to take positions of bility in
more responsi-
public school administration.
“When my mother I
talked to the parents
it
was
like listening to
twenty years ago,” Antell reminisced with
bitterness in his voice. “I can
remember times when
we would come home from school and ask mother why others kids called us ‘dirty indians.' .
“My
mother could never
really
trembled and the tears welled up
in
answer
.
.
— she
her eyes.
.
.
.
just
When
THE EVERLASTING SKY I
talked to the mothers on
on the reservations
trip
I
seems more acute now than was twenty years ago when was in school,” Antell
felt it
my
36
the
same
thing, but
it
I
said, sitting at his cluttered
desk
in
the State Office
my
Indian ancestry
Building.
“When because
in
was young
I
the school
nately white,
I
rejected
I
I
attended which was predomi-
found out that
to be an Indian.
.
.
it
wasn't to
my advantage
.
“In a sense they assimilated
me
at a
”I lost something in the heart, and
it
cost,” he said.
wasn't
until
had
I
.” what had happened. Antell is an exceptional person in any culture, but what he remembers as an oshki anishinabe siudeni in a
a family that
I
fully realized
white public school
is
.
not exceptional.
It
.
happens
every day to almost every oshki anishinahe student.
Not every student
express himself as well as
will
Antell does but the feeling of alienation and degradation
is
the same.
Testifying
before
the
indian Education, Antell efforts being
made
to
Subcommittee
Senate
was asked
to
on
comment on
the
improve curriculum and review
books which refer to the oshki anishinahe people. ”We have found Minnesota teachers very poorly
text
informed about indians from our is
state. Naturally, this
also true of the indians themselves. In
they
know even
less
many cases
about their history or identity.
.
.
.
“There have been no attempts, to my knowledge, of intensive research on Minnesota indians by people of indian
ancestry.
Many
of
the
older
indians
who
possess an abundance of historical information are
DAYDREAMING
WHITE SCHOOL
IN A
37
heading for the happy hunting ground, a part that history will never be able to record. to preserve
some
materials in school systems reflect
negative picture of the
something
must act soon
of this information.
‘The curriculum a
We
less than a
human
indian.
.
.
is
being, always depicted as
lazy, a savage, massacring white people,
drinking, and so forth.
he
Invariably
on a warpath,
.
“Consider the impact on indian boys and girls as they read and observe materials such as this as they proceed through the public schools.
“We
are
process of
the
in
changes for schools
in
massive curriculum
Minnesota. Our major aim
will
be to include materials that will illustrate that Ameri-
can indians indeed have something to be proud of and
can say with pride and dignity,
that they
1
am
an
.“
indian.
.
Antell practical.
.
is
no
Some
conservative
He
idealist.
is
hard-working and very
oshki anishinahe critics think he
is
too
times, but most of the programs he has
at
proposed from what the oshki anishinahe hii\e wanted are in progress.
Without hesitation, Antell points out that ten years the
number
in
the past
of oshki anishinahe students
graduating from high school has risen 200 per cent.
The dropout the
oshki
rate,
however,
anishinahe
is
still
students
more than
half of
attending
public
schools. “1
was one of
the
graduates from a state college
first
on an indian scholarship,” Antell fifteen
years ago
.
.
.
now
there
said.
“That was
are about sixty
THE EVERl. ASTING SKY graduates from college each year
.
.
38
and more than
.
four hundred on the state scholarship program.”
With more
osliki
anishimibe students graduating
from high school and college, Antell pointed out, there
more oshki anishimibe
are
visible in professional oc-
cupations.
”When
I
was young
it
was not
good thing
a
to be an
imlian," he said with his hands clasped behind his
head; ”a student would feel indian
if
“And
much
better about being
he could see more indians around. this is the
.
.
.
responsibility of the teacher
— to
make
her class aware that there are successful indians
in all
kinds of fields and to bring indian people into the
classroom.”
Very few of the are
now
teaching
certified oshki
in
anishimibe teachers
the classroom.
those certified to teach, and
One reason
who have
is
that
the experience,
have been offered better-paying professional jobs
in
educational administration with greater responsibilities.
Antell taught for nine years and
moved
into adminis-
John Buckanaga taught on the White Earth Reservation for several years and is now directing community action programs. His brother Jerome Buckanaga is principal of the Bine Point elementary tration.
school, and a third brother, Charles Buckanaga,
teacher I
in
is
a
the city public schools.
here are less than a dozen oshki anishimibe teach-
ers in
all
the public schools in the state. In the past
most oshki anishimibe graduating from college were certified
to
teach
school.
Now
there
is
a
shift
in
DAYDREAMING academic
A WHITE SCHOOL
IN
interest
among
39
anishinabe college
osliki
students to sociology and psychology.
Ted Mahto,
the oshki anishinabe poet and writer,
has been working on curriculum revision for the public
schools but his interests
He
curriculum.
is
education go far beyond
in
interested in identity through the use
from the tribal past. He is the oshki anishinabe poet and educator who thinks about the sentient meaning of the past in the of symbolic anishinabe references
people today.
lives of the
‘Tn the next few years we
will see
some innovative
things in teaching indian children along the lines of visual expressions,” his
Mahto
said, holding his fingers to
forehead, “because there
meaning
a beautiful
is
in
the passage of ideas through the stories the people told
— the
ability to tell a visual story
between
a father
and son.
.
.
— the words
spoken
.
“Some white teachers believe that indians just can’t learn how to read well, but the people have the subskill of reading without knowing how to read through visual memories dreaming
.
.
through visual concepts
.
— which
totally ignored.
.
.
is
—
an area of education that
like is
day-
almost
.
we are going schools,” Mahto said, “I think
to
have
to learn in the public
with
smiling
recognize the indian children
eyes,
his
who daydream
“to
as a very
constructive kind of behavior, rather than to say he not interested in working, you ual thinking
“We what
it
is
know;
kind of vis-
extremely important to everyone.
are going to have to find is
this
that
is
happening
to
ways a
is
.
.
.
to recognize
child
when he
THE EVERLASTING SKY
40
daydreams, because this kind of visual thinking, you know, might be of more value with respect to learning
how
one another than learning how to work a mathematical problem there is something spontaneous and religious about visual thinking which to live with
.
is
being ignored
in
.
.
the public schools.
Mahto was born on
.
.
Red Lake Reservation,
the
attended federal boarding schools and several colleges
and universities, earning a teaching certificate and a degree in German and English. He has taught German
— also
—
mathematics and physics in reservation schools and in several white communities. He has two
children
who
are in college. His son
psychology and
Mahto was
his
daughter
is
is
interested
in
studying medicine.
when he graduated from the West Coast to work in
fifteen years old
boarding school and went to the shipyards until he
was
old
enough
to enlist in the
service.
The only
He
thing
Mahto does more than smile
likes to drink
is
think.
beer and talk with friends about
poetry and the psychology of the unconscious. He is well read in many fields and has written several long
poems and one unpublished
novel.
He
has always been a storyteller but he has not always been as serious about the meaning of education as he has
become
u/n'.s7u’/iufie
in
the last
few years. He sees
osliki
identity as a possible matrix of mythologies
invented by white people and real unconscious links to the tribal past. He believes that to understand the
meaning of education
for the
oshki anishinahe the
DAYDREAMING
IN A
teacher must
first
people which
is
WHITE SCHOOL
41
understand the psychology of the
not derived from the popular histories
of the people.
“There only
is
is
very
it
certain
he said, lighting a cigarette,
anishinabe,''
“because
we can be
behavior that
little
has been so distorted by anthropologists
trying to apply through their research the behavior of
one
tribe to another.
“I
behavior, but
.
.
certain about
feel
still
.
in
sharing as
the urban center
anishinahe
hurts an oshki
it
anishinahe to have this sharing behavior because he
may have relatives
three
and along come
kids to feed
from the reservation
only scraping along.
.
.
his
to care for while he
is
.
“Another thing is the anishinahe reverence for nature,” Mahto said, gesturing with a fathomable extension of his arms. “I don’t tribes, but
...
I
see
I
feel
little
it
is
the other
very strong with the anishinahe.
kids sitting in the classroom looking at a
bare branch or a flower
“What
know about
has living
.
.
.
and
I
feel this
reverence.
.
.
.
small circular kind of shelter
in a
done over, say, two thousand years to the anishinahe unconscious,” he asks himself, wrinkling his eyebrows and smiling. “1 can remember my father saying something to my mother and maybe twenty minutes later
she would answer.
“Silence has so
.
.
.
much meaning
.
.
.
there
was no
reason, you know, to shout or do violence to the
language
when
“These are
living so close together.
the things the people have never lost.
THE EVERLASTING SKY
42
you know, they are part of the unconscious, they are part of the life meaning of the osliki anishinahe today. ‘‘The kind of
life
are
some
.
still
.
.
part of
because
it
we
led in a tribal society
of that
— was
a very
— and we
decent
life
had tremendous awe for the independence
of another individual,"
Mahto
said, stretching his legs
out on the couch and adjusting a pillow under his head,
‘‘which
is
the kind of thing that
cussing today
— the
When Mahto eyes and
fell
some educators are
education of the individual.
finished his
dis-
." .
.
sentence he closed his
asleep on the couch while his friends
continued the conversation he had started. When he woke up he continued more or less where he had left off.
‘‘We were talking about the education of the vidual," he said, smiling.
indi-
4 Making
It off
the
Reservation Foot racing
is
much
young people. Thus
however by
practiced, mostly in early life
the
they acquire an elasticity
of limb as well as health of body, which are of priceless
value to them
in
subsequent years.
— George Cop way
.
.
.
an is hina he missionary
,
1850
back seat of a junked car in the tall grass next to the family two-room house on the reservation an oshki anishhuihe youth holds in one hand the Sitting in the
broken rear window handle and in the other hand the paw of his brown dog. In his morning dreams they fly through the autumn trees of his
life
color into a clear
sky over the reservation
my
feathers sailing
on the breeze in
the
company
of the
eagles of the past
.
.
.
good winds and crows and below him on the green-and43
THE EVERLASTING SKY brown meadows
men of the walks and wave six
long
their
the old
directions and smile
.
grandson of the great
spirit
jatnily
the
in
from vote
dust
.
.
.
times
the
in
to vote ...
it
.
.
six
.
the smiles of the old
new
is
men
are
young reservation
by the
raised
the grave houses
.
.
up from
you have the ribbons niy
.
politicians swirling in their
.
tribe look
you are one with the of the crane ... be moderate and remember the
songs of the people lost
.
44
cars on the dirt roads
time again for silent heroes
below are crowded
in
rows
between the pine trees ... the public health nurse leaves the
sagging
woman who
throws the wonder drugs
shack of the
am
I
oshki
anishinabe
in the trash
as beautiful
as the wild roses
near the graves
and stays old and beautiful on herbs from the woodland .
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
return to the people she whispers on the
return to the people
when
yoi{
wind have the courage
the sound of wailing voices trails off to the land of
the sleeping sun and the trees never touch each other
high in the wind his grip
.
.
.
his
dog
licks his
and they soar too close
hand
to loosen
to the tops of the
century-old pines once free with the people ... his mother will chant for him and place his picture in a
frame
.
.
.
the family will
strong and give him the evil
men
tell
stories to
many good names
of the world
.
.
.
people are marked with fishing
keep him
to pass
among
below the lakes of the boats and tourist wakes
MAKING
OFF THE RESERVATION
IT
and the
last
45
manomin
grains of
.
.
swooping on the
.
white schools and rows of pink and pale-green houses he leaves the reservation for the city
burn
.
.
.
eyes
his
the haze and his heart tightens through the
in
coarse names and rank epithets hanging over the city
clouds
like evil
.
.
was no thunder
there
.
to fear only
the rage of machines building the end of the beginning .
.
dog
his
.
hand again and they see the
licks his
who preceded them never
people streets
.
.
.
told stories
on the
aimless
one might have made philosophies and and been a teacher of the young now .
growing old
.
.
surplus military clothes he eases the
in
on a park bench
tribal past to rest
move
raps him with a stick to
.
.
there
.
the past in the shape of breathing
place for the wind
.
.
move
.
.
.
.
until a
men
no place for
is .
policeman
.
.
there
no
is
heroes of a forgotten
only the pigeon-stained statues of move white men will remain ... go to work from this line the wash these dishes white man has refused sort
war
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
these parts with your very dexterous Indian fingers
your beadwork
so beautiful
.
.
the
.
men
.
.
did nothing
gamble ... be proud of your culture will you be my deer hunting Indian when the squaws look good we leave for
the past but
in .
is
.
.
dirty
.
guide
.
home frog
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
blackdeer
holenday
you people have
.
.
.
.
.
.
downwind
.
kingbird
.
.
.
.
.
bobolink
.
.
.
what strange names
.
you must be a resident of the city for one year before we can help you the poor laws .
.
.
.
of the state
tell
me
word or two words
name
.
.
.
so .
.
.
.
.
.
fineday ...
one word
the invisible tribe
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
is
fineday one
what
the only
a beautiful
good indian
is
THE EVERLASTING SKY a
dead indian
//?/////
tune up
dance mean heaulieu
banks
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
,
what this country needs is a good use your injunuity what does your why do Indians have blue eyes .
.
.
.
.
.
carpenter
Christianson
show me around
46
.
.
.
.
.
.
ellingworth
frenchman
the reservation
was an indian once
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
fair-
.
will
you
my grandmother
.
‘‘What are you doing?” his mother asked, bringing
him down from in a
his
dreams and back
to the reservation
junk car behind the house.
‘‘Nothing,” he answered, looking out the
window
at
the color of the trees across the road. ‘‘Did something
“No.” “Names.” “No.” “The coach said,
will
happen
in
school?”
be looking for you,” his mother
and slammed the door of the junk
athlete in a white high school
The dust
filtered
down and
car.
He was an
and had missed the bus. settled
on
his
dark eye-
lashes.
Not every oshki anishinahe youth who athlete makes it in the white high school but one way
to beat
and respect.
a
good
athletics
is
white people and win their tolerance
Many
oshki anishinahe coWcgc graduates
were successful high school athletes letic
is
— many won ath-
scholarships to college.
William Lawrence, born on the Red l.ake Reserva-
and .lohn Buckanaga, born on the White Earth Reservation, and Will Antell, born on the White Elarth tion,
Reservation, and Ronald Libertus, born on the Leech
MAKING
IT
OFF THE RESERVATION
47
Lake Reservation, all attended white high schools and were outstanding athletes. Lee Antell, brother of Will, was born on the White Earth Reservation, attended high school in,
in
Mahnom-
Minnesota, near the reservation and graduated
from Moorhead State College. He was an outstanding athlete in high school and college. ‘‘Athletics in high school helped
acceptable
reservation and
could
make
it,”
my
goal
Lee
...
people
white
to
was
me become
.
the
prove to myself that
to
I
was doing
.
.
who
‘‘The kid from the reservation
some
was from
I
said. ‘‘Being an athlete
something for the school.
socially
doesn’t have
image of the school has a when you’re an athlete you are doing
talent useful to the
tough time
.
.
.
good things for the school image and get special attention from the coaches. .
‘‘If
1
had been that kid
athletic ability
been ignored
I
in
may
.
.
the classroom with no
in
not have
made Lee
the school,”
it
—
I
would have
said, sitting in his
office at the university.
—
Lee has taught for four years two years in the high school he graduated from and was director of a
—
special library services
a ni s li hui h e
He
says
reservation
schooh
librarians in oshki
the state.
if
an oshki anlshinabe student from the
is
a
good
anishinahe makes students.
in
program for
He
athlete, the fact that he
little
difference
illustrates the special
with
is
the
oshki
white
advantage of being
important to the school as an athlete by comparing
what happens when an athlete
is
absent from classes.
THE EVERLASTING SKY
48
‘The coach would come looking for me and ask me if everything was fine with me he wanted to know if there was something he could do for me,” Lee said. “The kids on the reservation who are truant are either
—
forgotten or reported to the truant office the athletes
who
name.”
give the school a
Ervin Sargent,
who was born on
Reservation, played basketball
— but not with
in
the White Earth
high school.
He
has
completed three years of college. Ronald Libertus, who graduated from the University of Minnesota and has done graduate work in Russian literature and language, was outstanding in track and football while in high school.
He
received
—
two scholarships one athletic and one scholastic. “Being an athlete is one way of making it off the reservation,” Libertus said, scratching his head, “but I
know good
living
.
athlete.
Will
pated
.
.
athletes
who
not everyone
are
makes
”
Anted played track
in
graduate work
in
washing cars for a just because he is an
still it
football, basketball
and
partici-
high school and received a college athletic scholarship for one year. He has completed in
education and has taught physical
education and coached
When
was
I
in
high school.
in
high school they torgot about
being an indicin because
I
was
their local
have always been critical of because of what happened. ...” said.
