Presorted standard u. S. Postage paid ortonville, mn permit no. 3 Sota Per Copy

“Wo’okiye was’te qa wico zani o’wacin yuhapo”

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api - www.earthskyweb.com/sota.htm - Anpetu Iyamni - Oct. 3, 2018

Incumbent Eddie Johnson 

Jr., seeking to hold the Tribal 

Secretary post. Photo by John 

Heminger.

Myrna German-Thompson, 

running for the Tribal Secretary 

post. Photo by John Heminger.

Lisa Jackson is seeking the 

Tribal Secretary seat on Council. 

Photo by John Heminger.

Incumbent Floyd Kirk Jr., 

seeking re-election as Tribal 

Vice-Chairman. Photo by John 

Heminger.

Danielle DeCoteau, seeking 

the Tribal Vice-Chair seat. Photo 

by John Heminger.

Ella Robertson, challenging 

the men, running for Tribal 

Chairwoman. Photo by John 

Heminger.

Incumbent Dave Flute, 

seeking re-election to the Tribal 

Chairman post. Photo by John 

Heminger.

Michael I. Selvage Sr., 

candidate for Tribal Chairman. 

Photo by John Heminger.

Martha Renville, forum 

moderator. Photo by John 

Heminger.

Exec candidates forum

Continued from Page 1

Exec candidates forum

Continued on Page 8

SWO hemp day

Continued from Page 1

and to try to make sure that we 

look at other practices and to try to 

follow best practices … and that’s 

what we did.”

She said the Tribe is “fortunate 

with the University of Minnesota 

team and finding George….”

 “We’re very grateful, and 

grateful to all of the team members.”

LeeAnn said the UM team will 

be “with us for the long term.”

“This is just the beginning.”

 “We’re going … from planting 

the seed to growing the crop to 

processing it to getting products out 

there in the market.”

She said that the team is going 

to “give us that capability.”

“We hope to be working with 

this team for many years … to the 

point where we create a new revenue 

stream and strengthen the economy 

for our Tribe.”

“But not only just our Tribe.” 

she added.

“I think we’re really blazing 

a trail for the entire agricultural 

community in northeastern South 

Dakota, Minnesota, and North 

Dakota … just in this corner,” she 

said. “’Because we all know, those 

of us that have had a passion for 

hemp, that we grew hemp here in 

the 1940s to support the war effort, 

so this isn’t a new thing.”

“This has been around for a 

long time and it was just because of 

political lobbying that it … became 

prohibited.”

“There’s nothing wrong with 

industrial hemp and so we’re just 

going back to that.”

“This is a good area and the 

Tribe will partner with the rest of 

the agricultural community and 

economy to further this product.”

LeeAnn said she was glad to 

have guests present, farmers.”

Also there were representatives 

from the Flandreau Santee Sioux 

Tribe and White Earth.

She thanked them for coming.

LeeAnn said she did not want 

to end “without thanking another 

group that’s equally important in 

this effort.”

“Because, in planning, it’s one 

thing to come up with an idea, write 

a proposal, come up with a strategy, 

do the research, but that’s all on 

paper.”

“If you don’t have good 

partners to help you implement it, 

then it’s just an idea on paper.”

“So I really want to thank our 

Natural Resources Department 

and our Natural Resources director 

(Charlene Miller).”

 “You guys have done a 

tremendous job and the Planning 

Department’s very grateful to you 

and everything that you’ve done.”

LeeAnn said that included 

bringing the food to grill for the 

meal.

In her thank you’s, LeeAnn 

included Tom Wilson of KXSW and 

Tribal photographer John Heminger.

She also thanked ND Senator 

John Hoeven “for being a strong 

supporter of industrial hemp.”

George returned to the 

microphone and thanked LeeAnn.

“Speaking of teamwork,” he 

said.

“I’d like to call the UM team 

up here briefly … to talk a little bit 

about hemp’s potential and what we 

are demonstrating here in the field 

today.”

He introduced the team, “JP 

Wenger is Post-Doctoral Associate, 

has worked in my laboratory on the 

St. Paul campus of the University 

on our cannabis project for many 

years.”

“We have Dean Current, 

who is in forest resources. He is 

an Applied Economist, studies the 

development of new markets for 

plant-based products.”

“And we have Eric Gassings 

from the University of Minnesota 

at Duluth’s Natural Resources 

Research Institute. He is a Botanist 

by background and a Plant-Based 

Fiber Product Engineer who’s 

involved in bridging the research 

and development that takes place 

at institutions of higher learning 

like universities and companies that 

are successful bringing renewable 

materials to market.”

JP was first to speak, “Thank 

you, George, and thank you to all 

of you who are here in attendance 

today and especially to SWO’s 

Planning and the Tribe in general 

for having invited us and having us 

be involved in such an interesting 

and exciting and really engaging 

project.”

