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

Services held for 

Cami Lee Comesflying

Cami Lee 

Comesflying, age 26, of 

Duluth, MN journeyed 

to the Spirit World on 

August 20th, 2018 in 

Minneapolis, MN.

She was born on 

February 11th, 1992 in 

Minneapolis, MN, the 

daughter of Wallace Saice 

Jr. and Rena Dionne.

Cami was such a strong, loving and kind-hearted 

woman. She would give you her very last dollar if it 

would help you out.

She was very family-oriented and loved to be 

around her children and her brothers.

Cami enjoyed to laugh and joke around. Her laugh 

was contagious and she could always put a smile on 

your face.

She had such a fierce spirit with the most beautiful 

smile.

Her favorite foods were tator tot hot dish, pizza 

and Indian tacos.

Her favorite color was purple, but loved to dress 

up in red and black.

Cami broke so many hearts when she left this 

world and will always be loved, adored, cherished and 

missed for all eternity.

Survived by her parents: Wallace Saice Jr. and Rena 

Saice; children: Andre Powers, Chase Powers, Channing 

Powers, Ophelia Petonquot, Ameila Comesflying; 

Siblings: Brian Saice, Alwood Saice, Wallace Saice III, 

Rayjon Willis, Vincent Saice, Justin Saice, Dwight 

White, Misty Parker (Saice), Celina Saice, Jena White, 

Shawna White and Shavaun Barnett; eighteen nieces 

and fifteen nephews.

Cami was preceded in death by her mother: 

Vanessa Comesflying; brother: Arron Rodriquez; 

sister-in-law: Cyrene Roybal; grandmothers: Delema 

Dionne and Lavonne Arrell; grandfathers: Clarence 

Wanapi, Wallace Saice Sr., Elroy White Sr., and Ketmit 

Comesflying.

Funeral service for Cami Lee Comesflying were 

held on Friday morning, August 24th, 2018 at Little 

Earth Community Center in Minneapolis, MN.

Spiritual Advisor was Lee Staples.

Interment is at Hillside Cemetery in Minneapolis, 

MN.

An all-night wake service was held Thursday at 

Little Earth Community Center.

Honorary Casket Bearers were all her family, 

relatives and friends.

Casket Bearers were Wallace Saice III, Brian Saice, 

Alwood Saice, Vincent Saice, Rayjon Willis and Justin 

Saice.

Chilson Funeral Home, Winsted, Mn served the 

family.

Services held for 

Kevin Riley Sr.

It is with great sadness 

that the family of Kevin 

Paul Riley, Sr. announces 

his sudden passing on 

Friday, September 21, 

2018, at the age of 60.

Kevin was proud of his 

Native American heritage 

and an enrolled member 

of the Sisseton-Wahpeton 

Sioux Tribe.

He was born on 

March 25, 1958 in 

Moorhead, MN. Kevin grew 

up in Edgeley, ND and went to College in Wahpeton 

completing a Plumbing degree in 1978.

He moved his family to Fargo, ND in the early 

80s.

Kevin obtained his Journeyman license in 1982 

and Master Plumbing License in 1984. Kevin spent the 

next 38 years as a Plumber in the Fargo-Moorhead area.

Kevin was a proud father and grandfather and 

his family has many good memories of spending the 

weekend at the lakes or camping during the summer 

months.

He was a good friend and great story teller.

Kevin was an avid reader with an impressive book 

collection. He loved science fiction and always knew 

interesting facts and tidbits of information. His wealth 

of knowledge was astonishing!

Kevin is survived by his children Kristina (Brett) 

Bailey, Kevin (Summer) Riley, Jr., and Christopher 

Riley; his sisters Karen (Jim) Sievers, Mike (Gordon) 

Heim, and Lorae Mercado; brothers Wayne and Delvin 

Lufkins; his grandchildren Kevin Riley III, Samantha 

Elliot, Cayden Riley, Kennyth Riley, Sofiya Riley, James 

Riley, and Sonya Riley; his aunts Roberta Trevino, 

Florestine Kiyukampi, Chyrel DeCoteau; uncle Byron 

Renville; many nieces, nephews, and close friends.

Kevin is preceded in death by his parents Harlan 

and Radine Riley; biological mother Naomi Lufkins ; 

grandson Jakob Riley; sister LaVonne Lufkins; his uncles 

Kenneth Renville, Mandis Renville, Merle Renville; and 

aunt Adrienne Renville-Ree.

A memorial service was held on Friday morning, 

September 28, 2019 at the Fargo Seventh-Day Adventist 

Church.