“I
L’rancis
Reservation
owns
who was born on where he now lives with
Brim,
my
hero,” Will this
school
the
Red Lake
his
family and
the only automatic laundromat on the reserva-
MAKING
IT
OFF THE RESERVATION
49
played basketball on the reservation high school team. The year he played, the team won the state tion,
regional basketball tournament.
John Buckanaga set the mile track record in high school and was captain of the baseball and track teams.
He was
an outstanding high school athlete from the reservation. When he returned to the White Earth Reservation to teach school he was also a recreational
and
athletic coach.
One
of the most outstanding oshki anishinahe ath-
letes in the history of the state
Henry Boucha, who the high school in Warroad, Minneteam to the state hockey tourna-
played hockey for
and
sota,
led his
is
ment.
Boucha turned down an
athletic scholarship to the
University of Minnesota to play with the Winnipeg Jets in the
Western Canadian Junior League on a two-
year contract.
He had wanted
hockey all his life and decided not to attend college because he would be too far from his dream and his family. ‘‘Em also glad that went with the Canada team instead of going on to college,” Boucha said in to play professional
I
Minneapolis
after
Nationals. ”It’s a
for
much tougher
harder than they did
lot it.
playing
the
United
States
league and they
high school, but
in
I
hit a
like
.” .
He
.
first
played hockey
in
kindergarten but has also
played football and baseball
always been successful
in
in
high school.
competitive sports.
He
has
When
he graduated from high school he was considered one
THE EVERl. ASTING SKY of the most outstanding individual
hockey players
50 in
the history of the state.
Boucha
is
the son of a commercial fisherman. His
mother has worked
in a hospital
kitchen for fifteen
years to help care for her children and two orphaned grandchildren.
'‘Henry earned what he got through hard work,” his
mother said of her oshki anishinahe son, who has become a legend among hockey fans in the state, “not because he is a minority.”
5 Keeping the Family Together brave old woman defending her children she endured fighting for us
all
— anishinahe song poem
In the traditional past the
the wild
rice,
berries,
women
of the tribe gathered
and wood for the
fire,
and
tanned the hides and dressed the skins, prepared the food, dried the fish and cut birch bark and built the
wigwam Fhe
for the family.
anishinahe
secrets of herbal
midewiwin
— the
women who once
learned
medicine and participated
sacred religion of the people
in
the
the
— now
teach school, administrate poverty programs, serve on
boards and commissions, attend college and are militants in the causes of human and civil rights on the reservation and I
in
the city.
he oshki anishinahe
women
of today live in large 51
THE EVERLASTING SKY
52
urban centers, small towns and on the reservation. The life style of the people has changed but the
endurance and courage of the anishhuihe never changed
A
—
it
woman
has
has grown stronger with time.
pubWc school administrator said that in the old days it took four women and two men to build a birch bark canoe the men shaped the wood and the women prepared the bark and pitch to male
osliki anisliinahe
—
hold
together.
it
“Nothing has changed,” affection. “It
still
run a program is
the
takes four
— the
he
said,
with
smiling
women and two men
life style is
to
different, but the spirit
same.”
“An
important
education
driving
movement
behind the
force
the anishhuihe
is
indicin
woman,”
said
Rosemary Christensen, oshki anisliinahe mother of two boys, educator, writer, lecturer and scholar, “her perceptions, her labors and her strong commitment to the education of her children.”
The honored people yield
is
to
role of
as strong as
women it
was
new world
of the
in
the
in
the past. While
men
woman
her courage, the oshki anisliinahe
understands the insecurities and special needs of oshki anisliinahe
men and she
identity in a
complex and changing world.
“We niilu
strengthens their masculine
are a beautiful people,” said Esther
who works
Association
in
Nahgah-
American indian Fellowship thrive on Duluth, Minnesota, “and in
the
I
being indian."
“Our
indian
women
have been deindianized
whole chippewa nation has
to be
.
.
.
our
reindianized" she
KEEPING THE FAMILY TOGETHER
53
hands folded beneath her chin. ‘‘We have been deindianized ... we have no religion, no language, no culture, no tribal dress; everything that said with her
we
was stifled by the white people “But it is still here,” she whispered, tapping her are
.
.
heart with her hand, “the beauty that
.
is
us will be
brought out again through the heart.” Esther
born
in
is
divorced and has two children. She was
Superior, Wisconsin, attended college for one
year and became a branch manager for an insurance
company. She
left
good-paying job “among the
a
white people” to work with her
own
people
at
the
fellowship center, and at that time began using the
last
name Nah^ahnuh. She plans name official. “1 come from a long line of
the
chiefs,” she said, raising
her eyebrows and hands
sacred reference to the
anishinahe past, “and
I
legal action to
in
want
to
be
make
known now
as
Nali^aluwh/^
— which means feather end, according to William Warren History of the Ojihways— was a Nidigahniih
in his
hereditary chief of the Mille I.acs band of the people.
He was of mixed anishinahe ‘dnd dukotu ancestry and the wolf family. a member of the niain^an odeni
—
Esther
Nahgahniih
listens
for
hours to the old
anishinahe people telling their tales of the past. She studies the language and punctuates her speech with
anishinahe words, but not
all
oshki anishinahe are as
intense about returning to the past.
When woman,
asked what i^aulette
it
means
to be an oshki anishinahe
Eairbanks responded, “The people
THE EVERLASTING SKY
54
have too many moods from one day to the next capture any one of them for a definite answer. .
.
to
.
“No
one ever comes up with an answer,” she said. “You can say it is a way of life. Being an Indian
woman comes out in my attitudes because see things in common with other indian people like humor, life I
—
experiences on the reservation, commodity foods, the public health nurse,
but not everything
humor. There are experiences held make one feel like an indian/'
was born
Paulette
at
home
at
in
is
grim
common
in
that
Pine Point on the
White Earth Reservation. She attended reservation elementary school and high school in a white commu-
where she graduated with honors. She earned a degree in French and English from the University of nity
Minnesota. Paulette has completed
work on
a graduate degree in
sociology at the University of Atlanta while working as a
management
specialist for training
programs on
several reservations in the southeast United States.
Claricy Smith was born on the White Earth Reserva-
and grew up
Cass Lake on the Leech Lake Reservation. She has had different experiences as an
tion
osliki anisliinahe
in
woman.
She graduated from high school
at
Saint
Hall, a private Episcopal school for girls,
her college degree
in
Mary’s
and earned
humanities from the University
of Minnesota.
Claricy has been a service worker with the American indian Employment Center in the city, and has been
employed
as
an
education
specialist
for
Upward
KEEPING THE FAMILY TOGETHER
Bound programs under
55
Department of Health, Education and Welfare. She spends most of her time traveling in a dozen states supervising programs for the
reservation young people. “I really don’t
woman,”
know what
it
means
she commented. ”I don’t really have the
feeling in the city that people around
about
my
being indian.
‘The whole indian
is
to be an indian
thing of
.
.
me
are concerned
.
who
I
am
a late thing for me. Until
terms of being an
in I
was about
sixteen,
everything and everyone around me, including
my
parents, were saying in a covert sense that white
is
right.”
Her mother
is
white and her father
oshki anisliinahe Episcopal
where the family has
lived
minister since
is
in
an ordained
Cass Lake
Claricy and her
brother, Kent, a sculptor and fine arts college graduate, first attended school.
very active
in
civil
rights
While her father has been
and human
rights organi-
zations and programs in the state for oshki anisliinahe
people for more than twenty years, the family has not lived
on the reservation.
Claricy spends her free time
in
her comfortable
apartment reading and writing poetry and attending
art
She listens to tribal music less often than classical and rock recordings. Bonnie Wallace was born on the Fond du Lac Reservation but has spent much of her life working in exhibits.
the city.
Most recently she has been active in the American indian Movement in the city, which is the most
THE EVERLASTING SKY
56
militant osliki an ishiiui he or giiniziiUon in the state.
‘T get static said, looking tell
me
that
I
all
the time about
down
at
my
her small hands.
don't look right or that
I
skin," she
light
"The
militants
don’t dress right
— they’re on a thing about fullbloods now, and have
light skin, well, forget
"They want dark
if
you
it.’’
now, but they only stereotype themselves and everyone else,’’ she said. "I was born on the reservation and feel like an oshki anishinahe woman because have lived that way and remember my grandmother telling me to be proud. skin
I
I
I
.
.
.
"I look at skin color about like wearing buckskin
dresses and feathers
in
my
hair to
show everyone
that
I’m the great indian," Bonnie said, squeezing her
hands together and then rubbing her arms as if she were cold. "I don’t need racists no matter what color they are.’’
When members
of the
American
indicin
Movement
occupied the offices of the area director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Minneapolis demanding more jobs and meaningful programs, Bonnie was told by militant leaders to leave the
room while
the television
cameras
were there because the militants did not want her light face tones shown on television news reports. "The whole thing was my skin color,’’ she said bitterly. "They want me around to think about things and do the paperwork but they don’t want me to be seen on television.’’ Bonnie has worked
in
employment and educational
programs for the oshki anishinahe people both on the reservation and in the city. She has eight brothers and
KEEPING THE FAMILY TOGETHER sisters
57
and graduated from high school while
on
living
the reservation.
“Being an indian
woman
inside,” she said, touch-
is
ing her chest. “I just ignore
all
the static about
my
color.” Bonnie believes that the most serious problem
young oshki anishinahe have ''^Indians just don’t
they are
.
.
to face
know who
is
their identity.
they are or where
nothing but the identity thing,” she said,
.
shaking her head, “trying to keep up with the cultural
you know. But again we have our leaders who think about the color of skin and don’t know how to speak the indian language, which I think is really thing,
funny.
“We
.
.
are just floating, floating,
many people
don’t
know if they should get hung up on the cultural thing or move forward. We are just floating. “As far as women leaders go, just don’t think there really are any, and if the few who say they are .
.
.
I
had a good husband they wouldn’t be quite so active all
the time.
Esther
.” .
.
Nahgahnub
refers to the tribal past to give
meaning to her experiences in the present. She is nfioved by the music and language and religion of the past.
Tears come to her eyes when she sees an oshki anishinahe
man who
has been drinking and walks
alone through the city streets in
at night.
These men walk
legendary elegance. “1
know men who
when they
feel
they can only be an indian
are drunk,” Esther said, her voice trem-
bling. “Is this the
product of boarding schools or the
THE EVERl. ASTING SKY
58
man is ashamed to show his heart? have seen young men who could only sing from indian soul when they are drunk. What has
white society, that a ‘T their
happened to our prayer?” she asked, and then answered, ”our indian dance is a prayer. It is not like the dance of the white people.
”Our men
are born leaders,” she said, her hands
gesturing, ‘‘and
stand
in
.
.
.
but
lost their pride
together while the the
women
woman
believe the indian
back. The
recognition
have
I
.
man should get men aren’t doing .
.
the
the glory that
women once
men were
same
held the tribe
reborn and the indian
I
think
thing today
they are holding their people together while the being reborn.
man
and
now, they
out hunting, and
are doing sort of the
‘‘Once an indian
should
has his pride again his
spirit is
spirit is
woman
can go back into the background where she should be, because the man has always been superior and he always will be the spiritual strength of the tribe.”
She explains the
way
a
man
that anishinahe finds his soul
and
music and religion spirit
is
and pride. She
has profound respect for the
man at the drum during a ceremonial dance. “The drum is the way of worshiping for the man and is his way of speaking with his soul for the woman,” she said. it
Esther told a story about a young militant a ceremonial dance who sat down at the picked
up the drumstick.
room, don't touch that up. When went over I
I
to
woman
at
drum and
screamed across the the woman, and she looked “I
told her that
if
a
woman
takes
•
KEEPING THE FAMILY TOGETHER
59
the drumstick she takes the place of the
him of
his soul
and pride," she
man and
strips
said, reanimating the
story with her hands and eyes.
"She understood what said, because she knew the drum is the way a man worships." I
Esther respects the place of
woman
men
that
but believes the
man because "Right now our themselves ... think our men
should push the
men
are not sure of
are
very
militant
respected by
I
they
if
can
be
drawn out and
women."
Esther said she has not dated a white several years because she has
more love
man
for
for the oshki
She believes the place for the woman is behind the man because he needs more support now than he has ever needed to reestablish the pride of the anishhuihe
ru'dn.
people.
About
a century
ago the tales about the customs of
the anishinahe told by a ninety-year-old
midewiw'in were printed
The Progress
in
member
of the
— a newspaper
published on the White Earth Reservation about the turn
of the
last
The
century.
old
anishinahe was
speaking to his grandchildren about the courtship and marriage customs of the people:
My
nojislie,
days. Well,
you ask me
if
was
it
it
as
there is
was any jealousy
in
those
today, only the spite was
and the revengeful feelings more is now. It was no uncommon occurrence among the women for a wife or rival crazed with love and jealous frenzy to seek an early opportunity to viciously attack the object of her hatred and if possible cut off her nose or her braids of hair the former object being to perhaps more severe than it
bitter
—
THE EVERL. ASTING SKY disfigure the face
Among
the
love affairs.
and the
latter to disgrace the victim.
men death was .
.
The thoughts
60
often the result of rivalry
in
.
man are not the thoughts of many oshki anishinahe to&dy Few would welcome the intensity of the tribal past when out of jealousy a of the old
woman
could lose her hair or nose. Today oshki anishinahe women have different views about their
interpersonal relationships with oshki anishinahe men,
but
most agree
that
relationships with
they
have
more
oshki anishinahe
meaningful
men
than
with
white men.
“There
is
absolutely no comparison between an
man and
indian
a
white man,” Esther Nahgahniih
emphasizes, “because white people have to possess everything, even white women have to possess their
men.
.
.
.
“I have had no dates with white
men
for about ten
years,” she said, adding that she did not think she would ever date a white man again.
Bonnie Wallace prefers to date oshki anishinahe men because she feels she understands the meaning of the relationship better than with a white
men always
find
it
man. White
necessary, she said, to ask
“What’s it like to be an indian'^ ...” “Hut indian men are very possessive,”
me
Bonnie
emphasized. “I don’t know why, maybe because they aren’t as secure in the world as other men one .
thing
is
certain,
though,
.
.
when you’re out with an
KEEPING THE FAMILY TOGETHER
61
man you are out with him o/i/yand another man you are his woman.” Indian
.
.
can’t look at
.
Both Claricy Smith and Paulette Fairbanks have dated oshki anishinabe men, or
men from
other tribal
more often than white men. They agree that easier to communicate with a man who has had
cultures, it
is
similar experiences in
life.
more Indian fellows and have had
”I have dated
relationships that have lasted longer than with white
people,”
Paulette
experiences
said.
‘T
think
the
it’s
common
— but much depends on the person.”
”In terms of a personal relationship
I
do
feel
more
comfortable dating an indian man,” Claricy said, ”but for a long time
woman
had an identity problem as an indian
relating to indian
than they were
my
I
feeling
—
when
I
I
men
...
I
felt
tougher
don’t think that was true, but
it
was
was younger.”
women mothers. Many
Traditionally, anishinabe tive
always
and protective
have been sensioshki anishinabe
draw from the tribal past things which complement the good feelings of the present. One tribal feeling which is as true today as it was hundreds of years ago is the protective warmth the oshki anishinabe mother feels for her children and family. The oshki anishinabe mother does even more today for the family than she did in the tribal past. She once cut the wood and gathered the wild rice and built the wigwam. Now she cares for the family and serves on commissions and committees to better the community and the education of the young and when she gets
—
THE EVERLASTING SKY
62
angry about an injustice to her family she
changes
men
the strongest voice.
in
family
much tenderness
is
— and
The most
demand
militant of
an angry oshki anishinahe wom'dn.
will yield to
There
will
in
the oshki anishinahe
there are problems as there are in any
other family
the world
in
— but
the oshki anishinahe
have the strength from the collective tribal past to give
more meaning
memory
of the
to their lives in the
present. $
My
know now about our marriage customs [the old anishinahe man told his grandchildren a century agol. My people wore no dress but that made nojishe,
you want
to
from the furs and skins of animals slain in the chase, and there were many very handsome women and men. A young man would soon see some young woman who would impress him very much. He would then go on a hunt and select some fine furs and skins, which he would carry to the wigwam of the young girl to make her dresses to adorn her person, and if she accepted his attentions she would in return make him something whereby to adorn his person also, which was generally a handsome pair of moccasins the young anishinahe woman would then cut wood which she would carry on her back and take it to the wigwam of his parents. ... If there were no objections, his mother would come out and in a gentle manner would proceed to pinch or blow the nose of the young woman as a token that she was welcome as one of the family. Then, after the lapse of ten days the young couple would again meet together, and the man would take the hand of his bride and say: “We must live for one another, we must be true and live together until we die.” d'hey were then looked upon as man and wife. .
