LCO, The Pride of the Ojibwe

the fire is our grandfather served as a central light sending forth many blessings and lessons the campfire is a sacred place to pass on the teachings of our elders see in the fire the values of our ways and pride you are an ancestor of the Anishinabe original people do honor to your people respect all people in the earth remember to respect yourself and the knowledge and goodness that comes from your rich heritage grow up strong and contribute abundantly to your extended family of brothers and sisters pass on that what you determined to be good and truthful I have seen many changes in my life as Indian people who continue to survive and evolve it is my hope that you and future generations will continue to pass on our values this is our way of life in Northwest Wisconsin a village lies beneath 25 feet of dark water a village whose spirits still speak to the many sons and daughters nieces and nephews and grandchildren of its original inhabitants who call this place home for more than two centuries they named this village Parkway one it meant where the river is why the LeCours a reservation is located in an area of Wisconsin where scenic images of undisturbed nature still dominate the layout of the land the setting is a diverse mixture of great pine forests hardwoods and wetlands wildlife is more abundant here than in perhaps any other part of the state bear deer Karen Fisher pine marten bald eagle and even elk are now seen with some degree of regularity the pristine surroundings of the Chippewa Flowage make this region a well recognized ecological treasure that is blessed with extraordinary scenery along its more than 200 miles of undeveloped shoreline the flourish is also known for its world-class fishing and hunting and abundant recreational activities that are available to outdoor enthusiasts it is also home to the LeCours array band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians this land they call home is actually a reservation it is approximately 70,000 acres in size the lacunae reservation is bordered by the vast Chihuahua Kahn National Forest tribal enrollment is nearly six thousand members more than half of those members live here on the reservation in many ways though the coutore people enjoy a lifestyle very similar to most non-indian people however in varying degrees most choose to hold on to significant aspects of their heritage culture and traditions they continued to practice traditional subsistence by hunting fishing and gathering throughout the four seasons they work go to school pay taxes enjoy recreational activities and struggle to make things better for their children and their elders they also desire for non-indians to consider the injustice that results from preserving inappropriate and hurtful stereotypes and misconceptions about Native American people they welcome non-native visitors to learn more about their way of life and to share the meaningful traditions that are a vital part of their culture their beliefs and their identity the migration to the Great Lakes region for the Anishinabe or original people began in the Eastern woodlands of the North American continent hundreds of years before the arrival of the first European explorers the great journey ended when the Anishinabe reached Gigi goonie the big water lakes superior the lacunae ray-ban is just one of six bands of Chippewa or more correctly for Jib way Indians whose reservations are located within Wisconsin state borders there are also several other bands of Ojibwe Indians in neighboring Michigan and Minnesota as well as in Canada the Ojibwe enjoyed their traditional way of life and the bountiful harvests that the earth brought forth prayers and thanks were always given to the Creator for the nourishment provided to them the lakota ray tribe moved from one part of their home range to another taking advantage of the seasonal offerings for centuries they occupied a vast territory within a hundred mile radius of today's reservation the name lakota Ray was given to the Indians in the area by early French explorers translated it means length of the short ears or lake of the little ears several explanations exist for the name the most commonly accepted is that the early explorers noticed the Indians here had smaller earlobes than other Indians in the region that might be because their ears were not weighted down with heavy earrings like other bands in the area another story suggests that the little ears represent the corn that was cultivated in the region the size of the ears of corn grown here was stunted due to the area's shorter growing season the the coutore formed several villages throughout this rich basin of the Chippewa Valley shallow water ways along the Chippewa River made this area extraordinarily productive for a while rice harvesting this region offered a habitat rich in sustenance around 1800 the area's first trading post was established at the bend of the West Fork of the Chippewa River this village simply took up the name post the native residents referred to it as Parkway one it meant where the river is wide throughout the first half of the 1800s many treaties were entered into between the US government and the Chippewa Indians a treaty is defined as an agreement or contract between two sovereign and independent nations the US government recognized then as it does today that Indian nations were independent and that they maintained the same sovereignty as other nations through treaties the Ojibwe seeded vast areas of land to the US government the most significant treaty occurred in 1854 the Treaty of Lapointe established the specific rights of the Lakota a band of Lake Superior Indians and defined the reservation as it is today although the land was traded it is important to emphasize that the Indians never sold their rights to hunt fish and gather in these ceded territories these rights were retained we our reservation is a weird shape most reservations you'll see are square so many thousands of acres well ours chief akka wednesy he was our head chief at the time he recognized the importance of our wild rice crop to our people it was basically our whole economy 25,000 pounds a year would come off at river