Kevin was brought home to the Lake Traverse 

Reservation where a homecoming celebration was held 

on Saturday afternoon, at the SWO community center, 

Agency Village.

Kevin will be greatly missed by all who knew 

him. He would want you to spend more time with 

your children and make a toast to enduring friendships 

lifelong and beyond. Kemosabe.

Boulger Funeral Home, Fargo, served the family.

Services to be held 

for Marlow Vincent 

LaBatte Sr.

Marlow Vincent 

LaBatte Sr., age 61 of 

Granite Falls Journeyed 

to the Spirit World on 

Thursday, September 27, 

2018.

He was born on 

December 15, 1956 in 

Sisseton, South Dakota the 

son of Kenneth Bird and 

Angela LaBatte.

Marlow graduated 

from Monroe High School 

in 1976.

He honorably served his Country in The United 

States Navy. Marlow received an Honorable discharge.

Marlow served the Native American Community 

in the Twin Cities for many years. He served on the 

Upper Sioux Board of Trustees as “Member at Large” 

from 2010 to 2014.

He enjoyed grilling, watching his Vikings, playing 

Keno, golfing, spending time with his family and most 

of all his grandkids.

Survived by his wife: Joyce LaBatte; devoted 

children: Shannon, Marlow Jr., Angie, Lenora, Joby 

and Jennifer; grandkids: Keanu, Esai, Jasmine, Serenity, 

Faith, Julissa, Nikita, Atrinity, Ceivera, Joseph Jr., 

Ethan, Lacey, Amara, and Gavin; aunts/sisters: Anita 

Rainelle , Sandy Glorene and Roberta; many other 

relatives and friends.

Preceded in death by his parents Angela LaBatte 

LaCroix and Kenneth Bird, grandparents Archie 

LaBatte and Pearl LaBatte.

Funeral services for Marlow LaBatte Sr. will be 

held on Tuesday, October 2nd, 2018 at 11:00 a.n. at the 

Multi Purpose Building, Upper Sioux Community.

Danny Seaboy Sr. will be the Spiritual Advisor and 

John Cloud will officiate.

All night wakes will be held on Sunday, September 

30th beginning at 6:00 p.m. at the Multi Purpose 

Building, Upper Sioux Community, and also on 

Monday, October 1st beginning at 6:00 p.m.

Honorary Casket Bearers will be Marlow LaBatte 

Jr., Keanu LaBatte, Esai LaBatte Leo Baker, Alvin 

Howell, Edward Tipton, Joseph Tipton and Marcus 

Nickelboine.

Casket Bearers will be Ricco Uribe, Hayna Leith, 

Marcus Leith, Timothy McRae, Robert Leith, Mario 

Uribe, David Tipton and Hawk Tipton.

Services pending for 

David Gill

David Gill, SWO member from Enemy Swim 

District, passed away over the weekend.

David has served in Tribal government and is a 

well-known advocate for water and land rights for his 

people.

Services are pending.

Watch for a complete obituary in next week’s Sota.

“And that’s kind of my role … 

looking at markets and also how you 

grow and process hemp and how 

you make that more economically 

viable.”

The next step, he said, is to 

have the crop “decorticated, which is 

removing the fiber from the stem.”

“And you need a special facility 

to do that.”

(Editor’s note: There are 

decorticator machines that operate 

in the field, but more common in 

industrial hemp businesses are in-

plant decortication machines.)

SWO hemp day

Continued from Page 2

“Right now,” Dean said, “If we 

wanted to do that we’d have to go to 

Colorado, to Oregon, or Kentucky, 

and that’s kind of discouraging … 

but it’s also an opportunity, I think.”

“One of the things that 

LeeAnn has really emphasized is we 

that we want to look at value-added 

processing.”

“There is a great opportunity 

right now to do some of the 

processing here.”

He proposed that the SWO 

Tribe might “serve as a center 

for a lot of growers of hemp … 

potentially.”

“I think we see a lot of 

opportunity.”

“We’re still working on a lot of 

this, and that’s our role, and really 

the work I do.”

“What I’m doing here is really 

looking how we can use markets 

to drive sustainable economic 

development for communities … 

that’s what we’re going to try and do 

here.”

Next to the mic was Eric 

Singsaas.

He expressed thanks for 

being invited by the UM team 

“to be part of this interesting and 

exciting project … and LeeAnn 

and the SWO community for 

inviting all of us to have the 

opportunity to help serve your 

community and help understand 

what are the possibilities, what 

are the opportunities, and then 

narrow down those possibilities 

into real economic development 

opportunities.”