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
KEEPING THE FAMILY TOGETHER
The marriage customs to relate to the present.
63
of the past are not so difficult
Reading the
tales of the old
man, a few oshki anlshinahe have taken up the pleasure of pinching noses to
show
The oshki anishinahe enjoy
human
the
affection.
humor
of their
own
and foolishness, but they despise with a
folly
vengeance those white men who tour the reservation and write about the lives of the people and the meaning of the family on the reservation.
grew up on the reservation,” said Pearle Fabre, who was the elected secretary-treasurer of the White Earth Reservation Business Committee, ”and my association as an Indian is that indians have far deeper ‘‘I
relationships within the family than a white observer will
ever see.
.
.
.
”lf studies must be done,” she said,
indians should get the
people,
who seem
any people
More
money
to
study
“then the the
white
have more family problems than the world.”
in
to
believable than white sociologists advancing
personal academic careers are the
many men who
look
back on their oshki anishinahe families as the source of strength to
overcome
the problems of living in a
white society.
Many positions
oshki anishinahe in
men who
hold responsible
education and public service attribute
mother who kept the the midst of poverty and racism. It
their success in life to a strong
family together
in
uncommon to hear educated man say that if is
not
an oshki anishinahe college-
were not for his mother he would not have succeeded in the dominant society. it
THE EVERl. ASTING SKY
64
White people may share the same sentiments, but the real difference
is
that an oshki anishinahe
man can
strengthen the meaning of the family through
memory
collective that
of the tribal past
many young white people
meaning
— the
the
tribal past
are trying to find to give
to white lives.
Indian mothers
done the job of keeping the family together,” said Ted Mahto, teacher, father, poet, and former public school in
the past thirty years have
administrator.
John Buckanaga, a graduate of Bemidji State College and former elementary school teacher on the White Earth Reservation where he was born, said his
mother was ”the one who held the family together. She provided us with good discipline we had a
—
mother who was strong.” Will Anted said, ”The force in my life was my mother she was the most inspiration that ever .
had. She
.
.
1
worked hard
all
her
life
to see us
through
school.”
The oshki anishinahe mothers have had the courage and pride to carry the dreams that their sons would free the people of the tribe to live a better life.
administrators,
And
tribal
from fear and hopelessness
the sons are teachers, health
officials,
mechanics,
orators, sculptors, militants and dreamers.
writers,
6 Dreams
in the
Fourth Dimension If
I
you wish
am
far
to
know me you must
who
a bird
rises
seek
me
from the earth and
in the
clouds
flies
up into the skies out of human sight
though not visible to the eye and resounds over the earth
my
voice
is
heard from afar
— Keeshkemun, nineteenth century anishinahe oraiov
Jumping out of his chair with a cigarette stuck between two fingers of his left hand, Ted Mahto began to have heard anthropologists remark that the world view was a smaller circle of things than
lecture: tribal
‘‘I
that of the white
“but
man,” he
said,
walking
in a circle,
have a suspicion that the indian had a closer feeling of his environment than the white man, who was always measuring and weighing everything in I
terms of what gave him a greater aesthetic sense.
Ted Mahto feels
.
.
happy and a lonely man because he every minute the pain and joy and rage of having
dark skin
in
is
a
a white society
— and he
is
lonely because 65
THE EVERLASTING SKY he thinks so
much about
the injustices of
He
osliki
66
anishinahe youth and
modern education.
has been a school administrator, teacher, writer,
father, poet
and
unpublished
poem Uncle
Junior League
among
When Tomahawk to
he read his
a fine storyteller.
women
in
a
group of
Duluth, there were whispers
men
the wives of professional
that the
poem
violated the mythological sanctions of the noble savage.
Mahto read
his
poem
in a
conversational tone.
UNCLE TOMAHAWK When was just this side of saw my father kick my pregnant mother And later on they told me I
papoose,
I
one of two had lived And that my mother died
also.
somebody pushed me out in front of some long stern faces And asked me to tell them what 'n
I
had seen,
'n
I
cried.
Then my father ran across the room and picked me up
And and
cried and hugged said,
“Someday,
I'hey took ’n
me you’ll
—
’’
him away
’nay sent us to Indian School,
me and my
brother and sister.
DREAMS
IN
THE FOURTH DIMENSION
Some guy smashed my mouth the first day we were there. 'n they smashed me every day until
I
And
I
learned to like
spent a
tryin' to get
lot
of
it.
my
life
people to smash
me
in
the mouth.
guess what never learned to like was watchin’ them smash my I
1
little
brother.
Cause like
1
knew
he’d never learn to
it.
And
was
right.
Some guy
called
I
him
a
dumb
indiati
and he piled into the back end of a truck goin’ one hundred miles an hour with his brain
’n
drowned
in
alcohol.
kept on lookin’ for guys to
1
smash me in the mouth, ’n found a place where there were experts
at
mouth
smashin’.
graduated and they said, “Now you’ll have to stop lookin’ and do some smashin’.” ’n finally
So
1
You
1
became said,
a teacher.
“What do you want
for ^ %
Christmas?” and you sent me $5.00.
1
said,
“Peace,
and
67
THE EVERLASTING SKY I
said,
“Why me?" And
you
If
I
"Ed And said,
said,
rather fornicate with indians."
“Why?" And you
68
I
said, "'Indians aren’t as bad.
gotta relate to minorities. I’d rather do
it
with indians."
I
said,
“A
And you
lotta
said,
my
people are starving."
“Why
the hell don’t they
go to work and work their way up did?"
like
I
took
my
half-/Vk/mn-half-white son to an Indian meeting and they said, “Shit, I
"So, took him to a meeting of blacks and whites and they said, “He’s indian and won’t be able to relate to us." So took him down to the river and cut him up and threw him away, ’cause what the hell good is a guy without he’s not indian.
I
I
a thing to identify with.
The grass keeps growin’
—
taller!
But reservations keep growin’ And, really, how long is that?
— smaller!
Beauty, truth, and love are solutions as long as we don’t abuse one for the other.
you," and you said, “Let me think about that awhile!"
I
said, “I love
was standing along a road sorta out of town with my thumb out, try ’na get a ride, I
and you stopped and got out and beat the hell outa
me
with a
tire
chain
till
I
almost died.
DREAMS
THE FOURTH DIMENSION
IN
An’
in
the hospital the sheriff said,
“One ’nem guys ’n
69
the mayor’s son
is
they ain’t a thing
I
can do. Boy!’’
“But I’m an educated indian, ’’I said. So He took out a knife, cut out my heart, and said, “It’s still an indian heart ’sfar
—
as
I
can
see.’’
Ted Mahto moves through time
in
the anishinahe
bishop on an evening walk, reluming his
spirit like a
experiences of the present through the conscience of the anishinahe past.
He
is
a metaphorical speaker and
showing that the past and the present have the same rhythm in stories about people. listener,
The oshki anishinahe
writer
is
a
visual
thinker
soaring on the rhythms of the woodland past through the gestures of the present
— he
is
a poet, an autobiog-
rapher, a storyteller, an essayist, a public speaker and
an
The oshki anishinahe
epistler.
dreams
in
the fourth
creative
dimension of time and
writer lives
everywhere. In the past the tales of the
anishinahe were not an
objective collection of facts. writer tells stories
people, not facts.
more
in
human
now The
The oshki anishinahe
as in the past
— stories
about
ideas and visions can be seen
gestures than
in
words. Stories are a
dreams and oratorical gestures showing the meaning between the present and the past in the life of the people, dhe stories change as the people change because people, not facts, are the
circle
of believable
center of the anishinahe world.
THE EVERLASTING SKY “When
70
mind to create man he took a handful of earth and rubbed it together in his palms [the old anishinahe leader of the midewiwin told his grandchildren a century ago], and a man was formed. The spirit below the earth who was a very imposing spirit, with heavy locks of white hair, said to the great spirit in council: What are you going to do with only one .
.
the great spirit
made up
his
.
anishinabe?
“In answer to this question the great spirit took another handful of earth and rubbed it in his palm and a woman was formed. Then he said: This person shall be the fruit of the earth
and
the seed
the anishinabe people. This,
from which
my
grandson,
come how the
shall is
anishinahe ongin'dtQd and became so numerous.” If
Mahto had
lived
more than
have been capable of
a century
telling the
same
ago he would story of the
and when he had finished, he would have laughed and hugged the listeners, his
origin of the anishinahe,
grandchildren, the anishinahe, and they would have
been strong and laughed together. unpublished novel, Mahto wrote about his
In an
principal character,
Moses Two Crow,
and decorated war hero, as
if
a family
man
he were looming out of
the past in legendary elegance:
He walked
with an etfortless ease into the sun that
streamed from the east into his face. The bright color of his sienna skin, soft and finely textured, reflected the sun in a faintly
reddish
brown glow.
Yet, nothing of his personal appearance
was conspic-
No, it was not his appearance that caused people, even at this early hour, to turn and watch this young, handsome, neatly dressed, red giant move up the
uous.
.
.
.
DREAMS
IN
street.
It
THE FOURTH DIMENSION was
his walk.
born to walk.
from
was
It
One could have
a walk that
71
said that he
seemed
was
to spring, not
his calves or thighs or the balls of his feet, not
the very slight swing of his
body, and
from arms, but from his whole something of an apology
had with it whenever he walked among his white brothers as if he were actually sorry to display a skill which they could never master. This seemed to be the source of the pleasant little grin he showed to people as he passed on the street. It was a grin which asked forgiveness of those far less endowed it
.
.
.
than he; a grin, humble
in
its
character, and presented
with dignity not insolence. Too, there was really something of shame as if he sensed that he, in his simplicity,
had caused the ers.
.
.
Mahto
evil
envy on the faces of the onlook-
.
writes
and
anishinabe friends
among his oshki Moses Two Crow walks. The
tells
like
stories
more the world hears the oshki anishinabe voice in humor and poetry and stories the more the white
man will be left alone forever with his evil envy. Gabe Kangi, another character in Mahto’s unpublished novel,
is
talking with his friends in a restaurant
about the meaning of being an indian
dominant society
What
in
the white
:
about the white man that makes him think everybody wants to live like him? First he trampled the hell out of us, then he turned around and tried to buy us is
it
off to salve his
own
hindsight again.
If all
dead.
And
indian
is
conscience. But then we’re using we can do is look back, then the for
all
practical
purposes (and
THE EVERLASTING SKY
72
western man likes to think he's very practical) maybe we're better off dead. psychology doesn't apply to us, if their If their capitalism is incomprehensible to us, if their ideals like charity and love and virtue are not what we place in highest esteem,
how can we ever
really fit?
White men unfamiliar with the oshki cmishinahe may believe
that
the
characters are only
fictional
every day of the week the people gather
about where they are
to talk
man
of the white
— just
in
in
— but
restaurants
the paradoxical world
Moses Two Crow and
like
Gabe Kangi.
"We
have
Indians
they
in
will
the urban center,"
Mahto
leave Indians alone ...
maybe we can keep will
how
to teach white people
the white
if
to
be real
"so we write enough
said, smiling,
man home
reading so he
leave us alone. ..."
The
situations of
the oshki anishinahe
only
suggests
listener to
the
most
me
stories told
and written by
real experiences.
pathos
and humor,
The tension leaving
the
complete the story.
James Sayers, who lives in Ponemah on the Red Lake Reservation, illustrates oshki anishitiahe humor
— that
metaphorical tension few white people under-
stand but respectfully laugh about
anyway
— with
the
following story
An
oshki anishitiahe
widow
living
on the reservation
house one afternoon to visit with her friends in a house down the road. While she was gone her house filled with smoke from left
her small
DREAMS
IN
THE FOURTH DIMENSION
73
an overheated stove and started to burn. Two oshki anishinahe boys playing nearby saw the smoke and flames and ran to the house where the old woman was visiting to tell her that her house was burning down. When they rushed through the door breathless and excited and told the old
woman
about her house she turned slowly toward them, smiled, slapped her protruding stomach with one hand, and said everything is all right because have the key right here and then slapped her stomach again and laughed.
— —
I
Sometimes
the people laugh
of oshki anishinahe
time to
tell.
more about the subjects
humor than
at the stories
they find
Mentioning oshki anishinahe humor turns
thoughts into collective visual experiences:
Do you
remember commodity peanut butter sticking to the roof of your mouth The smell of pinto beans and .
.
.
bear grease and an earthen crock of good things
fermenting
Or
the public
health nurse wrinkling from the fingertips
when she
just
in
the corner of the house
happened
.
.
.
by and check heads for lice workers running home before dark
to stop
Or blond VISTA
.
.
.
to
courageous stories about living on a dirt floor in a little house on the reservation Or white women on
tell
.
.
.
a bus tour of the reservation asking a tribal leader his
women do when
what
they run out of breast milk and
the leader answering after a long stoical pause that the
reservation braves milk porcupines to keep the chil-
dren alive and the white that
women
being relieved with
information ... Or do you remember sleeping
with your dog
junked car parked beside your house on the reservation and dreaming of the time you in
a
THE EVERLASTING SKY will hurtle
dt^wn the
dirt
74
roads of the world and return
one clear day a rich and decorated hero
“Soon
there will be a
number
.
.
.
of huiian humorists on
Ted Mahto predicted. “They will come in decade when the people are more able to laugh
the stage,” this
common
about their
experiences with white people
when they are more secure about their identity.” Mahto smiled and after a long pause he told a about oshki anishinahe people participating
in
story
commit-
on the reservation. The anthropologists,
tee meetings
he said, explain that the people are very democratic
everyone gets a chance to speak
at
a
meeting.
“I
remember an old man at a meeting on the reservation who, when he was recognized by the chairman and told that he
had the
chairman,
‘Mister
said,
commotion Ronald
floor,
.
clearly
anishinahe
oshki
Libertus,
believes that
more
like
to
make
a
.
director
of
for the Minneapolis Institute of
humor
'^indian
when
public entertainment are
would
I
’ .
community programs Arts,
stood up, looked around and
known,
as
will
emerge as
the ramifications of hate is
true with black
humor-
ists.”
The language difference
have to
in
of
the
oshki anishinahe makes
a
humor the people and more closely related
the special sense of
— the language
is
visual
what the people feel and believe. “ITat symbolizing process that Western man has
become
so adept at,”
Mahto explained,
“is not true
with tribal languages because tribal languages carry
more
feeling.
Modern languages have abandoned
the
DREAMS
THE FOURTH DIMENSION
IN
feeling for information and fact
information about technology
dominant
society
is
in
reflected
.
75
.
.
the independent
the language of the in
linguistic
tribal
thoughts as visual feelings.”
The anishinahe language of the past was a language of verbal forms and word images. The spoken feeling of the language and thought processes is a moving image of tribal woodland life. The visual images are not static or inferred from logic. The language of the people is descriptive, euphonious, and a sympathy of cosmic rhythms and tribal instincts, memories and dream songs, expressing the contrasts of life and death, day and night, man and woman, courage and
—
—
fear.
Mahto
believes these visual qualities in the language
when an oshki anishinahe speaks only
are not lost
English. ”1 tend to be
an indian is
who
much more
somewhat prejudiced feels free
alive
than the person
know how
far
in it
is
things in structured
and
at
in this
view, that
ease on a reservation
and aware of things around him the dominant society who must
from here
to there
and define
terms and stereotypes without
visual feeling.”
Mahto smiled again and said he personal story that shows how he was
After a long pause
wanted
to
tell
a
caught between the sensitivities of visual dreams and the structural social thinking of the white listeners:
” Fhe morning after Martin Luther King peaceful march
in
1
first
was a teacher in a white was kind of excited about
the South,
school, and that morning
led his
1
THE EVERLASTING SKY
76
what had happened ... I felt a certain kinship with another minority group who were doing their thing without violence.
.
.
.
“So that morning when arrived at school went down to the boiler room where the men gathered before class for the first smoke and, feeling good, rushed into the boiler room where all the white was the only indian there teachers were sitting I
I
I
—
and said jokingly: All
I
you bastards, the Indians
right
and storing them on the we plan to march peacefully on
are next. We're gathering guns reservations, hut first
you bastards. ...”
Mahto laughed hard when he saw
“And one
story and then continued;
me
said to
after a long pause.
weeks and
than that.
.
.
I
of the teachers
You won't
get past the
me up
for a couple
municipal liquor store ... he shut of
their faces in his
stayed out of the boiler
room
for longer
.
man sometimes,”
“I don’t understand Western
continued the thought. “I feel that the anishinabe
he
i\nd
the dakota and other tribes entered into a conflict with
man on
the white
— to
.