for people and he could live off that alone it was higher in vitamins zinc rib though flavin all those things than corn oats rice wheat so he walked that whole river wild rice crop and with the BIA guy or beef a BIA predecessor or whatever that was and and incorporated all that wild rice crop into our reservation that's why our reservation is such a weird shape and of course you know the story what happened after that the federal government condemned our land and put in a dam and flooded out that wild rice crop but that's why our reservations here today it's a reserve we reserved so many thousand acres within our homeland so that we would have come in at homes forever here I was on the radio talking about spear season coming up spear fishing and they asked if I would take a few calls I said sure one of the caller's called in from Milwaukee area and said you lost the war Indian how can you call yourself a nation when you lost the war and I explained to him just like I explained to the fourth and fifth graders out in our school what what happened I said remember when you first became a country who was your first president George Washington the very first powers that George Washington got from his Congress well and from the people were to negotiate with other nations England France Iroquois Chippewa and that's the beginning basis for for the why we have the sovereign nation status today it was a government-to-government negotiations between the Anishinabe the Chippewa people in the United States government we didn't have a war we didn't lose any war you know we negotiated made a treaty which the Constitution says is the supreme law of the land just like a Treaty of make with England over the Revolutionary War the Treaty of Paris and that is the the main basis why we are still a nation today you cannot make a treaty with a local town government it's a nation and nation agreement and we made that agreement our chief signed a treaty with the federal government for a period of time shortly after the Treaty of 1854 the US government took away all the lagoon array lands leaving them with no reservation at all when it was returned to them 13 years later non-native individuals had purchased much of its prime River and lake frontage property the period of treaties had come to an end when in 1887 Congress passed the general allotment act the allotment act divided reservation lands into parcels or homesteads this act was destined to work against Native Americans from the start land speculators and large lumber companies were easily able to take advantage of the Native Americans lack of ability to pay certain disputable local taxes the reservation became a patchwork of land parcels with non-indians owning vast quantities of property clear-cut policies of the lumber companies reduced giant forest to barren landscapes removing not only the obvious resources that were used to make canoes dwellings and baskets the changed environment meant game would no longer be available in adequate measure the impact on the lives of the inhabitants of Parkway WA are all post by the creation of the chippewa fluid cannot be measured for years the majority of the villages residents fought a determined battle against the Wisconsin Minnesota Light and Power Company who desired to utilize the resource for generating electricity the dam would also help to control flooding that resulted in large part from the extensive damming already put in place by logging companies along the Chippewa River system the dam would create a massive Flowage creating Wisconsin's third largest lake because the power company had huge capital reserves and since much of the land had been parceled up as a result of the general allotment act large tracts of land were easily acquired after years of legal challenges to preserve their home land the small village lost its fight to the power company in all fifty six hundred acres of fertile reservation land were flooded lost were the vast groves of maple trees necessary for making maple sugar the once abundant cranberry bogs were destroyed the principle of Jewish staple and most culturally significant resource wild rice was entirely wiped out the most disturbing aspect for the long-established people of post however was the loss of their ancestral home as many as 700 or more Indian graves were left behind as the bottom soil began to loosen bones washed ashore and caskets floated to the surface some of the empty grave sites can still be seen today in the flow age that's a story in itself how people felt especially when they you know what our ancestors underneath the water like that and they were supposed they had taken all them out and they only took a few decided they wouldn't take anymore and and just left a whole bunch of them and there was like a state it was where all our our family the power company constructed a new post which is located near pakka Gama lake unfortunately for the traditional residents of the fluid growing wild rice became impossible after the construction of the dam because the water levels were now annually adjusted successful harvesting of wild rice requires very consistent water levels in 1934 the Indian Reorganization Act finally brought about an admission of injustice by the US government that was built into the general allotment act this legislation attempted to replace a lot mental and assimilation policy with greater acceptance of native cultures and support for economic self-sufficiency and self-government our current form of government came to be out of the Indian Reorganization act 1934 and here at L Co we didn't sign the IRA Constitution until 1966 the Indian Reorganization Act constitutions were basically a fill-in-the-blanks type of Constitution I blank you fill in your tribes name you know that and then fill in the blanks with all your tribes name and that's a constitution that will that were under it's a BIA prototype which sets up the seven member counts all the duties and the powers of the car and how elections are on how new members are taken into the tribe before that we had heads of families heads of clans that that were kind of like the representatives in a government we had Chiefs different Chiefs for different