Band Member Voices

May Culture Column - MII WAAD “WHO ARE WE?”

By Nazhike, Mille Lacs Band Member

As Anishinaabe, we have always determined membership of our community with a few criteria. However, the Anishinaabe, as well as other tribal groups, have been forced to use a criteria known as blood quantum. Blood quantum was put in place to create a distinguishable method to determine the “headcount” of a tribe or community for the formula used to establish the amount of rations to deliver. The U.S. government did not want to pay more than what they needed. They also say that blood quantum was set up as a way to “breed” indigenous people out of existence. Studies have shown that for the Mille Lacs Band, our demise will come in the next century if we continue using the blood quantum method to determine membership. In other words, according to our own laws, we will not be able to produce another Band member, thus the tribe will no longer have a membership.

There is not just blood quantum that takes us away from who we are. The religions of the Europeans have had major impacts on the identity of the Anishinaabe. All the way to some individuals striving to connect the fabrication of Wenabozho being Jesus. The Church is one of the root causes of mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical imbalance for Anishinaabe. Some elders have told stories of being constantly told they were going to hell when they were kids. Being made ashamed of taking part in customs, speaking Ojibwe, and using their Anishinaabe names. This is not saying that all church people are bad. It is the system of organized European religion that is taking away Anishinaabe identity. Much like blood quantum takes away the physical aspects, our spiritual quantum is then lowered, some to the point that it is no longer detectable in an individual.

What we are taught about life, the world, history and biology has major impacts on our worldview. The Anishinaabe were heavy into education. Often known as gifts or teachings that were given to the Anishinaabe. It’s knowledge that reflects the spirit, identity, and perspectives of Anishinaabe. Our teachings around Wenabozho are very deliberate. Our stories about maple camps help share our experience with others and the youth. We are sharing our teachings that we receive by experience, visions, and dreams with the rest of our people. Sometimes our dreams aren’t only meant for us to learn but for us to share with another that may have a deep impact on their life.

We must determine our community members in a manner that reflects our ancestors in regards to language, customs, and knowledge. As we are spirits having a physical experience, we must recognize that in our criteria. Focusing on one aspect would have a physical Anishinaabe with no spiritual connection or the deletion of the physical Anishinaabe altogether. We must learn our language, our customs, and history and resist all colonial tactics to remove our identity via blood quantum and the chimookomaan church.

Miigwech.

NIMISHOOMENH

GAA-TIBAAJIMOD (told by) JOE NAYQUONABE SR., WAABISHKIBINES GAA-TIBAAJIMOTAWAAJIN (transcribed by) JAMES CLARK, OZAAWAANAKWAD

This month I would like to talk about my uncle Johnson Nayquonabe. I met him very early in my life when I was staying with my grandparents. In the summer months, we’d go up by Pequot Lakes and hang baskets. We were living in a wigwam during that time, and we’d tend to visit at Johnson’s house up there a lot since we were such a close family. That was my first interaction I could remember with him.

After the summer season, my grandparents and I would come back to Mille Lacs and we wouldn’t see him again till the following summer season. Eventually when my father passed away, something happened between Johnson and his wife. The wife took the kids and went to LCO. Johnson stayed in Mille Lacs and eventually became my stepfather. He and my mom had several children together. The memories around that time are of him singing around the ceremonial drum. Eventually, he became a drum chief, only because the man who was supposed to be in that spot was not attending. Later, they also put me in that spot.

Later on, I noticed that Johnson would drink a lot. As I got older, I remembered he was a WWII veteran, and he’d seen the horrors of the war. After Vietnam, I suffered from PTSD. I still believe to this day that Johnson suffered from that as well but it was not as known or talked about. In my day, there were meds and things to assist with PTSD but Johnson didn’t have that, so what did he turn to? Alcohol. I did not understand at the time, but I gained more and more respect for him for all the hardships he had to face during and after the war. Sometimes he and I would share some war stories and you wouldn’t believe the things that man had come back from.

After he and my mom separated, he lived alone. I remember him working at the lumber yard in Garrison. But as a drum keeper we have a lot of responsibilities like making the blankets for the bundles and the food for the day. Yet, season after season, he fulfilled his duties, only with the help from about five ladies that he was able to complete his role as drum keeper. I think a lot of that is just how much they loved and respected him. And some of the things that I talk about today is what I remember him talking about long time ago. Especially about those that were helping him were being seen by the manidoog differently. So, he always made sure to thank them for all the help they gave him.

He never really did completely sober up; it always seemed like he was a very social drinker when people would come and visit. If they were to bring booze, then he’d indulge. I believe that is because of his position on the drum. It seems to reflect my life of getting sober from alcohol, because of those drums. This month marked 44 years of being sober for me.

As the years went by, I gained more and more respect for him. A lot of the leadership skills that he radiated still stick with me to this day. I think more and more people had respect for him than I initially thought. When I hear people talking about him, they understood everything he had been though, for those who don’t, have you ever seen the movie “Saving Private Ryan”? Remember the opening scene when they storm the beach? He was a part of that, and lived to tell the tale to fellow vets. Even today when I put my asemaa out, I put it out for those veterans knowing what they’ve been though.

The other thing that I remember about him is that he had a really good sense of humor. And when I talk about his leadership at the dances, he never was talking there a whole lot or directing people, yet everything got done every dance. They saw stable and strong leadership in him that didn’t need to be communicated through words.