.
reason to
we fought I
my land and and my children
fight for
people
lost.
.
.
.
fight.
and honorable basis
a very noble
And
after
it
the
freedom of the
tribal
— a very
noble
and family
was over men should say,
a hell of a battle didn’t
we
.
.
.
you won and
.
“d'he assumption
1
feel
is
that this put us
on a good
ground with the values of the white man, but it
was nothing
tion
like that at all. Instead
it
it
didn’t,
was degrada-
and humiliation, and we beat you bastards, the
DREAMS
IN
THE FOURTH DIMENSION
man goes on
white
77
know
saying, you
.
he said,
.
pacing back and forth with his hands poised
his
at
we beat you, the white man because we are superior to you
chest. '‘And the reason
goes on saying, superior to me.
"We
is .
.
.
.
.
.
face the same thing
war on poverty and in education and jobs and everywhere the white man saying we are superior to you but there is still that envy of tribal people." The oshki anishinabe tell about their experiences more often in letters, and autobiographical narratives, in
the so-called
.
.
and
.
.
.
.
speeches and verbal stories, than they do in short stories and poems and novels. The speeches and in
narratives are usually very serious because they are
most often addressed to white people and deal with the political, economic and educational aspirations of the people.
George Mitchell,
a rugged activist born
Earth Reservation, was the run
in
on the White
oshki anishinabe to
first
the aldermanic elections in Minneapolis.
a candidate in a
ward where the
oshki anishinabe people his identity
live.
He
largest
He was
number
of
lost the election but
caused oshki anishinabe voters
to argue
more about their representatives on the city council. The media equal-time sanction for political candidates brought the oshki anishinabe
in
the urban center to
public attention.
one of
campaign speeches to a large group of citizens, Mitchell opened with one of his favorite remarks to ease the tension. After a long and nervous pause, while he looked around the audience, he took In
his
THE EVERLASTING SKY microphone and
the felt
.
‘‘1
lips
.
Now
said:
I
78
know how Custer
.
will
admit that
trembling,
tonight
Muddy
am
a bitter
man," he went on,
his
because while driving here
"bitter
see the
I
I
same
things
me
roads that remind
saw ten years ago.
I
of things similar or
worse than those on the reservation, condemned houses, well-lighted liquor stores and poorly lighted streets.
.
.
.
"Who knows more people
who
live
about these conditions than the
here?
how government
is
We
have heard for a long time people, but
for the
how can
a
government without the people be for the people? "Think about that child who drowned in a condemned building. The city government said that they were not responsible. Think about that boy who was .
shot
in
your
children
official
paper.
playing
are
Think about
tonight
— poorly
lighted parks, million-dollar construction sites, streets
or
abandoned buildings
remind us we are poor.
"We ers.
.
the back of the head by a police officer. His
death was justified on
where
.
.
.
that
still
muddy
stand
to
.
have been studied often enough by research-
Had
these studies been conducted with good faith
instead of selfish motives, our needs and concerns
would not
exist today.
We
have been planned for and
protected by the government but not with our senti-
ments. "1 feel and believe that
poor than to be dishonest.
is
it
.
.
.
less of a
problem
to be
DREAMS
IN
THE FOURTH DIMENSION
79
“We
have heard a great deal about federal money for demonstration cities but little from people who will live in
them
ple?
.
.
.
— are
we
become demonstration peo-
to
“We
have come here with broad minds and slim waists and let us hope these do not change places in the days to come. ...”
The audience applauded and total
Mitchell received a
of sixty-eight votes in the election.
Very few vote. The winner
oshki anishinahe were registered to
was white and received more than a thousand votes. The expression of oshki anishinahe visual experiences
is
presented
in
many
different literary
forms
the anecdote and archetypal stories from the collective
unconscious of the
tribal
past, the
sermon of con-
science and identity, the stories of folly, short narrations of
poetry,
humorous and the
novel and
tragic incidents, the epistle,
the
anishinahe knov^s what he sees what he
is
saying.
is
short
story.
The oshki
writing about because he
7 The People Are Afraid of Change not necessary to detail each and every
It is
my
wrong
poor people have suffered the white men have been like greedy lions, they have driven us from our nation, our homes, and possessions ... to seek refuge that
.
.
among
strangers
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
— George Copway, u/?/s/i/7mhc missionary
,
1847
The oshki anisliinahe politician may be one of the most complex human beings in the history of man. At the same time he is liberal with the young people, he is conservative
people past
—
in
the (inishimihe language of the old
his rhetoric soaring
on the breath of the
and tacking on the new winds
that
tribal
draw
the
most votes.
Most oshki anishhuihe
much
politicians
spend about as
time talking with white government officials as
they do to the people on the reservation. In the tribal past
a
man
of
good
life
and experience had the
independent liberty to make decisions for himself and his family, but he
was
not elected to serve four years
80
THE PEOPLE ARE AFRAID OF CHANGE with unspecified political powers.
81
Today
the
oshki
anishinahe politician
is
elected by popular vote on the
reservations and he
is
expected to win favors from
the
federal
government for the betterment of the
reservation.
The oshki anishinahe ical figure for
politician
is
a useful
mytholog-
white politicians to be seen with during
election time. In the liberal mentality a white candi-
date for a federal public office
nized as a humanitarian
next to
some
is
when he
immediately recogis
pictured standing
buckskin and
tribal leader in traditional
headdress.
Many
white politicians have been adopted by the tribes and given indian names which translate some-thing like talks too
has
many
much, man of many
strings attached or the
who nervous one who ^ifts,
he
builds roads.
While many white politicians may look forward to being adopted as a colorful indian, there have been no offers to become honorary black people with adopted names. The white man has never been able to put together a colorful invention of black people.
one would expect the oshki anishinahe to be made honorary white people in the humanitarian In return
games of
everyone knows, the anishinahe of the past have not been adopted as white brothers. Fhe anishinahe were given white names by missionaries and government officials, but they have never been made honorary white people, nor has the identity, but as
dominant society very often permitted dark skin to be an honorary anything.
a
person with
THE EVERl. ASTING SKY The honorary
iiuiian
the politics of race.
game
White
82
played on both sides of
is
politicians like to
know
indiansU they are interested in humanitarian imagery, and oshki anishhuihe politicians need to know white if
they are to maintain the credibility of
tribal
mediator securing more federal funds for
politicians
being a
the reservation.
Somewhere
out of range of media
cameras, the oshki anishinahe leaders eat fried bread and wild rice and laugh with friends about those double-crossing white politicians
who
are
still
exploit-
and the white politician in turn hangs his peace pipe and headdress on his olTce wall and drinks brandy in exclusive clubs after a heavy day of subing the land,
committee hearings on poverty and race.
games hearings and more After
all
the
come more and more money and
of the politics of race statutes
repeated promises for peace and a better
poor oshki anishinahe wonder
why
the
life.
But the
games have
lasted so long
and why
there are
no jobs, inadequate housing and
still
ties for health
after
all
the honorary rhetoric
and education, and why there
paternalistic institutionalized racism in the
faciliis
still
dominant
society. d here are
and
just
always new elections and renewed hopes
enough change on the reservation
to believe in
the political slogans of progress without fear of losing
more
land.
Everything takes time and the
people
endure the games of politicians. The people have played the tion of the
game
so long under the colonial administra-
Bureau of indian Affairs that many oshki
THE PEOPLE ARE AFRAID OF CHANGE anishinahe are
unwilling
or
83
afraid
to
change
the
games. In the tribal
past the traditional system of tribal
was the family. An anishinahe man of experience and good judgment made decisions for himself and his family and anyone else who trusted his perception and insight. There were no elected officials making decisions for all the people. The basic political unit was the family. Today tribal politics function in the democratic political authority
structures of elections.
The Bureau
of indian Affairs
influenced the structures of tribal constitutions after the traditional family tribal sanctions were sup-
pressed.
Elected
tribal
politicians
still
reflect
pressure and influence of white specialists
in
the
indian
affairs.
On most
reservations there
no functioning economic system through which social and political experience can be shared. The people on reservations live under a colonial system reflecting the ideal political is
values of white men, but with no functioning inde-
pendent economic system. Elected tribal politicians therefore must spend much of their time relating to white people and government
who represent Every now and then
officials
economic system. someone young tries to change the the colonial
paternalistic
game.
William l.awrence tried to change the game by running for the position of tribal chairman of the Red
Lake
Reservation.
He
carried
on
a
door-to-door
campaign, talking with the people about the need for
THE EVERLASTING SKY chiingc,
but he
the election
lost
84
to
the
incumbent
power for twelve years. Lawrence was born on the Red Lake Reservation, graduated from Bemidji State College with a degree in
chairman,
who had been
in
business administration, served as an officer in the Marine Corps and is a graduate of the University of
Law
North Dakota
School.
He
lives in a
new house
near Bemidji with his wife and two daughters. When Lawrence graduated from high school— he earned athletic letters in three sports he received an
—
athletic scholarship to the University of
Minnesota but
interrupted college for one year to pluy professional baseball. After serving ten months in Vietnam as an officer,
he returned to law school but interrupted his
studies again to specialist for the
become the industrial development Red Lake Reservation.
Lawrence developed an impressive and ambitious five-year economic and industrial development plan for the reservation, ranging from private enterprise to a
tribally
motel, fuel
owned oil
liquor store, golf course, airport,
distributor and water
and power compa-
nies. In the short time
than a year lish a
— he had
bulk fuel
oil
Lawrence was on
the job
—
less
obtained federal funds to estab-
dealership, an industrial park on the
reservation, improvements in telephone services and
communications, reforestation programs, construction of a utility building and home construction.
Lawrence was
also
responsible
for
assisting
an
individual in obtaining a small business loan from the federal
government
to build a coin-operated
automatic
THE PEOPLE ARE AFRAID OF CHANGE laundry. For the
time, there
85
now
laundromat on the reservation. Before, the people had to drive about thirty miles to do their wash. first
is
a
The long-range programs Lawrence had planned
—
were a supermarket, motel and restaurants visitors have no public place to stay on the reservation service station with repair facilities, an automobile dealership and other private service businesses owned
and operated by oshki anishinahe
living
on the
res-
ervation.
The economic philosophy behind his five-year plan was to establish oshki anishinahe-owncd services on the reservation, creating an
economic system independent of the federal government. Lawrence is critical of the fact that most oshki anishinahe on the reservation are employed by the federal government
and they spend businesses on
communities.
their
the
money
either in
reservation
He wanted
money on and spend
it
the
or
in
white-owned nearby white
people to earn their
on the reservation. He
is
motivated to reduce the dependency ttie people have on the taxpayers through federal funds, and to eliminate the control of jobs by tribal officials.
Roger Jourdain, who was elected
to his fourth
term
when he defeated l.awrence, has many contacts and friends in federal offices. He moves around the country
on a first-name basis with several national
cians.
Through
his
political friends
politi-
he was able to
design and obtain federal funds for a gigantic furniture factory on the reservation which would have solved in
one sweep the
total
unemployment problem
— assum-
THE EVERLASTING SKY ing
everyone wanted
to
86
assemble furniture parts
five
days a week.
was true that the plant would have solved the unemployment problem there are about three hundred men unemployed at Red Lake Reservation but Lawrence and at least one member of the tribal council, Francis Brun, openly opposed the operation because it was not feasible to run such a large It
—
operation without basic services existing on the reservation. That large a plant
council too
The
would have given the
much power over
too
many
tribal
jobs.
would have produced the furniture parts timber cut on the reservation and shipped by
plant
with local
truck to other parts of the country for assembly. feasibility of the
The
proposed furniture plant was ques-
tioned and the project finally scrapped.
Jourdain has power and he knows
how
to use
it
to
stay in power. In no uncertain terms he fights to win
and he holds the record on the reservation for naming the most white people honorary indians. He puts on many people, laughs hard and travels to hundreds of conferences on employment, education, politics and economic development. He speaks the anishinahe language and gets the federal money he wants when he
The withdrawal of funds for the proposed furniture plant was one of his first defeats. Jourdain was seriously challenged in an earlier election for tribal chairman by another young man, Lee Cook, who was also born on the Red Lake wants
it.
who wanted to return to the reservachairman. He has spent most of his life
Reservation and tion as tribal
IHE PEOPLE ARE AFRAID OF CHANGE
87
away from the reservation attending college and working. He was also defeated after a door-to-door campaign. The issues in that election were about the same. Cook, like Lawrence, wanted to move aggreseconomic development to reduce the dependency on the federal government. The people were not ready to change. independent
for
sively
In tribal elections there are
no party
lines
nor a clear
The arguments and challenges are usually between the old and the new and the young and the old. Lawrence and Cook were the new and the young, and Jourdain has been elected division
of
factions.
political
four times as the old and traditional.
an article for the Minneapolis Tribune, a journal-
In ist
described the election as a ‘‘contest between those
who have
stayed on the sprawling communally held
reservation and those
fortunes
left
to
seek their
white urban society.”
two young oshki anishinahe men who have the reservation for education and employment
So left
in
who have
far
have not been elected to return.
Other differences between the young and the old are tribal traditions
language.
and the
Jourdain
many hours
ability to
speaks
speak the anishinahe
anishinahe and
spends
with the old people on the reservation
memories of the past. The anishinahe language is often spoken during official
talking
in
the
visual
sessions of the tribal council.
Neither
Cook nor Lawrence speaks
the language,
but they do understand the concepts of anishinahe
speech. They have spent most of their lives off the
THE EVERl. ASTING SKY
88
reservation but return several times a year to visit relatives
and friends.
Facing the challenges of two young oshki anishinahe
men
college-educated
two consecutive elections,
in
JoLirdain expressed the fear that
reservation
leadership on the
hands of people
into the
fell
if
living in the
dominant society, it would mean “termination." The word termination frightens reservation people because it
has
come
to
mean
that the people
reservation would lose their land.
living
But what
on the it
also
means is a reduction of dependency on the federal government for services and programs. "I would like to use my education and return to the
my
reservation to help
people cope with the twentieth-
Cook said when he was a candidate for tribal chairman. He lost. Aggressive and fast-moving. Cook is so filled with
century problems," Lee
energy and excitement that his words tumble over
each other when he
must be done
to
is
talking about things that can
improve the quality of
life
and
on the
reservation.
He attended
on the reservation and graduated from high school and college at St. John’s
a parochial school
University
in
Collegeville,
completed an advanced degree
community organization
at the
in
Minnesota. social
He
work and
University of Minne-
sota graduate school.
Since graduating, he has been working
and educational programs
in
in
economic
urban centers and on the
reservation.
Cook was orphaned when he was seven years
old
IHE PEOPLE ARE AFRAID OF CHANGE and was raised by
He works
tion.
his aunt,
with
his
who
89
lives
on the reserva-
he said, because
people,
Indians are better people and have a better outlook
When
my
was young
I
had a chip on
shoulder to work against because
I
was orphaned and
on
life.
.
.
.
I
much support to make it in the world. knew could make it on my own,” he
never had
“But
1
1
rapid speech, pacing back and forth and
hands really
emphasize certain points. “Athletics was not was always praised a driving force for me. ... I
.
.
using his
to
as an Indian and being an indian never
me.
said in
worked against
.
“So, you see,
simply enjoy being an indian/' he
I
said, lighting a cigarette.
Cook has extensive experience reservation and to the
in
in
programs on the
urban centers, but he
is
drawn more
energy of urban center oshki anishinahe leaders
than traditional reservation leaders.
“The urban center
is
the best access to change in
economic and political life,” Cook said, punctuating his tumbling words with short breaths. “Urban organizations in the past were mostly social and cultural things, but the militants have changed that, and there have not been the problems of traditional politics that exist
on the reservation.”
When man, he
I.awrence
filed for the office
said in a press release that he decided to
become a candidate for Lake people will have dictatorial exists,
of tribal chair-
the office “so that the a clear choice
and irresponsible leadership
and leadership
that
Red
between the that presently
would frugally and consci-
THE EVERLASTING SKY manage
entioLisly
.
.
we
are
now
enduring.
candidacy also represents an awakening of the
Red Lake people
to an urgent
need for a change and a
desire to determine our destiny,
if
we
Red Lake
the
Indians are to take our place and share equally society.
to
the people of the reservation
.
deserve a better fate than
“My
and be responsive
tribal affairs
the people’s needs
90
in this
.” .
.
Lawrence emphasized again
the need of the oshki
anishinahe to trust the energy and counsel of the
younger college-educated people as well as the older tribal members on the reservation.