things obviously we had a wild rice chief he would go check the rice and determine when the rice was available to harvest when it was right we had war Chiefs that they were the ones that have the experience and war fighting and decided when it was right to go to war when it was wrong when it was negotiations time and that's the way we kind of ran then actually the American government went is based on our form of government a Confederacy we had a three fires Confederacy Iroquois had the five tribe Confederacy and and I always say you know they all they knew were Kings dictators and czars when they came over here so that there's a lot of difference between then and now and our form of government but if you look a little deeper the people that are elected to Council generally have big large families very big families the Aisin family korban carlito Ponyo so in a way the cult members still are kind of the heads of the families heads of the clans and in a way we still have some of them but now we have last names not clan symbols the decade of the 1970s was an unsettled time on the lacunae reservation in the summer of 1971 the tribe seized and took control of the winter dam from the northern states power company in an attempt to secure control of the reservoir although negotiations ended in compromise the winter dam takeover instilled a heightened sense of solidarity for Native Americans especially for the Ojibwe tribes in the region in the spring of 1974 winds of change were drifting across the reservation state wardens arrested two brothers Lakota a tribal members for spearfishing off their reservation the tribe filed suit against the DNR arguing that they were being deprived of their rights to spear in the ceded territory after years of review and what is known as the void case the United States Court of Appeals reaffirmed the rights for Chippewa to hunt fish and gather on their ceded lands the court proceedings that ensued are too numerous to go into sufficient detail here it's safe to say however that this incident provided tremendous significance and consideration to the issues of Native American sovereignty and self-determination the year following the spearing incidental in the fall of 1975 winds were also blowing just to the north and west of lagoon array in hayward a public high school in 1975 there was no lco tribal school system and children from the reservation had to travel to Hayward the Walcott story is well known in the lagoon array schools that's because without the bravery of one frightened girl the lacunae race school might not be here at all a young Becky Taylor had endured more than her share of bigotry and decided to take matters into her own hands I didn't know what the word prejudice was until I felt it the examples of non caring environment that we represented a probably about 40% of the the Hayward school system the public school system at that time from feeling like I was like lazy coming from a drunken family to being stupid you know that was the kind of picture that I had of myself because that's the picture that they had in me and in the real facts was I came from a sober environment I came from a good family you notice in all the classrooms that's the way it was holla Indian kids sitting in the back back back of the class and in and to be called upon for a question that she couldn't answer because you didn't have the book you know to prepare yourself for the homework and the prejudice through through the hallways is just you know from the to even through the bathrooms the discrimination of colonists Indian women squaws you know that's very derogatory word Vicky walked out of the school and never really looked back she did however look to the future with the support of parents a progressive minded Tribal Council and an enterprising group of students groundwork was set in place for the creation of the lacunae race schools the lacunae Ojibwe school is a tribally controlled grant school funded through the Bureau of Indian Affairs and receives no funding from state tax revenues the raku DeRay Ojibwe Community College provides opportunities for individual self improvement in a rapidly changing technological world while maintaining the cultural integrity of the Anishinabe to see this you know is I feel honored you know to hear the buses behind me you know walk through the classrooms again see my first first teacher here and she's still here and that's really encouraging it's a beautiful curriculum here it's based on our values of and traditions of having the traditional four seasons of the camps that are here in this community we have arts and crafts being done there they're working on their dance regalia for the Powell's that are coming up to this area you can hear the vibes in the hallways and and it's just like that same spirit that I felt when I was in high school that spirits back here again after four years in college I've traded on high school get my bachelor's degree and I want to run for a tribal tribal chairman of LCL and then after my term is up then I wanted to go and run for the president to United States and it's important to me like that like I said before is so that more youth that are younger than me know that they can do something with their life if they put their mind to it justin is an example of the new generation of Lakota a Ojibwe he's a youth worker with the Boys and Girls Club of Laputa ray the Boys and Girls Club which is exceptionally active on the reservation offers programs that are designed to impact the lives of youth on the reservation and direct them away from drugs and alcohol abuse as well as criminal activity when I was a young kid I always wanted to be chairman and I think all young kids girls boys should want to be chairman but now that I know all the work that's entailed and I think I like being vice chairman and if I spend a few more years on the Tribal Council and get some more experience and become an elder then I wouldn't mind being chairman but that sure as a heck of a lot of work a deep-rooted belief for most Native American people is the seven generation principle this principle is certainly alive and well on the Lakota a reservation decisions are made with their effects