 “I’m with the Natural 

Resources Research Institute at 

the University of Minnesota up 

in Duluth, and one of the roles 

that I play is the Bioeconomy 

Director, and the mission of our 

institute is all about forward looking 

opportunities for regional economic 

development.”

“As we see regional economic 

development, what we can do with 

our industry, that really falls into 

three categories.”

“One is reducing waste.”

“Two is stewardship of our 

land and our water.”

“And (number) three is 

developing higher value products.”

“…When you develop a higher 

value product, you develop ... you 

aren’t just selling the plant off the 

land and letting somebody else 

make it into something.”

He said that what you are 

doing is “…converting that product, 

that plant, into a new product (that) 

retains value, that (adds) economic 

(value) into your community.”

“It creates jobs for your 

community and it allows you to do 

something, to reinvest that money 

into your people, into your land and 

so forth.”

 “The approach that we’ve 

taken is to look at the hemp fiber 

value products that can come 

out of that and we’re exploring 

every(thing) from food containers, 

textiles, clothing is a growing 

market, and hemp fiber composites 

… composite materials that will go 

into an automotive application … it 

could go into building materials and 

so forth.”

“For example, in Europe about 

15% of the weight of a car … made 

in Germany now contains hemp 

fiber composites.”

“There’s a number of 

interesting opportunities, and I look 

forward to working with all of you 

and with the team here to explore 

what are the real markets … and 

where we can participate in the 

economy of the 21st century and 

beyond.”

George wrapped up the team’s 

presentation, saying “… just a few 

words following Eric’s comments 

about what some of the hemp 

products’ possibilities are.”

On a table laid out for the 

KXSW camera, he had several items 

on display.

“I’m wearing a hemp t-shirt,” 

he said.

“This is a blend of hemp fiber 

and cotton. It’s a very, very durable.

“Here,” he pointed out on the 

table, “we have some canvas for a 

cloth bag.”

“These are fiber applications 

and it’s the durable fiber that was 

originally what hemp was grown 

for in the United States, but we 

find a whole variety of different 

applications.”

“I’ll just demonstrate the fiber 

a little bit for you.”

“This is right out of the field.”

“This is what was mowed 

last week by Natural Resources 

Department and it is now curing in 

the field.”

“It’s a natural, biological 

process going down ... going on 

… as this material is drying and 

beginning to kind of rot in the field, 

the fibers are separating from this 

lightweight core material.”

“Both of these materials (outer 

fibers and lightweight core material) 

have different uses.”

And there are products made 

from the industrial hemp seeds.

George showed hemp seed 

products, and pressed oil made 

from hemp seed, which “was part of 

Minnesota’s industrial hemp grain 

variety trial that our group carried 

out last year.

“The seeds are pressed and you 

can see ... this is a rich viscous oil 

like olive oil. It’s very nutritious. It’s 

got a good balance of fatty acids and 

this can be used in food ... also in 

making soaps, skincare products and 

so forth.”

“We also have hemp grain. The 

hulls can be removed from the seeds 

just as you would remove sunflower 

seeds from their shell. You remove 

the hulls from the hemp seed and 

you get what are called hemp hearts 

and these are quite popular in foods 

for adding to soups, salads and 

they’re a nutty, nutritious, complete 

protein healthy food and we can try 

some at lunch.”

 “We want to say a few words 

about what happened here with our 

planting, and (then) we’ll have an 

opportunity to walk the field.”

“What you see in the 

background – we have corn.”

“And in the foreground, that 

deep green is the standing hemp 

field.”

“And ahead of the deep green 

is the area that was mowed about a 

week ago.”

He explained, “We had to go 

through quite a process just to get 

the seed to plant this crop on this 

land.”

“We worked through the state 

of North Dakota Industrial Hemp 

Pilot Program to obtain seed.”

“It was imported to the capitol 

in Bismarck.”

“I picked it up and drove 

it down here ... 200 pounds of 

cannabis in my vehicle.”

“All of this we didn’t 

accomplish until July and then it 

rained!”

“We had to wait for conditions 

favorable for planting.”

“It wasn’t until July 14 that we 

put this crop in the ground, and if 

you are involved with agriculture 

here in this region you know that’s a 

pretty late planting date.”

“We weren’t sure what to 

expect.”

“We knew that you could 

plant hemp late and that’s one of its 

advantages.

“You … wait until some of the 

weed pressure is slowed down a bit 

and plant late.”

“It needs a nice warm soil 

temperature.”

“So we planted July 14 and 

the plant came out of the ground. 

It leapt up and we were amazed to 

see that after a month in the field it 

was already three, four feet tall. Just 

incredible!”