“The
potential of the
Red Lake people has been
ignored and lain stagnant for too long, and
I
believe
that imaginative, progressive
and unselfish leadership
can be the catalyst that ignites
this great
The oshki anishinahe about change because
people."
are cautious and conservative in
the past
it
has been
the
promise of change by white people that has reduced the
amount
of land the people
now own. The promises
have hurt so much that the people often feel better with what they have than with taking a chance on change.
“The people are afraid of change," Lawrence said, “d'hey know most of the time what they can expect from JoLirdain." The young college-educated oshki anishinahe who are committed to working for a better life
of
with good conscience must face the evil memories
what the white man has done
reservations.
to the
people on
THE PEOPLE ARE AFRAID OF CHANGE
91
was a good test of tribal leadership, and Cook and Lawrence are not through arguing and challenging what they believe must be done to improve the quality of life on the reservation. They may never run in It
another election but they people. is
And when
will
be working for the
the next election for tribal chairman
Red Lake Reservation,
held on the
and the incumbent,
will
the challengers,
be older and the voters
will
be
younger.
The
six other anisliinahe reservations in the state
are under state civil and criminal jurisdiction and have
independent
governments
which are called Reservation Business Committees. Each of the six reservations White Earth, Leech Lake, Nett Lake, Eond du L.ac, Mille Lacs and Grand Portage elects tribal
—
—
local tribal officials to administer local tribal business.
Two
elected
reservations urer
representatives from each of the six
— the
chairman and the secretary-treas-
— form the state-wide Minnesota
chippewa Tribal
Executive Committee, which governs programs on reservations
those six
Lake Reservation
On each
is
in
independent of
reservation
there
are
the state. (The
Red
this organization.)
elections
for
chairman and secretary-treasurer and several
the
district
representatives from the various communities on the
The twelve members of the Tribal Executive Committee elect a chairman from among the members. reservations.
Oshki anisliinahe enrolled the reservation
in
the tribe but living off
can vote by absentee ballot
in
all
THE EVERL. ASTING SKY tribal elections.
JoLirdain
in
the
92
When Cook and Lawrence opposed election
for
tribal
chairman, both
challenging candidates received substantial
support
from the oshki anishinahe living off the reservation and voting by absentee ballot. Cook concentrated on absentee voters living
in
the city.
Making it back to the reservation through an election seems more difficult than making it off the reservation in the dominant society.
ift
*UAY-BWAiY, mouw
HITUriBK nVE.SWITM POBCB SAWS. VOtUNTCtBS fOUB 4 WITH Bn^V
JUWK CARS. ROST SICW5 ARC
otTBS?*"’
m
*rnm
REPORT THAT AROTHr RETIPCO Bl A EMPLOYEE HAS TAKEM10 PIECES Of SILVER AM INQIAM WHO IN HER HOUR Of WEED THE INDIANS HELPEO PERHAPS HER PRIEST SHOULD EXPLAIN THE NEANIND Of THE BTH COHHAMONEMT. NAME AND DETAILS LATER WE HOPE TO TILL THE RES or SPACE WITH 0000 NEWS BY LATE PH OR TUE AM
«
».
V
i»
Sign erected on tribal land during the economic boycott of Cass Lake: Day-Bway means ''the truth" in //it' anishinabe language
An
old anishinabe
man was
arrested for hunting
out of season on the Leech Lake Reservation.
When
the old
rights
of his people,
man
referred to the original treaty the
white judge charged
him with contempt of court.
The white judge has contempt of court
is
and what was then now the new law on the retired
reservation.
After more than a century of state control, a court
federal
judge
ruled
that
the
anishinabe
have original treaty rights to hunt and hsh and gather wild rice within the boundaries of the reservation.
shocked many white people: a group of resort owners and merchants, many operating on original treaty land, led by a retired Bureau of indian Affairs rhe
federal
court
decision
forester, tried unsuccessfully to block the court
decision.
Lake Reservation leaders organized an economic boycott of Cass Lake a small comI.eech
—
munity on the reservation. boycott
brought
many
The success of the white merchants to the
David Munnell, Chairman of the Leech Lake Reservation, and Simon Howard, President of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribal Executive Committee
r
-rrr
IliJi
•
Left and above: New tribal housing on the Leech Lake Reservation near Cass Lake, Minnesota
negotiating table where they pledged their
tribal
support of the court decision.
Following several months of the
reservation
announced an
the
historic
on Minnesota
racial tension
Governor of agreement with reservation
leaders: the state relinquished the right to enforce
game and hsh laws
within the boundaries of the
reservation.
court decision and the agreement with the
I'he
state
permit white people to hunt and
fish
on
buy an additional license and obey the laws established by the l>eech Lake Reservation Conservation Com-
the reservation but they must
mittee.
Fhe
money
received
from licenses
will
be
invested
in
tribal-owned industry. The anishimibe
on the Leech Lake Reservation now own a Minni Market, a service station and garage, and a recreation complex and marina. In the next few years the people plan to invest several million dollars in the development of recreational facilities on the reservation.
Below: Minni Market owned hy the Leech Lake Reservation: bottom, Kent Tapper, attorney for the Leech Lake Reservation, makes a purchase from James Armstrong at the Minni Market during the economic boycott of Cass Lake.
,
8 What
the People
Believe Is True evidence can be adduced to prove that force has tended to brutalize rather than ennoble. The more a .
.
.
.
man The
is
treated as a brother, the less
less
law there
is,
the
more
will
osliki
.
.
.
1850
anishinahe youth was helping his friends
push a car out of a driveway
in
policeman approached with
his
told the
.
demand for law. man be honoured.
— George Copway, anishinahe mlssion’dry
An
.
youths to
line
when
young revolver drawn and
the city
a
up against the wall of a building.
Three oshki anishinahe youths leaned against the brick wall with their hands raised in submissive fear of the police officer
“Who are
you
who questioned .
.
.
their identity.
what are you doing here.
Fhey were the sons of the
.“ .
.
noble savages
who
roamed the woodland, the people whom white people envy in inventions and place wooden effigies of in
93
—
.
THE EVERLASTING SKY front of cigar stores, and
lakes after in
.
.
.
name
94
streets,
and parks, and
they were sons of the anishinahe heroes
the wars of the white
men.
One youth standing
near the end of the building
hands slowly and then ran down the street. He was driven by fear. A few seconds later he stumbled face forward into the street with a bullet hole lowered
in his
his
He was
head.
dead.
The automobile had /lotbeen anishinahe youths
driveway because
it
stolen.
three oshki
were only pushing it out of a would not start. The youths were
frightened, as every oshki anishinahe in
The
is,
of the police
the city. Carrying out his duty, the policeman took a
life
— and
then
found
he
no
out
crime
had
been
committed.
The death
of the oshki anishinahe youth
and the police
was ruled
was officially exonerated from any wrongdoing. The protectors of the dominant white society have seldom been guilty of any justifiable
officer
wrongdoing, but the death of the youth was genocide in the memory of the anishinahe community For weeks the people gathered on the streets and in their
homes
in
the city to talk in hushed voices about
the brutality of the
police.
Stories were
compared people remembered
about other police incidents the beatings in dark alleyways by the protectors
who remove
their
blue-uniformed
badges or cover them
with their hands to avoid identification.
remember
violent thrusts
cars and in the
jail
The people
from nightsticks
in
police
elevator after being arrested.
WHAT THE
PEOPLE BEI lEVE
IS
TRUE
95
For years municipal court judges have seen the battered faces and heads of the oshki anishinabe in court. Little has been said and even less has been
done to understand the racial hostility of policemen. The police would say the marks of clubs and abrasions from tight handcuffs were self-inflicted by the accused or sustained in falls and street fights. Sitting next to the oshki anishinabe
in
men who had been
court
all
arrested
these years were white
— but few white
men
bear
such marks.
When and
legal
complaints were made through human
civil rights
organizations to police officials, they
would demand badge numbers, dates and witnesses, and other information that someone on the other end of a nightstick would have little thought in gathering. 1 he most protection the people need is protection from the police.
“Why
must the oshki anishinabe bear the burden of
policing the police ... a citizen has a right to expect
justice,” an oshki anishinabe leader told police cials in a
meeting about police harassment.
But, the police olficials explained, while there
be a few thoughts,
offi-
men on we need
the
force
who have
specific information.
may
prejudicial In
the
few
cases the police department has been given specific information nothing has happened.
“d hen forget the facts and believe what the oshki anishinabe say ” the leader said, “begin with what
—
the people believe d'he polarization
is
true.”
between the oshki anishinabe and
THE EVERLASTING SKY the police
is
when
so great that
96
a federal
manpower
program was seeking people to participate in a training program to become police officers, no oshki training
anisliinahe expressed interest.
about police
is
The way
best expressed
in
the people feel
the fact that no one
could be found to accept free training to
become
a
police officer.
Police hostility and harassment are not problems limited to the urban center.
The problem
serious, but less often obvious, in white
near the reservations. in
The
six
is
even more
communities
anishinahe reservations
the state are under state civil and criminal jurisdic-
and have as their law-enforcement officer the county sheriff. This means that people arrested on the tion
reservation must spend the night
community
off the reservation.
in
jail
in
Many county
a white officials
resent the burden of jursidiction on the reservation,
which
is
tax-free land.
The oshki anishinahe Cc\n
thousands of stories of police brutality and harassment. As in the past the dominant society exonerates and leaves a good record. tell
White men
have also excluded from history the brutality toward the anishinahe in the past. The dominant society has a good record and the oshki anishinahe have a good memory. What the people believe
is
true.
The
facts are no longer important.
There are always men who mitigate the harsh realities of life by their attitudes of humanity and justice.
One such man was
who was
oshki anishinahe Ira Isham,
the county deputy sheriff on the Nett
Lake
WHAT THE
PEOPLE BELIEVE
IS
TRUE
Reservation, where he was born.
man
97
He was
with more than punitive interests
a dedicated
in his
commu-
nity.
Isham
on the same reservation
where he enforced the law, but the law under Isham was more than a book of offenses designed by the dominant society. The law was to protect people. A veteran of combat in the South Pacific during World War II, Isham was a law-enforcement officer for more than fifteen years. lived
Isham knew the people and he knew the language. There was a basis for mutual respect. He often enforced what he called customary la\v\ rather than an instant arrest with a tell-it-to-the-judge attitude,
Isham
worked out the problem where it happened. He was reluctant to arrest oshki anishinahe unless a serious crime had been committed because, he once explained, he did not like the idea of taking a person
from the reservation to jail or any other institution in the white community. This does not mean that deputy Isham overlooked criminal behavior, particularly in serious crimes against the person, but in minor of-
fenses involving property or public disturbances, he
was respected
for resolving the
problem on the reser-
vation without a dehumanizing night
When
possible,
in jail.
Isham would enforce
restitiitive
rather than retributive jusUcQ on the reservation
when
a crime involved property.
He told who stole
the story about an oshki anishinahe youth a motorcycle
from a white man on the
THE EVERLASTING SKY
98
reservation and then out of fear abandoned the vehi-
The motorcycle was found and returned to the white man but it had been damaged. Isham cle.
approached the youth, whom he had known for many years, and offered persuasive evidence of his guilt in the theft, but suggested the youth voluntarily agree to
pay for the repairs of the damaged motorcycle. The next day the youth spoke to the white man and the matter was settled. Isham was pleased with the
way
things turned out, he said, because the white
man
has a better feeling about the reservation and the people, and the youth will not have to be burdened with the guilt of the theft or, worse, with an arrest and conviction for the crime.
While on duty Isham suffered a heart attack and died. More than a hundred white law-enforcement officers from all over the state attended the funeral on the
honoring
reservation
sheriff
Ira
Isham.
osliki
He was
anishiiiahe
a respected
man
deputy in
two
worlds.
The Red Lake Reservation
is
the only reservation in
the state which has never been ceded to the federal
government original
as trust land. Residents of
title
to
allotments been
the
made on
that the reservation
Nor have
the reservation,
federal
land
which means
was excluded from federal
tion transferring civil
state
land.
Red Lake have
and criminal jurisdiction
legisla-
to the
government.
On the Red Lake Reservation the people have their own constitution and tribal courts and law enforce-
WHAT THE PEOPLE
BELIEVE
TRUE
IS
99
merit officers handling minor civil and criminal of-
Major crimes committed on the reservation, such as murder and grand larceny, are under the
fenses.
jurisdiction of federal courts.
“The Legal System of the Red Lake Reservation” that William Lawrence wrote as partial fulfillment for his degree in law, he comIn a research paper titled
pared the
modern
tribal legal
legal
system on the reservation
to the
systems of today:
“Traditional Indian law stressed
than retributive ]usUcQ
in
restitiitive
rather
criminal cases. In the classic
example of murder, instead of merely being punished, the [offender] was required to support the family of the victim.”
About the tribal judges on the reservation Lawrence writes: “The judges are, as a rule, tribal members with little or no legal training, thus making them heavily dependent upon the superintendent Ian official of the Bureau of indian Affairs on the reservation) for direction. Equally disturbing
enforcement
tion law
is
is
the fact that reserva-
also under the authority of the
agency superintendent. Thus with complete control over the law and order system, one individual is able to
unduly influence the
group of people.
“The Red cally
.
.
.
and property of a sizable
.
L.ake Court of indian Offenses specifi-
established
bers equally court.
.
life
is
to
render justice to
probably
little
more than
tribal
a
mem-
kangaroo
.
Red Lake Court of courts, would be in
“It appears quite evident that the
indian Offenses, like other tribal
THE
E V H R
jeopardy
if
I.
A ST
1
were made
it
SKY
NG
100
stand the test of due
to
process. ..."
The
constitution
of
Red
the
Lake
Reservation
specifically prohibits the possession of alcoholic bev-
erages on the reservation, but crimes associated with drinking constitute, Lawrence explains, most of the criminal charges involving the oshki anishinahe on the reservation:
"Reservation prohibition not only has been ineffective in preventing access to alcohol, but
uted to the problem. is
As with
it
has contrib-
national Prohibition there
widespread disrespect for the law, an unwillingness
on the part of reservation
officials to
enforce
easy
it,
access to bootleg liquor, and development of groups ." economically interested in retention of the law. .
Lawrence continues
that
it
sider that the only legal
way
in
is
"ludicrous to con-
which
can bring liquor on the reservation
The necessity
of
consuming
a
.
member
a tribal
is in
his
stomach.
purchase before return-
ing to the reservation contributes to the incidents of
drunkenness, as well as that of driving while intoxicated.
." .
.
Residents of the reservation
who wished
to legally
purchase strong beer or hard liquor must drive
at least
twenty-live miles to the nearest white community.
One
white community near the reservation supports the
town government through the proceeds from
a munici-
pal liquor store.
l.awrence has proposed that the a
tribal
council offer
referendum repealing the constitutional prohibition
WHAT THE PEOPLE
BELIEVE
IS
TRUE
101
of liquor on the reservation and establish a tribally
owned
liquor store.
‘'Permitting alcohol on the reservation,”
Lawrence
worsen conditions and might even facilitate a move toward more responsible drinking the band [tribal members of the Red Lake Reservation] would benefit economically if funds now writes,
.
.
‘‘is
unlikely to
.
spent for alcohol could be so used on the reservation; not only might taxes be levied upon such sales, but the
would be retained within the band, particuif a tribally owned package store were estab-
profits larly
lished.”
Lawrence
committed as a student of the law to the constitution and as an oshki anishinahe he is committed to improving the quality of life and government on is
the reservation.
He
not easily
demanding
in
tire
of
is
a reformer
and
idealist
who
will
responsibility and fairness
government and law enforcement on the reserva-
tion.
‘‘For reservation //ic/Lhls,” he writes, ‘‘tribal sover-
eignty
is
not an abstract concept, a cultural relic, or
even a vanishing tribe
On
the reservation the
members
not only the local
institution.
represents to
its
government, but also a dominant force in their economic and social lives. These powers include the authority to define conditions of tribal regulate domestic relations of
members,
members,
to
to prescribe
rules of inheritance, to levy taxes, to regulate property
within the jurisdiction
conduct of members by
of the tribe,
to control
tribal legislation, to
the
administer
THE EVER justice,
and
to
1.
A
STING SKY
102
determine allocation of communally-
owned wealth. ‘Thus the tribal government
exercises the
most
important governmental power for most reservation
sometimes imposed on state and
indians. Tribal governmental actions have
exceeded constitutional federal governments.
limits
Some
of these departures can be
attributed to the lack of finances and education that
would be necessary
“When
meet constitutional standards. the Senate Subcommittee on Constitutional
Rights discovered
accorded the same
to
that
reservation
rights, privileges
indians are
not
and immunities by
government as required of the state and federal government, their reaction was not whether to act, but rather how far and fast to proceed. ..." The problem of tribal actions in the enforcement of the law on reservations, and the jurisdiction of state and federal governments, is not experienced by the their tribal
oshki anisliinahe living
in
the city.