“George mentioned I’ve been 

working with him for quite awhile 

in studying cannabis and it’s really 

just been the last couple of years that 

we’ve turned towards and started 

looking at industrial hemp as part of 

our research interest.”

He called it “a great learning 

curve for me.”

“I don’t have a background in 

agronomy or agricultural systems. 

I’m really a botanist as well, so 

seeing a really interesting plant like 

cannabis, in this case, hemp, … (it’s) 

an opportunity to be a part of a real 

world landscape and an economic 

engine (that) is very interesting.”

“I’ve just been really thrilled 

to learn so much about how a 

community like Sisseton-Wahpeton 

Oyate is coming together around 

the project so I don’t have too much 

more to add about it.”

“My main role has been 

basically the sort of direct interface 

along with George in … planning 

and implementing our role in the 

project.”

“I was here last week with 

Charlene’s team.”

“We mowed the first half of the 

plot you’ll see.”

He said, “High quality fibers 

… grow on the outside of the plant, 

stem, called bast fibers, and so that 

part of the stand was harvested … 

last week.”

“That was about 68 days after 

planting … before any of the seed 

starts to mature.

“Now you see it laying on the 

ground.”

“A fiber crop needs to go 

through a decomposition, or 

breakdown process before the fibers 

can be separated and so that’s what’s 

happening.”

Dr. Weiblen talks about the composition and potential of the 

hemp plant.

“The stems and stalks that are 

laying on the ground are starting 

that process.”

“They’ll lay there for about 

another three weeks and then … 

(we will) mow the back half of the 

plot which was planted at lower 

density to emphasize the production 

of inner courser fibers called herd.”

“The idea is that those 

stems will be a little bigger in 

circumference and will, in … this 

project, get a sense of what … 

different things we can derive from 

those two different treatments.”

JP said it he looks forward to 

seeing “what’s yet to come with what 

we’ve already mowed and the second 

part of the crop.

“We’re still … working out 

exactly how we’re going to get it 

baled up, and what the next steps 

will be.”

He said the team will be taking 

out samples for different possible 

uses … “to explore different possible 

uses of the material.”

Dean Current spoke next.

“As JP mentioned, we really 

appreciate the invitation we had 

to come and work with the folks 

here in Sisseton-Wahpeton Sioux ... 

Oyate Sioux community.”

“This is really an exciting 

project and again, as LeeAnn said, 

it’s a careful, measured approach.”

“There are a lot of 

opportunities with industrial hemp,” 

he said.

SWO hemp day

Continued on Page 4

some very pointed questions about 

gaming on our reservation. To 

make a long story short, what they 

asked us (were) the questions that 

Shannon has posed.”

“One,” he said, “is cost benefit 

analysis.”

“Another one with a formula 

is called return on investment 

… when you invest money into 

a project, you’re expected to pay 

certain type of return, and there are 

actually financial ratios that you’re 

supposed to apply.”

“Right now I’m proposing 

our getting into and looking at 

developing housing manufacturing 

and getting into agricultural 

development.”

“Those are the types of analysis 

that need to be done and you’ll need 

to bring in financial managers or 

professionals that are familiar with 

those things so that you can obtain 

proper financing….”

“The other thing is you need 

a very good market study, a good 

feasibility study and you need 

to develop a very good, accurate 

business plan, because if you get 

into an operation and you build it 

and you’re running it and it’s not 

making money, at some point you’re 

going to have to shut the doors 

down.”

“I think we’re looking at that, 

or the Tribe is at that phase, or 

coming close to it in one of their 

projects.”

“But in the long run the thing 

that we have to look at from a Tribal 

perspective is job creation for our 

membership and the financial return 

to the benefit of the Tribe so that 

you can use those funds for other 

things like youth, elderly, housing, 

and so on.”

Dave Flute took the 

microphone.

“To answer your question, 

Shannon, yes feasibility studies, 

market studies, everything Mike 

has said, I agree with … but I also 

want to add that we just don’t make 

decisions up here without getting 

... without getting input from 

everybody, and it’s been my opinion 

that I’ve had experiences in visiting 

with people that work 4:00 to 12:00 

at the casinos or they’re working 

graveyard at the Dakota Western 

and they’re saying, ‘What about my 

voice?’”

“Yes, we get 10, 15, 20, 30 

people going to district meetings, 

and if you look at the minutes, 

you see a split. Maybe sometimes 

it’s nine to eight in favor of going 

a certain direction and we’re even 

experiencing in my district alone 

where meetings have been adjourned 

and the majority that was ruling 

that night leaves and then they go 

back into session. And that’s bad for 

the Tribe. And so we need to get a 

handle on that first.”