on the next seven generations in mind this way of thinking along with a culture that is steeped in storytelling lends to a development of a profound degree of respect for one's elders I feel that it's important because I know the Ojibwe language and Ojibwe culture is getting lost because of our lack of communication between the youth and the elders and the elders hold that information that need that needs to be taught to the youth and I just feel that the culture is really important to me because if I know if I'm older I'd like to pass it on to some of the youth so our culture is it lost no that was way I was brought up and that's where all of our ancestors back probably Ford five generations that we didn't really look at and that's where they were taught to you know to to sit down we had to listen to stories we had to listen when the elder was talking because the elder was the person that that meant your survival I mean they have they had to do that and that's the way I want my grandchildren right now to to learn and that's why they're there with me any place that I go if they're not invited along with me I don't use the do things because I want them to know what what is happening and and and that's all we can send messages to you know the people that's what's wrong with the world today I think is because they're they're just not learning enough about themselves in their lands and their culture there was a period of time that began just about the time that the oldest surviving elders can remember to today's generation when Ojibwe people were forbidden to practice any of their customs children were actually punished if they were caught speaking their native language it is an unbelievably small thread that holds the line of Ojibwe heritage for ghibli children at Lakota ray today are once again learning the traditional ways of their ancestors students are learning about harvesting and gathering with the help of concerned teachers who want to make certain these traditions are not lost forever in some cases children are learning customs that were lost to their families so that now they can teach their parents what they never learned schools are offering classes to older students to learn traditional arts and crafts a resurgence of Ojibwe traditions can be seen flourishing throughout the reservation knowledge of nutrition and therapeutic values of plants berries and herbs is once again being shared and practiced by many on the reservation traditions like storytelling the recognition of the extended family and the importance of humor are still as vital to the Ojibwe people as ever concerned traditionalists are showing a new generation how to survive in a world without today's modern amenities maple sugar boiling trapping and birch bark peeling demonstrate how life can be lived and enjoyed when you live in harmony with nature we've also go into the schools and speak to them on traditional hunting and on sharing and they're taught how to harvest an animal correctly this is the 21st century and it is a good time to be Native American tribal Gaming has brought about significant changes to the Lakota a reservation revenues from the casino helped fund tribal government operations and programs provide for the general welfare of the tribe and its members and significantly promote tribal development employment standards of living education community services and even entrepreneurship have benefited considerably from Indian gaming revenues the Community Health Center and the L Co fire department are examples of improvements that have been made possible from the revenues provided through Indian Gaming the L Co casino Lodge and Convention Center is an impressive facility that has proved to be a tremendous boon to the local economy the tribe has become the largest employer in Sawyer County our population is increasing dramatically now that we have an economy like the casino employment more people are coming back to the reservation what and before people were all leaving the reservation to get jobs and now they're coming back so obviously we need more housing we need more parks we need more jobs and everything Water and Sewer we can't scrape on a square and put a house there and have a septic tank there because we only have 76,000 acres left we can't pick up and move if it's polluted so we have to really plan for the future which means infrastructure water and sewer the newest technology you know possibly photovoltaic ticks on our houses I heard one woman said my her dream house was a solar-powered wigwam you know I hate it you know we have to think for the future here and so it's gonna be tough but I'm hanging in there and hopefully with Justin they're coming up to take my job I think all kids like him should want to be chairman and president a representation of the growing economy and business climate on the reservation is a new facility that serves as the lco tourist information center lco Federal Credit Union and entrepreneurial incubation Center a lot of the economic transactions of our overall society is electronic and most of our tribal members won't do not have a computer and and the ability to do these transactions at home and they can come to the credit union and they will do their banking for them and do their and they could even do the their taxes have them sent here hopefully within this next year the tourism information center is a great resource for finding out about Lakota Rea history or to learn about the many other enjoyable activities that can be enjoyed in the area you know we have our casino hotel that has all the amenities in their hot tub exercise room and from there we have Herman's landing resort that's out on the flow each murmurs landing is one of the oldest established resorts on the Floyd's history goes way back into the early 1930s now we've developed into a full-service resort with Lacuna rate tribe purchase Herman's Landing in March of 1999 and we have fishing guides out there that'll take you out to catch the big one our College we're building a living cultural center and that's gonna be really an attraction to anybody that wants to come you know to LCL the tours you could come into the tourism office and I could take you on