They demand
that
the existing system of justice in the white courts be as
and equal
fair
members
to
the
oshki anishinahe as
to
the
dominant society. Harold Goodsky, who was born on the Nett l.ake Reservation, is employed as a probation officer by the county court services in the city. He works excluof the
sively with oshki anishinahe
young people
in
trouble
with the law.
After two years on the job, courts are a will
Goodsky feels that the “closed book and don’t know if the book I
ever open up to indians.
“I
once had the belief
that
I
could teach white
WHAT THE PEOPLE
BELIEVE
IS
TRUE
103
people about Indian feelings, and adapt Indians to white
and help the white understand the but I don’t really think I can be effective,
courts,
problems because
.
.
I
sort of
whites and
“The
.
my
walk down the middle between the
people.
me
indians call
a sell-out,’’ he said, almost
whispering, with his arms stretched out across the dining
room
“but
believe in what
I
people say
1
table
am
in
his I
two-bedroom apartment,
am
doing
.
.
and the white
.
hiding behind the bag of being an
indian.'^
The beads of perspiration grew on his arms as he talked. It was a hot summer night in the city. Goodsky had spent a long day in the community talking with young people on probation. His sensitive attitude and style keep him present in the community with his people but not watching them or looking for things they are doing wrong.
“My people why his
need somebody on their side, and that’s
the court needs me,’’ he emphasized, clenching
fist.
“They need me
people are saying
is
to tell the court that
what the
not untrue. These people in the
court have never visited a reservation and they don’t
know what a hard Until Goodsky
life is all
about.’’
joined the navy he had not
reservation of his birth.
He
believes
in
left
the
anisliinahe
and speaks the language of the people. On an impulse he will often drive back to the reservation just religion
to talk
with friends and relatives
in
the anisliinahe
language.
He came
to the city to live
when he was discharged
THE EVERLASTING SKY from the service. His parents
still
104
live
on the reserva-
tion.
Goodsky has
a high school
diploma and worked as a
construction laborer before he
became
anishhiahe youth organizations
continued his interest
working
organizer and
is
the city.
He
has
youth organizations while
poverty program
the
in
in
in
active in oshki
community American indian
as
active in the militant
a
Movement. “The Indian people are tired of answering the door and finding some super-white social worker standing there to rescue you," Goodsky said with mixed humor and seriousness. “Your hard times are over, the social worker mutters, and right away he asks the same old
how many children, you, how many times a week do you have
questions, like what’s your name,
how
old are
sex.
“The
knows everything there is to know about paperwork, and when the indian wants to be indian
heard his voice
Goodsky
is
lost in the
refuses to deal
paper.” in
paper and
is
reluctant to
conduct investigations for the county court services until the court understands the feelings of the people His brow wrinkles and his voice shifts from almost a whisper when he is serious, to head-tossing first.
explosions of laughter
when he
is
teasing. His
humor
and teasing are not always understood. For example, he
demanded with
all
seriousness that he he given a
red telephone for his desk because he did not want to
be
like all the
phones.
other court workers with white und black
WHAT THE
through
I
IS
time they recognize
‘‘It’s
good
PEOPLE BELIEVE
TRUE
105
who we
are,” he said
power telephone is as any. They took me so seriously
his laughter, ‘‘and a red
a place to start as
decided to keep
it
that
way and demand
a red desk
and red chair.”
Because of with
his job in the courts he
many white people
in
contact
know all about the He is often asked by
curious to
colorful traditions of the Indians.
white people to
comes
comment on
the impression that the
anishinahe drink too much. ‘‘I
man
say that the white
has been drinking for
centuries on end, and the Indian couldn’t legally drink until a
few years ago, so we got one
catching up to do.
hell of a lot of
.” .
.
Goodsky shares
the attitude
with Ira Isham that
every effort should be made to keep young people out of jail and out of white institutions. Goodsky is bitter
about what institutions do to the he
is
even more
bitter
osliki anishinahe, but
about what the police and the
courts do to his people. His sense of hope overcomes his bitterness
and he
tries
again every morning.
While he verbally indicts the police for their treatment of young people on the street, he has set up a regular weekly basketball
game between
the police
and members of the militant American indian Movement. Goodsky plays hard and takes exacting pleasure in
defeating the police on the basketball court and out
of uniform.
George Mellessey, who was born on the White Earth Reservation, has been working for the oshki anishinabe
in
the courts without salary.
THE EVERLASTING SKY Mellessey
is
a retired painting contractor
more than
lived in the city for retired he
106
thirty years.
who has When he
had no problem deciding what to do with
his
time. ‘T could have sold
reservation,” he said
would
that
do me
challenge because
.
my home and gone back in a .
.
harsh voice, ”but what good
what
life is still
Mellessey appears
in
to the
I
needed was a
little
me.”
interesting to
court every morning to repre-
sent any oshki anishlnahe
who needs
help.
He wan-
ders from courtroom to courtroom checking with the
people, asking over and over again,
what are you
charged with, do you need an attorney, can you post hail, do you want me to call anyone, if you need me for anything just ask the judge. To the oshki anishinahe appearing
name Mellessey
is
a
good one. He
is
in
court, the
like a father to the
young people, and the court recognizes and honors responsibility to them.
people released from
He has
jail in
his
his
the authority to have
custody.
”Lm
one of those grass-roots indians," he said, enjoying the use of well-worn phrases. “1 don't have a degree
in
anything.”
Mellessey attended federal boarding schools but did
He has five children and own home in the city.
not graduate.
family
in his
He helped organize and was
lives with his
elected chairman of the
National indian Council on Alcohol and Drugs; he now has two jobs with no salary. The new organization is
dedicated to the research and rehabilitation of indian
WHAT THE
PEOPLE BELIEVE
alcoholics.
The governing body
IS
TRUE is
107
an 'dW-indian board
divided into eleven districts throughout the nation.
may
Mellessey
man
be considered an old
to the
young oshki anishinabe he works with, but his attitudes and compassion are youthful and aggressive. He is firm when he tells young oshki anishinabe they should fight more and more for their rights as citizens. ‘‘You will receive your rights if you assert your rights,” he
is
often heard saying.
About the stereotype of the oshki anishinabe as a heavy drinker, Mellessey argues that the people drink no more than white people, ‘‘but can see where a lot I
of white people could have good reasons for their
contention,
think,
I
because
our
people
have
been victims of chemical warfare from the very beginning.
.
.” .
Whatever the frustrations and problems of working for the people through the system of white courts, the
oshki anishinabe committed to justice
in
the courts
up the responsibility of serving the people. As the number of people working in the courts grows, the number of frustrations with the system will will not easily give
also grow, and
change the
if
frustration can change anything,
system of justice that the oshki anishinabe have endured for so many years.
it
will
‘‘An indian
in
racist
trouble not only needs a good lawyer
but he needs another indian
in
the court to talk with
about his feelings,” said Harold Goodsky, with his forehead gathered in wrinkles, “so could never leave 1
my
place
in
the courts because
we may
write a
new
THE EVERLASTING SKY
108
chapter for the closed book about the Indian feelings that should never be forgotten in the court.
.
.
‘‘We have never had a voice in the making of laws,” Mellessey said, “but we have to comply with them
Our true laws anyway in the courts of white men. come from the treaties and if we demanded our .
.
.
aboriginal treaty rights in court the judges
know what
to do.
.” .
.
would not
9
No One
Else
Can Represent
My I
Conscience
myself
will
test the
power of my
spirit
— anishinahe song poem
A
tall
woman walked toward
oshki anishinahe
the
chambers to speak to the members of the City Council. The public microphone was shut off, so Loretta Beaulieu raised her voice and told the members of the council that they must face the problems of oshki anishinahe living in the city. front
of
Fhe
the
elected
carpeted
president
of
the
Minneapolis
City
Council smiled politely and explained very slowly that her remarks were not
in
permitted to speak
the
to
order.
She would not be
council while
it
was
in
session. 109
THE EVERLASTING SKY
110
Loretta Beaulieu objected and argued that she had the right and responsibility as a citizen to address a legislative
body about the problems of minority peo-
ple.
The council members smiled nervously while she continued to tell them that they must correct the injustices that the police
and many other governmental
agencies have perpetuated against the oshki anishinahe.
She was asked again to be silent. When she would not stop talking she was removed from the council chambers by two policemen. She protested on the way out the door that she was being denied her constitutional rights to address a legislative
body elected
to
represent the people.
She was taken to the city jail and charged with public drunkenness. She had not been drinking. Later that morning she was released on vided by an attorney
who was
present
in
bail
pro-
the council
chambers when she was removed. “She was a perfect lady as she approached the microphone and sought to get the attention of the council and sought to speak," the attorney said under oath.
The elected representatives of the city in which more than ten thousand oshki anishinahe live recessed and Loretta Beaulieu walked home on bail the cold winter wind thinking about how she would
for lunch, in
defend herself rhe
in
court.
Minnesota American
Civil
Union and sent two
Liberties
learned of the circumstances of her arrest
NO ONE ELSE CAN REPRESENT MY CONSCIENCE representatives to her
home
city,
in
I
1
to offer legal assistance.
Sitting in an overstuffed chair in her
apartment
1
one-bedroom
the oshki anishinahe neighborhood of the
she rested her chin on her hands and without
hesitation refused the assistance of an attorney or
any organization.
you have been burned as many times as have, and my people have, you would be wary of people bearing gifts,” she said, staring at the two representatives long enough to make them feel uncomfortable. ‘‘You have not walked in my moccasins,” she said, ‘'If
I
repeating a popular phrase of the people. ‘‘Only
know what
No one
must defend myself. conscience.”
about and
this is all
my
else can represent
who
Like her ancestors
I
I
learned the secrets of herbal
medicine and foretold the future, Loretta Beaulieu believes she has prescient dreams and the
power of
is
moved by
a vision to defend the rights of the oshki
anishinahe.
She dreams of a world of equality and absolute justice, where all the people truly rule the nation. Everyone is an immigrant to the United States, she explains tribes
man
— including
who were
the
the
oshki anishinahe and other
first
immigrants
— and
because
did not originate on this continent the people
who
have settled here have
all
she emphasizes, the
United States belongs to the
built this nation.
Therefore,
whole world because this nation was built by people from every national, religious and ethnic origin.
She believes United
States
in
herself as a visionary defending the
Constitution
and
leading
the
world
THE
E V H R
toward
justice.
I.
A
S
T
I
SKY
NG
powers follow her vision and
that her psychic
She explains
have influenced many people to
dream of a united world. “The ground is soaked with people," she whispered
in
“When
112
the
blood
my
of
harsh voice and then
a
message it is be a nobody with nothing. ..." important that She looked down and was silent for a few minutes relaxed
in
her chair.
I
deliver the
I
and then smiled. She slapped her knee, suddenly changing her whole mood. “Don’t you know that everyone should demand a jury
trial
.
.
.
the police and judges have a hard time
stepping on your rights
when
the
members
are sitting there, taking everything
down.
.
of a jury .
.
“This lack of respect people have for the law is caused by the lack of respect the law has for people. .
.
.
Let the
damned law
clean
itself
up before
it
starts
trying to clean up the rest of us," she said, jabbing a finger in the air.
She jumped up
at the
end of her sentence and went
more coffee. When she returned her mood had changed again. She stared intensely into space through her dark-rimmed glasses. “Don’t you know that this country is the biggest mess created in the history of all mankind," she said very slowly, nodding her head. “The only thing that is
into the kitchen for
going to bring order into the midst of this chaos
common bond
in
our
common
our
is
banner, our stardom
in
crown of Old (dory, the banner of the l.ord She sighed and relaxed in her overstuffed chair and again she was silent. While she was sipping her coffee. the
.
.
.
NO ONE ELSE CAN REPRESENT MY CONSCIENCE
113
the wrinkles left her forehead.
‘The one
thing that
She smiled and said: white people hate the most is a
smart redskin."
She would not compromise her personal philosophy and intense conscience by accepting legal assistance from anyone. Independently she had decided to enter a plea of not guilty to the charge of public
and demand a
trial
before a jury of her peers.
Loretta Beaulieu appeared
When
drunkenness
the judge asked her
in if
court a few days later.
she was represented by
counsel, she replied calmly that she was her own counsel. She took a seat opposite the city attorney and in
two policemen who had removed her council chambers.
front of the
from the city She was denied
because state legislation
a jury trial
has limited the privilege of a jury
trial
in
certain
municipal violations of the law. Denied her request, she said she would then stand mute and not defend herself.
"Your Honor," she asked
in a lilting
voice, "in the
absence of a jury of my peers, am allowed to make an opening statement to the court?" I'he judge smiled and explained carefully that she would be permitted to examine each witness and 1
object to any questions
in the
two witnesses. "Well, Your Honor, advance which does have
course of the examina-
tion of the
d'he judge departed
I
have something a bearing
on
this
to say
in
case."
from ordinary courtroom procedure and permitted her to make an opening statement to the court.
THE EVERLASTING SKY '‘Now, but
plea
is
not guilty because
I
am
14
innocent,
cannot defend myself while being deprived of my under the Constitution of the United States to a
I
right trial
my
1
by jury.
obeying one law means violating another," she told the judge, "I have a right to decide which I would If
rather have on
my
conscience. In
with the highest law of the land
law I
in the
land supersedes, and
my
eyes, loyalty
lies
— the law that no other I
will
stand by
it
just as
always have.
"Now,”
she said, pointing her finger at the judge
and stretching her neck forward, "consider this. Your Honor: We indians became citizens of the United States on June 6, 1924, and
for the
rest of the nation in 1933
us too.
"But
it
didn’t
come
it
when Repeal came should have come to
for twenty years, until 1953,”
she said, meaning that the oshki anishinahe were not legally permitted to drink until less than
twenty years
ago,
"But
1946 the State of Minnesota passed a law permitting the sale of liquor to indians," she explained, and then paused, shuffling her feet beside in
the city attorney
who was
tapping his pencil on a
yellow legal pad.
"No
state
law supersedes the federal law,” she rapid speech rhythms. "That law was in
continued
in
effect for
two days and the bars were slamming the
doors
in
"So
our faces
all
over again.
no state law supersedes a federal law in that case, no state law supersedes a federal law in any case. if
NO ONE ELSE CAN REPRESENT MY CONSCIENCE including denying
me
I
cannot
plea
in all
jiiry.
am
I
innocent but
conscience defend myself while being
my
deprived of
by
trial
not guilty because
is
15
the right under the Constitution
of the United States to a
“So my
I
under the Constitution of the United States to a trial by jury, so there will be no defense for the reasons stated.”
The
right
city attorney
stopped tapping
leaned forward with his
uncommon
and
parted to watch a most
lips
oshki anishinahe
his pencil
woman
take her seat on
the other side of the table and calmly knit her hands in
her lap.
“Very well,”
the judge said, instructing the city
attorney to proceed with the two witnesses for the prosecution.
When
two policemen was completed the judge asked a few simple questions about the behavior of the accused and found the testimony of the
Loretta Beaulieu not guilty.
The oshki anishinahe who were present courtroom followed her down the
hall
in
the
and out of the
building into the cold.
She had her day her saying as she the church of
my
in
left
court, and her friends
the courthouse that “the court
faith,
and
1
shall
is
avenge the mockery
been made of the Constitution.” She has been dreaming for a long time.
that has
remember
Little
More Than
an Inside Toilet obeying one law means violating another, have a right to decide which would rather have on If
I
I
my
conscience.
.
.
.
— Loretta Beaulieu, oshki anishinabeihlnkQr,
When
the area director of the
Minneapolis walked into
in
1968
Bureau of indian Affairs his
carpeted office one
morning he found a young oshki anishhnihe twirling his
in
expensive, high-backed swivel chair.
Unaware until
of history, the boy twirled and twirled
he got bored and
left
tor a tour of other offices in
the building.
The office ot
members
the
director
had
been
seized
by
American indian Movement. They arrived early and announced that they were staying on of the
the federal carpets,
the
among
the drapes and pictures of
Presidents, until changes were
made
in
archaic
LITTLE MORE THAN AN INSIDE TOILET policies controlling the
reservations and
in
lives
1
17
people on the
of the
the city.
The people have had thoughts about taking over the Bureau of Indian Affairs for more than a century, but the actual plan to seize the area office in Minneapolis
was organized in less than a week. Militant young and old oshki anishinahe, residents of and the reservation, and whole families were
leaders,
the city sitting in
the director’s office waiting for history to be changed.