One day we were going to a dance at Lake Lena. I drove Johnson and myself there. While I was there, he told me “I should also be in East Lake, I belong on that drum, too.” Then he told me that he gave someone a blanket and asemaa that he wasn’t going to be able to make it due to being on another drum. Following that I asked him, “how many drums do you belong on?” To which he replied, “almost all of them.” There were a lot of people who helped him. The ladies and other people would bring gifts for him for more food to have at the dances. To me, that is respect.

Again, his closing prayer before the dance would end would consist of making sure that everyone got home and all those relatives are safe, and for those that didn’t sit on the drum who came to help the manidoog looked over them. That tells me a lot about what people thought about him; he was just a common man. He wasn’t well off or given abilities by the manidoog, just a man who knew his duties to the drums, the community, and the future of the Anishinaabe people.

I always try and follow the things that he used to do, especially when it comes to putting someone on the drum. He’d call all the members and talk with them about who should be put in that position — he always wanted everyone’s input. “We’ll have another meeting and decide on the candidate,” he'd say. In short, he never picked the person, the members did. After the members did, then he’d go and offer that person asemaa.

There was one time, however, he told us, “Also make a second choice just in case they don’t accept.” Sure enough, the first guy didn’t accept — he must’ve known something we didn’t.

I took him all over to dances that he was a part of and other drums. Every time I took him somewhere, I could see the love and respect the Anishinaabe had for him there. They’d always acknowledge and thank him for coming. When he’d go, he’d talk for the dishes, the talks, and anything that needed to be done in the dancehall. And beside that, he also did funerals, with that I especially noticed he’d wear sunglasses. I can only assume that he was hiding the tears. I believe he really felt heavily for the people he was helping in their time of need. The one thing I wasn’t a fan of was that he was often taken advantage of. Someone in particular used to bring Johnson gifts from his travels. People would often say, “That’s a nice _____” and every time, he’d give it away. The faults of a good man, I suppose.

All in all, I hope to continue his legacy of silent but strong leadership.

Miigwech mii iw.

TREATY OF 1837: WHAT HAPPENED AND WHY

By Don Wedll

The Treaty of 1837, an agreement between the United States and the Ojibwe tribe, is still valid today. A lot has been written about what happened after the treaty, especially the treaty’s impact in modern years. But little has been said about the events that led up to the treaty. Maybe if people knew more about what happened and why, they would see this area’s past — and its future — in a new light.

In the early 1800s, this area of Minnesota was still controlled by the British. After the War of 1812, it became part of territory possessed by the United States, and explorers like Zebulon Pike and Lewis Cass searched the upper Mississippi looking for the river’s source. Based on the explorers’ reports, American fur traders and land speculators saw opportunities to expand. White settlers then followed the traders and speculators, leaving the Eastern seaboard and pouring into the Middle West, where they hoped to enhance their lives by having land to farm and timber to build their homes.

The Ojibwe people’s homelands, significant stretches of territory with dense forests, were tremendously appealing to non-Indian eyes. The allure of acres of trees and land was coupled with the settlers’ view of the Ojibwe as nomadic people roaming aimlessly. This view was inaccurate — the Ojibwe moved deliberately with the seasons to the best places to pick berries or hunt game or fish or harvest wild rice — but it gave some settlers a sense of entitlement to the land and lumber because they felt they would use the natural resources better than the Indians.

Since the late 1700s, the United States had adopted the European method of using treaties to acquire Indian land, and from 1836 to 1854, the U.S. would seek and get much of northern Michigan, northern Wisconsin, and northeastern Minnesota this way. The Treaty of 1837 was one of these treaties. Through it, the U.S. acquired a tract starting where the Crow Wing River enters the Mississippi River just south of present-day Brainerd, then extending down the Mississippi to just north of St. Cloud, then east to the Wisconsin-Michigan border. This area encompassed about 12 million acres of land, lakes, and rivers.

Interestingly, many of the Ojibwe leaders who signed the treaty were from lands that lay outside this ceded territory. A few of them hesitated to sign an agreement giving up the lands of others, knowing that this was going to start a major change in the Ojibwe’s lifestyle. But the majority agreed to the treaty terms: a series of payments of money, goods, farm tools and seed, and tobacco, plus help in establishing blacksmith shops. And, of course, the now famous provision about retaining the rights to hunt, fish, and gather wild rice.

The Indian leaders were also influenced by non-Indian fur traders who attended the treaty negotiations. According to the Treaty of 1837, the fur traders were to receive payments for the Ojibwe’s supposed debts to them, which motivated the traders to press for passage of the treaty.

But more interesting for people in this area, the Mille Lacs Band’s lands were included in the 1837 ceded territory. This occurred because the maps used in 1837 did not accurately show how certain geographical points were located in relationship to other points. The maps showed the Crow Wing River entering the Mississippi River below Mille Lacs Lake, not on the north end of Mille Lacs Lake as it is correctly shown today.

This error was corrected with later revisions of maps. The error wasn’t presented to Mille Lacs Band leaders until they negotiated the Treaty of 1855, which created the Mille Lacs Reservation. They were surprised by the change in the maps. The change illustrates how hard it was for Indian leaders to make treaties in a language they did not read or write, forcing them to rely on the interpretation skills and honesty of others.

The Treaty of 1837 became one of many misunderstandings between the Mille Lacs Ojibwe government and other governments over land and treaty rights. But maybe the passage of time and the Band’s careful management of its treaty harvests — with some historical background for good measure — can end those misunderstandings.