“We need to get all Tribal 

input, not just from those that are 

going to district meetings or those 

that attend community forums 

because some of our people are 

working 4:00 to 12:00 or working 

midnight to 8:00, so we need to 

get all input, not just Tribal input, 

or not just the district input. 

And what we use to make that 

decision, you know with businesses 

... I’m not a business major, I’m a 

history major, but I do do research 

on business practices, reading, 

analyzing and understanding what’s 

in these feasibility studies and if a 

feasibility says, ‘Hey you’re going 

to be challenged’ … you want to 

build a grocery store … you’re going 

to be challenged for the next three 

years, but based on all the data 

we’ve collected, you can make it. 

But we got to be able to give these 

businesses a chance.”

“We haven’t even been open 

a year with our latest business and 

already people are acting like the sky 

is falling … and that didn’t happen 

when we built Dakota Sioux.”

“They didn’t just make money 

right away.”

“We have challenges with the 

admin building.”

“It’s not a money maker, but it 

was a project that even though it’s 

not business, still it’s a project.”

“It was part of your question 

when you’re doing these projects, 

what kind of input? I didn’t have 

any input on the Tribal admin 

building. I don’t know how many 

people did. But the building is 

there and we’re trying to do what 

we can. It was built during Mike’s 

administration.”

Dave continued, “I’m trying to 

do what I can to make it successful.”

“So what … all of leadership 

is.”

“But it’s a challenge.”

“… to answer your question, it 

takes a lot of patience and it takes a 

lot of persistence, and if we are able 

to be patient and we are able to be 

persistent and make these things 

work, they’ll work.”

“The one last example 

where things didn’t work is the 

(composites) factory at Veblen … 

that one closed and Dakota Western 

had to absorb that debt and it wasn’t 

until recently … the first time in 

about 20 years, that Dakota Western 

was finally able to kick out some 

money to the districts.”

Ella Robertson spoke next.

“My name is Ella Robertson. 

I’m a candidate for the chairperson 

position.”

“I’m from the Big Coulee 

District.”

“I come from the Robertson-

Renville families.”

“I have my Masters in 

Tribal Ed Administration and 

Governance.”

“I did serve seven years 

in the Planning and Economic 

Development department, 

and during my term there and 

throughout my career I’ve worked in 

public relations.”

“I feel that the voice of the 

people is important.”

“I think … the key is 

communication, understanding, and 

knowing what the people want.”

“In 2009, I conducted a 

community assessment where I set 

up at each of the districts, so … 

seven times I set up shop and asked 

people to fill out the survey, and 

of course I became known as the 

survey person … it was a five page 

survey, but we determined then 

what (were) the top priorities for 

the Tribe and for the membership, 

not just the leadership, but for the 

membership, what did they want.”

“And we conducted a number 

of other surveys, transportation. 

We conducted a survey there. What 

were their thoughts on public 

transportation. How many people 

owned vehicles?”

“And … we conducted a 

number of feasibility studies and a 

market assessment. The latest was 

on our saleable food items: buffalo, 

walleye, honey and produce.”

“What is the potential for those 

four items to be sold here on the 

reservation, within our region?”

“We hired a consultant firm. 

They came in and we had funding 

from USDA and they completed the 

market assessment and the feasibility 

study on those four items and we 

found that there’s a market for all 

four.”

“We got together the schools 

because our produce could be sold 

to the schools.”

“We have a high level of 

... percentage of diabetes on the 

reservation … using honey as an 

alternative sweetener, plus all the 

benefits that come with it.”

“Our walleye, providing 

another healthy food source for our 

schools.”

“Even commodity program.”

“I talked with the chairman 

of the Chehallis Tribe … they have 

their own fish company.”

“And they said, ‘We could 

partner with you.’”

“’We have a contract with 

USDA, we provide salmon to the 

commodity program.’”

“’How far are you guys in 

actually having an end product?’”

“And I said, Right now we’re 

just in the feasibility study part of 

this project but ... we have potential 

here on our reservation.”

“We have a fish hatchery that 

we can expand. We can grow our 

own fish. We have three casinos that 

all have walleye on their menu and 

how much of that is provided from 

our lakes? Zero.”

“Until there’s potential for us 

to be selling to ourselves and to a 

bigger market … partnering with 

other tribes, I think that’s important 

… because we don’t always have all 

the answers, but if we partner with 

tribes who have that experience and 

are well-established … they can 

provide that stepping stone for us.”

“…And, of course, buffalo.”

“They now provide buffalo 

in the commodity program and 

that’s a ... they have a partnership 

with ITBC which we are a member 

of, and so potentially our buffalo 

is going to become packaged and 

distributed with commodity, so I 

think that our Tribe has a lot of 

potential.”

“I think our Tribal membership 

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