The people believed world.
their
courage would change the
time they would learn that nothing had
In
changed.
Wearing
beaded headband and moccasins, an oshki anishinahe asked the director of the area office how long he had been working for the Bureau of a
indian Affairs.
‘Thirty-one years,” he answered without hesita-
“And have a “Would you say
tion.
I
very, very good reputation.”
you have enjoyed your work and the bureau has done a good job?” “Yes, a very good job,” the director said with pride. “1
that
have many indian friends.”
The people groaned and then laughed, drowning out the last words of the director. They did not see themselves as indians, nor as It
was
a
bad day for the white director. He was
being held responsible
unknown
his friends.
sins that
in
one day for
all
the
known and
have been committed against the
people by the federal government.
Time passed slowly
for everyone.
I'he
excitement
THE EVER was wearing
1.
thin
A
STING SKY
1
18
on the faces of the militants. The
area director sat at his desk attempting to discuss the
demands made by the leaders of the occupation. The room was filled with smoke. The osliki anishinahe were rubbing their eyes. Questions were never answered. Discussions were never completed. The telephone rang and tempers flared when the director referred to the progress the bureau had made in working with the people on the reservations. An oshki anishinahe in long hair and knee-high moccasins asked how many reservation people served children
on the school boards of federal boarding schools.
A woman An oshki something
asked the director
if
he was a racist.
anishinahe child asked
if
he could have
to eat.
The questions were repeated. The area director seldom answered. Responding
to
a
question about his salary, the
director said he earned over twenty thousand dollars a year.
“Do you know how many
people can eat
for that salary?” an oshki anishinahe
wagging her
in
one year
woman
yelled,
Her husband had left her and the children on the reservation. She moved to the city and receives welfare assistance. The telephone rang. I'he
finger at the director.
militant leaders
demanded
that the
Bureau of
indian Affairs be restructured to serve both the urban
and reservation people equally.
The
leaders
demanded
that an
immediate investiga-
MORE THAN AN
LITTLE
INSIDE TOILET
1
19
tion of the .
.
.
.
.
.
bureau be conducted by an ciW-indian team exemption of Indians from federal and state taxes an appropriation of half a million dollars for urban
Indian
programs
the people in
.
.
.
turn all jobs in the bureau over to
.
.
.
construct hospitals on everv reservation
the state
.
.
.
return to the people exclusive hunting
and fishing rights on the reservation. The director explained several times the complaints
were out of
his
most of hands because the that
bureau was responsible only to the people
He
reservations.
said the
demands should be made
body, not to an administrative government. legislative
on
living
to a
office of the
‘‘When has the bureau ever helped the people tight for what they want? George Mitchell snapped. “Why don’t you people help us just once fight for what we want? ’
“Everything
“But city
.
this .
.
the reservation,” Mitchell snarled.
the largest reservation right here in the
is
when
The area
is
will
you help the people
director tired of the confrontation and
called the city police to clear the building.
oHicer arrived,
and the people
because the building belonged their bureau.
They were
staffed to assist
The area
here?”
living
One
him
to
to the people
and
told
police
the people the offices
leave it
was were
and they were staying.
director took a long lunch on the
first
day
of the occupation, and on the second day he signed a
complaint which gave the police the authority to clear the building.
THE EVERLASTING SKY
120
Nine oshki anishinabe were carried from the building by police officers and taken to the city
police van. Dennis Banks, director of the indiaii
arm
Movement, stood
in
jail
in a
American
the door of the van with his
raised and his hst clenched
— the
symbol of the
oppressed expecting to be oppressed. The doors of the van were closed to the steady beat of a
tribal
drum and
the voices of oshki anishinabe singers.
While the militants were on the way to
jail
the
director hired a private detective agency to protect the
building from the people a century
ago
it
was established more than
to assist.
For several months the private detectives the
door of the area
front
everyone
who
office
sat inside
and questioned
what is your name, what is your business, do you have an appointment, whom do you want to see. Only people with dark skin were detained and
questioned
passed
at the
.
door.
.
.
The
director
was
with white skin were not questioned.
safe. People
Some
things
never change.
‘The people have
a love-hate relationship with the
bureau,” said Ronald Libertus,
who was born on
the
Leech Lake Reservation. “Neither can function when they depend on each other for love and hate at the same time, fhe whole world is going to hell and the bureau guards the door to federal services.” fhe militant leaders have charged the bureau with racist hiring practices, but very few oshki anishinabe
show
interest in
working for the bureau. The demands
LITTLE MORE THAN AN INSIDE TOILET
121
were being made by urban oshki anishhuihe imd not by residents of the reservations, where the people are
more dependent on
the bureau.
Some
believe that
urban people are expressing a need to be as dependent
on the bureau as reservation people.
Ray Lightfoot, who was born on the Red Lake Reservation, has worked for the bureau for more than thirty years. He said the ‘‘militants always demand more jobs, but at the same time they discourage people from working for the bureau." There are about
two dozen tribal people working in the area Most of them are women in clerical jobs. Within a year of the occupation of the area militants,
For the
first
time, an oshki anishhiahe
was
in
charge of
states.
policies,
militants objected again. This time they
man
by
office
Lightfoot was promoted to area director.
programs on reservations in four appointment did not change bureau of a
office.
were
But
his
and the critical
they had originally supported.
The American indian Movement was organized by Mitchell, Banks and Harold Goodsky. There are more than a thousand active members, with branches in several cities across the country. The purpose of the organization and the philosophy of militancy was best expressed in a statement by Banks on the second anniversary of the movement: ‘‘ ... we must commit ourselves to changing the which we have been forced to live the government and churches have demoralized, dehumanized, massacred, robbed, raped, promised. social pattern in
.
.
.
THE EVERLASTING SKY made treaty now destroy to
and
after treaty, this political
lied to
machine
122
us
that
.
.
.
man
we must has built
prevent us from self-determination.
must never allow another one to be built. We must never again take a back seat to anyone ... we must, ourselves, build machines that will prevent this but a machine built on not a political-type machine
“We
—
—
freedom from oppression, and on the difference between what is morally right and wrong 'ds opposed to what is legal and illegal." One of the most enduring objectives of the movebeliefs, self-determination,
ment is to work with oshki anishinahe young people in the community. “If we are going to have any community action at all, it will be with the young people who are working out their identity at the same time they are working with adult leaders," said Ronald Libertus, who has helped raise funds for youth programs in the city. Militant leaders argue that there should be a special
school for the oshki anishinahe
who have moved from
the reservation to the city.
“In a
with
struggle
Mitchell said, “the
before
he
institutions.
can
own
to
often
an the
George
identity,"
young indian must
relate
Too
his
alien
himself
find
society
relationship
and
its
been
has
forced."
Clyde Bellecourt militant
ever
leader
anishinahe.
He
is
is
seen as the most controversial to
emerge among the
oshki
both intense and soft-spoken, a
fist-
clencher and affectionate, a table-banger and mitigator
LITTLE
— he is
MORE THAN AN
INSIDE TOILET
123
He
angry and gentle, headstrong and yielding.
is
complex when he
is
angry and very
affectionate to the personal needs of others
not angry.
Bellecourt
people find
in
is
warm and when he is
oshki anishinahe, and the
him everything they are themselves and
dislike in others.
He was born on
White Earth Reservation and parochial elementary school until he was
attended a
the
when he was committed
eleven years old,
to the state
boys as a delinquent. He was committed for being absent from school. training school
The next
for
fifteen years of his life he spent in
of correctional
institutions.
While
in
and out on
prison
a
burglary sentence, Bellecourt and another oshki anish-
inabe inmate organized a group of reservation people to discuss the
meaning of culture and
religion.
It
was
then, he said, that he began to understand himself.
Bellecourt voices the bitterness of inhuman experi-
ences not only as a person of dark skin but as a man who has been committed to a correctional institution.
“They me,” he
told
I
in his
was
sion,
names and
othce. “furst
I
was an
Indian, and
a convicted felon.”
Some oshki movement are their
already had two strikes against
1
said about the past, while leaning against the
door frame second
me
anishinahe think the leaders of the interested in
in the
their
little
newspaper,
cars
rigged
telephones.
Some
receiving a
good salary
believe
for
their faces
with
the
more than seeing on
televi-
short-wave
radio
militant
leaders
organizing
their
are
own
THE EVERLASTING SKY
few osliki cinishincihe see as nothing more than opportunists who
personal complaints. the militants
And
124
a
should be ignored.
But most oshki anishinahe support the purpose of the
movement
while differing
of the leaders. But those
at
times with the tactics
who have experienced
the
frustrations of trying for change are respectful of the
energy the militants give to changing the conditions of life
A
for the people.
seldom has a moment of personal peace. The people need him at all times of the day, because a leader who is trusted is depended upon by those who trust him. That trust and dependency call for a total life commitment. There are no vacations and militant leader
quiet evenings at
home
for the militant leader.
And
there are no retirement programs.
College-educated oshki anishinahe generally support the causes of the militants but are not certain
always necessary when an issue might be negotiated. But every oshki anishinahe leader who
confrontation
is
has worked for a few years
dominant society agrees militants are doing the ture of the
in
that
the institutions of the
because of what the
changes from within the struc-
dominant society are much easier and more
im mediate. d'here
is
some
truth in
all
the responses to the oshki
anishinahe militant movement, just as there the various
ways
is
truth in
of understanding and changing the
conditions which have caused the problems.
“1Tis country
is
sympathetic and willing to serve
Indian
THF INDIKVi
The anishinabe his
own
man should speak with courage about When a man speaks for others he has lost
believe a
experience.
way. Young urban oshki anishinabe are often critical of those who interpret their needs and speak for them. his
Clyde Bellecourt, controversial urban militant leader of the
American indian Movement
Ceremonial tribal songs in the committee room of the Minneapolis Area Office of the Bureau o/ indian Affairs during a recent protest of federal policies
Rental property in the city: little more than an inside toilet for the anishinabe moving to the city
from the reservation
Above: George Mitchell, community organizer: below, William Lawrence and Francis Bran discussing for tribal representatives on the Red Lake Reservation
the election
LITTLE MORE THAN AN INSIDE TOILET Indian programs," said Lee
125
Cook, showing
cern that there might be a backlash
the
in
con-
his
dominant
‘'We don’t have the numbers as a small minority to risk having the doors closed by a backlash society.
to political
What we
militants.
more diplomats
.
.
really
need now are
.
"If the militants have used every other
means
to
express the problem and change the quality of life for themselves first and then others," Cook continued,
"then they have no other way to speak out than as militants.
"But ence of
the question
is
whether militancy
futility," he said, looking off
is
an experi-
and pondering
the question himself.
"People would be better
olf
on their
own
without
government ... do your own thing instead of crying about having someone else do it for you. the federal
"The we did
new thing, but same thing ten years ago," Cook said, hands to express a reference to time. "The
militants think they are doing a
the
pitching his
cry has changed from food and clothing and shelter to politics
now.
"If the militants have not lost their perspective they will see that all the
crying has been done before
people want a program of their
own now,
.
.
.
not a
the
new
cry every year."
Cook
is
a persuasive diplomat but at times he
most militant
ol leaders.
needs of the people
in
is
the
Por two years he served the the city, and
he has never
forgotten the cockroaches zipping across sinks and
THE EVER
1.
A
STING SKY
126
hiding behind a hot water pipe that runs cold.
no diplomat when he saw children mattiesses close to space heaters
sitting
in
He was on bare
cold, dimly
lit
rooms, watching television to escape the reality of poverty. Lee Cook is a good diplomat because he was a good militant who did more acting than crying.
More than 70 per cent
of
the
oshki anishinahe
families living in the city live in substandard housing. They pay more for broken windows, doors without locks, broken hinges, cockroaches, leaking gas stoves, cold water, and the fear that the landlord will evict
them
the middle of the winter. Every oshki anishifiahe has either lived in or knows about the conditions
of
in
that
life
make
the
best diplomats and the
best
militants.
Many
people
in
the city have been
they see what they have as a good
life
down
so long
compared
to the
past on the reservation.
For decades the dominant society has ignored the problems of poverty because the people have not complained. When militant leaders educate the
poor about their poverty, the militants are often criticized by white people for creating the problem. For more than a century the anishinahe have been listening to missionaries and government officials and expert
good
anthropologists and
teachers
tell
about the
and the many opportunities for success in the world. Ifut the meaning of life in the city for many life
oshki anishinahe families toilet.
is
little
more than an
inside
LITTLE MORE THAN AN INSIDE TOILET
127
“The one thing you can always gel from a white man is a drink,” said George Mitchell with bitterness. “Someone will always buy you a drink or give you a cheap bottle of wine, but try to get some money for a program. It seems to me that the white man would like to keep the people begging for a
few pennies
drink.”
to
buy
a
Buried
in
a Blue Suit Silence has so
much meaning
.
.
.
— Ted Mahto, poet and educator,
In the trciditional tribal past
1970
when an
unishiiuihc died
he was dressed in his finest buckskin clothing and buried with his knees bent toward his chest leaving
—
the world in the
same
When John Ka Ka Warroad, Minnesota
position that he had arrived.
Geesick died
at the
age of 124,
in
— a small town near the northern
border of the state— he was dressed in a blue suit and white shirt and buried in a Huffy satin-padded metal colli n. I
— of
he death of the oldest anishinahe
man
in
the state
woodland life reached beyond the organization the state and the establishment of the reservations
his
128
— BURIED
BLUE SUIT
IN A
for his people
129
— symbolized to some people the passing
of a culture and to others the strength and perpetual spiritual
energy of the oshki anisliinahe people
still
two worlds. Many people have forgotten the tribal ceremonies, but none of the oshki anishinahe people at the funeral could escape the power of the anishinahe spirit in the songs of the midewiwin the sacred religious life of the people. The sacred songs were sung at the funeral living in
—
in
the anishinahe language.
“Our
past
is
dying,” a young oshki anishinahe
man never wore a suit. and used herbal medicine. You can
said in the mortuary.
He was
man
a singer
“The
old
see the tattoos on his forehead.”
But the young oshki anishinahe past
was
also dressed in a suit and
who came to touch man of the tribe. His
of the people
anishinahe those
who touched
his
who spoke
tie
of the
and so were most
body of the oldest spirit was still alive in
the
body.
The white mortician was nervous because he had heard rumors that several
medicine men from the
would arrive to conduct a traditional midewiwin ceremony. The white people in Warroad where Ka Ka Geesick had lived for more than a reservation
century
and
— knew
nothing about
anishinahe medicine
religion.
The white mortician watched an ahe lean over the
coffin
old oshki anishin-
surrounded by the sweetness
of funeral flowers and place his hands on the
Ka Ka
Geesick.
The mortician
body of
said, in his best funereal
THE EVER voice, that he
STING SKY
A
1.
was not accustomed
130
to so
much
touch-
ing.
Then
the old
man
with his hands on the body began singing an anishinahe honoring song for the departing spirit
of a
man who had
and good life. You could hear the steady drumbeat of the past lived a long
through the beat of the hearts while the old man sang. The room was silent, and then in small groups the oshki anishinahe left the mortuary, each carrying a
remembrance card with
the
printed
face of Jesus
Christ on the cover, and the Twenty-third Psalm and the following printed on the inside:
IN
LOVING MEMORY OF
John Ka Ka Geesick
DATE OF BIRTH
May
14,
1844
DATE OF DEA H December 6, 1968 I
PLACE OF SERVICE Warroad School Gymnasium
J he spelling of his
name and
the date of his birth
were determined by white people.
means
everlasting sky,
Ka Ka
Geesick
but according to the Jesuit
BURIED
BLUE SUIT
IN A
131
missionary Frederic Baraga the phonetic transcription for everlasting sky
is
kagige
For white people and
gijig.
many osliki anishinahe who do not speak the language, the name Ka Ka Geesick is much easier to pronounce. For more than a hundred years kagige
Woods
along the shores of Lake of the
Minnesota near the Canadian border. line until the last five
When
northern
in
Fie ran a trap
years before his death.
kagige gijig spoke of his birth, as his relatives
remember
voice,
he would
tell
referring to an event
from the
past.
his
Lincoln was elected President of he would say that he was an old
Lightning
— who
oshki anishinahe
man
the village. Lightning
of
age by
his
once
Fie
told
when Abraham the United States. Or man when his cousin
was sixteen years
friends that he
Tom
gijig lived
old
is
now recognized
in
the state
— was
as the oldest a
little
was ninety-four years
old
boy
in
when
kagige gijig was buried.