“It did very well. It came up so 

densely that it out-competed all the 

weeds.”

“We didn’t have to apply any 

herbicides, any of that.”

“It’s a healthiest looking stand 

of hemp that we’ve seen in our 

research.”

“And so here we are now, I 

guess about maybe 75 days after 

planting and we’ll wait until 90 days 

to take down the remainder of the 

field.”

“But it’s just incredibly healthy 

and vigorous.”

“It did extremely well here at 

SWO and certainly demonstrates 

the potential.”

George called the growth rate 

“incredible … almost two inches a 

day.”

He asked Community Planner 

Crystal Owen to speak next.

Crystal opened with Dakota-

iyapi, Cante waste ya nape ciyusapi, 

greeting everyone with a good heart 

and a handshake.

“I’m excited to be here this 

morning, excited to be just a very 

small part of this project.”

“We know that in planning 

… an idea doesn’t’ belong to just 

one person, it belongs to the whole 

community, and I just want to 

thank all of you, George and the 

whole team.”

She said that the hemp 

demonstration project has caused 

some controversy in the Tribe.

“A lot of our elders thank that 

people can just smoke it and get 

high … so we knew from the first 

time that we introduced the idea 

to community, and that was the 

response from some of our elders 

that we had to educate.”

“We had to educate and inform 

and keep educating … because 

all these things that you can do 

with the hemp products, all these 

products that can be made, it’s a 

great opportunity for our Tribe.”

Crystal said, industrial hemp 

can “… have that economic 

advantage where we need other 

forms ... to raise money, to make 

money so we can fund our programs 

… our Tribe could be healthy 

financially.”

“I love the idea that someday, 

if this is legalized within South 

Dakota, that our people than own 

land, our landowners … can grow 

this product.”

“They grow hemp on their land 

and that they can be farmers once 

again … growing something they 

love and that’s very useful to not 

only their families but also to the 

community and to the environment, 

to Mother Earth.”

Crystal said, “There’s a 

representative from Senator Hoven’s 

office here.”

She invited the aide to 

introduce herself and share a 

message from the Senator.

“Thank you. My name’s Alora.”

“I’m with Senator Hoeven’s 

office.”

“Unfortunately, the Senator 

wasn’t able to be here today, but he 

did send me with a letter, so I’ll try 

and read that and not let it blow 

away.”

(Editor’s note: For those 

watching the KXSW video, the 

wind was really blowing.)

Senator Hoeven’s letter:

Dear Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate 

Tribe, thank you for your invitation 

to join you at your Industrial Hemp 

Field Day.

We congratulate the Sisseton-

Wahpeton Oyate Tribe leadership 

on advancing and securing support 

for this three-acre demonstration 

plot as part of the Tribe’s hemp 

economic feasibility study.

Through your work with North 

Dakota State University and others, 

the Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate Tribe 

is cultivating this hearty crop which 

has a variety of uses.

We look forward to seeing how 

this demonstration plot will inform 

future agricultural decisions and 

practices in our state and region.

Congratulations again on 

creating this industrial hemp plot 

and best wishes to you as you work 

to develop hemp production.

Sincerely, John Hoeven, US 

Senator.

Thank you.

*****

“Thank you very much,” said 

George.

“This really is something to 

celebrate in a number of ways.”

“To come together with the 

various agencies, organizations, the 

community, and the expertise we 

have, to pull this together, I want to 

say … that is, to our knowledge … 

the first federally supported study of 

hemp conducted by any tribe, and 

that is really something special.

“And I don’t think it’s going to 

be the last.”

“I think we see a future here, 

and certainly support from Senator 

Hoeven and others.”

“Senator Heitkamp, and 

(in Minnesota) Senators Amy 

Klobuchar and Tina Smith send 

their regrets at not being able to join 

us today.”

 “We look forward to the 

eventual passage of a farm bill that 

will continue to support industrial 

hemp,” he said.

“I understand we might have 

to wait a little bit on that, but it is a 

priority for the United States and... 

I think it’s an excellent opportunity 

for tribes to really lead the way in 

this issue and really, we’re grateful to 

be participating in that as well.”

Charlene Miller was asked to 

speak.

She said, “Thank you. It has 

been great.”

“We’re very happy to be 

involved in this project.”

“We too have had a great team 

to work with.”

“I’ve had a great team that’s 

been involved.”

“It’s been quite a learning 

experience for all of us too, and 

we’re excited to see what the results 

are from this study.”

“Like George said, we did 

have some trials and errors … and 

learned by our mistakes, and we’re 

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