tours to where all the historical markers are and information on the winter damn there's campgrounds we've got RV parks and a lot of swimming you know snowmobiling if you want to come up in the wintertime you know there's so much snowmobiling the paths are well groomed well taken care of and I believe they're starting ATV paths you know throughout the reservation - hiking biking and primitive Island camping are other activities offered in the fluid new additions currently under construction include an arts and crafts center historical village with an RV park and nature trails and new powwow grounds visitors can enjoy traditional Native American music dancing crafts and foods on the third weekend of July when the Lakota a reservation hosts North America's largest traditional powwow the honor the earth powwow which commemorates the winner Dam occupation and gives thanks for the Earth's harvest veterans are honored with a feast and powwow celebration on November 11th of each year Native Americans have traditionally had a higher than average percentage of people serving in the Armed Forces a shift to new business development is being born on the reservation in the same building that houses a tourism center and the lco credit union is the new incubation Center well the new information center is one of those things that's being progressive in our business community we haven't had commercial property before for businesses to rent and so it's opened a whole new opportunity for you know businesses to be in there to foster those those businesses and help them grow and hopefully the idea would be to moving the incubation building you outgrow that building and move somewhere else and have another small business moving more and more examples of the community's progressive approach to the future are becoming evident throughout the luchador a reservation one example is its woodland community public radio station 88.9 woj be licensed to the tribe the 100 thousand watt radio station addresses issues from a national regional and local perspective a major goal of WL JB is to sustain and progress the living culture of the Lakota a people its desired objective from the start has been to improve communication between Indian and non-indian communities of northern Wisconsin that's probably one of the greatest things about this station is we're not stuck to any format it's generally when you're working there it's kind of used you select the music that you think you want to put through you do we do have program formats that that we try to fill in and we present the radio station tries to present and we'll try and fill those such as the one I'm doing tonight is world beat and reggae some of the others they run a big tap Chautauqua show and blues Monday we have different programs we'll fill woj b is listener-supported and is heavily dependent on its many volunteers who contribute their efforts to maintain the distinction of being one of Wisconsin's truly outstanding broadcast resources our website is www.antakungfu.com our that commercial growth as a trend will continue the tribal administration building houses the tribal government headstart and social services departments the tribe also owns and operates dlco commercial center specialty stores and restaurants cranberry Marsh Forest Products Kwik Stop gas station and a variety of other businesses and services well I think that the times are really exciting here for the kids because there's new programs going on you know we have the L Co Community College excellent school and it's right here and also we have our new Native American high tech apprenticeship program that's just being implemented you know we have contracts with NASA contracts with Lockheed Martin doing the highest tech machining and computer work and those things are really exciting because we never had that before those provide our very good future you know we just had that we just had a Native American astronaut go up into space this last week I mean there's just exciting things going on for the for the young kids to be involved in as far as school wise you know the best thing they can do is get as much education as they possibly can there's a slight mixture of old-time traditions with a mixture of modern technology like you know I come back to the highly adaptable people think we are not living in the teepees like a senator asked me when I was up testifying before Congress stop me right in the middle of my speech and said do you guys still live in teepees because these guys were from out east and well first of all we never lived in teepees we lived in wigwams here but that's the you know the common theme out there no we're modern we didn't stop in time at the treaty's just like the United States didn't stop in time they're not in buggies and horses anymore we adapted and endeavored a persevere like Chief Dan George always says and so life on the reservation is that we got we'll have a car but we'll have the eagle feather hanging on the car maybe you'll have the palm print on the car just like and then we'll have them call it our Pony my truck I called my hunting pony I mean that is the modern Pony it has a 150 horses in the engine instead of just one but but that's kind of how it's like it's a mixture of the old traditions to bridge the gap to the modern technological society and I want the kids to know that it's okay to pick up the computer it's okay to to pick up the synthesizer you know take the tools of the new future and remember the traditions of the past and who you are in bridge that gap and move forward the land of the lakota ray has changed considerably since the arrival of its original inhabitants the pride of the Ojibwe is becoming more apparent a big reason for that is because seven generations ago Chiefs and other tribal leaders made sure that this land would survive to nurse it's people the people of the LeCours a tribe extend a hand of welcome to all non-native visitors and hope that understanding and mutual respect can result from the lessons learned at the place where the river is wide which

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Length: 39min 42sec (2382 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 20 2013