Vacationing the
Woods
summer
tourists in the popular
area can buy
showing kagige
gijig
in
dressed
any drugstore in a
Lake of
a postcard
blue suit, orange-and-
black turkey feather headdress, with a green blanket
wrapped around his shoulders. The attire was an invention for tourists, who generally expect all inclians to wear a colorful headdress and blanket. The color photograph of kagige gijig printed on the card was taken by a photographer for the Minnesota State Conservation Department. The purpose of picturing indians on postcards and travel
brochures
is
an apparent effort to encourage tourism
THE EVERLASTING SKY tUid lecieation.
132
The following legend was printed on
the back of the card:
Chippewa Indian medicine man horn ... on the shore of Lake of the Woods at the site of Warroad, Minnesota. Recently celebrated his 12()th birthday by official village proclamation. Medicine bag always at his side, Ka-KaGeesick has been part of the Warroad scene since the
founding of the town.
Kagige
gijig
was born before
the state existed and
lived near the lake before the white village existed.
man was seldom seen carrying his medicine bag around the town. He was most often seen on his
The
old
trap line.
Not only are the legends of the people invented by the dominant society for recreational value, but the birth date of kagige gijig
was
also invented.
road Village Council selected
among
the white people in the
did not object to the invented
the past.
It
14
,
1844
,
as the
date of the old man. Kagige gijig lived
otficial birth
peace
May
The War-
was important
village that the old
in
community and
names and legends
of
to the white citizens of the
man have
a birthday to celebrate
each year.
And
it
was important
old medicine burial in the
man have
same blue
to the
white citizens that the
a Christian funeral service suit
and he wore for the photograph
on the postcard.
A businessman and former mayor of the village, who had known kagige gijig for more than twenty
— BURIED
IN A
BLUE SUIT
133
seemed that everyone knew him as an old man. When we were young he was an old man hard to believe that when was a young man he was years, said,
'‘It
I
almost a century old.”
The businessmen trapper
who
lived
the village speak well of the old
in
on a hundred-acre land allotment on
Muskeg Bay in Lake of the Woods. "About twenty-five years ago he broke he was on his trap line and
white
man
always
tell
it
his leg while
never healed right,” a
"When we
had fresh snow you could where he walked because one footprint was said.
turned in.”
"He came
buy traps and sometimes to borrow money,” another businessman said, "but he always paid it back he was different from the other indians." in to
—
The
last
nursing
four years of his
home
medicine
all
in
life
the village.
his life.
kug/gc
He had
g/j/g lived in a
practiced herbal
The medical doctor
in
the village,
who
often visited /cug/gc g/j/g to learn about herbal medicine, said the old man told him the night before
his
death that he would
"He knew when said.
live
only one more night.
he was going to die,” the doctor
The day before
his death, the old
man chanted
several midewiwin songs.
Most of the businesses
in
the village
were closed on
the day of the funeral.
Fhe
midew'iwiti
leader
Bonemah, an anishincdie
Daniel village
Raincloud,
from on the Red Lake
Reservation, arrived to conduct the traditional honoring ceremony for a fellow member of the niulewiw'ln.
IHE EVERLASTING SKY
134
While Raincloud and more than a hundred oshki anishinabe people gathered for the midewiwin cere-
mony,
talking in
old
the
They were spiritual power of
the white people waited outside.
hushed voices about the
indicin
medicine. They were welcome, but
none of the white people entered the gymnasium during the midewiwin ceremony. They waited for
more than an hour ice
until the traditional Christian serv-
began, then they entered.
“What does
he have
in that
bundle?" a white man
asked, peering through the crack
in
the door.
"I really never thought there were any medicine
men
left," a white
woman
said.
middle of the gymnasium floor Raincloud and two other oshki anishinabe men were sitting next to In the
Raincloud shook a small rattle, and the three men began to sing honoring songs over the small the coffin.
bundle on the
floor.
The sound of the like
became
echo the sound of leaves on the wind between the low rattle
a soft rustling
nasal chanting of the singers.
wa hi hi hi hi wa hi hi hi hi brave warriors where have you gone
ho kwi ho ho
Raincloud
spoke ing
in
then
approached the open
anishinabe to the
him a safe journey
spirit
of ka^i^e
coffin ^iji^,
and
wish-
to the land of the spirits.
He
BURIED
IN A
BLUE SUIT
135
then placed a pair of red cotton gloves and
tobacco
The
in the
cofhn.
men
three
some
of the midewiwin then opened the
bundle which contained small
sandwiches for the
funeral feast and packages of cigarettes. Raincloud
pointed
the
in
sandwiches
six
directions
to the people seated in front
The people shared
gijig.
and passed out the of ka^ige
the tobacco with the soaring
spirit for the last time.
The tribe
was then closed and the oldest man of the with his temples marked with tattoos was turned coffin
around and around on the platform
to free his spirit
into the layers of the next world.
“Now
am the last of the old anishinahe man said, with his hand I
singers,” an oshki
reaching out.
The midew'iwin ceremony had ended, and the doors to the gymnasium were opened and the space was filled
with the rhythms of a processional
hymn
being
played on the organ. For the white people honoring the passage of the old man, Christian hymns replaced the
midewiwin
burial songs.
A
white Evangelical minister
delivered a passionate eulogy of a
man
he had never
seen inside his church, nor had the minister been present during the midewiwin ceremonies.
The
village
medical doctor, the mayor and two
former mayors and two prominent businessmen were the pallbearers. The honorary pallbearers were the cousins and grandnephews of kagige gijig. The old man
was buried next to his brother Na May Pnk and Thnnderin the Highland I^ark Cemetery.
Little
THE EVERLASTING SKY Standing feel the
in
the fresh
waves of heat
thawed the ground
snow
trailing
at the
136
grave you could
from the
for the grave.
fires that
You could
had
hear the
gravediggers talking as they back-filled the hole before the fresh earth ‘'All the
man
said,
was frozen again.
Indians are buried facing the East,” one
between shovelfuls of steaming earth.
/
,
Index
*indicales photograph following
page given
American
Movement,
Indian
55, 56,
104,
105,
116,
120,
121, 122, 123-124
anishinahe: early with,
tacts
names 8-10, 24,
white
11-13,
con-
invented xiv,
x,
ix,
15-19,
7,
21-22,
132 (see also chippewa;
Indian; ojihway); oshki, diversity
of,
109,
110,
19-20;
xiii-xiv,
77-78, 79,
oshki, in cities,
—
125-126;
,
BIA
policy toward, 116-117, 118, 119,
120,
121;
10, 11, 131
Beaulieu, Loretta, 109-1 Bellecourt, Clyde,
6-8;
for,
Banks, Dennis, 120, 121 Baraga, Bishop Frederic, xiv,
—
,
for, 22, 122; iee
15,
16
*122/,
122,
123
Boucha, Henry,
*34/, 49, 50
Brun, Francis, 48, 86, *122/
Buckanaga, Charles, 38 Buckanaga, Jerome, 29,
30,
*34/, 38
Buckanaga, John, 38, 46, 49, 64 Bureau of indian Affairs (BIA), 56; dependency on, 99, 120, 121;
hiring
practices
schools
120-121; policies of,
culture;
117,
education; humor; identity;
1
118,
119,
tribal politics,
of,
116-
121;
and
82-83
language; law enforcement; religion; students
chippewa, as invented
Antell, Lee, 47 Antell,
Will,
*34/,
34-38, 46,
47, 48, 64
12, 18,
Armstrong, James, *92 athletics,
.see
students
Bad River Reservation (Wise,), xxi
ix, X, xiii, xiv, 8, 9,
name, 10,
1
1
52,91, 132
Christensen, Rosemary, 52
Cook,
Lee, 26, 91-92, 125-126
Copway, George,
86-89,
90,
5, 8, 43, 80,
93
137
INDEX courts: 104,
138
in
the
105,
102-103,
city,
107-108; on
106,
the reservation, 99;
—
,
Red
l.ake Court of Indian Offenses,
99-100;
see
law
also
enforcement
15-16,
25, 123, 129; distortion of, 9,
ignorance
of,
suppression of,
36-37;
32-33, 53;
see also identity; language;
drinking, 100-101, 105, 107, 110
122;
30, in
32,
xiii,
12-13; woodland, alienation see also
12,
9,
anishinahe', tribal past
indian as invented name, xiv, 11, 24; ty,
12,
xiii,
and individuali-
15-19, 21-23, 26; see
also identity Ira,
96-98, 105
Jourdain, Roger, 85-88, 90, 91
97-98, 99;
restitutive,
see also law enforcement
35-36, 66,
33,
tribal
122; per-
sonal, ix; problems of,
justice,
education: and alienation, 28,
40-41,
24-25,
23,
52-53, 57-58, 61,
Isham,
tribal past
29,
oshki anishinahe,
from, 7-8,
culture, anishinahe, 5-6, 21, 22,
35;
as
identity;
heritage,
21,
24, 35; see also identity; stu-
dents; teachers; tribal past
Ka Ka Geesick, John gijig),
*34/,
funeral
of,
131,
{kagi^e
132,
128,
133;
129-130,
133-136
Fabre, Pearle, 63
Fairbanks, Paulette, 28, 53-54,
Keeshkemun, 65
61
Fond
du
Lac
(Minn.), xix,
Reservation
Lac Courte Oreille Reservation (Wise.), xxi, xxii
18, 55, 91
Lac du Flambeau Reservation
Goodsky, Harold, 14-15,
*34/,
language, anishinahe,
102-105, 107, 121
government
programs,
(Wise.), xxi, xxii
xix,
10-11, 22, 80, 129,
ix, x, xiv,
131; na-
ture of, 74-75, 79; speaking
80-81, 83, 86; dependence on, 85; see also Bureau of
of, 12, 14, 15, 20, 21, 23, 25,
Indian Affairs
53, 57, 86, 87, 97,
Grand (
Portage
Reservation
visual
(irover, I'he Rev. Iver, 20
housing, *92/,*122/, 125-126
72, 73, 74, 104-105
12,
26, 32, 33,
53; teaching of, 21; see also
Minn.), xix-xx, 91
Howard, Simon, *92/ humor, oshki anishinahe,
pression of,
103; sup-
thinking and experi-
ence law enforcement:
in
the city,
93,94,95, 102-103, 105-106, 71,
107-108, 112, 113,
114-115;
on the reservation, 96, 97,
/
INDEX
139
98-99,
also
102;
101,
courts
Lawrence, William, 87, 89-90, 91,
46, 83-86,
*122/; study
of legal system by, 99-101
Lake
Leech
Reservation
(Minn.), xix, xx,
National
52-53,
Esther,
Nahf^ahnuh, 57-59, 60
Council on Alcohol and Drugs, 106-107 Nett Lake Reservation (Minn.), Indian
xix, 14, 18, 91, 96-97, 102
18, 25, 47,
54,*92/, 91, 120
Ronald, 47, 48, 74,
Libertus,
see also
Lightfoot, Ray, 121
Tom,
lOO-lOl,
14
Little
chippewa
131
liquor, prohibition of, 1
ix,
X, xiii, xiv, 8-9, 10, 11, 18;
120, 122
Lightning,
ojibway, as invented name,
Pine Point: elementary school at,
Thunder, 136
29-30; library
at, *xviii
police, relations with oshki an-
ishinahe, 93-94, 95-96, 105,
Mahto, Ted D.,
*34/, 39-42, 64,
65-66, 69, 70, 71, 72, 74, 75, 76, 128; works by, 66-69,
70-72
midew’iwin,
86, 87, 88, 90, 91-92; urban,
ceremony
21;
Ka Ka Geesick,
for
xxi,
militants,
118,
120,
racism, xv, 32, 33, 35-36, 37,
59, 89,
58,
56,
121-122,
123-124, 125, 126
Lacs
Reservation
(Minn.), xix, 91
Minnesota
chippewa
Tribal
Comm.,
Executive
xvii-
XX, 91
Mitchell, George,
77-79,
121, 122, *122/, 127
Momaday, N.
Scott, 21
77-79
130,
129,
133-135; see also religion
xviii,
politicians, 82; tribal, 80-81, 83,
politics, 20; tribal, xvii, 82, 84,
Mellessey, George, 105-108
Mille
ment 85; white, 81, 82
Manypenny, George, 27
117,
see also law enforce-
110;
1
19,
56,
57;
BIA
in
120-121; and
hiring,
law enforce-
ment, 94-95, 96; communities near tions, 96
in
white
reserva-
Raincloud, Daniel, 133-135
Ramsey, Alexander, 32, 33 Red Cliff Reservation (Wise.), xxi-xxii
Red Lake Reservation (Minn.), xvii, XX, 22, 26, 40, 46, 48,
Munnell, David, *92
72,
music, anisliinahe, 57, 58
velopment
121,
133;
economic de-
of,
84-86; elec-
tions on, 83-84, 86, 87, 88,
Na May
Euk, 136
90;
government
of, xx;
law
140
INDI£X
enforcement on, xx, 98-100; prohibition
of
on,
liquor
100-101 of the tribal past, 7-8, 57,
—
,
123; see also
niidewiwin
nomic dependency
eco-
of,
37; scholarships
for, 37-38; teaching of, 39,
40-41
;
see u/.vo identity
teachers, oshki anishinahe, 38,
elections
contact with,
tribal past, 5-7;
85,
12-13, 16, 21, 23, 25, 26;
on,
u/5o culture; language
80-81, 83-84, 86, 87, 88, 90; see also
28, 30,
47; training of, 35 xvii-xxii;
101-102;
among,
89; dropouts
suppression of,
12, 26, 32, 53,
reservations,
46-48, 49-50,
29,
31, 33-34,
religion: diversity in, 20-21, 22;
58, 59;
athletics,
9,
Tapper, Kent, *92/
law enforcement;
politics
visual thinking 1()_1 1,
and experience,
39_40, 69, 75, 79
Sargent, Ervin, 24, 48
Sayers, James, 72 Schoolcraft, Henry schools,
see
Wallace, Bonnie, *34/, 55-57,
Rowe,
8, 10
education;
stu-
dents; teachers
60
Warren, William, White Earth
6, 8-9, 14,
53
Reservation
Smith, Claricy, 54-55, 61
(Minn.), xv,
Smith, Kent, 25, *34/, 55 Sokaogon-Mole l>ake Reserva-
25, 27-29, 30, 34, 38, 46, 47,
tion (Wise.), xxi, xxii
ienation of,
12,
48, 49, 54, 59, 63, 64,77, 91,
women, 28, 29,
32, 33, 35-36, 66,
122;
xx, 19, 24,
105, 123
sports, see students
students, osliki atiishinahe\
xviii,
al-
30,
and
role of, 51-52, 54-55,
58, 59, 64
writers,
oshki anishinahe, 69,
70,71,72,79
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1987'
GERALD VIZENOR
is
as
teacher
enrolled
member
of the tribe
Earth
Reservation
in
a writer
an
and
anishinabe
from the White Minnesota. He
has been a community organizer and social worker,
papers and
has written for news-
magazines,
and
is
the
author of three books of haiku poetry
and
.two
books on anishinabe song
poems and
tales from the past.
JACKET DESIGN BY ROBERT FABIAN
CROWELL-COLLIER PRESS 866 Third Avenue
New
PRINTED
IN
U.S.A.
York, N.Y. 10022
ALSO PUBLISHED BY CRO WELL-COLLIER PRESS
THE TUSC jrORAS Shirley
Hill
W\tt
—forced
from North Carolina the legend of the formation of the Iroquois to upstate New York Confederacy, and the life of the tribes of the Six Nations today. Faithful to the Iroquois tradition of preserving the people’s past for generations not yet born, Shirley Hill’s haunting account gives the reader
The
a
story of the Tuscaroras
—
new way
of
to migrate
seeing past and present as one.
THE TIGUAS:
The Lost Tribe
of City Indians
Stan Steiner
—
For three hundred years the Tiguas the first residents of El Paso, Texas have lived secretly in the city and its suburbs. Deprived of their lands in the nineteenth century and declared “extinct” in the twentieth, the Tiguas survived, preserving their ancient ways, and are now quietly determined that “little by little, we are going to get
—
our earth back.”
THE SIOUX TODAY Frank LaPointe Short, sharp vignettes of their
life
as
it
Is
lived
by young Sioux. Whether
experiences are comic or tragic, unemployment, poverty and
the conflict between their tribal inheritance and the culture of the
dominant society which has long scorned In the lives of these young Americans.
their
ways are ever present
LORDS OF THE EARTH: A History of Ihe Navajo
Indians
Jules Loh Enslaved by the Mexicans, slaughtered by the Spanish and driven from their homeland to a barren, sunbaked reservation where they died by thousands, the Navajos survived to return to their sacred lands. Mr. Loh traces the history of the Navajo- Indians to the present
and explains
their strong ties to their land
and
their centuries-old
struggle to maintain their cultural identity.
79225